campaign backdrop

[Meatboy]

When creating a base for a campaign I like to imagine a scenario in which the PCs have a chance to go around doing heroic things and generally not being hassled by "normal" society for running around with the equivalent of tanks bombs and other things that might be frowned upon. Most of the time I choose some kind of civil unrest to toss the characters into. (I'm not to fond of the "you all come from the same peaceful village scenario")

But I want to know what EN worlders like as their default backdrop for adventure?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

"You all come from the same strife-torn village." Military service and passengers on a vessel are good, too.

 

[S'mon]

For traditional D&D "You have all arrived at place X" is good. For X I am currently using (a) wilderness crossroads inn and (b) Loudwater from the FRCG, in 2 different 4e campaigns. Fallcrest from the 4e DMG is also good.

An alternative approach I've tried is "You are the heroes of the realm, the King calls upon you to fight evil - which made a nice change, but I don't think the D&D levelling system & player expectations are really set up for this.

 

[Hand of Evil]

So, players; why did you leave your homes and family? How did you happen to travel together?

I let my players tell me their motivations as part of their back story. I then try and weave them into my plot. Some will say adventure, others that they needed to get away from something bad, some it was a calling, some looking for the guy who did me wrong.

I just help them out with details. I also try place them in a central location, a town or city. By them building their backstory, it helps me build my campiagn area.

 

[Sammael]

It really depends on the campaign/adventure. Some recent examples include:

1. Each one of you is a mid-ranking member of one of the factions in Sigil. The factions have reached a political agreement to each send one of their representatives to investigate a recent new development. Your factions were chosen to have the first chance to investigate, and so you all meet at the scene...

2. Some of you are employees of the local inn, and some are currently guests. You are all sitting quitely in the common room when you notice something unusual happening across the street...

3. For one reason or another, all of you have been visiting the temporary camp set up by the elves who have sailed from across the sea. Over the past few weeks, you've grown to know each other, and you have gained the elves' trust. One of the elven mages summons you to his tent...

4. You all have your reasons for wanting to enter the mage's tower... but there are no apparent entrances. You've been circling the tower for the past hour or so and suddenly, you feel that you are being pulled in by some mystical energy...

 

[Gilladian]

My current campaign, the PCs all had some reason to arrive in a large village/small town on a trade route in a dangerous wilderness area. There's a known dungeon just a ways from the town, and many adventurers (at least one band a year) come there to attempt to explore it. The region is also plagued with bandits and a bunch of mixed orc/goblin/bestial human invaders, centered on the dungeon. Lots going on, and tons of reason for adventure.

I'm also thinking loosely about another campaign I'd love to run in the future, wherein the PCs are a scout group for a large caravan traveling along a long-lost trade route to western realms. They'd be part of a group of 40-50 people, constantly roaming in small groups to see that the route ahead is clear and "safe".

 

[Whisper72]

I usually let the players come up together with why they are in the same place and how they met (and why they are 'on the road' in the first place), or provide some scene and then let the players decide upon how come they are there. Some examples I did in the past:
- you are all on a ship en route to a newly discovered continent. You all have your own reasons for starting a new life (players can make it up). On the long journey you all somehow felt a connection / got along well together and decided to stick around in this new world to help eachother out...
- you all show up in response to a notice to help
- you are all summoned by king/mage/god/whatever and requested to perform a service

Since the aim of the game is to have fun together and I play D&D as a cooperative game (at least, among the players... ), a set assumption when I DM is that the PC's have some reason to be together and cooperate in whatever adventures they are about to go on...

This may be some form of coerced cooperation however in the rare instances I have DM'ed an 'all evil' campaign...

 

[steeldragons]

Jeez...I'm trying to think of the most common/popular that haven't been mentioned yet...

I've been in campaigns where all of the PCs are thrown together by happenstance. Not the "you're all from the same peaceful village" but simply "You're all in the same place at the same time and the shale hits the fan." so, at least initially, they stay together because they have a successful combat or two and figure staying together is their best chance of survival.

I've played in the "you're all seeking the same item/person/place (but don't necessarily all start out together) for your own reasons and join forces to increase your chances."

I've played the "you're all at an inn/tavern and show up to answer the same 'job posting' on the wall."

I have one where one of the PC's actually hires the other PC's. This only really works if you're willing to have one PC be wealthy enough to do this (or have a player who wants to be from/have some wealth/wealthy family of their own).

The way it worked was they were hired as protection from point A to B. Then, naturally, along the way they become embroiled in other plot devices/elements that arise so their reason for staying together evolves ...friendships form, romances maybe, sense of duty to thwart some evil scheme, pure survival, whatever it happens to be for each PC...beyond just the "getting paid."

Thus the adventure(s) becomes "what happens on the journey", not necessarily the initial perceived goal of "getting to point B."

I've done the "you all come from a land torn by strife" thing too...

• The Inhuman Invasion: the Goblin Wars, the Troll Wars, the Ogre Incursion, Pick-a-Humanoid-du-Jour and fight'em
• The Human Invasion: Empire X is stretching its influence and trying to take over your homeland...and the homelands of all of the other PCs (or maybe some PCs are already from conquered lands and looking for allies to push the Empire back?)
• Civil war: self-explanatory. Political factions, religious factions, members of the same royal family fighting each other for "their" throne.
• International war: Kingdom A v. Kingdom B, the Elf Kingdom v. the Human Kingdom, 2 dwarves and a clan of gnomes against the rest of the known world, etc.
• Rebellious uprising against an unjust ruler: This isn't a "full blown" civil war kinda thing, but a Robin Hood vs. Sheriff of Nottingham kinda thing...
• Refugee situation from some outside nation/realm
• Spreading disease/plague: Keep in mind, doesn't have to be a modern day "medical" type of plague...maybe a "madness" or catatonic condition is striking random people or magic malfunctions or crops are blighted and animals dying with no apparent "disease" cause or a "Creeping Curse" that simply brings serious, sometimes deadly, misfortune wherever it goes...

No matter what the source of the strife, you have to make sure that the conflict is serious enough/centered around something the PCs are going to care about a LOT to take up arms for one side or the other.

If the PCs have no investment/immersion/interest with Princess Prettyfingers OR Duke Hardball, then why should the PCs care/be involved in their battle for supremacy? If none of the PCs (or their loved ones) have been effected by this disease spreading across the land, why are/should they going to quest for a cure?

Simply saying "this is what's going on in the world" is not usually, ime, enough to get players engrossed in the world. It can be, with what would be (imho) "good" players. But not always.

Whatever the backdrop, I think the most important thing to keep in mind is the PCs have to (or at least should) care about where they are/what's going on in the world around (and perhaps to) them...and thus, why they are out for [adventure/loot/fame/revenge/et cetera ad infinitum] in that setting in the first place.

Have fun and happy "expositioning."
--Steel Dragons

 

[wolfpunk]

Used pretty much anything and everything:

Military service (usually privateers)

Members of a travelling circus (man do circus people get themselves into all sorts of trouble)

Right place, right time

Wrong place, wrong time

Common aquaintances

Brought together and forced to set aside differences for the common good.

And the one where it turns out that they are all actually just a figment of someones imagination and they don't exist at all.

 

[Cajetan]

Three that have worked out especially well for me were a slavepit, a shipwreck, and a hunting party that returned to find their village destroyed and families taken.
My campaigns are all set in Harn, using either GURPS or HarnMaster 3 (but my next one will probably be in BRP). The Harn setting works well for PCs who start out with nothing more than the shirts on their backs - it is extraordinarily detailed at many levels, so it is easy to bring them into a village or an inn or a city and hook them up with NPCs.
I find starting in abject poverty does a good job of welding the party together, because I can easily throw them a few quick successes to set up the "real" campaign after I have had a few nights to see the style of each player and what motivates them.