Getting a campaign rolling with something different. Suggerstions?

[SteveC]

The campaigns I have been playing in recently have started to wrap up, and in one case have ended abruptly. As a result, I'm looking to start something new. The group I play with has a variety of play-styles and likes a wide variety of games, but it seems like the only thing we can settle on as a group is D&D with perhaps some small variants.

I have something of a dilemma, then, because I want to put something together that the group will like as a whole. In thinking about it, I also thought that there must be a few EnWorlders in the same situation. My solution? Throw it open for suggestions!

I'm looking to start a game that would have some legs underneath it to run for a while, and would also have a little different spin on things...but not TOO different so as to keep its broad appeal. The question becomes, how to bring a group together in such a way for as to keep them as a group but also not use the old cliches "you're all sitting in a bar, enter the mysterious stranger."

Any thoughts or ideas on your part would be welcome...and feel free to share some stories about how your current group got together!

--Steve

 

[KenM]

A friend of mine starts his groups out with "you have all joined the local militia(SP?). When have all signed on for a one year (game time) term. We are the local authority in outlaying town. This gives everyone a reason to work together and to genterally trust each other.

 

[JBowtie]

For my current campaign I started the PCs off as captives on a slave galley. Their very first order of business was to engineer an escape, of course. We have a couple of really vicious individuals throwing in their lots with innocent people wrongly convicted.

While it's the kind of hook that can be easily overused, it does give a decent excuse for random strangers that othewise have no connection to each other to make common cause.

The Sepent Amphora cycle from Scarred Lands had the players start out competing in a festival (this hook is *fantastic* for newbies, because they learn the mechanics in a safe setting). Later the celebrations are interrupted by a mysterious stranger...

NeMoran's Vault started off the characters as people brought together for the reading of a will. They each had part of a key that would unlock their inheritance.

IIRC, the Silver Summoning started with the PCs attending a wedding. When the bride is attacked the PCs give chase and end up embroiled in a larger plot.

All of these hooks are "normal" social situations where people don't really know each other but have a common reason for attending. Then a disruption occurs that gets the PCs working together where *hopefully* they are forged into an effective team.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I make the players tell me why they're in a group together. They can come up with good stuff. I especially like it when they team up, such as when a fighter decides he's the wizard's bodygaurd or whatever.

 

[ThirdWizard]

They're trapped on a deserted island and have to compete with each other every day in order to not be selected by the others to be sent away to the "other place." During the time there, they can form alliances and enemies to help move themselves up to a position of power to be the only one remaining. Then at the end, bring back the BBEG who they got rid of halfway through, and make him battle them even though he was already gotten rid of!

The players will love you.

 

[Anti-Sean]

The PCs were members of the same military X number of years ago (this works especially well in Eberron, where the question of what each character did during the recently-ended Last War can be a very important one for fleshing out their background - sorry, couldn't avoid pimping the setting!) .

You could have them start off in the tavern together as usual, but this time they are there for a reunion. They had all agreed that any survivors would meet on that particular date for some reason (recover cache of treasure they hid together during the war, avenge death of a comrade, bring down a traitorous former commander, or just to get together again).

Or, you could start the session in a flashback to the war they all served in, in the thick of battle. There have been a number of posts here recently with DMs stating that they've begun the session/campaign/etc. with a simple "Roll Initiative." After a few rounds of combat, or a few sessions during an extensive seige, however much you feel like (although less is probably better to avoid killing any PCs before the actual adventure begins!), flash forward to the present and the suddenly less-than-typical tavern meeting.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I've found organisation based games work very well.

I ran one campaign with the PCs as members of a knightly order. Opening scene was them being issued their orders... Go depose an unacceptable baron, replace him with their guy (NPC) and then help run the place smootly. Very different focus to our usual games and worked well.

A Star Wars D20 game I played in had us starting as Padawans. Again, had a strong bond and a reason to work together right from the start...

 

[CronoDekar]

I like having them in an organization together starting the campaign, with perhaps one PC who is a "newbie" who joins in the first session/adventure. I usually have them be their own relatively independent team, but even something like a militia can be good, or perhaps they could be a family. I like Biggus's idea, though I'd be part of the discussion and share ideas.

 

[SteveC]

I make the players tell me why they're in a group together. They can come up with good stuff. I especially like it when they team up, such as when a fighter decides he's the wizard's bodygaurd or whatever.

I think this is an excellent idea. It's the sort of thing I'd do if I wasn't running a D&D game, which means it should work perfectly! I don't know about anyone else, but sometimes I think too much in D&D terms and don't use my other game GM skills. Thanks for the suggestion!

--Steve

 

[der_kluge]

I like BG's suggestion of having the players decide. They're going to come up with far more interesting things than you can.

One game I played in, the GM ran a solo game for each of prior to the start. This guy held a PhD in Psychology, so he knew how to twist us ever so slightly so that we'd go where we wanted him to, but we didn't know that we had.

In that solo game, we each were traveling to some other city for a variety of reasons (I assume), and we were ambushed by a small band of orcs. We each fled, and the nearest available shelter was a copse of trees in the middle of a field. When I made it to this copse of trees, he decided that it was a good place to stop, and we'd pick up there when the game started.

So, when the game started - we were ALL in that same copse of trees!


In another instance, we were confronting a powerful emporer of this city, and we got ambushed (we were expecting it), and strategically, we darted into an open doorway just to the left of his throne. Turns out, the doorway had a portal on it which transported us all to the arctic. We fell for that one, hook, line, and sinker.