Campaign Intros

[Tonguez]

Before everygame I get the PCs together to talk about how they know each other and why they are working here now in 'this situation' - it works up a good background and a good rationale for future actions and develops familial links.

eg my current adventure started with a Festival culmnating in a game called Ki o Rahi, the first session was the game of Ki o Rahi actually played out by the PCs.

The PCs won and after being rewarded by the King, they were asked to be the Attendnants to the Kings Son whose Betrothal to the Princess of another Island was announced. (some of the PCs were already firends to the Prince)

in past games I have had PCs as Agents of the Church - in the talk session I got them to give me reasons why they are with the Church - I got 3 orphans raised in the Church Orphanage, a Cleric brought in from a distant parish after it was attacked by Cultists and a Rogue seeking redemption...

 

[The Sigil]

Module N4 - Treasure Hunt

Works great - REAL GREAT - at the start of a campaign, but don't ever try to pull it at any other time.

http://www.svgames.com/tsr9185esd.html

PRODUCT BLURB:

"Marooned on a barren isle…

The Island of Viledel, the mighty Sea King, was sacked by a pirate army 60 years ago. It's destruction was so complete that even the location of the island was lost and forgotten. Despite rumors of immense treasures still hidden in the ruined stronghold, no one ever found the Sea King's island again

Until now. Through a cruel twist of fate, a small band of unwilling adventurers are washed ashore on a small, barren island, and discovers what remains of Viledel's settlement. But they aren't alone; marauding orcs and goblins have found the island too, and are frantically searching for the lost hoard. In this desperate treasure hunt, the real payoff may be survival.

Treasure Hunt is different from other AD&D adventures. The player characters begin the game at 0 level, without choosing a class, and must work their way up to 1st level. It is perfect for a group of beginning players or experienced players looking for a new and different challenge."

A long-standing favorite of mine to "Break In" new characters. Best done with no monks. Instead of 0-level characters, they get 1st-level characters... but the baddies are upped as well. And it's always a challenge to fight orcs and goblins with your bare hands (as long as there are no monks in the party).

--The Sigil

 

[Phasmus]

My campaign started out, rather successfully, with the players serving as portable lunches for some Illithid scout-troops. A third-party reanimated them as ghosts shortly thereafter, at which time the terms were set for their return to true-life...

If you want to learn more, check out the Vitis Story Hour. It's chock fulla' DOOM!

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

In our current GURPS Warhammer campain, the PCs had to deal with some bandits in their first adventure. All had the same goal, but each of them got involved in a different way.

The soldier of fortune and the mercenary were hired as muscle by the vice major of a small town. The thief was hired as an "advisor". The halfling innkeeper and militia sargeant was put in charge of the operation for "political reasons". And the halfing in turn brought the trollslayer aboard, whom he had found wandering around with a major head injury a few days earlier...

I think it's imporant to give each player some time to establish his or her personality before the party comes together as a group.

 

[seasong]

Five Quickies

1. PCs are related by nationality against a warfare threat. I've tried a few variations on this: the PCs are soldiers; the PCs must go on a quest for a whatsit to defeat the enemy; the PCs must forge political alliances (for those high-level starting games); the PCs live in a village caught in the middle.

2. The PCs are joining the same superhero team. Nuff said, let's clobber something.

3. The PCs are all from poverty-stricken families in the same bad side of town, when friends and family begin disappearing... queue up the Kult music .

4. Youse guys have allas been da bestest buds, and today youse will be beginnin' yer greatest adventure evah.

5. Each PC must come up with a mundane reason for being in the city/bar/etc. Then all heck breaks loose. Best variant ever: a party in which the PCs were, variously, the host, a hired stripper, a gate crasher, and a ghost haunting the mansion. It was my first and last every CoC game .

 

[AngelTears]

Ten years of campaign beginnings (I should watch it I am starting to get old).

Memorable campaign starts:

The characters wake up from a drunken stupor to find their mutual friend, the recently enacted senator *missing* and a rival senator in the den *dead*

A group of childhood friends meet for the week at their home town.

An odd group of mecenary merchanteers, hired by the enigmatic Il Capitano, a PC, in an epic Sci-Fi soap-opera.

One of the characters is the senechal of a port city, which later is put under siege. At the 11th hour, reinforcements arrive with the rest of the PCs on-board.

Everyone has a dream, a dream shared, where they all hear about being chosen to be among those destined to forge a new ring of power.

You are all 1st class passengers on a steamer from Liverpool to New York. 1920's Horror in a very Lovecraftian vein.

You are all members of the Inquisition, with a Papal seal. Modern day X-files with Sunday mass.

-Angel Tears

 

[dglass]

We once did the prison thing. Every character had a reason to be in the town thought we didn't know each other. Due to events beyond our control all the strangers in town were rounded up and thrown in magic dead cell (too bad for me as I was the wizard). This being a small dusty town on the edge of the desert the only strangers were the PCs. We found out that the towns people were not going to wait until a circuit judge arrived and were going to dispense some frontier justice at dawn. Given the choice of work togather or hang togather we broke ourselves out of jail with the help of a drunken centaur. The game went on for a year. It was fun although chaotic at times. Our characters reached high level and saved the world on more then one occasion.

 

[Ruined]

(this will be a good impetus to get me back to writing...)

My current Scarred Lands game started out with much pre-planning and a little bit of DM Hand of Fate. I worked with each player about their characters general backgrounds. We decided upon a good locale for them to begin with, and arranged for a solo game session for each character. Then I ran each through three or four 'encounters' through their beginning careers, highlighting certain points. It allowed them to flesh their character's personalities out in a session without having to allow time for other players, and it let me sew in subplot seeds that I would later use.

Then once the actual game began, I wove them all together into a major plot. Hasn't worked perfectly, but I love what it has done for the game. To read details, see the link in the sig below. Hasn't been updated like it should, but I believe the intro sessions are entertaining, at least.

My favorite campaign starter was for my conversion 3e Temple of Elemental Evil campaign. I had each player make up their first level character and give me a copy of the stats. We began the game, and first thing, I hand them their character sheets, with each character advanced to approximately 8th level, some with PrC's, all with magic items etc.

"Your party has gathered with the wizard Mandragora. You are investigating an odd tower that has magically appeared on the misty morning. Currently you are all inside, trying to open a lock on a sealed portal."

They advanced ahead, I described a few of the relationships between characters and their ties to the NPC. Then at the top of the tower, they encountered a powerful lich necromancer and numerous wraiths. In short order, their souls were drained down by the undead, who seemed to be stealing not only their lifeforce, but memories and copying their appearances. The wizard was left in a coma, and they had to travel towards the Temple to reclaim their lives and stop the evil.

Much fun, and the reclamation of stolen souls allowed us to advance training with the characters while missing the standard training time I usually enforce.

 

[Aquila]

My first (and current) campaign began in a night of drunken revelry; among the players, not the PC's that is. At a party at my place I let slip that I was planning a campaign with something special in store and I was forced by my friends to start it right then and there.

I said: choose a name, pick a character class, and roll stats. That pretty much concluded dice rolling for the night, good thing, as my small set of dice were the only ones in the house. Soon I had told what would have happened in the first adventure, and at what would have been the end of the encounter role playing began, and I did something very unexpected to the PC's (but I'm saving that for a story hour).

Best lines from the night: 'Ron's had 15 beers tonight I think he needs to play a Beer Elemental', and 'I eat the spittoon!'

 

[Quasqueton]

Elaborate?

"You open your eyes to find yourself lying on your back under a blood-red sky. This surprises you, partly because of the color of the sky, but mainly because you know you just got killed."

This has stuck in my head ever since I read it. What was the deal here?

Quasqueton