How do you like to start a campaign

[TheSword]

Worth saying that @GuyBoy started his Vecna campaign in a novel way. Each PC was a member of a different adventuring group on a different world. We each represented that archetypal character, arcane spellcaster, divine spell caster, warrior etc etc in our respective groups and took our actions in turn investigating a tomb inhabited by a Vecna cult. At the end of the scene we were all individually pulled through a temporal rift to the plane of shadow as the true party

 

[TheSword]

I have often opened with a combat in the past but now I have moved away from that. It sets the tone that combat is the main schtick of the campaign and in D&D I try to actively fight against that.

 

[GMMichael]

What interesting ways have you previously tried, or would like to try to open a campaign. Assume that session zero has already taken place and characters are generated.

There's a lineup of people in a dungeon. Naked, in chains, trembling. Master Blaster (or their look-alikes) walks along the line, designating individuals. "You. You. . . . You." They select each PC.

Only if it passes session zero. The "you have nothing / are a prisoner" trope isn't my favorite, but Master Blaster makes everything cool.

 

[zakael19]

I have often opened with a combat in the past but now I have moved away from that. It sets the tone that combat is the main schtick of the campaign and in D&D I try to actively fight against that.

Yeah, I’ll note that I don’t really run any direct “D&D” product right now, so for my games action doesn’t mean combat but a grabby situation with some degree of peril and challenge which may or may not involve direct violence at any point (and in fact often tries to avoid it depending on the game).

 

[Basic Expert]

I usually like to figure out the over-arching themes that I want the campaign to focus on, and hard-wire them into the first adventure. In other words: the first adventure needs to set up what the campaign is going to be about.

If it's an exploratory hex crawl, the game starts with the PCs moving into the wilds in some way, past the bounds of civilization for the first time.

If it's about political machinations, the game starts with a dynamic introductions of factions and important NPCs at odds with each other.

If it's a classic adventure path towards a fight with the BBEG at the end, the first adventure is where the PCs learn something is wrong with the world.

Usually, I will also include a seemingly minor NPC, detail or plot point that will be revealed to be critically important much later in the campaign. Planting and payoff, accept no substitutes!

PCs will have preexisting relationships or be thrown together by circumstances and forced to work together (a patron, a disaster, a pressing need). Either can work, but I try to give PCs as many reasons to work together as early as possible so the players don't have to struggle to define new characters and new relationships all at once.

 

[Lanefan]

Usually, I will also include a seemingly minor NPC, detail or plot point that will be revealed to be critically important much later in the campaign. Planting and payoff, accept no substitutes!

Same here, only dialled to eleven. When I start a campaign it's with the intent of it going on for (by modern standards) ages, and so the more of these little seeds I can plant early, the more runway I give myself for introducing later plot developments and story arcs.

PCs will have preexisting relationships or be thrown together by circumstances and forced to work together (a patron, a disaster, a pressing need). Either can work, but I try to give PCs as many reasons to work together as early as possible so the players don't have to struggle to define new characters and new relationships all at once.

And sometimes the players will just do it for you.

My current campaign started with two characters (who already knew each other) progressing through a string of towns and villages proudly (if untruthfully!) proclaiming their adventuring expertise and asking for recruits to help them vanquish [mumble mumble mumble]* in the mountains. One of the two was a Bard, which helped greatly; and this was entirely the players' idea.

The other PCs were introduced in different villages as interested respondents to these guys, and off they went.

* - often said just like that in play, as they really had no idea what the mountains held.

 

[dragoner]

I don't really play D&D so I wouldn't know about it.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

I have always wanted to do a Dead Barge Cremation Gone Wrong starting encounter.

The characters all wake up in initiative order on a simple wooden barge towed out in the water. They are at the bottom of a pile of corpses soaked in lamp fluid and set aflame. (This is how the city of Marsember gets rid of its excess dead.)

Right away the characters have to figure out how to save themselves from being either burned alive or drowning.

And none of them can remember how they got on the barge. All their short term memories have holes in them.

I figure this opening works good with characters that do or don’t know each other. Either way they all have common cause to figure out who in Marsember knocked them out and hid their bodies in order to get rid of the characters.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Most of the games I’ve played over the last few years have some element of collaborative PC creation. It works so well that I don’t really expect I’ll ever run a game in the future where we don’t do that. Some games have very formalized rules or procedures for it, others are pretty loose.

My group just had session zero of our new campaign (the DIE RPG) last week and by the time we were done there were four strong characters with existing relationships and conflicts and connections, but still with plenty of room to expand during play. The game offers a bit of great advice… “character generation never ends”.

Any games I run, I’ll adapt these session zero processes for character creation.

 

[Scott Christian]

I recently re-read Blood of Elves from the Witcher series and was struck by how it started. A dozen travelers sharing a campfire on the roadside for security, warmth and company. Sharing stories of what was going on in the land. Various tensions and themes that were going to crop up in the book.

I thought what a great way to start the campaign. Seed a couple of rumors to each PC based on their background and likely direction of travel, add in a half dozen NPCs to add some more rumors. Then let them have at the sandbox the next morning. Maybe that night something else happens involving the NPCs. Maybe they can be recurring NPCs and contacts as the PCs explore from there. It’s how I’m going to start my Dalelands campaign.

What interesting ways have you previously tried, or would like to try to open a campaign. Assume that session zero has already taken place and characters are generated.

The show, although lacking for many, had a cute episode titled: "The Joy of Cooking." It was imaginative, and maybe not in line with the motif of the series, it was similar to your suggestion and fun.

That said, I have been working on a campaign where each character has their thirty-minute story to travel to a common locale all will be. Each adventure is different, and highlights the characters abilities, and also helps them learn the rules/character. A common NPC exists with each of these solo adventures. At the end, each is before the king, and each character steps forward to describe their character. Then each one has an NPC from their individual adventure vouch for them or scold them depending on their actions. In the end, the ones vouched for get a better contract, the ones scolded get a contract, just not as good. Then, prior to leaving the common thread NPC makes an appearance (the king's nephew) to turn everything topsy-turvy. It should be interesting.