Day One of a Brand New World

Following a disasterous derailing of my current campaign, I am having to fire up something new. So I had an idea to start the game as the first day of a new world. The PC's wake up with no memories, skills, feats or classes. The have a sheet that has their six main abilities, AC and other simple stuff. Nothing else.

Now, the problem that I run into, is where does the conflict spring from. None of the "Evil" races have proven themselves to be evil yet. Where do the monsters come from? Dungeons, temples, evil minions, etc. How do you create conflict that would drive an adventure in this kind of setting?

Feel free to share the vast wisdom that I know these boards hold.

If I were a player, I'm not sure I would enjoy this scenario. The more time and trouble a player spends on their character concept, the less amused they will be to have it thrown out the window.

I don't think you should pull this one without asking the players how they would feel about it. If your campaign is in trouble and needs a drastic change, then far better to dump it and start over than to do something that could alienate your players and make them leave in disgust.

Just my 2 coppers.

My bad. We have closed up the previous campiagn. This would be the start of a new campaign.

A large part of me agrees with Buttercup. However, to offer some advice on how it might work:

* You might consider making it the first few decades of a new world, rather than the first day. Allow players to create fully developed characters, including classes, skills etc. But explain to them that the characters' fathers have no memories of childhood, and there are no grandfathers. This would preserve the players' ability to create characters of their own, which is a large part of the fun of the game.

* Just because orcs haven't proven they are evil doesn't mean they aren't, in fact, evil if you decide they should be. A humanoid village attacked for the first time by strange, alien creatures they've never seen before would be just as exciting as a village attacked by "the hated orcs." In a young world, humanoids won't have an excuse to attack traditionally evil races first, but if evil races are still evil, they're bound to start hostilities.

* The campaign might revolve around exploration. If the world is so young, then the PCs will probably have to come from the same village, and there may only be a tiny bit of the surrounding area mapped for hunters and gatherers. The PCs can be the explorers, discovering rival tribes, new races, etc.

* You might need to have your bigger dungeons be natural formations, rather than built-places. No ancient temples or dungeons, but instead expansive volcanic tunnels, tide caves, etc. And if you choose to go the few-decades-old route, that's still enough time for simpler temples and such to be built.

Just a few ideas.

I would expect there not to be a whole lot of countries and kingdoms yet, maybe at the most some city-states... so a lot of diplomacy and bringing people together could work well, especially coupled with the idea of mysterious evil races starting to harass the smaller towns.

I would also try and describe even the most common races without explicitly referring to them by name - let your players build up images in their minds of what they should look like, and just use the normal stats for orcs, goblins, and what have you.

you might want to read the Riverworld books by Philip Jose Farmer for a (sci fi) version similar to this idea.

If they explore to far, they come to the edge of the world that the Gods are still creating.