Need a lure for new players

[Cdnwolf]

I want to do up a short synopsis to lure new players into the game. Most of the target crowd will be DnD players of various ages.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

While I haven't specifically got a synopsis, I have a few ideas that might help.
For starters, because you have a mostly DnD crowd, I'd suggest pitching the game as a survival game rather than a military game. I've seen people react against T2k because they believed it to be a "military" game. By stating that it's a survival game, it will hopefully appeal to their ideas about adventuring and such like.

So yeah, I tend to emphasize that it's about soldiers AND civilians surviving in the aftermath. That way you can do something like have the PCs as members (or family of members) of their nation's embassy in Europe. Or they could even be tourists, expats or even people teaching their native language to the locals who fled to the embassy when everything went bad.
There's also groups from archaeology departments sent out to various countries to conduct digs and other research type jobs that require people to be in foreign countries if you're looking for ways to have the PCs in the warzone.

[Cdnwolf]

I like that idea.

[rcaf_777]

You could also try a storyline along the Jericho lines with the PC's in a small town setting trying to help the town get by after the nuclear attacks?

[Cdnwolf]

I remember reading a story that someone did up for TWL2013 where people were at home when the EMP went off and the Chinese paramilitary troops started to attack. Group of players were a combination of vets, survivalist and local national guard unit.

[Targan]

Armed Department of Energy security, escorting nuclear materials when the EMP hits. Some of the PCs could be unarmed truck drivers, or bureaucrats along for the ride to certify the cargo. What do they do next? Set up a perimeter and try to get the vehicles started again? Attempt to unload the cargo and bury it? Head for the hills?

[NanbanJim]

Sit down and think about some core traits of D&D campaigns... but be more abstract. Dungeons are compounds, dragons are vehicles--there's a really simple one.

Now here comes the real lure part: Sit down with THEM some night with a few beers and talk about what they like in D&D and how to adapt it.

Here are a few tips that have gotten others interested in T2k for me, but note: I've yet to run more than 1 game... so, grain of salt and all that.

You may want to mete out what equipment characters get, so it feels like they're "advancing" in a familiar method.

If you haven't yet, read T2k Later Days. If you have... well, there's the link to the first post, you'll probably click and start all over again. You may even share it out to some potential players, depending on whether or not you want to use those twists (or if you expect they may do well with a little hint).

I would suggest going mildly supernatural, and I'd suggest the STALKER games (and hey, they're Ukrainian!), inspired by the Soviet era novel "Roadside Picnic" (a good alternate take). There are deviant physics, mutants, and in general things being wrong or unnatural. It doesn't have to be monster-movie crazy... a herd of hogs gone feral, misshapen with open sores and especially bad attitudes can cause both an invigorating fight scene (to drain all that ammo away ) and signify that your PCs are now in or approaching a poisoned, dangerous place. Infrasound (18.98 Hz especially) can be used in place of "evil taint," which works especially well if you decide to go deeper down the rabbit hole with your campaign: Perhaps following The Magic Comes Back trope, radiation combined with the spiritual blah blah of so many deaths over such a long time weakens the blah blah monsters blah blah things that should not be etc to whatever extent you want. Closing up the rifts into Hell or whatever could become a campaign focus, allowing for something between D&D and T2k.

I've deviated far into the weeds though, so one last tought occurs to me for a decent-enough "dungeon crawl" feeling to ease them into it: Take one of those decommissioned missile silos, fill it with a variety of equipment as well as traps, wild animals, henchmen, and one devious zookeeper, and you've got a dungeon with treasure.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

NabanJim, that was an excellent post. So many good suggestions!
The idea of letting them acquire equipment like a D&D game is a great idea and if you want to take it another way, think of those video games where the character starts out with pistols then latter finds a shotgun and as they advance further they find submachine guns and assault rifles and so on.

To add more to what NJ had to say, if you don't want things to go all mystic & magic then continue to use the STALKER games as a central theme, they use the premise of "weird science" to explain the strange happenings in the game.
Roadside Picnic has a different take that may be more acceptable for the suspension of disbelief for some people. Artefacts left by an alien visitation cause the weirdness in the zone.

If you want any information about the STALKER games and Roadside Picnic, I'd be happy to help - I've got 'em all