The "Character Funnel" is a pretty neat concept, and I think it was worth it as far as getting the player random, yet decent, character...but I think it is hard verisimilitude-wise to set up the "30 completely unqualified losers decide to leave their lives as assorted Barristers, Tax Collectors, Guild Beggars etc. to go on an extremely lethal adventure"...and honestly, the 0-level adventure in the Core Book (which I used) doesn't give much more than that.
So I went with a press gang scenario. There is a rumour of an extra-dimensional gate opening decades ago and showing treasures for the taking, and the old man telling you this story on his deathbed wishes he had gone blah blah blah...
Then the Duke's men show up and round up most able-bodied men in the shithole town the PC's are from and send them into the gate...while they wait outside with a wagon for the loot.
It wasn't perfect, but it got the game going. I'm not certain how I would do the Character Funnel next time. 0-Level adventures are pretty hard to write without wiping out the entire 30 person party. There is a 0-level adventure for sale called "Sailors on a Starless Sea" or something, and I will likely pick that up for next time I play.
I've been trying to really curb my tendency to worldbuild, and follow Goodman's suggested "keep it small" mantra. The implied setting is Dark Ages medieval, meaning that the PC's don't--and shouldn't--have world-spanning knowledge. Magic users in this game are not, as a rule, scholars; but rather Warlocks cutting deals with extra-planar entities for magical power (which I much prefer)
So what the PC's know is...
- Their little town, Fogwater, is on the edge of a marsh called Whitefen (because of the prevalent white marsh gas). It is a community servicing a small copper mine. They are very, very much in the ass-end of nowhere.
- Their Local Lord (Baron Galen) has his seat of power "somewhere to the north" (actually untrue, but that is the direction his men arrive from as they are usually coming from Cliffwater) and a couple of times a year his men come by to collect taxes and take the copper ore for refining.
- There is a town across the Marsh called Cliffwater, about three people in town have ever been to Cliffwater, and they are considered quite brave and worldly, because...
- "The Old Man of the Marsh" is a local boogeyman; stealing children, ruining crops and murdering people in their sleep. He is variously described as a Wizard, a Draug, a Troll King, and any variety of other things. He is, in fact an Elder Ghoul (from the monster section) with a small retinue of "Swamplings" (not sure what I will re-skin into this as yet).
- They've heard of a fabled City "Zarpa", on the shores of a sea of blood, peopled by demons who will give you whatever you want for a price. They are actually talking about the City of Zarfadn, which is a few hundred miles away on the shores of an inland sea...while the city is fairly decadent, it is a human city run by a merchant's guild.
- Dwarves come from the other side of the Firetooth mountains (which can be seen from the top of the hill the mine is cut into). There is a dwarf in town who has confirmed this, so this accepted as a truism.
- Elves come from magical forests far away. No one in town has ever seen an elf.
So far, the PC's have come out of the first adventure and found that...while about 20 minutes passed for them in the extra-planar crypt, a year has passed on the outside...so Baron Galen's men are gone.
They go to check on their friends/families. First stop was at Greentower, the lair of the Apprentice Wizard's Master. tower is smashed to gravel, and his master's long-decayed remains are found outside the ruins. The discover a small hidden compartment amongst the ruins with an Apprentice Selection of Spells, a Ceremonial Dagger and a Wizard-y looking cloak (apparently hidden away by his master for his graduation).
Next they decide to head into town, and come across the Shrine where the more devout of the locals would come to pray to the gods. Here the Minstrel that made it out feels the call to worship Gorhan, the Helmed Vengeance and is miraculously led to the tools of his faith...Holy Symbol, Warhammer, Horned Helmet and Tabard. the shrine is largely abandoned and filled with Bat Swarms.
They continue into town, coming across several smashed farmhouses and barns, finally coming upon one still inhabited by a family they know.
The Farmer explains that the whole area has been strangely and randomly attacked by Grey Cloaked men who can summon immense tentacles from the ground, and seem able to direct their efforts. So far they have used them largely for wanton destruction...over the course of the last year the population of Fogwater and it's surrounding territory has plummeted from the tentacle attack deaths, and people fleeing that threat.
In the ensuing power vacuum, the Bandit Leader Iron Jon had swept into Fogwater and taken over, holding the women and children of the village hostage against the continued labour of the men in the copper mine.
The predations of The Old Man in the Marsh increased in the same period, and the Bandit leader cut a deal giving up one of the children per week in exchange for his operation being left alone.
So far, the PC's have witnessed a tentacle (about 5 stories high) attack, have attacked an beaten 1/3 of the bandit horde who were left to guard the town/prisoners during the day while the men and 2/3rds of the group were off at the mine, and then went to the mine after letting some of the bandits escape to "run get help"...they took a little known hunting trail (one of the PC's original occupation was Hunter) up to the mine and found that exactly wht they had hoped would happen had in fact happened. The main body of the Bandit Group had headed back to town to deal with them, leaving a skeleton crew guarding the miners.
So they attacked and...got pulverized. Only their secondary plan of sending the thief in with a bag of truncheons and scimitars to free the miners saved them from a TPK. 4 PCs down out of 5. After making some "revoer the Body" luck rolls, only Tith--the aforementioned Town Dwarf--was actually dead.
So this is where they are now...
The Bandits with their Captain and Lieutenant are now back at the village having recaptured the prisoners (who flat-out reused to flee from fear of the tentacles)
I've got the lair of the Old Man in the Marsh ready to go as a straight up dungeon crawl.
Cliffwater is going to be the town outside of the Adventure in the published module The People of the Pit, which ias you know is all about the Gigantic tentacles and their origin.
So far things are going pretty great.