When starting a new Campaign
- Thread starter Edgewood
- Start date
Pierson_Lowgal
First Post
GROUP TEMPLATE
A group template is a set of pre-existing relationships between party members that explains why these characters are together as a group.
It serves to avoid the “a dwarf, an elf and a peg-legged half-orc walk into a bar, having never met before, they agree to go camping in the woods and put their lives in each others hands.” The prior-relationships makes possible a party of divergent personalities, while avoiding groupings of character with unresolvable personal conflicts or goals. The template can also be used to create a common motivation for the first story arc. For example, all the characters are childhood friends from the same neighborhood, newly reunited, with the first story arc centered on the deteriorating condition of the neighborhood.
Process: players create characters OK'd by the GM. players meet, and with GM supervision, create prior relationships between characters. Prior relationships help create the 'party' and help sustain the party.
I first heard about the group template on feartheboot's podcast, feartheboot.com. The Accidental Survivors podcasters also use it.
A group template is a set of pre-existing relationships between party members that explains why these characters are together as a group.
It serves to avoid the “a dwarf, an elf and a peg-legged half-orc walk into a bar, having never met before, they agree to go camping in the woods and put their lives in each others hands.” The prior-relationships makes possible a party of divergent personalities, while avoiding groupings of character with unresolvable personal conflicts or goals. The template can also be used to create a common motivation for the first story arc. For example, all the characters are childhood friends from the same neighborhood, newly reunited, with the first story arc centered on the deteriorating condition of the neighborhood.Process: players create characters OK'd by the GM. players meet, and with GM supervision, create prior relationships between characters. Prior relationships help create the 'party' and help sustain the party.
I first heard about the group template on feartheboot's podcast, feartheboot.com. The Accidental Survivors podcasters also use it.
Gilladian
Adventurer
One fairly successful campaign start had the PCs all belonging to a rather oddball military unit. Two were ordinary fighter-types, one with considerable engineering skill. Another was a wizard paying off his college debt, and the last was the aunt of one of the others, who decided she had a calling to the military (she was a cleric) so she could keep an eye on her niece. Oh, and the rogue, who'd been forced to join the army to avoid jail time...
Another group (mostly the same players) were all related to a wealthy family - one was the daughter of the house, another was her personal cleric/advisor, the third was her bodyguard, and the final member was the son of a business partner, who had expressed an interest in "seeing the wilderness".
I don't think I've ever used the "you met in a tavern" routine, nor the "you woke up with no memory" bit. I've had both pulled on me, and I think they're either trite or railroady.
My current campaign is Rise of the Runelords, which basically starts off with a combat in the market square. PCs all turned out to be locals (except the NPC rogue) and joined together to protect their hometown. Two of them had a minor acquaintance before the first attack, but it really didn't matter once the goblins attacked. Now I have a bunch of new players joining, and I'm going to tell them they were already banded together as an adventuring group, hired by the town to work with the first group; we'll see how well they mesh.
Another group (mostly the same players) were all related to a wealthy family - one was the daughter of the house, another was her personal cleric/advisor, the third was her bodyguard, and the final member was the son of a business partner, who had expressed an interest in "seeing the wilderness".
I don't think I've ever used the "you met in a tavern" routine, nor the "you woke up with no memory" bit. I've had both pulled on me, and I think they're either trite or railroady.
My current campaign is Rise of the Runelords, which basically starts off with a combat in the market square. PCs all turned out to be locals (except the NPC rogue) and joined together to protect their hometown. Two of them had a minor acquaintance before the first attack, but it really didn't matter once the goblins attacked. Now I have a bunch of new players joining, and I'm going to tell them they were already banded together as an adventuring group, hired by the town to work with the first group; we'll see how well they mesh.
Shades of Green
Explorer
There are several ways to do this.
The first, which is a bit of a cliche' by itself, is having some kind of patron hire or employ the whole group. This could be a wealthy man, a government official, a noble, a criminal overlord and so on. The motivation is usually money - and everyone's payed by the same boss. This works best for players who like to make their characters alone or who don't like a shared group concept.
Another approach is to make the characters part of the same military unit, religious order or criminal gang. Characters either know each other in advance or, for the very least, fight for the same cause. This works best if the players are willing to plan the characters more or less together with a united concept.
A third approach is to force the characters into cooperation through circumstances - imprisoned in the same jail cell, captured by the same Orc tribe, boarding the same lifeboat of a sinking ship, framed for the same crime, being in the same place when the villain attacks and so on. This works with any character concept, and is great for players who want to have very varied and even oddball characters.
The first, which is a bit of a cliche' by itself, is having some kind of patron hire or employ the whole group. This could be a wealthy man, a government official, a noble, a criminal overlord and so on. The motivation is usually money - and everyone's payed by the same boss. This works best for players who like to make their characters alone or who don't like a shared group concept.
Another approach is to make the characters part of the same military unit, religious order or criminal gang. Characters either know each other in advance or, for the very least, fight for the same cause. This works best if the players are willing to plan the characters more or less together with a united concept.
A third approach is to force the characters into cooperation through circumstances - imprisoned in the same jail cell, captured by the same Orc tribe, boarding the same lifeboat of a sinking ship, framed for the same crime, being in the same place when the villain attacks and so on. This works with any character concept, and is great for players who want to have very varied and even oddball characters.
roguerouge
First Post
It's only a cliche if it doesn't work. If it works, it's archetypal.
I've started two campaigns as a GM. In the first, it was a shout out to the old A series modules, starting with the PCs as slaves on a ship and having to escape. In the second, it was "roll initiative" and the PC's bardic performance was interrupted by her audience leaving to see the monthly bribe to the local ogre as it went horribly wrong.
I've started two campaigns as a GM. In the first, it was a shout out to the old A series modules, starting with the PCs as slaves on a ship and having to escape. In the second, it was "roll initiative" and the PC's bardic performance was interrupted by her audience leaving to see the monthly bribe to the local ogre as it went horribly wrong.
Fifth Element
Legend
We were discussing this at our last game session. We realized that while adventurers meeting in a tavern to start an adventure was such a cliche, none of us had ever actually started an adventure that way.
So to us, it's a theoretical cliche that other groups do. We've never actually done it.
So to us, it's a theoretical cliche that other groups do. We've never actually done it.
Evilhalfling
Adventurer
the best start I went through was:
"3 days after a giant pyramid swallowed the sun your company [of low level mercenaries] is assigned to guard a wagon moving from city A to City B."
"3 days after a giant pyramid swallowed the sun your company [of low level mercenaries] is assigned to guard a wagon moving from city A to City B."
Dave Turner
First Post
This is one of the best ways to go. Respectfully, many of the other suggestions in this thread are a bit mundane. They're "low level", in that they're fairly mundane problems that could occur in a non-fantasy world and are geared for 1st level D&D characters. Escape from a slave ship, members of a mercenary unit, bribe to a local ogre (i.e. steroid-boosted gang leader)? All of these introductions could happen in a game set in a mundane world without too much tweaking.
The quoted suggestion, on the other hand, injects more fantasy into the game. A giant pyramid swallowed the sun? Now THAT'S a Bang!
What are the more fantastic elements of your campaign setting? Draw on them to create a memorable fantasy opening to your campaign. Make the introduction big and splashy, like the sun being swallowed by a pyramid. Are dragons important to your setting? Start the campaign with a mortally-wounded ancient red crashing into the PCs town, destroying a large swathe of buildings. Is the Shadowfell going to be recurring feature? The campaign begins on a night where three generations of a town's dead arise as undead (some hostile, some not).
My advice is to think big and think fantastic.
Mark Hope
Hero
What are the more fantastic elements of your campaign setting? Draw on them to create a memorable fantasy opening to your campaign. Make the introduction big and splashy, like the sun being swallowed by a pyramid. Are dragons important to your setting? Start the campaign with a mortally-wounded ancient red crashing into the PCs town, destroying a large swathe of buildings. Is the Shadowfell going to be recurring feature? The campaign begins on a night where three generations of a town's dead arise as undead (some hostile, some not).
My advice is to think big and think fantastic.
Excellent advice. I once started a Dark Sun campaign by having a dead cloud ray crash into the inn the PCs were (supposed to be) staying at. The resulting concern at what kind of creature could have killed a cloud ray and the subsequent scramble to harvest it for components before the templars arrived was a great bonding experience for the PCs.
Hmm. Maybe the upcoming DS arc could do with something similar...
Shades of Green
Explorer
Many of these ideas come from a common playing style: the campaign starts pretty much mundane, and gets more and more fantastic as you rise in levels. Also, low-level characters would sometimes have problems dealing with fantastic situations they have to react to.
But I agree with you: a fantastic "bang" would be very cool to begin a game with if handled correctly.
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