PDA

View Full Version : Need Help With Starting My New Campaign =)



Zertryx
2010-09-11, 01:15 AM
I have been DMing for quite some time now, I'm not the best DM in the world and theres still lots of things that I don't know. Me and my group play D&D 3.5 (because we feel it's the best there is)

Anyways I'm kind of tired of using the whole "you all end up at the tavern" and then so and so happens to say this or random event that unites you guys together. I want something a little more exciting. I have a little Idea of how I want my campaign to start but I'm having trouble on how to get the members to meet up.

I had my players create a back story to were their all living in the same city but at different areas. (one lives on the outskirts of the city but uses it for trade / supplies he needs to live) what I'm trying to figure out is how to get them to meet.

The ideas I have for the story to start are

1: "It's a normal day and everything seems fine but then storm clouds appear and the sky darkens, people think it's just a storm at first but then a lightning strike comes down and unleashes mobs of creatures running rampant through the city."

2: "There is 4 statues of Brave heroes from another time who once saved the land, (the trouble here is I want a reason the PC's might be near the statues and something calls to them or makes them wanna touch them which then a ruin or symbol is then Etched into their skin on their hands making them chosen heroes) However Idk how I could do this, This would then lead into event #1 and maybe a wizard appears from the lightning and is looking for them?"

If someone could come up with more clear ideas / fixes to these and a way to make the PC's meet up during these events to want to travel together it would be very helpful ^^

The main story will eventually lead up to them having to seal 7 gateways to stop the planes from all shifting into one creating total chaos, but thhey won't be introduced tot hat part of the story until they meet a NPC who will put them on this quest, the scene from the begging though is an effect that is starting because of the planes shifting into one another.

AslanCross
2010-09-11, 04:34 AM
Variation on the first (fusion with the second as well): Festival commemorating the 4 brave heroes. Lightning strike unleashes monsters, turning the festival into utter chaos, and then the symbols appear on the PCs.

Yorrin
2010-09-11, 11:01 AM
What I'm planning to do in my next campaign:

(My players stop reading here!)





The PCs wake up in a dark room strapped to tables with no clue how they got there. They've never met before, and the strange instruments on the nearby shelves don't bode well.

Obviously this can be adapted, but the whole "the PCs don't know how they got here" thing provides great impetus for an early adventure.

Thatguyoverther
2010-09-11, 11:50 AM
If your going for lightning, I'd have all of the character's struck, leaving some sort of mark. You know mark of Cain style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Of_Cain) but in a good way.

Maybe have them learn that the four hero's averted the last catastrophe and the marks are the same as the ones on the hero's statues.

Thinker
2010-09-11, 12:52 PM
I find that forced military service works well.