I planned on making the party around 4 or 5 members starting at Lvl 1. Thus far I have one Githyanki Warlock(an outcast from their society who learned to live among other races through time) and a [he's not sure of what class] Wizard(who is named "the cowled one" because he never reveals his face nor true voice[speaks by ghost whisper]). Obviously I will need to have the other players a Striker(or defender) and Leader.
As for the setting I was thinking of designing my own world. Thus far I have have a place on a large island(kind of like Australia in size)...
The characters will be from these six communities. I am having the players elaborate on the community in which they are from to help build a relationship with the area.
One of my questions is how should this all start out? I was trying to think of a neat way for all characters to meet, not in some tavern please, but I was thinking that they could be recruited for duty by the King of Vorhask. A possibility was to have them be recruited by themselves, only in future form, but that was thrown out because of the dynamic paths for a character to go down.
The first few missions I thought of them being able to eliminate things around the communities that have been posing a threat to them(traveling packs of orcs, dangerous caves and dungeons, etc.)... and then eventually have the king ask them to be diplomats of some sort and send them over seas to do his bidding. Does this all seem to generic to anyone? Is there anything I can do to spice it up or should I keep rolling with this plan?
Any input would be greatly appreciated. Like I said I am inexperienced with being a DM, and it would be great to see some input
I would recommend for your first campaign that you keep it pretty local at first. Make a general map of the world and region of play, and don't get too detailed in those. That leaves you more time and energy for the important adventures. If your players are also new to the game it will be better to keep it simple, and maybe even put a few pre-made adventures in to help get you moving in the right direction. Keep the actaul campaign short too so that you can scrap the world if you dont like it or more easily make changes that will affect the characters. This way you don't invest too much time in a campaign that isnt working.
I have found that artificially trying to slam characters together never works. Your Idea about them being recruited by someone is not a bad start, but if the players don't feel that the characters have more than that in common they might take longer to gel. Sometimes it helps to let the players decide how their characters meet, or met in the past. It gets them more invested in not just the past of their character but why they should be in the party at all. Give them suggestions for common ground like the same home town, the Githyanki could be grateful to another of the party for help given in the past, etc.. Think about why you move in the circles you do, and you'll soon see patterns that can give you ideas.
There are so many resources out there for great ideas that it can seem overwhelming, but remember this setting is coming from you so if you're not happy with it your players will sense it. Go with what you like and the ideas will flow like water.
My suggestion for you is have them all be part of the retinue of a someone with a moderate or high social standing. Start them out on the way to a major faire or other gathering. When they arrive you can present them with opportunities for social interactions with NPCs or have them face some skill challenges in the form of contests, tailor these to your PCs so they have some chance of winning.
After a day or so have their "boss" killed or framed and imprisoned for some major crime. Place a few clues leading to the villians (Bandits, Orcs, Kobolds etc) base in a nearby ruined manor house or caves.
After defeating the villains place some clue leading to the real bad guy (a rival to their boss). If they are not tough enough to take him on right away allow them to make life miserable for his toadies.