I have this cheesy idea to do an opening crawl handout like the movies. I haven't quite finished mine yet. Has anybody done this? Do you mind sharing?
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....
Opening Crawl For Your Campaign?
I begin every session with a crawl.
And this one was a little different....
The rest (so far) for the campaign and the ones for the other campaign I run haven't been posted to YouTube yet
5 minutes ago, Nytwyng said:I begin every session with a crawl.
And this one was a little different....
The rest (so far) for the campaign and the ones for the other campaign I run haven't been posted to YouTube yet
**** yeah! That's awesome! I hadn't thought of doing a crawl every session but I like it. Each new crawl could serve as the campaign log of each session. Put them all together and you get a nice general outline of the whole thing.
That's pretty much the idea as I use it. And, every so often (as you can see with "Set a Course for Adventure"), I change it up a bit to add a little flavor for particular sessions. A Halloween session used an orchestral version of The Walking Dead 's theme that I found, with a red, bloody font, for example.
Edited by NytwyngThe group I play with simulates a title crawl whenever we start a new adventure. We play on Tabletop Simulator but sadly there doesn't seem to be any mechanic or mod in TS that does that.
The group I play in also has used a title crawl for each episode. Im pretty sure the official websites (atleast used to) have such creator which also can give you links to the crawls you create.
I feel its a great tool to mark the end of off game chattet and the start of playing and get everyone in the mindset of the campaign and where we left off last time. So yeah, definitely do it!
On 6/24/2018 at 7:38 AM, Nytwyng said:That's pretty much the idea as I use it. And, every so often (as you can see with "Set a Course for Adventure"), I change it up a bit to add a little flavor for particular sessions. A Halloween session used an orchestral version of The Walking Dead 's theme that I found, with a red, bloody font, for example.
Those are awesome Nytwyng. Do you use a generator tool to create them or are those homebrewed?
4 hours ago, warchild1x said:Those are awesome Nytwyng. Do you use a generator tool to create them or are those homebrewed?
Thanks! I use an html crawl that I found from a link here on the boards. It's located at http://timpietrusky.com/star-wars-opening-crawl-from-1977.
It's easy enough to go into the html and change the pertinent text, then it just runs in a web browser. I modified some of the values, because it was designed for smaller/smaller resolution screens, and I run it for my group from my laptop on my tv; it needed to be sized up a bit. I also redirected it to a higher quality version of the opening theme. Using the html version also makes it easier for me to change out the fonts for those special versions.
To post on YouTube (which allows me to embed the crawls in my session summaries on mySWRPG.com), I play back full screen on the computer, using a screen recording utility.
I typically use Star Wordz for opening crawls. It allows you to create fully customized SW opening crawls
Thanks guys. I can see the benefits for both.
I typed one up for the first session of our campaign, including an interlude with the bridge crew of the Star Destroyer they PCs were on, to really give it the Star Wars feel. I tested it several times, reading it off to hit the right parts of the theme, and played it against the intro for The Phantom Menace, since that had the nice, quiet music following for the scenes after. My players really liked it.
Star Wars
New Empire
It is a time of peace and prosperity. After the fall of the GFFA, a SECOND GALACTIC EMPIRE rose from ashes. Backed by the JEDI KNIGHTS and IMPERIAL MILITARY, the New Empire offers safety and security to its citizens.
But not all are content. The Ubese, after decades of isolation, have sprung from their home system with a fleet of warships and launched a sneak attack on the unsuspecting city-world of BARS BARKA, plunging the sector into chaos.
In response, EMPRESS LEIA NABERRIE has dispatched Jedi Knight LANTIS KRISTAL and his apprentice, MAEVE, as part of an Imperial task force to negotiate a peaceful resolution. Should they fail, Imperial forces will engage the Ubese ships, forcing an end to the attack and restoring order and security to the beleaguered world of Bars Barka…
An Imperial III -class Star Destroyer, the Gladiator , plunges through the blackness of space. It is part of a small task force, with its sister ship Murmillo , the Chiss-built Ascendancy II Star Destroyer Starshield flying point, and the massive Praetor III Star Destroyer Indominus , an armored arrowhead bristling with long-range weapons, bringing up the rear.
On the bridge of the Indominus , Admiral Bel Coseil stands in front of the viewports, hands behind his back, staring out at his destination, barely brighter than the millions of other points of light even though it’s a million times closer.
His executive officer, Captain Kel Udan, approaches. “ComScan has completed their survey of the system, Admiral. There are several Ubese ships, all smaller than our mainline Star Destroyers. They’ve established an effective, if not impenetrable, blockade.”
“Have they hailed us?”
“No, sir.”
“Have we hailed them?”
“Negative. We – felt it would be prudent to wait until the Jedi were ready.”
“Yes, the Jedi . Have our illustrious ambassadors and emissaries finally finished their preparations?”
“No word from the hangar bay as yet, Admiral.”
From the starboard crew pit, a technician speaks up. “Admiral, communication from the hangar bay. Jedi Kristal says he’s ready to begin.”
“Very well, give their shuttle clearance to launch. Standby battle stations.”
“Not much faith in Jedi negotiation, Admiral?”
“This is an act of war against the entire Empire, Captain. We have to make it clear that these kinds of actions will not be tolerated, else we invite utter chaos.”
In the massive main hanger bay of the Indominus , Jedi Knight Lantis sat in the pilot’s seat of an Epsilon shuttle. He deftly maneuvers the ship out of the bay and into space, setting a course for Bars Barka. “A short hyperspace hop, and we’ll be there within the hour,” he says. He looks to his apprentice. “Here’s where the fun begins.”
My game group swaps games every 6 weeks with a new gm taking over each 6 week season. I use a crawl at the start of my turn.
After studying how SWTOR did their crawls. (Because the crawls updated everytime you logged in and advanced the main quest line) this is what I came up with:
Crawls are always three paragraphs and they go from the general to the specific.
So the first crawl is:
State of the galaxy (Clone war, Civil war, Resistance, etc)
What's just happened in the area? (Trade federation blockade, Rebels have stolen the plans, etc)
What's happening now that's specifically relevant to the PCs? (Jedi Cruiser approaching the blockade, Rebel Corvette being chased by Star Destroyer)
Each successive crawl:
The overall objective of the current story arc: The PCs have to escape/deliver/break into something)
What just happened: In the last adventure the PCs did something
Where the PCs are supposed to go: Setting up the next part of the adventure or what's happening right now.
That's a good analysis, I never looked at it that way. But you're absolutely right, and a great way to get the players caught up. It's one of my favorite little touches in SWTOR, since it's such a story-driven game, it would be easy to forget what you were doing the last time you played.