Post/Author/DateTime	Post
SavedSaint 12-24-07, 03:31 AM	I was wondering how other DM's had begun their campaigns. And how they had united the characters. I have run quite a few capaigns and each time i try to come up with something unique. 1. Gladitors fighting in an arena. The good thing about this is that each player is forced to work together which creates a bond of realism and friendship. 2. Slaves. Again each player had a common desire and goal. To free themselves 3. Amnesia The party had encountered a tower where some wild magic had gone wrong. Each player was already allies with each other. They come to there senses a day later standing outside a small village with absolutely no idea of how they got there. The thing with this, that i had to work in, was combat skills and feats. So i just noted that each player kept theire survival skills. Kind of like talking, eating and drinking. Just things they had done so much of that it became secound nature. 4. Prisoners. Each player was falsely accused of a crime and secretly brought before a high lord who required some service from them. It was like he hand selected the players for to fullfill certain roles for his mission. 5. The good old. You met in a tavern seeking adventure Well.. Tell me yours cause im running out of ideas..
Kouk 12-24-07, 07:26 AM	1) They start at level 2-3, and they had already been adventuring together for awhile. Tell them the highlights of their first adventure(s), and maybe sometimes have NPCs bring them up. 2) When they make their characters, tell them to figure it out how they know each other. Easiest way for the DM, but may take a bit of time. 3) Childhood friends that left town to be adventurers. They are now reunited by a-call-to-arms-from-the-king / promise-of-wealth-for-brave-adventurers / they-see-a-fire-and-rush-to-the-scene-where-they-meet / desire-to-drink alcohol-in-the-only-tavern-in-the-sleepy-town-they-happen-to-all-be-in-which-secretly-has-a-problem-that-needs-adventurers-to-solve That's all I have ATM, I may be back with more later :P
stitchy1503 12-24-07, 08:39 AM	1. they all start out on a transport boat which is attacked by pirates and sinks, then are bought together by a wizard who pays well.
Sarella Starshine 12-24-07, 12:55 PM	I don't bother with anything more than 'you figure it out for your own damn selves' during the pre-game character generation session. Usually such things work out better if they do it themselves than if I force some sort of contrived situation on them (which are mostly done because its apparently 'a bad thing' to start at Ye Olde Tavern). Though, I had one game where, because everyone decided to be evil characters, I did tell them that they were all childhood friends and had made a vow to always be there for each other when they were very young and before they went thier seperate ways. (And, it was done in order to prevent any sort of party issues that usually occurs when one has a bunch of evil people with no form of commonality among them.) But, for the most part, almost all of my games have started in taverns, inns, and the like because usually I start my games with the players being levels 3-5, so they have been traveling together for a bit, and where else does a group go to relax than the Ye Olde Tavern?
CryoSilver 12-24-07, 02:52 PM	One campaign starts with all the PCs having independently signed up for a government funded expedition and being assigned to the same team. In another, they are all family members (distantly related, but family nonetheless) out to retrieve an heirloom.
Nerdicus 12-24-07, 03:43 PM	The characters are all participants in a huge scavenger hunt that is funded by some powerful noble person. They get assigned to a team seemingly at random. The Scavenger Hunt boasts a hefty prize at the end of it, and covers a huge amount of space. There are many many people competing. The rules for the Hunt are such that a group must complete the challenge together, any one person missing and the whole team is disqualified. This could be a simple adventure or constitute the entire campaign. I haven't used this one yet, but I want to.
NorthWind 12-24-07, 04:14 PM	In the DMG II, it recommends that each player create a connection with at least two other characters (for example "Liann converted my character to the Following of Light, she's been guiding my spiritual journey ever since" or "I was the bard who was hired as a tutor for Elen's PC") That way, the party has roleplaying oportunities and an easy way for you to explain why they just happen to be on an adventure. You could also go for a party concept, for example (another one from the DMG II) "The party works for a magic items dealer, retrieving payments from adventurers who are late in keeping up their installments." (I've always wanted to try something like that, myself) Right now, I just started a campaign where the PCs have known one another with the two connections mentioned above, and have been hired by the government of their country to serve as an elite team in the war effort. It keeps the players interested, and it makes hooks plausible and easy when their superior requests such and such from them.
Khallhadras 12-24-07, 04:27 PM	I don't bother with anything more than 'you figure it out for your own damn selves' during the pre-game character generation session. Usually such things work out better if they do it themselves than if I fobecause its apparently 'a bad thing' to start at Ye Olde Tavern). That is about spot on. But there are times when you're players actually want to roleplay, and thus they may not be inclined to randomly ask some stranger with a sword if he wants to join the party. In this case it is great to draw off story and movie archtypes, playing off human emotion is also very effective as well, the latter especially true when you have a group of decent rp'ers. Usually you want to allow you're players to find common ground by varying means. This doesn't always, and in my games very rarely, means encounters or forcing some intricate storyline on you're players, like: You are all distant relatives of each other searching for a heirloom. You are barely related albeit you are. That just shows lack of creativity and 'stage setting' as I would call it. There are many more things that you could advent that would be cause for a real world and a rationally established party. I also have a rule of thumb that other adventurers could be attracted to certain events as well, and thus NPC's are common in my games. The weaker ones die off or run off craven after the first couple of fights, although one or two of the pc's equal or slightly lower leveled than the Pc's will usually stay, as a testimant to the 'reality factor' that are so much a part of my games. To make a list for all the possibilities would be insane, so think these words over carefully and I hope you enjoy you're game Best Regards, Khallhadras PS: I didn't intend any slight with that put down to you're idea Cyro, I just needed a structure of sorts to get my point across and highlight how many more choices there are. Also alot of 'my' players don't enjoy such plots where the DM tampers with their backstory or heritage, and I am sure many other players feel the same way.
Loftower 12-24-07, 06:09 PM	It helps if the players are willing to play along a bit. #1 You’re all from the same kingdom. Living there is a big steaming chunk of no fun. (I went into much more detail than this, of course, but my actual description of the oppressive society isn’t going to help you much.) All of the PCs decided to leave, suddenly they have a good reason to be together. #2 You’ve all arrived at a trading town at more-or-less the same time. You have no reason to stay. They only obvious way to get paid while leaving is my adventure hook. #3 You’ve all arrived in this little town for your individual reasons (put this in your character history). Here’s what’s going on in the town that you know of. (I gave each player a different piece of the adventure hook.) There’s this authority figure who is going to run you out of town or make your lives miserable here. #4 You’re history needs to get you somewhere near this place. You’ve each been actively recruited by this guy to help him with his problem. #5 I gave each player a piece of background that put them in the same place and gave them a piece of the first hook. They all knew that they only had a piece, and that every other player had some secret information. (Naturally, the PCs conspire with one-another.)
mustafathered 12-24-07, 06:50 PM	I'm starting a campaign soon where the PC's have been told that the game starts just after the characters have accepted a position as a caravan guard. I've played in a game where the PC's were essentially a strike force for a powerful wizard and all had some sort of tie to the wizard from when the wizard saved their bacon - kind of a benevolent indentured servitude.
CCS 12-24-07, 07:49 PM	Well, here's how my two current campaigns have begun; Campaign #1: Dragonlance, set right before the events in Chronicles. The characters all hailed from the same Solamnic keep & intentionally set off together towards the NE boarder to investigate growing rumors of war. The players chose most of this, I just set the time period & fed them the info/news related to where they'd selected to start.... Wich in turn led them to decide upon the NE trek.... Campaign #2: Greyhawk Different players. This time I told them they'd be starting in a port town called Saltmarsh, in the Principalities of the Sea Princes, & provided them local details. Each player made whatever type of 1st lv.character they wanted with the one requirement that they each had to have some reason to be in Saltmarsh. (ones a sailor passing in/out, two live in town, and the elven druid was sent to town by his order) Then I had the town council issue a call for "adventurers" to scout out a newly discovered lair of lizardmen.... These characters were just a few who answerd. The group was comprised pretty much of complete strangers, except they'd marginally heard of the one guys bard. Things quickly veered away from anything I'd envisioned happening. (And that says alot as I don't make up anything more than very vague outlines to begin with.)
kelcimer 12-25-07, 12:40 AM	In my old game I would tell a new player about the City of Ravens Bluff and ask them why they were there. I could usually tie them in fairly easily given there might be months between adventures. For my last game I speciffied that they were all living in a little hamlet in Battledle. They grew up with at least an awareness of each other. I then let them bounce ideas off of me and each other until we found something that was good all around. I had advertised that the local lord was highering "hold hunter" for contracts of three months, but didn't push them towards that. They wound up going that direction. Several sessions later I had two other players coming in from a different angle and brought them in as new recruits.
Shiyala 12-25-07, 01:10 AM	I generally go with "figure it out amongst yourselves" too. The one campaign I have run, I said would be starting in Sharn (the biggest city in Eberron). It turned out that everyone in the party was from a long way east of Sharn. So getting them together was easy: they'd been traveling together for a few weeks, and got to know each other quite well on the way. (We also decided another thing about the journey: the halfling party member's faithful Clawfoot mount had died on the way, to a band of goblin "border guards". This helped to explain why a halfling who loved Clawfoots so much was not able to start with one, since OOC he couldn't afford it.)
Etarnon 12-25-07, 01:30 AM	I have it that everyone knows each other, and have already been working together as part of the same ship / merc unit / adventuring company / corporation / small town / guild.