A beginning is a critical time...

[Voadam]

Of course after going back to the village, meeting the local king, attending a banquet in their honor as a welcome ceremony into the village with storytelling contests revealing all sorts of odd things in the wilderness that could be explored, an emphasis on hunting as important for the village, and having met some people with different interactions going on, they choose to go to the local inn. And hearing about a travelling trader who wants to hire some muscle they jump at the job.

D&D Adventurers will be D&D adventurers.

 

[Mycanid]

I believe you are right. The beginning can be a HUGE factor in making or breaking the adventures (or campaign) to follow! Seems many in here agree too.

I liked Wik's the best thus far btw!

 

[Brimshack]

I tend actually to favor some quasi-military premise for a campaign, myself. The characters are selected from ranks of an army or hired as mercenaries and put together with a task in mind. The main reason I like this is it gives a very solid premise behind the grouping itself and tends to discourage selfish players (you know the guy whose off picking pockets, getting caught, and getting the sherrif angry while the other characters are tying to save the kingdom). Once everyone has a clear reason for joining the core group and adhering to a common purpose, I think it cuts down on squirrelly interactions on down the road. Variants

- The unit commander (an NPC) is a bad guy, an idiot, corrupt, perhaps a coward, etc. They have to deal with him (most likely politically) while dealing with the opening enemy.
- The opening mission is interrupted by somethign far more serious.
- Someone tipped off the enemy, so there is a spy behind the lines. As the characters deal with the first mission and learn more about the people behind them they have to try and deal with questions about who to trust and who not to.
- The unit commander (an NPC) is truley evil. He expects the PCs to do something inconsistent with their alignment (though it may be useful in winning a war) ...e.g. exterminate every orc, woman, and child in a village. This only works if the characters are good, and if you reject the social manicheancism approach to alignment.
- The enemy has redeeming virtues, and sues for peace.
- Turns out there is a common enemy and the PCs will have to work with the conventional enemy to deal with the bigger meaner threat to us all type foe.
- While off on their own mission, the entire army behind them is wiped out. Now the group is formed, but the original purpose behind their existence is gone.

I've used the tavern bit a couple of times. My favorite variant is to make it a rest stop along a reasonably well used highway. So, the initial gathering is rather random, but then the countryside is swamped by monsters. Most of the neighbors are killed for miles around and the characters hole up in the bar to defend themselves until the local city can put together an army and retake the territory. (Perhaps the character may need to help warn the city.) Maybe, the characters can even help save a neighboring farmer and his family from the Ogres headed down the way. This way you still get the random gathering effect, but you also get an instant bonding. Why are they together? At first it's because that is the only way they will survive. Afterwards it's because they all worked together and survived something they shouldn't have (and wouldn't have had each acted alone).

 

[Papewaio of The Org]

It's often good to run preludes. Individual one on one adventures of the PC and DM. This allows the PCs to get used to the character and maybe some of the more exotic feats, it also is a good way to introduce a new player into the fold, and you can have individual mini hooks that are character specific. Lastly it also means you can set up the characters to meet in a location and have a good reason for doing so.

 

[Evilhalfling]

"Three days after a giant pyramid swallowed the sun, your (small, low level) band of mercenaries is assigned to guard a pair of wagons as they move from city A to city B."

Absolutely captivating. A lesson in not being the world saving heroes in a fantasy world.
The lack of a sun caused night and gradually deeping winter. Within a week a substitute ball of fire was placed in the sky as a stop gag manuver, but the game was once a month and I never found out if anyone managed to get the real sun back.

Meanwhile we had a good time with the wagons (found to be carrying possesed weapons)
but only after it had ruined a small town we stopped in. Our captain (a PC) bore numerous scars from friendly fire and his still memorable quote was "Thats it! Dock in pay!"

 

[Lanefan]

A well-established and famous adventuring Company advertises for new recruits, and for whatever reason, each PC has responded (along with lots of others). Said Company forms them up into parties (with all the PC's in the same one, of course) and sends them out on trial missions.

From here you can go any number of directions, but you have what you need: a party that has a mission and a reason to be together doing it.

In my game, the Company were all fakes, and all the recruits were sent out on suicide missions; the PC party survived and - many adventures later - exposed the "Company" and their plots...

Lanefan

 

[Dr Simon]

Brimshack's reply reminds me of another opening (inspired by a suggestion in Space 1889) that I mean to use one day:

The set up requires a civilised nation with borderlands of hostile barbarians. In Space 1889 it was the British Empire and Hill Martians, but anything similar would do. The PCs are all in a border fort, or fortified border town, that is under attack. As chaos reigns all around, the CO of the fort is desperately giving them orders to escape (with important documents/ a high-ranking noblewoman / word of warning etc.) back to civilisation. A good tone-setter for cultures in conflict with a pulpish feel (maybe because it came from Space 1889, but I can't help but think Rudyard Kipling).

My favourite in media res opening comes from a similar discussion on the Shadowrun forums at dumpshock.com : GM "Who's driving?"

 

[kigmatzomat]

I'm of two minds. One shots and canned adventure paths need a solid biting hook right at the beginning but an open-ended campaign should be a bit more organic and feel less forced.

I tend to run open-ended campaigns with no set finish and little more than an outline for the major plot. I prefer the PCs to become a cohesive party and flesh out the characters in adventures that are at most tangentially related to my core plot. That way I can figure out hooks that really fit the characters when it comes time to get to the real plot.

It's been my experience that even someone who has a detailed background for their character will wind up playing it differently. Many times the backstories get rewritten three or four sessions in to reflect the "reality" of the character rather than the original intention.

 

[Kalshane]

My last campaign started with all the PCs in the marketplace of the campaign's major city. Most of them were there for shopping, one was a member of the guard who was on duty, a couple more were new to the city and got lost trying to find their way to an inn, etc. (Basically, just a spin on the "you're sitting in a tavern" idea, but different enough it felt fresh.) Suddenly, an orge is teleported into the middle of the marketplace and begins reaking havoc and noises in the distance indicate its not the only one. The PCs, all good aligned, move to take it out before it can kill innocents. The campaign started off with a tough, memorable fight (though the PCs started at 2nd level, so they won't too bad off.), set up a mystery and got the PCs to work together right off the bat.

What I'd like to do sometime, though I have no idea how well it work, would be to hand out pre-made character sheets at beginning of the 1st session and start off with a combat with the BBEG, who has those characters outclassed, and kills them all. We then fade to black, have the PCs pull out their real sheets and start the game. At some point during the first session the PCs overhear that a group of well-known heroes has gone missing and is presumed dead.

My issue is I'm not sure how well my players would take to playing characters not their own or starting the game off with a TPK.

 

[Wraith Form]

As a rule, I start a new campaign in the tavern, as this tends to be the focal point of the community.

Cursed alcoholics...!