78% of all DMs, tavern, etc.

[AstralFire]

Is there any actual basis for this signature, or is it just in the "__% of all statistics are made up?"

For the record, I started my first campaign on a plantation where the PCs were being hunted down by former Kobold slaves who were seeking to slowly kill and torment both their lizardfolk masters and those of other races who condoned this behavior by being willing to seek shelter at such a place.

[Leeham]

Like most stats you see these days it's probably crap. I started mine with the PCs waking up, having been clobbered by kobolds, who then sent them on a mad krenshar hunt. I do love those krenshar...

[KitsuneKionchi]

My first real adventure for a campaign longer than 2 adventures was started in a cave.

My first adventure in which I was DM was 2.0 and it was a prebuilt...I think it started in a town in the Mayor's office.

The first adventure for 3.X in which I was the DM of the entire campaign started in the imperial palace.

In fact, I can't think of one time an adventure has started in a tavern. It might be refreshing...

But given the three most likely places people in a town in a western fantasy age would be meeting is a tavern, town square or church, I see nothing wrong with meeting your hook in a tavern.

For that matter, I see nothing wrong with being a lawful good paladin who is trying to rescue the princess of his kingdom from a chaotic evil dragon.

Really the odd thing about fantasy cliches is we are so beyond them that we have created a new line of cliches that are now becoming trite. Lone wolf mercenaries, children spellcasters, self-hating non-humans (Drizz't, etc...), drunken aristocratic type adventurers, rejected peasants trying to become true knights/warriors...

But cliches bring with them a strong evocative power. When you see a feral bear your party has been tango'ing with get suddenly ripped in half by a scottish dwarven berserker with a great axe, you have to kinda admit there is a part of you deep inside that is going "god-damned that was cool".

And even if its lame and cliche, you better believe anyone who earned the reputation "The Black Knight" is a force to be reckoned with.

Mind you I'm in no way a traditionalist DM. My ideal setting would be extraordinarily low magic level 1 in which the PCs are commoners who have to earn class levels gradually over time and play primarily a role as merchants. I blame spice and wolf.

Long story short:
Revel in the established, but don't quagmire in the cliche.

Or

Things are used often for a good reason. Things are cliche for a good reason as well.

[Sir Homeslice]

My PCs started the campaign waking up confused, disoriented, and conveniently standing in a circle around an illusion of a person wrapped head to toe in bandages in a way that makes their actual gender unknown. In a back alley and being informed that they are the remaining shards of divinity of the previously ousted Old Gods who were in fact better rulers than the current pantheon by silly amounts.

[Xallace]

My PCs have never once begun their adventure in a tavern. Noble's party? Yes. Car chase? Yes. The Apocalypse? Yes. Tavern? OK, a saloon once. But it wasn't my first game!

I'd say it's made up.

[Myou]

65% of signatures have an annoying made up statistic or counting game in them. The other 35% have links no-one but the poster cares about or virtual pets.

[KitsuneKionchi]

Oh, almost forgot. My most recent adventure had the party waking up after an airship (balloon/zepplin) crash in the caldera of a mostly dormant volcano on an island half way from one continent to another. It was the lair of the first BBEG.

[lesser_minion]

65% of signatures have an annoying made up statistic or counting game in them. The other 35% have links no-one but the poster cares about or virtual pets.

Well, I hope I'm not the only person who cares about the link in my sig (as I'm not the only person who participated in the meme), and I follow links in other people's sigs as well.

I didn't actually know what the word 'cliché' meant when I started my first campaign, so I took the comment about it in the DMG as a suggestion rather than a warning.

[tyckspoon]

The other 35% have links no-one but the poster cares about or virtual pets.

Redundancy.

[Myou]

Well, I hope some people still read the link in my sig, and I follow other people's sigs as well.

I didn't actually know what the word 'cliché' meant when I started my first campaign, so I took the comment about it in the DMG as a suggestion rather than a warning.

My tongue was very much in my cheek. I have links in my sig too.

I started my first game with the PCs out for a walk.
The second began with their ship being attacked by pirates then wrecked on a reef.

[Vortling]

65% of signatures have an annoying made up statistic or counting game in them. The other 35% have links no-one but the poster cares about or virtual pets.

90% of percentage statistics are made up. <_< I insist you care about my links. I INSIST!

[Myou]

90% of percentage statistics are made up. <_< I insist you care about my links. I INSIST!

Oh god, the apathy, it burnnnns!


Redundancy.

Virtual pets are often there to show off rather than be clicked though. :3

[Zaydos]

I've started games in a tavern before, but my first game was in a jungle with gem dragon wyrmlings in 2.e without anything but Monster Manual and a decent understanding of the red box (would have been enough if the PCs hadn't demanded to be psionic dragons). After that, I forget the next one, I started two with them being part of an elite world defending organization, the one that was in a cavern, 2 on boats which were damaged and undermanned, and a few more I can't remember how. Maybe taverns, but no idea.

[Tyndmyr]

I've seen so many variants of it...I have no idea which was the original, but Im pretty sure it's not the DMs/Tavern thing. Also, Im pretty sure they all lie.

As for first adventure, I started it with the characters aboard an out of control stagecoach hurtling down a mountain road. Sheer cliff on one side, wall on the other, horde of zombies chasing. Oddly enough, none of the players called me on the blatant railroading, probably due to them nearly all being noobs. Ah, yay for noobs.

Edit: Oh, if you start off in a tavern, you are required by trope law to have a shady, hooded character in the darkest corner of the bar. Make sure he has nothing to do with the quest whatsoever.

[lsfreak]

The market and temple of the city they were in was bombed via Necrotic Eruption.

Unless you count the 'campaign' that lasted all of a day that I DM'd back in... 10th grade? where I had learned the rules a few days before and half of that was from borrowed 3.0 books (3.5 had been out a year by that point, methinks).

[AstralFire]

The problem with tavern starts is less that it's cliché and more that it is often used as a catch-all by DMs who either didn't specify a starting scenario when making the game or didn't want to make a scenario that actually interacts with all of the players in the game. It has no momentum or particularly strong paths in its default. Now, that said - you can tell a damn good story starting in a tavern.

[shadow_archmagi]

Mine started with the PCs just outside the dungeon, crossbowing down kobold farmers

[Mulletmanalive]

The starting in a tavern thing is pretty common because it provides an excuse to have all of the characters working together by dint of opertunity without them all having reputations or the whole thing where they've been hired for an important mission despite there being many more competent people around who could do it.

My first campaign actually started In Medias Res, with them reliving bits of their previous adventure in flashbacks.

I've used taverns if i've got an adventurers economy...or of someone insists on having a backstory of far-too-awesome.

[Mystic Muse]

I'm new at DMing so I've started the players out in the rather generic tavern a few times.

I tried with this one group to have them start out in the King's castle instead of the normal Tavern. THEY COMPLAINED!

[Brendan]

One of my DMs started us in a tavern, but we skipped over it and the week or so of travel to reach the dungeon.
My other one started us as imprisoned after winning a contest (The characters had never met each other so this was a good way to get the character discriptions w/o lots of annoying fluff, and so we could lie about ourselves)

[Blackfang108]

65% of signatures have an annoying made up statistic or counting game in them. The other 35% have links no-one but the poster cares about or virtual pets.

Doesn't theat qualify as "Links no-one but the poster cares about"? :smallbiggrin:

[Myou]

Doesn't theat qualify as "Links no-one but the poster cares about"? :smallbiggrin:


Virtual pets are often there to show off rather than be clicked though. :3

wordswords

[RandomNPC]

ok, i started in the streets of town, and they went to the tavern for info. My first game to actually survive contact with plot started at the town gates, where party members arrived in small groups and were questioned by the guards before being let in. There was no tavern in that town, but they got in a fight with the guards so fast it didn't matter.

[Thatguyoverther]

The first game I started had all the pcs in a rowboat, in the middle of the ocean, with a dead body.

The first fantasy game I played had all of the pc's falling out of the sky onto the soft sands of a tropical beach.

I don't think I've yet played a game that started in a tavern.

[KitsuneKionchi]

Has anyone ever started out at a tavern...at the end of time? 8D

(or some other odd spin on the tavern.)

[Xallace]

Has anyone ever started out at a tavern...at the end of time? 8D

(or some other odd spin on the tavern.)

I forget who said it, but my favorite so far has been:

"The party meets in a tavern. At high velocity."

[Remmirath]

When I was just starting out DMing, and I couldn't've been more than ten years old, I started a lot of games off in an inn with no explanation of why you were there. I thought it was a great idea at the time, since it was easy.

Since then, though, I can't recall a single campaign I've played in or DMed that started in a tavern. I think the thing with the tavern is that it's an excuse to have everybody gathered in one place, and then something happens, but these days I prefer trying to come up with reasons that the party would know each other and then start the campaign out more slowly.

I think I can actually remember more campaigns that started getting on a boat, waking up in jail, or just wandering around in a forest.

There's no way the 78% could be completely accurate. I'm guessing it's a random number that sounds high but not too unreasonably high.

[Seatbelt]

I started a campaign in a tavern. I gave it a cat theme. I let the party get to know each other a little bit, do some role play. I introduced one PC after being stuck by lightning. Then I read from the Cats of Ulthuar and rocked the party's face off by catfolk and demon kittehs who sat on your chest and sucked your con score. It actually ended in a near TPK. But since the tavern was some kind of figment/once-a-year dark and stormy night spooky "not really there" tavern, the party awoke the next day asleep on a stone with the words "Ulthuar" inscribed upon it.


This proved to be the theme of my campaign. If more than half the party was standing (not dead, just not conscious) at the end of the session then I was doing it wrong. :P

[Ozymandias9]

Is there any actual basis for this signature, or is it just in the "__% of all statistics are made up?"

My guess would be that if there is a basis, it's probably a forum or Dragon Magazine poll somewhere, and mostly likely isn't statistically sound. But it still makes a nice way little tool for some wistful recollection.

[Eldan]

When my group first let me run a game, I was given a location to start in by the one who had done the game before mine. A casino run by the dwarven mafia.

[root9125]

I started an intentionally sandbox campaign where the PCs could be ANY of twelve WELL-DESCRIBED places in a city. What did they choose?

The dimly lit tavern. That I mentioned in passing as part of describing a slum.

Cue irrational DM rage.

[Asbestos]

I started an intentionally sandbox campaign where the PCs could be ANY of twelve WELL-DESCRIBED places in a city. What did they choose?

The dimly lit tavern. That I mentioned in passing as part of describing a slum.

Cue irrational DM rage.

I think that when players hear the DM say 'tavern' they just assume that the PCs should go there. I started my first campaign with the PCs spread out in a village immediately prior to it being attacked by raiding Goblinoids. One of the PCs was in the tavern, one was haggling over livestock for some reason, and the rest were purchasing miscellaneous adventure supplies.

My first 4e campaign started in some low level magistrate's office.

[Shademan]

I think the real question here is "how many Dm's DID start their adventure in a tavern?"

[Tyndmyr]

When my group first let me run a game, I was given a location to start in by the one who had done the game before mine. A casino run by the dwarven mafia.

If you don't mind, Im stealing that idea for future use.

[root9125]

If you don't mind, Im stealing that idea for future use.

Man, a medieval casino would be AWESOME. A single Dwarven Artificer who creates and / or rigs machines...

I'm stealing it too.

[Glyde]

So far: Airship crashing, on the road investigating a wizard's tower, ambushed while escorting a caravan for their own reasons.

I have yet to start a campaign in a tavern

[Heliomance]

<arbitrary percentage> of <arbitrary demographic> have performed <arbitrary activity>. If you're one of the <arbitrary percentage> who haven't, copy and paste this into your sig.

[Jalor]

I started an intentionally sandbox campaign where the PCs could be ANY of twelve WELL-DESCRIBED places in a city. What did they choose?
I started my most recent campaign in the Grand Bazaar of Sigil after returning from some kind of exciting adventure in another plane. Literally anything in the multiverse can be found in Sigil's Grand Bazaar.. I described a variety of outlandish sights, asked my PCs where they want to go first, and one of them shouted "Let's go drinking!".

Just to punish them, I pulled out the most difficult generic bar-fight encounter I had prepared and tossed in a recurring enemy they wouldn't have met until later in the session.

[Merk]

I began my first real campaign less than a month ago and started my players out on a raft arriving at a small mercantile shipping town. Good news for them, because within 2 minutes of starting the session, their raft was blown to bits and I had them roll initiative.

[Oslecamo]

My first adventure started on the burning wrecks of the remains of oour character's vilage, invaded by an unknown force.

We also started as farmers with nothing but our clothes(but class levels at least), so our first quest was to loot both the defeated invaders and the remains of our village's retired heros wich had died fighting.

Good times.

[AslanCross]

100% of percentage statistics are made up.

Anyway, my first campaign started with a large festival in a city. The party was pulled out of the crowd by headhunters sent by the royalty to hire adventurer-types.

[Friv]

90% of percentage statistics are made up.

"Seven out of ten people hate this product."
"Where did you get that number from?"
"I made it up. Studies have shown that made-up statistics are much more valuable than researched ones."
"Really. How many studies?"
"Eighty-seven."

[Zaydos]

100% of percentage statistics are made up.

And thus so is that one... seems pretty accurate nonetheless.

[Superglucose]

My first campaign began with everyone in prison because they were under "suspicion of being spies." Since they were all humans/elves in Dwarven lands, everyone but one member just rolled with the fact that they were expected to prove they weren't spies by preforming "community service." I explained this was the "tutorial" section of the game, and that I understood they were a bit frustrated at not being able to leave the starting town, but that I kind of wanted to see how the party functioned together before throwing them into the real world.

The one member kept ripping into me for being a terrible GM, for having a terrible story, and for railroading him so hard. No one else cared, they thought it was perfectly natural.

My next campaign... I'm not going to start that in a tavern either. They're all going to be in a lineup signing on for a job.

I have a friend who starts every campaign not just in a tavern, but the SAME tavern. The bullet holes from my first character are still described in details, as is the "No Bugbears Allowed" sign, which got put up after the very first campaign started in which several bugbears wrecked up the joint (leading to the bullet holes). I forget its name or the town it's in, but it's kind of nice to have such a recognizable locale.

EDIT:
Oh, my one-shots are famous for starting in absurdly unrelated positions. The first one I ever ran... well...

"Ok, so you guys have just gotten back from the front and your team of ten special ops have freed about a hundred civilians from the Chinese re-education camp outside of Anchorage. You're currently aboard a C-130 heading back to Vancouver, where you'll rest, resupply, and head back out to grab another group of survivors."

They ended up on some futuristic version of Survivor.

The second one,

"In the corner of the bar there's a man sitting at a table. He has two rocket launches strapped to his back as well as a bandoleer holding several dozen grenades. On the table in front of him is a large assault rifle and he's currently cleaning the barrel of a sub-machine gun. He has further knives and handguns strapped to his body. He greets you and says, "I need you to clear out a space station for me.""

The PCs asked why he didn't do it himself.

Answer?

"I'm not heavily armed enough."
Cue tucker's kobolds... in space!

[Jergmo]

I started my first campaign out in the street next to a pile of refuse and sewage in a ditch. My players then proceeded to enter the tavern.

And sure, I doubt anyone's ever actually clicked on any of the links for stuff I made in my sig, but it serves as a convenient reference for me. I already have enough wordpads floating around as it is. :smalltongue:

[AstralFire]

You're going to have to elaborate on the Chinese re-education camp, Super. That sounds amazing.

[Sallera]

First campaign? In the midst of gladiatorial combat. Also done on a boat, and in a sealed stone room with no obvious way out (Planescape, of course).

And sigs happen to be a very convenient place to store links that no one else cares about. :smalltongue:

[Stadge]

I've only ever ran the one campaign, but it didn't start in a tavern.

It started at a public execution put on by the local (and corrupt) nobleman and threw the PCs together. The bard was being forced to preform the official-execution-speel (I forget the true term), the godfather-styled sorcerer was the unlucky chap about to be executed, the warlock was there on a deliberate attempt to kill the nobleman, his old-friend-who-he'd-not-seen-for-years the warlord was just in the crowd and spotted the warlock. Another character was a slave of the noble and if I remeber rightly the rogue had decided that she would be the local rebel who could lead the group to safety (there were more guards arriving).

It actually worked pretty well, because they all worked out why they would be willing to fight against the established nobility after the sorcerer blasted the hangman. And once they'd escaped, we had the fun roleplaying of a group of (mostly) strangers in a difficult position.

[AstralFire]

That sounds like an awesome hook, especially for a first-timer to the DM's chair.

[Jade_Tarem]

The first adventure I ever DM'd did indeed start in a tavern.

The first campaign that I DM'd started in a town square.

[X2]

A campaign I did started out with the PC's tied to stone sacrificial tablets out in an empty field.

[Deepblue706]

The first game I ever DM'd was supposed to be very basic. It began with "You have been hired to help protect the King as he journeys through dangerous territory..."

And then I was interrupted by a player who said "Can I kill the king?"

So, since it was agreed to be a grand idea and I hadn't even finished the first sentence, I quickly improvised and made the beginning "You have been hired to murder the King."

We got right into infiltration. No Tavern.

I think the first session we ever began in a tavern was when the players decided to commit genocide against Halflings, and needed a base of operations to plan it all out. Usually they slept in the wilderness, because they were often chased out by villagers.

[AstralFire]

You have a pretty murderous group.

[Deepblue706]

Had. This was like ten years ago. We were pre-teens.

[ZeroNumerous]

I think the real question here is "how many Dm's DID start their adventure in a tavern?"

I started my first campaign in a tavern in the middle of a barfight started by the party fighter in response to the question: "Is that your mother up on that pole?" Seven people died, the PCs were arrested, executed and woke up in Hel(the Norse Hel, not the lameness of Baator). They had to fight, wheel and deal to get out.

[Stadge]

That sounds like an awesome hook, especially for a first-timer to the DM's chair.

Ah thanks, in fairness I owe a lot of it to the group in question, mostly for being willing to run with my weird homebrew world where all the races had changed and also for their roleplaying ideas. The sorcerer's player helped me out a lot when he gave me his background of him being a deposed crime boss, that kind of sparked the whole execution thing, which made it easy to introduce my low-level villain-noble.

I'm thinking I may return to that world if I decide to run a campaign here at uni, it's still got a lot of potential and the people here don't know of it. Plus, I kind of love my pantheon of gods :smallsmile:

[AstralFire]

Well, D&D is a cooperative effort, but that takes quality on both ends. :) If you decide to re-open it, you should consider posting the world details on the homebrew forum.

[Kaldrin]

The first game I ever played in started just outside of a town... I can't remember why, but it did.

The first game I ever ran? Hell if I know. I've run so many games they've all mashed together. I'm pretty sure I've never started a game in a tavern... okay, a serious game in a tavern, but I can't be 100%* sure...



* - 100% of my statistics are made up.

[Stadge]

Yeah, you're right there.

And actually that's a good thought, I'll do that if it looks like I'll be DMing again. Currently far too excited to be playing in a new campaign with a new group on Wednesday though.

[Korivan]

Don't think I've ever started in a tavern. My PC's visit them often enough though...

Lets see, started PC's in prison, shipwrecked, striken with amnesia and left for dead, as slaves. The closest thing is that I do tend to start them in the middle of town in the one shot session games.

[Sir Dar]

Taverns can be a fun start to a adventure.when run by undead.


That bard singing in the tavern is a ghost.That barmaid you try to talk in to having *fun* with you is a vampire.Barkeep you just order a round of ale from is a zombie.That guy in the dark counter wearing a hood is a necromancer.

For more fun you can make all of the town undead .[with maybe a few living here and there.] IT should be sun light now you say? You must be new to town,Its all ways night here.




So much fun to be had with undead and taverns :amused:


I would name a few plot hooks but why ruin the fun when you can make up your own.

[AshDesert]

The first game I ran started in the middle of the desert, as part of a massive caravan along one of the main trade routes, which was being attacked by slavers. By the way, just because you can play gestalt, that doesn't mean you can run it on your first extended stay in the DM's chair:smalleek:.

The first non-freeform game I played in started with the PCs in court being tried for treason in a loaded trial, that was a crazy campaign...

[Sharkman1231]

After all our characters sacrifced themselves...
The new characters starting location was...

"You appear standing around a large circular pond, in the middle of empty grassland, with a small sapling growing at the center of the pool of water. You all are dressed in flowing white robes. What do you do?"

When I would DM my players characters' would usually be that the three humans are siblings (TN, NE, & LG or something) with the gnome being married to one of them.

[Telasi]

You mean the thing in my sig? It's probably made up, but it has a point.

For the record, my first game began outdoors, in the storm of the century.

[AstralFire]

What exactly is the point?

[Ungvar]

First tabletop game I GMed started in a modified DC10 cargo plane that was transporting one superhero, (and one superhero wannabe who stowed away) to a remote island in search of a missing comrade.

First D&D adventure began on a mountainside as the PCs were tracking down a band of marauders.

That said, beginning in a tavern isn't necessarily a bad idea, or really even a cliche. At least, not much more than just about everything else that can happen in a game. The one time I was involved in a game that started out in a tavern, I was a PC. None of the PCs started out knowing each other, or even interacting with each other with any purpose in mind. We were all just kind of randomly shooting the breeze w/ each other and w/ the NPCs when several huge fire elementals began laying waste to the street outside. We were all about level 2 or 3, so when the elementals turned to advance on the tavern, a confrontation was out of the question. We fled down through an escape hole to the sewer below, and began to try to make our way out.

Needless repetition is what you should avoid.

[BritishBill]

I started mine in a tavern... full of dire bears....with plate mail.......and fullblades.....riding dragons..

[FoE]

One of these days, I'm going to start an adventure in the flaming wreckage of a tavern. :smallbiggrin:

[drengnikrafe]

I believe the percentage is totally arbitrary. I also believe that the tavern is a really easy place to start an adventure, and its great for the inexperienced.

[averagejoe]

What exactly is the point?

You know, now that I think about it, I've seen a signature that goes, "Such and such percent of people have taken weed. If you're one of the so and so percent that didn't, copy and paste this into your signature." While I'm not sure this is where the meme started, I'm sure the tavern thing is a riff off of this. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a joke at some point.

[Giggling Ghast]

It may be a cliché, but it's also a logical way to start an adventure with a group who don't know each other. I mean, let's say you're the type to wander from place to place hunting for treasure. You stop for the night in a strange town. But you don't want to spend all night sitting in your room, so what do you do? You go to a bar.

(Or a brothel, as the case may be for you. What you do on your own time is up to you, I don't pass judgement. :smalltongue:)

"The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication. "
-Terry Pratchett

[arguskos]

I feel like a bad DM to say that my first campaign DID start in a tavern. :smallannoyed:

[Mercenary Pen]

I feel like a bad DM to say that my first campaign DID start in a tavern. :smallannoyed:

Depends precisely what you did with it.

[Ormur]

I didn't plan for it but my first campaign also started in a tavern, I think one of the players specifically asked if there was tavern in the village. That's where the players met and heard the mayor's body had been nailed to the door of his manor.

[Kris Strife]

Washed up on a deserted beach on a long forgotten continent where undead had pretty much taken over, dwarves had sealed themselves underground and elves were using extra dimensional space to hide. Their ship had been wrecked by a zombified Leviathan (the monster manual II version, not the Elder Evils one),

[Harperfan7]

My friend made a tavern that was circular, where the mysterious guy slowly walks around the inner wall trying to look mysterious.

[Deepblue706]

I feel like a bad DM to say that my first campaign DID start in a tavern. :smallannoyed:

It's aight. Taverns are cool, and appropriate for dirty, poor low-level adventurers who don't have a way of producing their own food, and think running around in the wilderness for berries is stupid.

Although everyone knows the best campaigns begin in either dominating a town with huge badass weaponry, kidnapping someone, or filling in for Maria at the Opera House.

[Myou]

I feel like a bad DM to say that my first campaign DID start in a tavern. :smallannoyed:

Pffft, I begged my DM to start us in one my first time! How else would you know you were playing D&D? :smallbiggrin:

[Shardan]

My favorite starting point was a Dark Sun campaign. The dm tells us. "ok. you know your equipment list. Throw it out. You wake up in loin cloths tied and caged in a slavers caravan in the middle of the desert."

[Gamgee]

Mine did. From the first page it appears I am in the minority. Granted it was one session, and god awful crap at that. Then I started my first campaign sort of all sprawled out and then worked the party to a Tavern and then from there the main story arc. That was a looooong time ago, and I haven't started in a Tavern since or had a game start in one since.

Edit
I think at one point in a game the Tavern was a battle base and command center of an Empire though. I mean it's logical with all that information coming in and going ect. So yes, the palace of the land was the Tavern. -_- :P

[chiasaur11]

One of these days, I'm going to start an adventure in the flaming wreckage of a tavern. :smallbiggrin:

Isn't that the default state of taverns that regularly service adventurers?

[arguskos]

Depends precisely what you did with it.
It sucked, cause I was 12 at the time. I'd only been playing for 3 years at that point, so I wasn't really ready for DMing, in my opinion. It 'twas a horrible campaign, and I'm fine admitting it. Hell, I'm not a vast amount better now, to hear other people talk about their games. :smallsigh: All the old familiar places...

[John Campbell]

The first campaign I ran started on the road outside the Keep on the Borderlands.

For some reason, this thread has tempted me to run a campaign that starts out: "You find yourself on a barren and dismal plain. The last thing you remember is your death. Tell me how it happened."

[Vectner]

I started out my 3.5 campaign in a town square of small town over run with dire rats. The first dungeon was completly random with the BBEG being a wererat with a wyrmling white dragon. Worked up a whole campaing from that. It's been fun.