Session Outline: Session One

So the campaign taking place in Fomor is beginning this week, probably. We're not that great at planning this stuff out. So I made an outline for the first session, just to show my though processes here. I addressed this in the post itself, but I do feel the need to say it up here as well: this session will be somewhat railroaded. Everybody but myself in this game is a newbie, and is not necessarily comfortable with roleplaying yet. So a lot of things that happen are going to be scripted, unless the PCs express interest in straying from the main path. But we've worked it out that at least at the start, they'll go along with what is obviously the plot. Things will open up after the first couple sessions for them to make the game truly their own.


Theme: Introduction
Planned Encounters:

• Each other at Bicka (main city)
• The players need to introduce their characters to each other. This is somewhat railroaded.
• Two of them meet up outside the city. They should then proceed inside.
• The third one is actually an apple merchant that accosts them.
• There are so many ways for this to go wrong. But in this case, most of this is already planned between the players. Hopefully they'll stick to that.
• Some random NPC.
• Barkeep, tavern wench, guardsman, whatever. 
• This is to get the typical "fishing for rumors" or job offers. 
• Really, no matter what they do will have roughly the same outcome.
• The NPC will direct them to speak with the captain of the guard, to look for work. They will be enticed with many shiny gold pieces.
• Captain of the guard
• Mentions the issues plaguing the city
• Bandits, troglodytes, and war.
• Since the PCs are unproven, they'll be sent up to clear troglodytes near the town of Ghet.
• Hints that the troglodytes are "Always finding some random thing to worship. Just go kill it and come back."
• This is mostly a disinterested conversation. The captain is a bland person.
• On the way to Ghet
• Ambush
• Kobolds in trees and jump out on the road.
• Not a difficult fight.
• Ghet
• Takes about a day to get there - provides an opportunity to refresh spells and hp.
• Cave nearby has troglodytes.
• Cave
• First dungeon
• Almost non-stop combat.
• Troglodytes and kobolds mixed together. Mostly kobolds.
• A few oozes are present, just to be weird.
• Skills challenge towards the end.
• Final boss is a large ooze and a spellcaster
• Return to Bicka
• Again, at least one day has passed. 
• The town is under attack. PCs can see smoke rising from a few hours away.
• If we are out of time, I plan to end the session here.
• If we have time, there will be a minor skirmish which ends with them getting inside the city. The session will likely end there.

Info:
This is meant to be more of an introductory session. All of the players are pretty new to RPGs, and I want to ease them into things. The first part of the session will be them mucking about in town, with some railroading towards the plot. The whole troglodyte quest will introduce them to combat and the way Pathfinder works mechanically. Most major elements are covered in the dungeon I have prepared: Melee, ranged, cover, elevation, traps, and magic. The skills challenge is a free-form exercise. I want to let the players get into the narrative. It's a trap-based challenge, and I'll go into it more when I make a post about that dungeon.
I want this session to be more about roleplaying and letting them get into their characters. The characters have never met each other, but they've sent me their backstories. So I also have plot points for each of them planned out. I like to run things in a sort of non-structured way, but with new players I think it's okay to railroad a little bit. Most of my sessions won't have an outline quite like this, but rather a few scenes that I want to happen and then the rest is completely improv. But here, I want to introduce them to the game in a much more controlled fashion. Once they have completed the first few quests, I fully intend the world to open up. There are plenty of places that they can go adventure in once they have outgrown this little city.