An Alternative to the Tavern Cliche

[jdrakeh]

In my Shadows Over Arkham campaign, I took some care to flesh out the society of the City State as it appears therein (including government offices, common professions, etc) and used this to hook the charcters into a story arc.

Currently we have one Witch Hunter (magic use is regulated in the city state of Arkham), one Wizard (a travelling scholar), and recently added a Ranger (who was being chased through the surrounding Whisper Trees by a patrol of Crown Knights who stumbled across him poaching).

The Witch Hunter answers to the Burgomeister (in charge of the City Guard), who asked him to investigate the assinations at nearby Thunderhold. As a favor to an undisclosed party, the Witch Hunter was asked to take the [Elf] Wizard along in order to observe. Enroute to Misty Mountain via the Old Road, these two PCs stumbled across the Ranger.

Ironically, the first two PCs ended up in a tavern prior to their departure from Arkham, but they didn't meet there (the Wizard was staying at a friend's* tavern).

*See the SoA character creation guidelines for infor on Friends, Contacts, and Enemies. I let the players define three of each prior to the start of play, providing me with plenty of hooks to avoid "We meet in a tavern" and other such deus ex scenarios.

 

[Agent Oracle]

In my current Sci-Fi campaign, all players were told that at the end of their backstory, they had to enlist in the military. Anything they want can happen up to that point.

I have one Sgt. At-arms (a fighter), one Senior Airman (a pilot / rogue), one Cpl. (a Dragon Shaman (red)) and one "minuteman" (New player, Duskblade class)

 

[Darrin Drader]

I started a campaign a while back by throwing the PCs into the heat of battle in the opening scene. Three of them were already working together to rescue prisoners from a kobold camp, which is where they quickly met up with a fourth PC. It works pretty well if you don't mind giving up some of the cliche'd looking for adventure element and exchanging it for the almost equally cliche'd railroaded element. Of course after the opening adventure, the PCs had a lot more control over their destiny than they did in the first adventure.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One of my favorite non-tavern starts to a campaign is to start off with a couple of the PCs and get them caught in the middle of a brawl (OK...technically, its in a tavern, but its a little different). As those 2 make a break for it, they encounter PC #3.

Basically, you run the first night of the campaign as a running battle in the streets, like in Judgement Night or The Warriors or some such, picking up PCs as the game continues.

At the end of the evening's shenanigans, they are either arrested (starting a prison escape type campaign/story arc) or join a caravan as guards to avoid being arrested (meaning each session leads to new adventures).

 

[painandgreed]

I note you're using the present tense; is this because you're describing how society works in your campaign or are you just using the present tense to describe real-world historical details?

IMC - In My Campaign

That is how most of the common speaking societies work in my campaign, being a cultural holdover from the same master culture that gave them common. The noble ideal is that from ages 1-7 they are raised with the family. From 8-14 the nobles and their "playmates" are grouped together and raised in the same household (possibly not even their own) and given general schooling. At 15, they begin individual training in classes under masters, eventually returning at 1st level to the same household. Once they all return and their party is together, they can begin adventuring.

The lower classes also follow this example somewhat, at least in that a gorup of children that grow up together are expected to support eachother.

 

[WampusCat43]

My campaigns (other than the AoW I'm currently running) take place initially at the little burg of Corm Orp, in the Western Heartlands of Faerun. The characters are all members of the local militia. Each daily shift consists of three squads, two of which guard each of the roads leading into town. The third of these is a roving band of halflings that prefer to battle from a distance with their slings. They are derisively known as the Chuck-n-ducks.

The adventures usually begin with some stranger approaching the guardpost...

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

In my current campaign, we actually have a similar situation where the PCs are all assistants / apprentices in a small community. I wanted them to be able to travel, so I didn't tie them entirely to the survival of the town.