How do you kick off a Campaign?

[trilobite]

I am starting a new campaign soon and I would like to know how do you get your campaign started? Do you have them all meet at a tavern? Make sure that some of the characters know each other before the game starts? Make a complex web of interaction as each character converges to a meeting point?

What works for you?

 

[BlackMoria]

Several things I have done in past campaigns.

Started the party shackled together as slaves...

Started the party in combat with raiders/ marauders - usually a caravan or raid on a village. After the combat is over, the characters exchange names and officially meet each other.

Each character is approached separately by a mysterious individual who presents a scroll (a mission) and gem as payment. They are to meet at a given location... where they meet each other.

Started the characters in a tavern brawl (they haven't met each other yet) and then in the aftermath, they introduce themselves.

Individual characters feel drawn to each other by some unknown force and meet. Now, beside starting the adventure together, they try to find out what force has drawn themselves to each other.

Some ideas to consider....

 

[diaglo]

yes.

find out from the players what they like.

starting out in the tavern for 1st lvl in a Keep on the Borderlands is a very good idea.

 

[MarauderX]

I like the complex web where the PCs converge at a common place, then fight something nasty to bring them together. Combat is always good, as it gets everyone all on the same page if you haven't played together before. You can flesh out the rules as a DM and the players can see what suits your new campaign.

 

[Crothian]

I usually have the players decide how their characters meet and try to encourage them to create backgrounds together.

 

[Darthor]

I have tried many of the starts (and played them as well) that BlackMoria listed.

I would recommend another possibility. Before play begins have the players entwine their backstories. Have them come up with a reason they want to be together and why they share similar goals.

I think adventuring groups are much more likely to stay together and be harmonious if they come up with there own reasons for unity.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

I usually have the players decide how their characters meet and try to encourage them to create backgrounds together.

I second this method, seems to help players take a more active role in their characters during creation.

 

[SylverFlame]

The starter-adventure I'm working on right now requires the PC's to decide what they'd tell each other over a few drinks, and that is all they know of each other (unless 2 PC's wanted to know each other better). Next they have to decide why they'd accept a job from an obviously sketchy person. Then they are told how they are riding like madmen across the plains with the royal guard in hot persuit and how they "helped" to assassinate the local governor.

Sometimes it's fun to be the evil DM.

 

[Rel]

We have a sort of unwritten rule that each PC knows at least one other member of the party somehow and this is usually enough to provide group cohesion in the early days before we've all saved each other's lives a dozen times. We also have a much firmer rule that you may not make a character who "does not play well with others". If you want to make a "brooding loner", that's fine. But you'd better bring along a second character because we're going to be leaving the "brooding loner" alone and brooding. Given that, we don't have a lot of problems getting the group to come together and stay together.

As for specific ways to start the campaigns, one of my favorite ideas comes from a one-shot adventure I ran a couple of years ago:

Each member of the party gets an invite to come to a meeting place (I used a tavern but an outdoor location works pretty well too). They get there and meet each other when the person who invited them shows up. He (or she) says "May I have your attention?" Throws back his cowl and voila: He's a medusa and they all turn to stone.

After an indeterminate amount of time (whatever you like), they are awakened in the dead of night and they are wet. They've been awoken by a mysterious benefactor and the following points are made clear:

- The Medusa has taken over the whole province in the intervening years.

- He took the PC's out of action because they were just the sorts of upstarts who would have opposed his rise to power.

- The "statues" of the PC's were left in place as a warning of what happens to any who oppose the will of the Stone Lord.

- The magic potion they've just been annointed with has turned them back to flesh for a limited time (maybe a week, month, year - whatever seems appropriate for the campaign). The only way to make the transformation permenant is to mix the blood of the Medusa with some more of the potion and drink it.

They are all well motivated to seek out this goal and the Medusa (once he notices that his favorite statues are missing) is well motivated to track them down and kill them giving you plenty of potential encounters for their first adventure. Once they've managed to slay the Medusa and restore themselves permenantly to flesh, they'll likely have spent enough time togther to have bonded somewhat.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I am starting a new campaign soon and I would like to know how do you get your campaign started? Do you have them all meet at a tavern? Make sure that some of the characters know each other before the game starts? Make a complex web of interaction as each character converges to a meeting point?

What works for you?

I used one of the Challenge of Champions adventures published in Dungeon magazine. Every year they come out with an Olympics type of module that works for any character level since success depends on ingenuity rather than hit points, skill ranks or fighting ability. There are several NPC parties that join as a group but the PCs names are all put into a hat and are drawn to form parties for the events. They have to register as a party so they came up with a name for themselves. The renown they earned for the events is associated with the party name and so they then began taking contracts under the party name and became a established party. It worked great because it gave them a chance to see how everyone reacts in different situations right off the bat.