Did your campaign have a fantastic first adventure?

[Tonguez]

I cheat

I introduce the start of the adventure and then get the players to discuss amongst themselves how they know each other, how hey got 'here' and why they are motivated to participate.

Backgrounds are modified accordingly and any hooks worked into the adventure from there...

 

[SonOfLilith]

I can honestly say that the very first time I played was the best session ever. This is because we where all new, and I had often played games like DnD as a very young child, but with no roleing. Anyway, each of us had never met befor, and, through a whole bunch of unrelated events, wound up running from the same person. It was great! I remember my paladin hit the dance floor, but I roled two 1's (bad back in the day) and fell on the ground and broke my nose. It was priceless.

 

[Warrior Poet]

Tried to change some of the circumstances of a meet-in-the-tavern opener once:

The PCs (who did not know each other) arrived at an inn/tavern after a long day of travel during which the coastal weather was getting worse and worse. As they began to get settled in for the evening, eating hot food, drinking wine, squeezing the water out of their socks, the hurricane hit ...

There's something about watching a boat go by ... in the air ... that really draws people together in a crisis. The falling trees helped, too.

By morning there wasn't much left of the inn, but the PCs had already learned to rely on each other to deal with flood waters, falling tree trunks, and 90 mph winds.

Warrior Poet