Favorite way to begin a game?

[Dreaddisease]

More ideas:

1) The of age children in a remote community are required to take up a symbol of their learning to the circle of stones at the top of this medium sized mountain. Now there is nothing dangerous in the activity so its more of a celebration for the village. Upon returning to the village the PCs are surrounded with death and destruction and a large path leading away from village. and.... begin

2) A bard (maybe a PC) weaves a fascinating tale of far away land and exotic treasure. The PCs are all interested and when one stands up and says we must follow this quest... they eagerly volunteer.

3) The PCs are hired by someone. (Easy beginning)

4) A body falls from the sky happening to land at the feet of all the PCs (who happen to be walking through the market at the same time). The body begins to swelt and disintegrate in front of them and then a chasm opens up to swallow it and it swallows them too.

5) Captured as slaves the PCs are all chained up together on a floating island mining facility and forced to work ( or escape? )

6) The PCs have been suspended in time as they get sucked into a strange magical item one by one. Unwittingly a wizard releases the spell but the PCs are trapped in another world.

7) The PCs really like each other, so they decide to adventure together.

8) You are sitting around a table and on that table is a ring.

9) Across the plains and into this dusty town a small unit from a goblin army comes into town killing everyone. Who will stand up? (if your character doesn't then start rolling up a new one) Those who stand up are given the assignment to discover this new threat.

10) The young men and women of the land are required to serve in a military unit for a year. The unit you belong to happens to be all the PCs.

11) They all belong to the local thieves guild

12) All good friends, you embark on a mission to take revenge on the death of another friend by the hand of an evil wizard.

13) No one knows why the group came together. It just seemed that you happened to be in the same place at the same time doing the same thing and got used to each other (even though some of you are quite annoyed with the others).

14) All servents, stewards and guards of the local royalty you wake up one morning to find them murdered and are each suspects. You all choose to flee the town/village/city in order to discover the true culprit (you already have suspicions) and exonerate yourselves.

 

[dren]

Way to begin a campaign

Hired ahead of time for a mission. It gives PCs a sense of purpose and direction. Some of them may know each other but not all of them will. They can ask questions about the area and their mission. Their sense of loyalty to each other will come from being in danger and helping each other.

 

[Thanee]

I try to come up with a reason for every PC to be present (get hired or whatever makes them into a group for their first adventure), based on the background, and start there.

Sometimes some of the PCs already know each other, but usually not.

In medias res is a very good option, too.

I once started a campaign (Earthdawn, following and based on a Shadowrun campaign)... "You all wake up in a common sleeping room. The others are vaguely familiar, but you don't know their names or how you came here..." (it was a pretty weird background and part of the fun was to discover what led them there (their souls traveled back through time and occupied those bodies) and find out what they had to do (they had to stop a major incident which would lead to a terrible outcome in the far future). )

Bye
Thanee

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

6) The PCs have been suspended in time as they get sucked into a strange magical item one by one. Unwittingly a wizard releases the spell but the PCs are trapped in another world.

The party consists in:
- a female half-cyclop monk
- a foul-mouth construct
- a senile old wizard
- a lawful-neutral accountancy expert
- a low-int red-haired commoner
- an anthropomorphic crab



AR

 

[Hand of Evil]

A thread from a few weeks ago along the same lines.

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=79249

But mine is either having the players tell me or they find themselves in front of a judge who puts tem under the charge of a (Cleric / Paladin / Wizard) to adventure.

 

[Krellic]

An old salt, variant of one above but one I've used before and been a player in.

I just tell the players to tell me how it is they've been chained to this oar...

 

[diaglo]

3d6 six times in order.

character generation is always the start of a campaign.

the players fill in the rest of the character. while i concentrate on describing the rest.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Yes, it is cliche but I like the "Tavern" method. Honestly, given that there is no TV, Internet, X-Box, or any other form of mass entertainment a Tavern makes the most sense for a location to hear news and meet people. Heck, even in our own nation's history prior to, during, and after the Revolutionary war the Tavern was the place to go to hear what was going on and to discuss politics. One of those places is still around. In Annapolis Middleton's Tavern (opened in 1750) still serves the public and it is well known that it was a popular stopover for the founding fathers (George Washington in particular). Great things can happen over a frosty brew and a bucket of hotwings!

 

[diaglo]

In Annapolis Middleton's Tavern (opened in 1750) still serves the public and it is well known that it was a popular stopover for the founding fathers (George Washington in particular). Great things can happen over a frosty brew and a bucket of hotwings!

i hung out there all the time....not with Georgie boy tho, i'm old but not that old.

 

[Kroax]

First I discuss with each individual player why he or she is in the area (making sure they all start in the same area).

Then I force them to cooperate by throwing them situations where they have to rely on eachothers abilities. Every party member becomes necessary!

This works better some times than others, much depending on how creative I was while writing the adventure.