Classic Campaign Starts?

[Amaroq]

What are the best starts to a campaign which you've ever been in, either as a player or as the DM? What campaign starts have you participated in which beat "You're all sitting in a bar one evening, when...." cold?

I'm looking for detail, setting multiple plot hooks, and explaining why the characters are a "group" rather than a collection of individuals: preferably first session only.

You might think of this as "What was the most memorable start to a campagin you've ever seen?"

 

[Amaroq]

A mage, a drow, and a ranger...

The least successful campaign I ever ran was the one where I did the least "railroading". The players wandered aimlessly, setting few goals for themselves, without feeling like they were part of anything "epic", and the game felt extremely stagnant.

I changed my mind about how I wanted to run a world, and decided to go with the "carrot and a stick" method. The resultant campaign was wildly successful, and I wish I had detailed enough notes to Story Hour it. But, here's the set-up for the first day:

The first-level mage, an apprentice, is sent on an errand to the next village over. He comes home from his errand to find his master murdered. Worse, as soon as he tells any of the town elders, he becomes the prime suspect!... The first-level drow, having escaped the Underdark, finds himself in unknown territory... and is being pursued by much higher-level drow assassins.

They both find themselves wandering the woods in a snowstorm, fatiguing, etc, but are rescued by the first-level ranger, whose father/mentor ranger had died a year earlier, leaving him responsible for this valley...

After a day or two recuperating at his cabin, the drow assassins arrive, burn the cabin, and the chase is on...

The mage has a fear that he's next, and a strong desire to clear his name, to learn who killed his master and why, and to earn vengeance.. and thanks to a great player, decided his prime suspect was his new drow companion. The drow needs people who know the surface, and has no interest in remaining a sitting duck for his pursuers. The ranger has just lost his house, and has a strong interest in protecting this area from assassins, drow, arcane, or otherwise.

Plenty of "sticks" driving the party from behind; as they negotiated their mad-cap flight from their enemies, real and imagined, I started offering the "carrots" and other plot hooks. It worked phenomenally!

 

[Zad]

"I want you to go get me... a fruit."


A patron hires the players to do a task for him. It's simple and clean. It provides an excuse for bringing players together and gives them immediate goals as well as a reward mechanism. It can lead to further adventures as well, and it can co-exist with the character's personal goals.

 

[Dark Jezter]

An elf walks into a bar.

The second elf ducks.

*rimshot*

 

[RangerWickett]

The party had gathered in the basement of a house in the town of Rutoll, in the middle of winter. They're all fugitives from the Inquisition because they either are magic users, or are suspected of having used magic. They've come here because rumor said they could find a guide here who would get them to the wizard's school Lyceum, which should be a safe haven from the Inquisition.

There are two entrances to the basement, one that leads up stairs to the kitchen, and the other that has stairs outside leading up to the alley behind the house. The group sits down to discuss their plans for travel, and suddenly there's a banging on the door to the alley. I say 'roll for initiative.'

The men outside start to beat at the door to force it open, and they shout for the mages to turn themselves over. They're obviously bounty hunters.

The party's initiative falls behind that of the house's owner, who is also in the basement. The owner sprints for the stairs and runs up to the kitchen shouting, "Close the door" to his wife. He's obviously betrayed them.

Their guide stands up, creates an axe of ice and water in her hand, and stares at the door the bounty hunters are trying to beat their way through. She says, "If we can get to the stables, we should be able to get out of town. Get ready." She's obviously on their side.

 

[AlphaOmega]

let's see... I've done or seen the following startups that didn't include a tavern

--captured, very little memory of the last week... middle of nowhere
--at a king's banquet in honor of the eventual BBEG
--at a Coliseum-style annual event

but the best and most fun had was...

--about each half of the group came together trying to recover an artifact for different reasons

I think a memorable start will occur when you have the right mixture of good players and a semi-original starting story... If the characters are made in advance the DM has time to tailor the 1st session... if not... The tavern becomes something that is often there to fall back on.

 

[Graywolf-ELM]

The party met at a bend in a road, on the way to a small town in the Grand Duchy of Karmeikos.

Wizard Background and appearance nearby - The wizard was sought out and brought to training by a wizard of the realm. She worked through training and has not seen her family since the wizard paid the family and brought the girl to the remote keep for training. She was beginning to tire of her everyday training over a couple of months, when the Wizard came to her and told her it was time to go. In her room her bags were packed and they were all brought to his conjuration chamber. After a little speach about her training and responsibilities to learn and grow, she was teleported to a clearing, well known to the Wizard, When she arrives, she hears the sounds of yelling, and a horse that is in distress.

Shaman of Ethangar Background and appearance - The traveling Shaman was given a task by the Golden Khan, to seek out towns and cities in nearby countries, and evaluate the military might in each. The shaman was on the way to a small town in the Duchy, when he and his horse were set upon by a group of sword beaks(stirges).

Ranger in the wilderness - The ranger was brought to the area by stories of an Ogre terrorizing farms in the area, (his foe was of course Ogre/Giantkin) The path he was taking, lead him through the forest, and out onto a road leading to the town.

The 4th character eludes me at this point, all of this is from memory. But the character was coming across the bridge from town, to try and find where the swordbeaks(Stirges) were, so the town could send a group of adventurers out to kill them.

I enjoyed setting up this first encounter. The party found the nest, and the teltale droppings. The town they were heading towards and began adventuring from, was Threshold. They were rewarded for each body they returned with.

 

[Belbarrus]

One of my best campaigns started as follows:

-All the PCs start off as adolescent friends and lived in the same small village.
-I would "fast forward" the years and describe things of importance that happened in the town.
-The party would pick a few skills or proficiencies that would eventually become skills and abilities of the class they wanted to play (the fighter would hang out at the barracks and practice with weapons, the rogue would sneak around the town getting into mischief).
-Now and then, I would throw them into a minor adventure to build up the "adventuring spirit" of the characters.
-At first level, they went and investigated some mysterious ruins outside of the village.
-They eventually uncovered a long forgotten chamber with a evil, magic tome that they brought back to town for the village elders to examine.
-The elders determined that this was a powerful device and that someone would need to go to the "Temple of Knowledge" (far away) to find out what needs to be done to get rid of the tome.
-The PCs, of course, volunteered.
-Most of the adventures were events that happens along the way to the oracle. Then after losing the tome, they went through adventures tracking it down again. Then more quests to determine what they needed to do with the tome.

As a *player*, this is one of the better campaign starts I have seen:

-Our kingdom was at war with a neighboring kingdom.
-Our first level characters were strangers enlisted in an army during one of the great battles.
-That was the reasoning behind a bunch of strangers of different races/classes getting together.
-Our side was winning and we were routing the enemy.
-The PCs happened to be in a group that was chasing down one of the enemy leaders, a powerful, but almost dead wizard.
-When the PCs killed the wizard he cursed us with the "Adventurers Curse" so that trouble would always follow us.
-The PCs found a treasure map on the body and agreed that we would each take a part of he map, then meet at some pre-selected inn in some city 1 year later, join the map and go looking for the treasure.


Those were pretty good starts to a fantasy campaign.

B

 

[roytheodd]

What are the best starts to a campaign which you've ever been in, either as a player or as the DM? What campaign starts have you participated in which beat "You're all sitting in a bar one evening, when...." cold?

I'm looking for detail, setting multiple plot hooks, and explaining why the characters are a "group" rather than a collection of individuals: preferably first session only.

You might think of this as "What was the most memorable start to a campagin you've ever seen?"

The best one I had went like this: one of the PCs is at his usual hang-out in his adopted hometown (a big city). All of the patrons suddenly collapse including the PC. After an unknown amount of time has passed, the PC awakes to find themself still inside the building with all of the other patrons still out cold and the building on fire. They drag themselves outside and see vague figures running into the night as a fire brigade arrives on the scene.

The owner of the building hires the PC to get to the bottom of who burned the joint down and why. After a couple of weeks of failure, the owner hires the other PCs to assist in the matter.

I began my Diamond Throne campaign like this. I had the PCs given a lead in the case that opened up the Plague of Dreams module and then grew into my campaign.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I once began a campaign with a bunch of characters at a fair. Each of the characters visited the fortune teller, and each was given a piece of paper with their fortune on it. Each foretold something horrible happening to the PCs, with sufficient detail to give them the idea that they could prevent it. They were also told they couldn't speak of it, either as players or as characters.

The fun part was dropping in seemingly innocuous elements (ie you see a rock that looks like an elephant) that matched one of the player's fortunes, and watching them freak.

Of course, their fates were linked, and collectively they had enough information to foil the BBEG's plan for them. It was neat watching each of them try to pursue their own agenda while trying to acheive the party's goals, too.