Coaxing Story (Or How to Get People to Take Chances and Actually Make a Cohesive Plot with the Resources Given to Them)

So, I mentioned in my previous post that there was some trouble with getting the game started without people heming and hawing and not having any idea what to do.  Of course, there's the idea of using a module or some sort of story starting table, but those are rather stupid and don't really mesh with the aesthetic we are trying to create with our game.

That's when Cabana put forth his idea that at the beginning of every session, or every quest, or whatever, what the party could  do to come up with an adventure is fill out three things on cards that their character would want to do, something along the lines of "Avenge the death of my father" or "Save the princess" or "Slay a dragon" or even "Get some sweet sweet loot".  Then they have the player next to them draw one of their three cards.  That way, everyone gets one of their three things drawn at random.  They reveal the cards and read them, and those things are the goals for the session.

For example, there are three players, the three things drawn are "Save a princess", "Stop a goblin horde", and "Overthrow a King".  Now the players have to work these into a story somehow like, "The goblin king stole the elf princess, we have to overthrow him and stop his hordes to get her back."  Suddenly we have a structured plot, we have goals, we have a full-blown adventure.

And of course, story cards are used to wreak havoc on that and make it exciting.

I think this idea is probably what's going to save this game.