campaign backdrop

[Jan van Leyden]

I can give you my next one:

80 years ago, a group of former adventurers cam to the village of Fourburgh and showed the headmaster a writ of the baron allowing them to build a castle near this village. They did so and retired to said castle, without interacting much with the population and presenting some very aloof behaviour.

One fine morning several years later a villager discovered a basket under the village lime, and in this basket lay a small baby wrapped in fine cloth. The headsman took the basket and walked to the castle to ask the inhabitants whether they knew something about this. He learned that the castles masters didn't want anything to do with the child but they gave him a bag of money to give the foster parents who would take care of it. This happened quite regularly over the next years, only the bag of money was henceforth found in the basket with the child. these children, they belonged to several different races, became to be known as Children of the Lime.

Some ten years ago the appearance of children stopped. The then headsman walked to the castle to inquire after several months. But nobody answered his call. The castle was completely deserted.

All PCs are, of course, Children of the Lime. The money given to their foster parents was sufficient for whatever education (class) was required.

Once a year all Children of the Lime try to travel to Fourburgh for the Child-of-the-Lime day, which is held on the anniversary of the very first child found under Fourburghs village lime. This year, something special happened which sent a very special group of Children to a quest.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I've used, or been in games that used, most of the above. But at the end of the day the game is about Adventuring. Throwing annoying roadblocks between the players and what they're there to do just seems silly to me. But if I absolutely have to have a reason, its bloody dangerous out there. What with Goblins and Orcs just waiting to attack anything in sight...

 

[Meatboy]

Thanks guys! Those are some good jump points. One of my faves that I totally stole from the old Darksun Computer game was the the you are all gladiators together.... don't die! And then once they made it known that they were pretty tough they got busted out by the resistance movement to help overthrow the evil theocracy.

 

[Elf Witch]

Since I am not a big fan of you meet in a tavern I try and find ways that make sense for the party to be together.

In my Dragon campaign I had Bahmut send out a psychic call for heroes. Those that accepted found a ring on their hand that help lead to the city of temples. Once they got there they found that they were the only ones who could enter the sealed temple to Bahmut.

In Eberron I had the players all be refugees from Cyre they had spent time in the same refugee camp.

Other successful games I have played in have had the players captured and sold into slavery. They were on a ship that sank off the coast of some wilderness unpopulated area.

Then each player had a reason to want to cross the great desert known as the Anvil. It is impossible and treacherous to cross on your own. There was a caravan hiring guards. The players signed up.

 

[Shades of Green]

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.

Works like a charm in Traveller, though, especially if everyone has multiple career terms under their belts. "You are all decorated Imperial war heroes, and the Sector Duke calls you for a super-secret service for the Empire".

In D&D, the following could be fun IMHO:
* "You all happen to be arrested at the same time and thrown into the same cell".
* "You are all conscripted into the same military unit".
* "All of you have booked passage on the same ship/caravan".
* "Your ship has been shipwrecked and you all wash out on the same shore".
* "You are all in the same city for whatever reason, then an enemy invades!"
* (for criminal characters) "An underworld boss gives all of you An Offer You Can't Refuse".
* "You are all sold as slaves to the same master".

 

[The Shaman]

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

"Here's the world. Go!"

 

[AeroDm]

I've used most of the common ones above. A few years ago I told all of the players to find an excuse to be linked to a heroic paladin NPC going on an adventure. Someone was his squire, another his nephew, another an envoy from the elvish settlement the NPC was questing on behalf of, and another a cleric of the NPC's deity sent to catalog his exploits. Then the NPC was killed during the adventure, and this group had to figure out how to escape and survive.

 

[HalfOrc HalfBiscuit]

You might want to look at this thread: http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/305091-doomed-slayers-campaign-framework-justifying-roving-bands-adventurers.html

 

[nedjer]

Had much fun with a slave auction. The auctioneer set the players off - this one's a runt, just the job for cleaning right into the corners of the tightest latrines and so on

A brutish agent bought them all at very different prices, (much why're you worth more than me?). Quick branding and introduced to the spoilt brat who'd paid for them. Hardly got a word in after that

 

[haakon1]

I'm partial to the "two of the PC's players decide their characters know each other, and they meet the other guy at the inn", all looking for adventuring in the same locale and/or quickly hired to do some adventuring.

After that initial start, I'll work new PC's into the game in all sorts of ways -- found in trouble in a dungeon, picked up as a companion in a village they're adventuring in, whatever.

In a game I play in, the DM came up with the idea that we all know one important NPC who has gone missing, and each have a different reason to search for him (one is related, one was trained by him, etc.), so we teamed up for the rescue mission.