>>34276939The other dude is right. You should look to create a living, breathing
world, at least in the vicinity of the PCs.
They presumably have other friends besides each other, right? Bosses,
acquaintances, rivals (the non-violent kind) should exist.
Send them on the classic 'adventuring job' to retrieve artifacts from
guarded vaults, maybe send them on a corpse run. The kind of generic stuff
you'd find in a video game.
Do this as a prelude, a chance to introduce specialists, rivals and
friends. It's up to you to make at least two characters, preferably four
that the PCs and the Players themselves, will like. Feel free to crib
personalities from their favorite media, just make sure to change them
enough so that it isn't immediately apparent. Their backstories (if they
exist) should provide plenty of clues. Don't be a dick and just have people
important to them killed off for cheap effect, or the like.
So, now they should have some connection to the world, have shit happen.
Undead Army and their friends are pleading for help, while maybe a local lord is offering shitloads of cash for a different job. A letter asking them for a secret meeting with an older contact delivered in secret, only to have that contact not show up and disappear.
You don't actually need branching story lines, just to give the appearance
of one.