Campaign Intros
- Thread starter Ostler
- Start date
Crothian
First Post
It depends on the world, the characters, and the campaign I have planned really. I like the PCs to actually know each other before the game starts. My first d20 game the group all knew each other and was sent on an errand to retrieve some rare plants for one of their grandmothers, a herbalist. My second game has them all brought together by seemingly divine events and guidance. My current modern game, they all are part of the same organization.
La Bete
First Post
We've had the "you all emerge from your malfunctioning hibernate-pods in the hold of a spaceship bound for mars"
that worked quite well - we havent done the "you meet in a tavern since we had an unfortunate incident with the dark elf...
DM "ok, now that you guys have met, you spot in the corner a shadowy figure, wearing a hooded cloak (Player 5).
Players 1-4 "We ignore him and leave the tavern"
that worked quite well - we havent done the "you meet in a tavern since we had an unfortunate incident with the dark elf...
DM "ok, now that you guys have met, you spot in the corner a shadowy figure, wearing a hooded cloak (Player 5).
Players 1-4 "We ignore him and leave the tavern"
Khorod
First Post
just started playin in an SW campaign last week. We got started by each person having an individual and relatively mundane reason to visit an out of the way imperial supply depot.
The depot soldiers were dead or deserted.
So the other PC's were essentially the NPC's for the first half the session.
It was great cause we almost opened fire on one another as crazy murderers.
The depot soldiers were dead or deserted.
So the other PC's were essentially the NPC's for the first half the session.
It was great cause we almost opened fire on one another as crazy murderers.
Silver Moon
Adventurer
Intro.
When our group first got started I began the first game during Day Two of the adventure, with them already working together as a scouting party. Day One had ended the their leader, the NPC who had assembled the team, getting killed by an orc. It cut down on trying to figure out why they were all working together, but also gave them a chance to still develop group dynamics from scratch.
When our group first got started I began the first game during Day Two of the adventure, with them already working together as a scouting party. Day One had ended the their leader, the NPC who had assembled the team, getting killed by an orc. It cut down on trying to figure out why they were all working together, but also gave them a chance to still develop group dynamics from scratch.
shilsen
Adventurer
Examples:
1) 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.
2) As the orcish horde charges over the rise, your commander says, "Okay, men! When I give the command..."
3) The high priest leans on the table, looks around and says, "In order to pay off your debt to the temple..."
4) Roll for initiative
1) 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.
2) As the orcish horde charges over the rise, your commander says, "Okay, men! When I give the command..."
3) The high priest leans on the table, looks around and says, "In order to pay off your debt to the temple..."
4) Roll for initiative
I've done a few campaign intros over the years....
My first was an old fashion, "You're sitting in a tavern when...." That campaign (a Planescape one) started almost five years ago and is still going after only a couple of breaks. It's also my best one (campaign, not intro) by far.
I started one with a little prologue in which a very old man sits down with his many great grand children and begins to tell them a story from when he was much younger. The beginning of his story turned into the beginning of the adventure. My intent was, by the end of a long campaign, to have the old man finish his story (marking the end of the last adventure and the campaign), revealing that the man was one of the characters. But alas, we had a total party kill in our third adventure (to the grimlocks in the abandoned warehouse in "The Speaker in Dreams.")
I tried to start one in which the characters had already been adventuring with each other for a few weeks by asking the players to talk about their characters. I guess my players were unprepared for this and couldn't think of much to say, so it became kind of awkward. This was probably my worst campaign intro.
I started another one where the characters were to have been adventuring with each other for a few years by having them attend dinner with the mentor of the party wizard. The mentor had his old adventuring buddies over. I thought it was interesting to see a new adventuring party interact with an old, retired adventuring party.
Finally, I started another one (another Planescape one) in which each character, individually, was attacked and captured by a pack of ghouls lead by a Keeper (bald, pale-skinned guys who wear goggles), wake up briefly to being examined by strange beings, then wake up again (sans gear and clothing) together in prison cells, each with a tattoo on one of their hands. They needed to cooperate in order to escape (it was funny, a half-dozen, naked, level-one adventurers standing on each other's shoulders to reach the cell’s exit in the ceiling, far above. Too bad the guy at the bottom was a tiefling and had hooves instead of feet--he slipped on the first try....).
Later,
Atavar
----------
"Ahhh, ah ah ah....bitter dregs"
Mr. Spock
My first was an old fashion, "You're sitting in a tavern when...." That campaign (a Planescape one) started almost five years ago and is still going after only a couple of breaks. It's also my best one (campaign, not intro) by far.
I started one with a little prologue in which a very old man sits down with his many great grand children and begins to tell them a story from when he was much younger. The beginning of his story turned into the beginning of the adventure. My intent was, by the end of a long campaign, to have the old man finish his story (marking the end of the last adventure and the campaign), revealing that the man was one of the characters. But alas, we had a total party kill in our third adventure (to the grimlocks in the abandoned warehouse in "The Speaker in Dreams.")
I tried to start one in which the characters had already been adventuring with each other for a few weeks by asking the players to talk about their characters. I guess my players were unprepared for this and couldn't think of much to say, so it became kind of awkward. This was probably my worst campaign intro.
I started another one where the characters were to have been adventuring with each other for a few years by having them attend dinner with the mentor of the party wizard. The mentor had his old adventuring buddies over. I thought it was interesting to see a new adventuring party interact with an old, retired adventuring party.
Finally, I started another one (another Planescape one) in which each character, individually, was attacked and captured by a pack of ghouls lead by a Keeper (bald, pale-skinned guys who wear goggles), wake up briefly to being examined by strange beings, then wake up again (sans gear and clothing) together in prison cells, each with a tattoo on one of their hands. They needed to cooperate in order to escape (it was funny, a half-dozen, naked, level-one adventurers standing on each other's shoulders to reach the cell’s exit in the ceiling, far above. Too bad the guy at the bottom was a tiefling and had hooves instead of feet--he slipped on the first try....).
Later,
Atavar
----------
"Ahhh, ah ah ah....bitter dregs"
Mr. Spock
s/LaSH
First Post
My current campaign started with one player, like this:
"You're a peasant. Goblins attack your farm."
Natural 20, critical with a scythe, and Cleave. Big ouchies all around.
The second character went like this:
"You're a thousand miles away from the other guy and have to take this message to somewhere else."
The third character, added a while later, was discovered in amusing circumstances to be related on Sunday... check my webcomic for more details. I haven't even related the way numbers one and two met.
"You're a peasant. Goblins attack your farm."
Natural 20, critical with a scythe, and Cleave. Big ouchies all around.
The second character went like this:
"You're a thousand miles away from the other guy and have to take this message to somewhere else."
The third character, added a while later, was discovered in amusing circumstances to be related on Sunday... check my webcomic for more details. I haven't even related the way numbers one and two met.
thullgrim
Legend
shipwreck. They are all heading towards somewhere, and on the same ship since its on a regular sea trade route, and the ship sinks. They find themselves, along with some others, washed up on an island and they had to work from there. It went pretty well, there was an adventure site on the island (rogue clerics starting a new temple in out of way place to practice evil religion in peace and solitude...hey it went ok). Best part...They had to figure out how to cooperate early into their career, and since it was the first 3e game we had run, everyone had to more or less stay together. Made life alot easier.
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