"You all meet in a tavern..." How to start a campaign

"You all meet on a Spelljammer taking you to an asteroid travelling to a local power-player in galactic politics for negotiations after a crushing defeat in the last war. On the approach, you notice a circle of clerics chanting."

The adventure is stopping the clerics from animating the asteroid and smashing the power-player.

...and that's terrible.

"You all met a few weeks ago when a merchant hired you to guard his caravan. The caravan is travelling through the small Mountain village of Tor Phagos, where you stay the night at the inn. Suddenly, you are woken up by goblins attacking the inn. Roll initiative."

"You all meet in a brothel. Now roll to see what you got on the random harlot table."

I have run two campaigns so far. The first one was

"You all meet in an airship. STUFF HAPPENS. Congratulations, you crashed the airship, killing thousands of people and kickstarting the quest."

At the start of my campaign, I was being held in a torture chamber with another party members. Then the inquisition walked in: the other two characters.

Thank the stars they were about to Defect From Decadence anyway.

edited 4th Apr '12 11:33:45 PM by Kayeka

I've used the airship one in a game I DM'ed. But it was more along the lines of: You meet at a dock to get on a boat. The guards arrest you for plot-convenience and put you on an airship. The airship is boarded by sky pirates and you escape. Then a bigger airship blows you to bits and you crash in a desert. Adventure follows!

One of the best GURPS fantasy games I've ever played started out as a typical fantasy game. The GM purposely left our origins ambiguous, saying, "You've known each other since before you first arrived in this world, and were predestined to be part of each others' lives." Then, when we killed a boss and went to bed for the night at the inn, he said, "You all log off and go to bed." Yup. We were playing our avatars in an MMORPG. He also introduced my character as "educated in both the social and metaphysical laws of the land," then later explained that I was a player mod. What followed was an epic fantasy campaign in the game world and an epic role-playing experience in the "real" world that felt like World of Darkness and Paranoia had a dark, twisted baby!

edited 9th Apr '12 4:33:26 PM by ZigtarXamos

The more rules there are to magic, the more ways the author will inevitably have to break them.

That reminds me of an envisioned boss for an online Dn D game I once came up with.

The mechanics were that the boss disables the dicebot and then moderates the channels so you can't post anything to the room.

The only way to defeat the boss was to log off.

After being shown a supplement for Legend*

, if I ever run another campaign in a fantasy setting it will open something like this:

"You all meet in a tavern... Which you own and operate, you glorious enterpreneurs, you."

"Evii is right though" -Saturn "I didn't know you were a bitch Evii." -Lior Val

You All Meet In A Tavern... which you have rushed into and barricaded because you are all in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse. Also, the jukebox won't stop playing Queen.

edited 7th May '12 8:41:29 PM by Sparkysharps

Everything is more epic with Queen. Also, Shaun Of The Dead reference noted.

You all meet on the recieving end of your employer's fist.

It was Dn D 3.5e, and he was a considerably powerful Shaolin monk. Flurry of blows for the win...

Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronnt- onnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!

I prefer to let the jukebox play "Don't Stop Believing."

:smug:

Nope. "Don't Stop Me Now" is the Zombie Apocalypse song. Accept no substitutes.

"Evii is right though" -Saturn "I didn't know you were a bitch Evii." -Lior Val

-*chuckle*

If I ever end up in the zombie apocalypse somehow, I'd make sure that I had Bach's Tocata and Fugue in D Minor blasting as loud as I could manage. Everything is more awesome with ominous music

... or maybe Orff's In Taberna >.> It's certainly dramatic enough, and it's more than a little thematically appropriate

Come to think of it, I've actually done the 'start the campaign in a barricaded tavern' thing in my D&D 3.5 game- the town we started in was in the middle of being razed by kobolds, I think it was, not the undead, but same general idea. My psion managed to convince them that the tavern was haunted by beating several to death with a chair while staying out of sight, heh...

You work for the same guy solo, now he's decided you will work together for this one mission.

Once you see each other, you recognise that the other(s) is someone you thought you had previously killed (/who once almost killed you).

(In our game it turned out the employer had previously specifically pitted the two against each other to gauge their abilities.)

Oooh, had to try my hand at a variation of the tavern theme.

You all wake up in dark, on the floor of an empty tavern, midst broken furniture and shattered glass. You remember entering, drinking, doing your normal thing, and little else. All the windows and doors have been shut and barricaded from the outside. You smell oil and fire.

edited 12th May '12 5:27:28 AM by peccantis

Considering starting one with "you all meet at a wedding, figure out how you know at least one of the newly weds!"

If what I say doesn't make sense, please refer to my name. Dyslexics of the world, UNTIE! http://orkinet.lefora.com/

I jokingly considered the following as my justification for how my Star Wars campaign was going to start...

"You all met in a tavern but are now traveling towards Nar Shaddaa. You don't really know each other or why you are on this spaceship but you are pretty sure that this is why you don't do a lot of heavy drinking anymore..."

edited 17th May '12 2:05:18 PM by EviIPaladin

"Evii is right though" -Saturn "I didn't know you were a bitch Evii." -Lior Val

"You all meet in a tavern... in Prohibition Era America, where you're seeking jobs as bootleggers."

Smile for me!

When I run my next campaign, I intend to start by having everyone hand their sheet to the person on their left, then writing something about their own character on the sheet they receive before handing them back. That way, every character knows (at least in passing) one other character in the group.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

One of the better campaign beginnings I remember was "Everyone is in a merchant caravan for one reason or another (guard, merchant, traveler, whatever), you take a short cut through the woods. Everything goes to hell in a hand basket."

Bigotry will NEVER be welcome on TV Tropes.

While playing Paranoia, It doesn't matter what I have planned, it always goes like this. You're looking for the (MacGuffin), the reason is (backstory/ the computer needs it). oh look, (other player) is looking for the very same (McGuffin), It will be much easier if you cooperate. (both players blow each other up, Hilarity Ensues)

Troper Tales aside, the best way to start a campaign is to gather players in a way that resembles how they act in real life, one of my funniest campaigns was about trying capture a Crazy guy who had obtained god-like powers; he was, in real-life, a notorious Troll. (the campaign ended with a crater the size of an small country)

edited 22nd Dec '12 1:02:16 PM by morenaxo

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This is how I started my most recent campaign (Dn D 4E, Eberron):

The Party:

• Nettle, Pixie Hexblade
• Xykram Nessis, Tiefling Paladin
• Tenebris Dalts, Drow Rogue

The game opened with Nettle, Xykram, and Tenebris all in a tavern. Nobody else but the barkeep was present. Nettle had some whiskey, Xykram was holding a drink in his hands, though he didn't actually drink any, and Tenebris wasn't thirsty. Suddenly, a group of zombies burst through the doors and windows and attacked our three heroes! With no other choice, they banded together to fight off the undead foes.

After dispatching the zombies, Nettle asked the bartender if this happened often, however, the bartender was frozen in place, and faded out of existence. Something was clearly wrong with this place. Outside, our heroes heard cries for help, and Xykram rushed outside to save the day. Nettle followed shortly after, and Tenebris reluctantly followed third.

Outside, the group came across a boy being chased by zombies, one of whom was stronger than the others. Nettle used his pixie dust to have the boy fly up onto the roof of the tavern, and again the heroes fought off a group of zombies.

However, all was not as it seemed. The boy revealed himself to be a monster in disguise and declared that this world was his, and they would be trapped in it forever. Our heroes banded together and fought and killed the monster, and as it died the world crumbled away, sending them into a void.

They awoke in a cavern, where a group of goblins were performing some ritual. Suddenly, their memories came flooding back. Each had been on a ship, each had been captured by pirates, and each had been brought before a Tiefling woman. After that... nothing except the tavern.

As they had been stripped of their gear, Nettle and Tenebris snuck over to a nearby chest, and found their gear within. Meanwhile, Xykram, examined the goblins and, with his knowledge of religions, determined that the ritual they were performing was somehow connected to Xoriat, the plane of madness, and it's inhabitants, the dreaded Daelkyr.

Somehow, the heroes' awakening had disrupted the ritual, and the goblins began arguing among themselves. One went to check on the prisoners, and in a panic, Nettle attempted to intimidate it into going away.

It didn't work.

Instead, every goblin in the cave became enraged and attacked Nettle, who held them off as best he could while Tenebris delivered Xykram's gear. After a long and arduous (and painful) battle, the heroes triumphed over the goblins, and gained their freedom.

I remember starting a forum roleplay on this very site where the cast were a group of characters from all over the world, brought together so as to serve the king of a small kingdom for a treasure hunt.

... Yeah, imaginative. o_O;

I personally am a big fan of the adventurers guilds myself. Its easy to get a party together for loot related purposes.

Apocalypse: Dirge Of Swans.

When I was thinking about a campaign to run in a homebrew setting of my brother, I came up with the P Cs being the former vassals of this one pretty weird lord. They were released from his service a while back and have now come back to fulfill the lord's deathbed wishes.

The hits keep rollin'!