How do you kick off a Campaign?

[Jürgen Hubert]

Take a good look at the various PCs you have (it's vital for this to create PCs a few days in advance), and then craft an adventure around them. Each PC needs an individual reason to participate in the adventure, and they don't have to have exactly the same goals, either (indeed, they can even have a "secret agenda" or two) - as long as all those goals aren't completely mutally exclusive. The main thing is that they are all motivated to cooperate with all these strangers - for now.

And if you have enough PCs (four or more), I would even recommend letting the PCs meet each other two or three at a time. This way, they can get their first impressions slowly, without the hurry of having to learn about all of the others in one go.

Perhaps two of them come from the same village, another two are hired (or commanded) by the same person to look into something, perhaps one finds another wandering aimlessly in the woods with a head injury (great if one of the PCs has a below-average intelligence)... The possibilities are endless.

If you want, post your characters and some background on the campaign setting to this board (or send them to me per email - this increases the chance that I read them and reply to them), and we can try to work something out.

 

[Jeph]

Create characters together. It's the best way I know of--you don't just end up with guys who met in a bar then struck out to kill a dragon together, or people with "Oh yeah. I guess he can be my cousin or something." tacked onto their personality, but a group with intertwining goals, motivations, and shared connections.

I personally before to do this before I even start planning for a campaign beyond a sentance or two. It's fun to say, "You're all people who live in a world plagued by dragons. Go!" and see what craziness they come up with. If they create characters with radically different power levels, that's fine too, as I implement a story token mechanic. Highest level character gets two tokens, you get +2 tokens for each level you are below that. Spend a token to reroll any roll or insert a fact into the storyline.

--Jeff

 

[Desdichado]

I rarely do the same thing twice, but I do like to put some thought into why the characters are all together and what they're doing. I despise the cliched "You all meet in a tavern. You say to each other, 'You look dangerous, let's hook up and go monster slaying for fun and profit.' Everyone agrees and off you go." kind of beginning, though. I need something that provides a little bit more verissimilitude than that. I like to make PCs all come from a common organization that gives them a reason to go out and do stuff.

 

[Henry]

Here for your pleasure are a half-dozen ideas stolen shamelessly from one of the last times this question was asked on these forums!

Credit is not given to the original authors (for which I apologize for not taking down their names) but if said original author recognizes himself or herself and wishes to chime in, feel free!




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Had a GM throw us an interesting curve once...

We all showed up disoriented in a strange room and a fight was going on.

A tall man, in resplendent robes points towards some of the combatants and yells, "Attack them!"

We were all compelled to attack. And we managed to triumph. Turns out we were all the "beings" that showed up when the ultra-high level wizard cast a special version of summon monster. He basically summoned adventurers.

heh, it was fun...and since we were then stuck in the middle of nowhere...we worked together to get home.

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I did a variant of the tavern intro once. Each of the group members was in the tavern separately when another adventurer came in and began making a scene about how he needed some companions for a rich haul he was about to make.

My players all gathered around the table, along with some other NPCs, and made their sales pitches. The rogue was wily, the sorcerer mysterious, etc. After about five minutes of talk, the adventurer grabbed four other guys and left with them.

The PCs were all left sitting alone at the table stunned. The sorcerer looked around blankly and said: "I don't think this has ever happened to me before."

And from there the party was made.

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I had everybody roll up 1st level characters, together we made up a lame excuse why they were travelling with a pilgrimage. The excuse involved some unusal happen stance.

About 30 people in total. Then a being of light and fire appears in the air before the whole group and I asked the party to make a reflex save for 1/2 damage vs a DC of 38 or take 86 paoints of damage (if they saved the first level characters only took 43 points).


Next they found themselves in a strange oasis. One of the people explained that they had been taken from the world by an infernal or celestial being before their alloted time. They were required to wait here until the end of their natural life span. Of course they manage to escape together and in doing so free themselves of destiny. They are a force outside of the rules nature - they cannot be scried, they are immune to charm, and they have lots of free time to kill but to everyone in their past life they are dead.

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In my campaign, they were imprisoned after the goverment of the space region they were decided to put all nonhumans and potential troublemakers into prison.
They were in the same "cell block" when the ship that transported them to a mining colony went under attack and made a crash landing. They had (without any equipment) to fight against some of the orcish raiders and than work together with the surviving crew to get off the planet (Not that it was a "bad" planet, just a bit.... primitive by the standards of space faring cultures. The standard "pseudomedieval" D&D world is nothing for real adventures)

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I've had the party be in fact the remains of two different adventuring parties that bump into each other in the dungeon after fleeing what killed the rest of their own party.

 

[WanderingMonster]

This time the players started out in a tavern. In a twist, however, the tavern was also the adventure! It was a mystery which they started calling CSI: Chalice (the name of my homebrew world). I took it as a compliment.

 

[barsoomcore]

"Is everyone here? Okay, roll initiative."



For my just-about to start pirate campaign, I'm saying to the players: "A privateer is leaving England in 1703, bound for the West Indies. Your character must be aboard when she sails."

 

[barsoomcore]

I did a variant of the tavern intro once. Each of the group members was in the tavern separately when another adventurer came in and began making a scene about how he needed some companions for a rich haul he was about to make.

My players all gathered around the table, along with some other NPCs, and made their sales pitches. The rogue was wily, the sorcerer mysterious, etc. After about five minutes of talk, the adventurer grabbed four other guys and left with them.

The PCs were all left sitting alone at the table stunned. The sorcerer looked around blankly and said: "I don't think this has ever happened to me before."

And from there the party was made.

That's friggin' brilliant. I'm SO stealing that puppy.

 

[pogre]

I am big on the action start myself. Get them rocking and rolling first with a backstory for after the combat.

Rel's Medusa story is very sweet though - I may have to use that sometime.

 

[Breakstone]

Usually, I have at least two of the characters know each other, and the other characters are pulled in throughout the adventure.

Last campaign, I had an old warrior call upon the adventurers (in a Tavern, no less) to defend a small village, ala Seven Samurai.

I think the relations between the adventurers really drives the campaign, therefore the first adventure can be very important.

 

[Torque]

Here's how I started my current campaign

Rumors of war and disaster are flying everywhere. The PCs each go to sleep one night, and those with good Listen rolls wake up momentarily to see a cloaked figure standing over them with a wand. When they all return to consciousness, they are guarded by a group of skeletons, about to be led down a hallway to a sacrificial altar. Forced to band together, they defeat their guardians and eventually escape the temple with evil priests in hot pursuit. By the time they reach relative safety, not only have they forged a bond through their trials together, but they discover that they have passed 500 years in stasis, and that the world has suffered a terrible cataclysm, so they are the last remnants of their time.