Help with the beginning

[Karrde723]

I have a bit of a problem. I've been playing in and running D&D games for quite a while now and recently a rather long running campaign has come to an end so I've decided to start up a campaign at first level and build up from there. As I've started preparing for this I have come to realize something.

I have almost no experience with low level games. I played in a few level three campaigns when I was just starting, but I haven't DMed a game of lower than fifth level in my life, or played in a campaign lower than tenth in a year or two. So my question is, how do people begin? How do you kick off a campaign with a group who really has no reputation at all? How to you make encounters that are so low level build toward an epic adventure to save the world? And how do you kick off an adventure to begin with? I've recently just had important NPCs hireing the known heroes to do this epic quest for him but when the PCs are unknown, I can't do that.

So I beseech the gods of the boards to impart to me the knowledge that I am so glaringly lacking, which is how to start.

Karrde

 

[The Edge]

Trying to think of low level adventures and such can be quite tricky, for resons you just said. although you wont need to spend ages designing a castle/dungeon etc its actualy hard to get the idea in the first place. sudden encounters can work well, say when their traveling along a road spring a critter or band of thugs on them, even better have them come across a person or group trying to escape from them. Its a bit cliched, but its dead easy and the saveing someone part can start them working up that heroic path, maybe someone important was a friend of who they saved and that could lead on further. you obviously cant have them fighting bandits alone for the first three levels but this is good to put inbetween bigger events.

heres one of mine I used dureing second level

theyve just left the city with the intention of hunting down some orcs, I know they wont find any where they are so I decide its a good time to trigger my adventure I had waiting. As they walk they come across a floating ghostly hand that zoom towards them then beckons them to follow (that hand spell) if the PCs do it leads them to the city execution hill and round to a entrance into the hill. This is a small shaby tomb where executed crims are left, inside there are a few zombies and a ghoul (this could vary to fit the party). at the back of the tomb theres a simple shrine to st cuthbert, its been tossed aside and defiled. just of the shrine theres a locked door to a tiny store room with evidence of the undead trying to get in. If the players try to open it theyl hear rather pathetic wimpering on the other side. inside is simmon, a novice necromancer who, if given the chance will explain that he created the undead but lost control when the ghoul arrived, and has been stuck in this room for three days eating a dwindling groth of mushrooms. Hes very apollogetic and will beg to be spared, if so he will beg that they dont inform cuthberts temple what hes done. he'll glady hand over his remaining black opal gems, the component used for raiseing the undead, worth 50gp each. He never wants to see undead again and decides to change to protective magics.

Thats about it. Latter my player will be runing into simmon again, who tells them of a meeting place that the cult he used to be in is going gather at. I intend to show this at probably third or forth level.

 

[Hand of Evil]

It all starts with character backgrounds, start with the 10 to 20 questions: Where did you grow up? Who were your parents? Did you have sisters and brothers? Where is your family now? Who was your best friend? Where is he/she now? so on... Now ask the group how they came to be together and how they know each other.

I think you will find that plots will start to show themselves.


see my sig: DM Advice.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Some older threads too:

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

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=133358

 

[diaglo]

roll 3d6 in order.
str
int
wis
con
dex
cha

3d6 x 10 for gps


and start playing.

 

[Wild Gazebo]

I honestly enjoy lower level games more than higher level games. I tend to stick to humaniod encounters and urban adventures. I tend to implant the idea that travelling in small groups into 'monster' infested wilderness is a bad idea without sufficient resources and manpower. And as the characters advance in power the players get a feel for the difficulty of encounters stemming from leveled humaniods to icky bad guy creatures. It is a bit of a balancing act but I enjoy puting the onus on the players to decide/discover the danger of a given situation rather than depending on increasing cr...this method takes a lot of work as a dm because it is up to you to give sufficient clues or information to help the players make the 'most survivable' decision...or not.

I like to be sneaky about the whole experience...like having all of the characters actions culminate into the discovery of a large conspiracy that leads from minor minions to major players--conviniently parallelling character knowledge with difficulty of the encounter. This type of scenario can be used in pretty much any situation and doesn't have to be limited to some half-baked conspiracy...it could simply be the increase of a characters perception of his/her own world. You know, the idea of a country bumpkin discovering the differences between his/her home and the city...the dutchy...the country...the continent...the world...the planes....ect. And all of the problems and idiocyncracies in between.

Hope that helps and isn't too vague or obvious.