Have you had any fun intros to a campaign.

[Amaroq]

#2) Players start in a tavern. An old man comes looking for adventurers to help him out. He picks his group and heads off to adventure. The PCs were the ones who were passed up, not the ones who were picked! However, they later get a hint that the other group is heading into a trap, so they've got a chance to redeem their smarting pride by proving themselves more heroic than the "heroes" who got picked first.

That's a classic, and it can be pulled with success on the party at any level. For example, our party had been hearing about this other paragon-level adventuring party since Level 1, and finally got to a point (around Level 6 or so) where war was breaking out. We wind up working for the same side as this other legendary adventuring company. Of course, they get the tough main mission, without which the war will be lost, while we draw an easy side mission which doesn't feel anywhere near as important.

We fail at our mission, but they fail at theirs and (seemingly) suffer a TPK; the war is going very poorly. Rather than slink back to our liege with our tails between our legs, we head off to finish their mission for them and redeem our pride .. on pins and needles because whatever killed them off has to be much higher level than we are! It made for a great Level 6->10 arc!

 

[Grymar]

I had one that was a good bit of work but I think it went well. Through email I had the players all start as 8-10 year old characters of the same fishing village. The village was attacked and we went through them fighting off and running away but they were all captured. Then, still through email, they spent 10 years as slaves.

The live session started as they were being taken by ship to their execution. They were chained in the hold with no possessions, no idea of where they were, and no clue how to get out. They ended up using everything from broken bottles to table legs as weapons as they broke free and took over the ship.

The rest of the campaign was about them finding their old slave owner and getting revenge.

 

[Wizard Biscuits]

I always enjoy playing around with the cliches.

One campaign I ran that went rather well started off with the PCs in a tavern, whether they knew each other or not I left up to them to work out through their backstories. So after describing briefly the usual atmosphere of the place (subtly emphasizing the excessive noise of the common room), and just as I mention a flustered looking guardsman enter about to declare he needs help (much to the chagrin of my players) I drop a bomb on them... literally.

Turns out the port city in which the tavern is in has just been attacked by an armada of strange ships suddenly appearing in the harbour and launching a veritable barrage of fiery death upon it's hapless inhabitants.

So, now I inform the PC's of the slight damage they took as the tavern collapsed around them and get them to roll initiative as they're picking themselves from the wreckage given that a horde of raiders now charges through the streets and comes across a group of bemused and shell-shocked adventurers.

 

[.5 Elf]

My best start: You know how in a show like The X-files or Superntural that some poor schmuck of an NPC is killed by the monster of the week in the opening sequence before the titles run?

I did that once. Handed out some pregens and let the players play them for about... 45 minutes, maybe? before they got nastily killed. When their actual players encountered the NPC who had killed them... the look on their faces was priceless.

Great Idea!

I think I will steal / modify that a bit. I intend to start the party as 0 level char who are getting ready to graduate into the local military unit. They have to patrol to the outpost they are being assigned to and undergo a month of on the job training. Begin the patroll....

*Meanwhile at the outpost* - Hand the players a bunch of pregen 8th lvl PCs as the outpost is currently under attack! They get to fight a valiant but ultimately loosing battle.

Back to the 0 level char - They show up and the outpost is smashed! No survivors, place is in ruins, burnt to the ground days ago. They get a "WTF?!?!" who did this moment or two and have to decide what to do next and the campaign begins...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My best start: You know how in a show like The X-files or Superntural that some poor schmuck of an NPC is killed by the monster of the week in the opening sequence before the titles run?

I did that once. Handed out some pregens and let the players play them for about... 45 minutes, maybe? before they got nastily killed. When their actual players encountered the NPC who had killed them... the look on their faces was priceless.

Proof that great minds think alike: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Vecna-Lives-Greyhawk-Module-WGA4/dp/0880388978"]Vecna Lives![/ame] Except that to start off this module, you start off playing mages like Rary and Ottiluke...

Best two that I've not done, but have heard about: #1) Players start in a tavern. Kobolds or goblins or someone has been tunneling underneath the tavern, though, and while the PC's are there, the entire tavern collapses into the tunnels, bringing the tavern to the dungeon, so to speak.

Not done as the adventure's beginning, but rather as the adventure's climax in Paint Your Wagon. Hilarious movie!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Come to think of it, since the plot for Paint Your Wagon involves gold, specifically:

...Ben and a group of miners discover that gold dust is dropping through the floor boards of many of the saloons. They hatch a plan to tunnel under all the businesses to get at the gold ("The Best Things in Life are Dirty"). This brings the story to its climax when, during a bull and bear fight, the streets collapse into the tunnels dug by Ben and the others and the town is destroyed. A reprise of "The Ballad of No Name City" plays as the town is literally swallowed by the earth.

...perhaps the diggers are a group of urbanized dwarves, cut off from their normal society but retaining the same drives.

 

[Scotley]

I think for my purposes the diggers will be tapping kegs from below for free drinks. In the world in question, goblins are sort of second class citizens who aren't allowed in regular taverns. Gotta go consult with my co-DM...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Better yet- they're tapping the kegs and re-kegging the stuff to sell to the bars.

 

[Scotley]

Good one! No regular patron would drink stuff handled by Goblins, but they could sell plenty of quality brew on the Goblin market.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Actually, I was thinking that the Goblins would be well-represented in the blue-collar underclass- day laborers, street cleaners, etc.- that they'd be the standard porters for many companies.

Which means the scam is that the Goblins are selling, stealing and reselling to the same bars. The bars are re-buying some of the same stuff over and over, and wondering who on their staff is filching the booze or comping it to patrons...