Current Events > Thoughts or ideas for this Pathfinder 2e campaign idea?

(+) Yeah! (+)

So my group is going to be switching over to Pathfinder 2e in the near future (probably early next year; we're waiting for the new books to come out in October/November so we don't have to re-learn any rules, spell names, or ancestry/class features shortly after we start playing, and we take winter off because Christmas is a fucking awful time for us to try and schedule our games) and I'm going to be the GM. I've had this idea in my head for a while and want to get some feedback.

Essentially, I want to make sure that the start of the campaign allows them to bring in a variety of character ancestries and concepts from any of the realms represented in the canon setting, regardless of whether or not it's considered "rare" or not. With that in mind

The campaign begins in the city of Absalom, since it's obviously meant to be the "central hub" of the setting anyway. The characters either already live there or arrived to celebrate a huge festival that takes over essentially the entire city and the surrounding areas, and which also happens to fall on the same date as a political summit involving many governments and factions across the continent. There will be carefree revelers, ambitious merchants and thieves, political delegates, and their guards all in the same place at the same time.

I want to make sure the first session is about the players getting to know the area they're in and just generally having a good time. Play a few games of chance, take part in a few competitions, buy and sell a few things, meet people from far-off lands, make friends and enemies. That kind of thing. They don't all need to know each other at this point, but it would definitely be much easier if the party-splitting can be kept to a minimum. Maybe use different set pieces and attractions as excuses to bring them together.

Towards the end of the session, something happens that completely shifts the tone. Either an important building or crowded area blows up, or one of the delegates for the summit is found murdered in the street. Either way, the festivities are essentially over, and the city goes under lockdown until the responsible party is found.

So yeah, that's what I've got. I do have a few NPCs in mind for them to interact with, for example a hobgoblin commander from Oprak and his two "best men", soldiers named Rank and File -- because I can't resist the inevitable joke where the commander introduces himself, and if a party member asks what his soldiers' names are, he says "They're merely Rank and File. You can address all questions to me, their commanding officer"... and then a player may ask one of the soldiers directly, and they reply "Private File, sir! Please direct all questions to my commanding officer, sir!"

Any thoughts or ideas on things to include in the first session, given what's outlined above?

Bump

Needs a singing metal golem named Gato.

Sounds like a perfectly fine intro to the campaign. If the murder/terrorist plot is important for the campaign in general, than you might want to give each member of the party a chance to witness it being set up and/or get involved.

Also, I'm personally a fan of just letting the party already know each other rather than them all meeting up for the first time at the start.

The soldier names are great.

The premise is good too. If you're trying to find a single event to have the party gathered at, have free booze. No adventurer can resist being there for that.

I've seen this Kurosawa movie, and I'm embarrassed that I don't know which one.

It sounds like a good intro. If you are planning to have it take place mainly in Absalom I'd reccomend checking out Absalom, City of Lost Omens. It's a pretty extensive setting book about Absalom with a lot of locations and adventures seeds. Though I probably wouldn't get if you are just planning to have it start in Absalom, and spend most of the time away, due to the price.