Post/Author/DateTime	Post
shadowflamedancer 07-03-05, 12:34 AM	I myself have used more than one barfight, a slave galley, and a few special military units of which everyone but the PCs was soon killed, but how do you ususally start off your campaigns, and what are some of the more memorable ways? My best was definitly when I had the PCs start out in the bottom of a slave galley (an idea from these boards! thanks!) The elven ranger (who was new to role playing) got free of his bonds and when he heard one of the slavers coming, he hid. His first roll of his entire D&D career... and a natural 1. lol. Anyway, they eventually took control of the ship, but it had started on fire. They steered to a nearby tropical island, with a dying race of elves (reptilian! theres somthing new), a mob of deranged vampire spawn, and an ancient temple of a nature god, with a mysterious altar which transportes them to the middle of town half a continent away.
Sinaz 07-03-05, 02:02 AM	The party volunteered to be a part of a militia designated to hunt down creatures causing an imbalance in the ecosystem in the woods to the north. When the army got to the treeline, they found a pack of red dragons laying in wait for them. The militia was ordered to charge, and as the army reached the forest, the dragons lit the trees ablaze. The party was segregated from the dragons as powerful brass dragon mounted dragoons fought with the red dragons, people died and panicked, and the party did thier best to simply suvive. After this seemingly epic encounter as the militia limped back to the city in tatters, the party found they had wondered off alone and encountered a wounded and dying red dragon who bequested them with a task that would throw them headlong into the campaign to save the world.
Silver_Fox 07-03-05, 04:52 AM	I once started a campaign by first playing with the characters one-by-one and got them on the same boat, and then had the ship go down in a storm and have the PC's wake up on an unknown shore as the only survivors. The island was an uninhabited island of small size with a few wild animals roaming around. This forged a bond between the charaters rightaway, since they had to work together for survival and to get of the island. It was great, and I got a great response from my players. Cheers
Cantankerous 07-03-05, 05:49 AM	One of the best campaigns we've had yet, in terms of role playing and general enjoyment began with the three PC's that the campaign began with all three in a small hill village in a barbarian settlement in "the new world", simply living their lives, with backgrounds appropriate to their characters. The first, my wife's character, Haclan, was a Barbarian*3 who actually lived there, had grown up there and was by that point the villages blacksmith/weaponsmith, a bull of a man with a reputation in the area as both a viscious warrior and dour, memory haunted young man. Part of his backstory was a fragmented childhood memory of traveling with his father, after his mothers death of pneumonia and the small band they were with being attacked by gnolls. He was never sure of exactly what happened, but blamed himself (irregardless of his tender age) for somehow bringing the gnolls down on the hiding band. In the village, while he was both respected for his skills and somewhat feared by most people because of his great strength and his dour nature, he was also treated as a Kardel (a Jonah) by many. Even within his own society, he was an outsider. The second, Franz's character, was Rigor, a young Druid*3 in the service of the Southern Council. An avid young man with terminal wanderlust and a reckless streak that was considered unbecoming in a Druid (who were after all the religious and cultural leaders of the scattered Saxon-esque villages) and a Jurist (which was his job; knowing the lores of his people so that he could advise village hetmen on proper justice), he had been in the village many times, and had formed a friendship of sorts with Haclan. The last, my daughters character, Alandera Niahm von Elsaberg, was a Fighter*2/Wizard-Abjurer*1. The fifth of six children of a baronet in "the old world" who was, truth be told, numbered among the "gentle poor". On the discovery that ships could once again sail into the west and reach the continent that was the ancient home of mankind, she was intrigued by the idea of seeking her fortune away from the stiffling rules and restrictions of the thousand year old Reich in which she and countless of her ancestors had lived. Alandera was self confident, vain and more than slightly arrogant about her "nobility" as well as being completely convinced that between her skill with a rapier and her ability to bend magic to her will to protect herself she would soon be rich and famous in the "new world". Three months after arriving, by now dead broke, in debt to the money lender in the main Bellian settlement of New Hope (think Plymoth circa 1625), she was basicly "hiding out" in the Torian hill village where the story began, trying to come up with some way of convincing one of the locals to guide her to the ruins of one of the ancient, haunted, ruined cities that reportedly dotted the region. None of the three had any idea what, if anything, I had planned for the campaign; so they were trying to find comon grounds for themselves as a party in some not too contrived way, with Alandera and the other two at a table in the small tavern that doubled as the village's public hall, trying to convince Rigor to be her guide to the taboo ruins, while Rigor explained that it wouldn't be proper (or correct) for hm to do so, since he was one of the Jurists for the region while Haclan looked on, smirking. It was at that point that I had the village attacked by gnolls, in numbers so large that fighting them would have been suicidal. Of course, the party fought...at first. Thankfully my wife and Franz are both old veteran RPers and my daughter has more brains than most young teens, so when things got too nasty, they boggied. Over the next eight days, while working their way southward, to the nearest of the Torian moat and baileys, they had several more encounters with gnolls, during one of which they became burdened with three young children they had saved from gnoll cooking pots and then learned that the attack on their village had been no isolated thing. They also learned to rely on one another and to respect one anothers judgement and abilities. By the time they finally got to the relative safety of the moat and bailey, which was already alerted and at which men were already gathering, they had become a unit bound by the situation, but more by shared terrors and mutual respect. When they deleivered the children into the safety of the Thane's keeping and he asked them if they would be willing to undertake a journey to warn the Southern Council and seek their aid and guidance, the scene was set for the early campaign. From there it was merely a matter of presenting more clues as to what was going on, drawing Alandera into it by the knowledge that an ancient and degenerate folk living UNDER the old ruins god cities were instigating the gnolls and were reviving ancient nigromantic practices from thousands of years ago. Rigor, since he was already involved, and a less than stellar exemplar of the Druidic Jurist's proper decorum, was seconded into further investigation by the Council and Haclan was initially into it because they were his companions and because it promised him an oppurtunity to kill gnolls to his heart's content. he had nothing to return to after all. The gnolls had burned the village, including his home, to the ground. These are the two main principles that make a great campaign. 1)Get everyone involved- tailor the campaign, especially early on, to have something in it for each player. 2)Keep the initial pace frenetic, but enforce, by weather conditions for instance, periods of inactivity so that the whole thing doesn't seem hoplessly contrived and artificial. Isshia
shadowflamedancer 07-04-05, 02:23 PM	What a great story Cantankerous! I think I'll definitly use somthing like that to start my campaign out (but hobgoblins instead of gnolls, I like organization, and it makes them deadly if a very different way). Some of these can be really great methods if they are used effectively.
Bowlich 07-04-05, 02:53 PM	I usually start my campaigns by putting all the players together in some locale, be it the same town, the same tavern, or the same dock. Then I just have some action start happening and allow the players to find their own ways to get involved. In one campaign they were all in the marketplace when the town's mill exploded in a fireball, they rushed in to save the miller--and in turn ended up being sent on a much longer quest to seek out the one who attacked the mill. Another instance was when the players were sitting around a tavern when a massive explosion shocked the tavern as the local citadel's northern wall collapsed and a group of adventurers came running out through the devestation. Another campaign started when the town that they were staying in was attacked by lizardfolk in the night.
SpiritShader 07-04-05, 03:20 PM	I see that most of these campaign starters have the PC's starting off as individuals and meeting up in one place for the rest of the story to unfold (for example, the guy who had the PC's in turn arrive on the boat that caused them to later on appear at a deserted island). These are all extremely cool ideas but I have a catastrophic problem: The players that come to my sessions are extremely difficult to attract to a certain point. They usually deter from any hooks that I use to begin adventures and go off on their own paths causing mainly havoc and complete and utter obliteration. This was fun for a while, as the players can do what they want, until I really wanted to get a decent storyline going, which due to the circumstances, I could not do. The chances of the PC's actually all going to the same point (E.G a boat) is just about impossible in my campaign, so does anyone have any ideas that I could use as a very strong attraction to draw all the PC's in to one point so the adventure for the session can begin? There are 4 players in total, and the only replacements for them I can find are about as reliable as unreliable asthmatic mongooses. Can anyone help? Thanks peeps
Mr. Leet 07-04-05, 03:45 PM	You're the DM... Have them all start on the same boat, or have the, all start in the same city which is under siege, or in the same cavern that collapses and traps them inside. THe only problem you face is to make their character backgrounds give them a reason to be there, but if your players are nice and cooperative, that shouldn't be a problem.
SpiritShader 07-04-05, 03:58 PM	I suppose thanks
Mirikon 07-04-05, 05:33 PM	When in doubt, there's always the "You are all in the tavern, for whatever reason. A man by the bar calls out that he is looking for adventurers who might be wishing to make a bit of gold." approach. Cliche, perhaps, but it works, and it can be very fun.
LadyCreator 07-04-05, 06:35 PM	My earlier campaign had a terrible problem with party cohesion; there was a lot of variance in the alignments and they had no real reason to work together. They started as specators to a sort of macabre circus/carnival which vanished suddenly and they started investigating it. The campaign I'm running over the summer is much more cohesive, for the simple fact that the party is a group of childhood friends. Two of them (the barbarian and the druid) are twins, and the other two are their best friends. We spent the character creation session coming up with backstories and things they did together as children. This group has characters that really love each other, and the twins display all kinds of sibling behaviors.
Cantankerous 07-05-05, 04:18 AM	What a great story Cantankerous! I think I'll definitly use somthing like that to start my campaign out (but hobgoblins instead of gnolls, I like organization, and it makes them deadly if a very different way). Some of these can be really great methods if they are used effectively. Thanks. I'm glad you liked it. The "organization" aspect was already in there though. The gnolls were their pawns, to soften the Torian's up before they showed themselves. The "ancient and degenerate" folk who dwelt beneath the old god cities, the Mal-Fyr, were a race of devil worshiping reprobates who had recently become strong enough (through the re-discovery of an old artifiact that allowe a semi-permenant Gate between one of those cities and Malbolge (in the Hells) and who had an old feud with the Torian people. In true LE fashion, they used pawns and so forth to whittle their opponents down before ever revealing themselves. Now, much later in the campaign (Haclan is 20th level and Alandera and two new characters with the party are both 18th; Rigor was turned into a vampire at one point and become a persistant MediumBEG for a good while) it turns out that the Mal Fyr were themselves pawns for Dispater and the party is beginning to believe that HE is an unrevealed someone elses pawn; and so it goes forth. Isshia
Bort333 07-05-05, 04:55 AM	I uassualy have the PCs gathered for a mission. I uassualy make a backstory for each person after getting some rough guidelines about their charchters. One time I did things a little differently. Less "Ok you know each other" and more ok you two have a connection and you two others have a connection Roleplay it out! Cypress was the huntmaster of the King's forest. She got along with several people. The palace servants respect her and look up to her. She also teaches young nobles about hutning. Chek Edis is a noble who is still young, who dreams of making the world better for common people. Trennoth Gommeir - Is a lawful evil rogue who's task is to befriend Chek Edis (who's house is vassal to the King) and spy on him. Kowel Knack - Powerful warmage who is always looking for a chance to test his abilities. Cypress is approached to help in a kidnapping... and there the story starts. She knows her pupil Chek Edis is in town he can help... Chek had already befriended Trennoth in some activies in town along with Kowel Knack who was also a noble. So they got together and because of who as kidnapped they couldn't let the word out. It was great because their charchter introductions to each other was RP gold!
Carn Vandoril 07-05-05, 05:50 AM	Greetings, One of the more memorable starts of a campaign was an actual "birth" of the characters. the players started in a slavecamp (pritty boring they thought), but things got worse and worse * I treated the whole thing as a nightmare. Within an hour monsters became more evil, more powerful, their food got worse, etc. Just like a dream ending up like a nightmare. * they had to escape ofcourse but it wasn't easy. After a run through the woods, riverswims and wounded by the following villans... they got skinrashes. * I let them throw some willsaves not to scratch and pull their own skin. One by one they failed their saves... and died in their own blood * The trick was that for every player that failed the save, I told him/her that she feels some sticky, glue-like material around her. When every body 'died', they all woke up in a well lit dungeon, surrounded by glue-like eggshells.... and a darkfigure with a staff. * they were the product of crossbreeding... a mistictheurge tried to breed towards the first true elven race (before the banishment of the drow). they don't know why they are there, what the have to do, or even that they are unnatural. The mage is their father and master for all they know (thrall-like dc they won't beat for a few levels) and sends them out on missions. You should have seen the look on their faces when they were born from the eggs..... :D For some flavor I made them +1 EL by giving them some specials (darkvision 30ft, 4 level 0 spells, weaponfocus own choice).
SwitchUK 07-05-05, 11:29 AM	My first campaign started out with the party having signed on as caravan guards for a fairly wealthy merchant who was looking to do some business in a fronteir town, but knew that the road was under permanent watch by a tribe of goblins and hobgoblins, who attacked any arget that presented itself. Naturally, the caravan came under attack, and I'd deliberately designed the encounter to be difficult. Not lethal, but certainly a challenging blooding for a first-level party. I'm quite gratified that I got it right, actually. Anyway, once that fight was over, they got 500GP payment off the trader, 750XP and a masterwork longsword off the hobgoblin who led the attack.
cvazi 07-05-05, 12:00 PM	the PC's return home to find the entire village slaughtered, and tracks leading away. . .