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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 4104168" data-attributes="member: 60965">It sounds like an interesting campaign, but I personally have found that games that start too epic tend to fizzle out, especially with experienced players who are accustomed to the level of freedom that can be found in RPGs.If the players are all fairly new, it might work, especially if they are used to computer or console RPGs where the plot is pre-existing and not co-created the way it can be with direct personal access to the person who created the world(the DM) while you're playing.As for keeping players together(and as a general tip I find extremely useful), I tell my players to create 5 Quirks and 5 Secrets about their character when they make them, gaining 1% of a level worth of XP per Quirk or Secret they create(so 100 starting xp for level 1 characters if they do them all).  They aren't required, but they give the players a small incentive to do them.Quirks are little things that make the character distinctive and are usually pretty obvious if you spend any amount of time with that character.  These tend to add physical flavor and personality to a character.  Examples from my player's characters:Growls when thinking.Wears dozens of archery medals any time in civilization and brags about them.Ends every battle - no matter how gory - with just one splotch of blood on them that they flick off(for a particularly anime-like game).Has silver hair.Secrets don't have to be huge, just are things that usually aren't revealed unless you spend alot of time with the character, if then.  These tend to add backstory, personality, goals, and plot hooks for the DM, especially if the player leaves them open-ended for the DM to figure out.  Examples from my player's characters:Used to be the best-friend of the campaign's main villain, but repented.Has a son.A hero in his homeland for being the only one to survive a battle, but only he knows that the reason the battle happened was that he was the scout and led his army into an ambush that - by chance - only he survived.Secrets are great for linking characters together.  If one character's secret is: "Home village razed by a bandit leader who wields a black greataxe" and another's is: "Was enslaved by a band of gnolls", you have an instant link if you add a band of gnoll bandits led by one with a greataxe to your game.  Tell the first player that the bandits were gnolls and the second that the gnolls that enslaved him were bandits and then let them find out in game that they share a common enemy.That's a subtle tool for uniting the party that I've come to rely on, in addition to the usual bag of tricks.  Some players may resent being "railroaded" into your plot by starting in prison and "spoon fed" the plot/what they are supposed to do for the campaign.  If they see it as your plot, there will be far less interest and committment, in my experiences as player and DM, than if they "discover" the plot and make it theirs.  Which is easy to say, but it's taken me over 10 years of fairly regular DMing to be able to do so on a regular basis(especially with players that all have 10+ years of play experience and are pretty jaded - "oh, it's the 'we start in a tavern' PC intro...")Other ways to start a game include having them be attacked during the first encounter while they are all strangers and having them stand against a common foe(easy), throw them into an interesting social/environmental situation and figure out how to make them find common interests/work together(harder) or making characters that already know each other and have them come up with a "group theme" so they start out united(easy, but loses the fun of meeting the other PCs for the first time).  I'm sure there's other ways, but those are the ones that come to mind off the top of my head.The most brutal method I've used to keep players together I use mainly in dark, gritty games(which my games often are - points of light is going to be an easy transition for me since all the games I've ever run were pretty much points of light anyway(or apocalyptic, or both)).With this method, if player A decides he's going to do his own thing, maybe he gets attacked by a band of gnoll bandits(whose leader maybe uses a greataxe) and dies because he can't take them all alone, players B, C, and D(and A when he makes a new character) usually get the idea.  If your players get really upset about character death, this one might not work so well.For new DMs, I'd recommend not getting too epic too fast.  I did it when I was first starting and only got away with it because my players were all new to roleplaying too.  It also makes the transition to DMing easier.  Worrying about what happens with Foozleville by the Foozlemonster Cave and the Foozleloot Ruins gives you a chance to wet your feet for DMing(which is much harder than it looks) without also having to keep track of epic world-wide events, dozens of main characters, artifacts, etc.The most basic and consistant rule of DMing I've found is:Most of the time, the players - if given the freedom to do so - will do something you don't expect/didn't plan for.Your choices are:A) Don't give the players that freedom. (Most common starting DM tactic, often leading to less immersion and feeling of free-will in your game, especially with experienced players).B) Be flexible and learn to improvise until you can find a way to get them back to what you planned (better option, unfortunately usually only comes with practice)C) Run a game open-ended enough that the players can do whatever they choose (requires lots of improvisational DMing experience, a quick imagination and/or a very fleshed out world that you know intimately).This reply is long-winded and possibly more than you really cared about, but hopefully there's something in there helpful or at least interesting.If your players are fairly new, your job is pretty easy and they'll probably go along with whatever(personalities permitting) as they won't have expectations yet as to how roleplaying "should be".Welcome to the DM ranks and good luck.  It can be difficult and frustrating work, but as a player I've never felt anywhere near the level of satisfaction I've felt during/after running a great session.</blockquote>

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