And the MechWarrior: Destiny game I'm in.
I always feel like the very first "mission" we did kinda set the stage for what would come. I've probably told this one before, but the session starts with us already at a bar, drinking to celebrate a successful mission. It gets late and we head out of the bar and... immediately get arrested by the local cops. There's enough that we can't really fight back so we wind up in jail, because basically "we were told to arrest you, you'll find out when the bigwigs arrive." Great, fuck you.
We spend a little time in jail, and it gives some moments to each character to show who they are, how they react, what they do, etc. And then we break out. A member of the group (whose player had to leave the game unfortunately) is a very sort of calm guy with mysterious background, don't know where he came from but kind hearted pastor type guy. He chides the one cop watching us to trick him into getting close and choke-holds him against the bars of the cell and steals the key and tosses it to my character.
Out of the cell behind this fashole steps someone who hasn't done much up to this point: a 6' 3", buff as fuck catgirl in a half-on jumpsuit and tank-top. She walks up to the cop and grabs him by his collar. The other guy lets go and she picks him up and throws him like 8 feet across the room into a wall, head first.
Anyway, we made our way out, got our stuff, and so on, and our first session in a MechWarrior game ends with zero in-mech time.
But good god did it set up the weird anarcho-commune merc group we have that's done fuckin' corporate sabotage to help striking miners, disaster recovery after an avalanche, and now helping out a 1970s-level tech planet deal with local 1300kg fauna without just blasting them all away with our mechs by doing research and infrastructure building and talking with locals.
I don't care what universe you're playing in, if all you do every session is "we show up, we kill people, we leave", it's not gonna have the staying power or investment that something that involves characters you play does.
That first session was two years ago and it's stuck with me since. So have so many of the little character moments. It makes it so much more awesome when you do get back in your mechs or battle armor. When you do plan an ambush or defensive line. Because you have a character that reacts to the situation, not just a robot that kills people.
