Getting a campaign rolling with something different. Suggerstions?

[Von Ether]

Beyond the great ideas mentioned, I found a couple more.

The most radical way is to restrict race or class options at character creation. It's usually a prelude to setting up a campaign where the omited race (or class) is the focus for the early adventures and then leads up to friendships and backstory. eg, Only humans allowed at the begining of the campaign and then it's discovered that the elves declare war on all of humanity for the first 6 levels or so. No matter what the PCs do, they're pretty much drawn in to respond. You could also disallow Rogues or Wizards to have the PCs discover that a guild is behind the recent troubles in town. Later on, these options open up as the game settles in to more standard play, but do the PCs trust their former enemies?

I've also found a twist on the organization idea that has a sort of PC gaming twist to it. Give the players a vehicle and a trade route. Let them take their wagons/ship/flying galleon across the globe to make and spend money and create their own trading empire. This works best if they know the set up beforehand so they can get skills relevent to the campaign. I find this set up also works to easly set up new PCs and player absentesim. Absent PCs had to deal with a problem back at the wagon that couldn't wait while new PCs are former mooks who now come to the forefront as promising leaders.

Some less radical ideas.

The PCs are voluteers for a spy ring and are heading for their first briefing.
Bodyguards to a merchant/professor
Carnivale performers
refugees from another dimension
Survivors of a local plague
If they all have the same alignement, they can be pilgrims
Make them all enobled and meeting at court (this is much more doable in 3.X since Rogues can switch to Charisma based skills in lieu of pick pockets and such).

 

[Von Ether]

... or you could follow Rowlings lead and have all them all meet at school. LOL!

 

[SteveC]

Some great replies...

Hey everyone!
There were some great replies that I had put together to run with, but I managed to dodge the bullet and not end up running. I say dodge the bullet because I'm already running another game and I'm, well, old! Here's the new game that's going to start:

The characters are all originally from a small frontier village, with mountains to one side and the badlands on the other. The end of the road, so to speak. Life there is hard, and the people who live there largely have little or no money, talent, or education--or are at the end of their rope for other reasons.

You had something special, something that let you get out there and start a new life for yourself, and you took the chance. Years have passed and you have almost forgotten where you came from when word arives:

Every man, woman and child in the village has been killed. Both it and a nearby fort have been literally razed to the ground. There is nothing and no one left.

The Imperial officials have said that a local tribe of hobgoblins operating out of the badlands was responsible, and a large detachment of soldiers has been detached to make an example of them. One of you has information that this is a lie and there is a deeper truth behind what happened.

Time to mount up and extract a little frontier justice on whoever or whatever is responsible.

 

[devilbat]

In our last campaign that started from first level, I gave each player three free skill points that had to be used in either profession or craft. These points would dictate what job they held in a small village in which they lived. The players were then submitted to me a week before the campaign began.

I created a village, using the characters and their families. I told them who they knew, what was going on in town, and allowed them to decide who were their friends and who weren't.

Then I had an evil warlord and garrison come to town, kill most of the inhabitants, and take twenty or so "prisoners of war", who just happened to be important friends and familiy members of the characters, who had escaped into the surrounding woods.

Instant party.