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GenericGuy
2010-10-02, 06:20 PM
How many times have you started a campaign with this tried and true method of getting the party together:smallsigh:? Anyone have a more interesting and original way to get a diverse set of characters all in the same place? EX: In my most recent campaign I had the characters find each other on a battlefield, with them all on the losing side. They were all hired mercenaries for a port city-state seceding from a Kingdom and they got to decide from there whether to retreat back to base or join up with King's army.

Greenish
2010-10-02, 06:24 PM
Well, the obvious (and easy, from DM's perspective) solution is to tell players to figure out how their characters know each other. Bonus point: not having to worry about how the group stays together, because the PCs already have an IC reason(s) for that.

The Rose Dragon
2010-10-02, 06:24 PM
I've had a campaign that started with "you never meet each other", but I was a player in that one.

Ernir
2010-10-02, 06:25 PM
Never, but also, I have never taken up the DM's reins without the players having gone to the nearest inn on their own initiative in the very first session.

Darklord Bright
2010-10-02, 06:26 PM
I did it once, on the very first time I DMed anything (A custom system I was working on), because I was told I was obliged to, given it was my first time. We all thought it was hilariously and purposely generic.

The next time I DMed that custom system, I started it off on a ship which was hit by a storm and crashed on the shores of a foreign land, only the 'heroes' of the story surviving the wreck, so they needed to work together to survive.

Speaking of which, I really should keep working on that system...

Morph Bark
2010-10-02, 06:27 PM
My first party started as a meet-up of childhood friends at the gates of their small town, starting out on a scouting trip to a new cave one of them had found.

In the second campaign, we started at the mayor's office where one of the PCs worked and another was coming to get a year-round gate pass.

The third campaign started in an oriental seaside town where one of the PCs came drifting to in a rowboat without oars. The other PC was busy fighting the local Gym Leader.

The fourth campaign started at a mercenary company of sorts, where the two PCs were immediately pranked by one of their peers, called Zack. He instantly got dubbed The Zack-Ass and was pranked back many times.

The fifth one was prettymuch the same.

The sixth one started in outer space where we all got brought in to a slave trader colony. Two of the players, me included, didn't like our characters, so we made new ones and started over with our characters meeting the third, old one, as he crashed down into a nearby castle while fighting the BBEG-to-be.

The seventh one started in an inn... so yeah. It was hamlet and one of the PCs lived there since childhood.

The eighth and current one started in a run-down shack where the six PCs lived (actually five since one slept outside in the gutter). One got hit in the head with a newspaper and woken up due to the 1d4 nonlethal damage and the articles in it allowed for them to pick their quest and start their journy.


In all but the sixth I've been the DM.

Tukka
2010-10-02, 06:30 PM
I haven't run a lot of campaigns, but usually I like to get a backstory from everyone and then just write in a hook that gets everyone in proximity to one another. I also would encourage players to work together to give their characters a common origin, so instead you only have to bring together 2 or 3 different parties instead of 4 or 5 individuals.

Greenish
2010-10-02, 06:32 PM
One got hit in the head with a newspaper and woken up due to the 1d4 nonlethal damage and the articles in it allowed for them to pick their quest and start their journy.Getting hit by a newspaper does more damage than being punched or kicked? :smallamused:

Fuzzie Fuzz
2010-10-02, 06:33 PM
Heh, in my current campaign, my players were on the road to a new city when they got attacked by vampire sheep.

In the campaign I'm starting in a week or two, the players are starting in a tavern. The tavern is owned by one of them, and he will be very angry if any barfights erupt. In the current campaign, his character got kicked out of a city for burning down a bar, and likes nothing more than starting barfights. I smell karmic payback coming. :smallbiggrin:

Crasical
2010-10-02, 06:37 PM
I've played it and seen it played both ways, actually.

First game I ever played in, we started in a tavern together, and a shady old man looked for 'trustworthy looking folk' to do a mission for the king recruited the party.

First game I ever ran, the players where all in a several-mile radius of a large, visible landmark. I then told them a storm was rolling in and they all met in the small cave at the same time looking for shelter. The bonding of the 1st adventure kept the party together after that.

Second game I ever ran, I explained to the characters quite clearly that their superheroes where going to meet in a perfect storm of coincidence, but I would try not to be so obvious after that point. They all showed up to stop a heist at the exact same time.

AsteriskAmp
2010-10-02, 06:43 PM
My first party got together at a Ballet Recital, it was weird but worked.

My second party began with two members and began aquiring members gradually as new players came.

My third party met in a gathering for a coup

My fourth party met at a gnome lab, Mercury elemental ensued

My fifth party met in a jail and had to get together to escape from a Tarrasque that began attacking it, they then got reasons to stick together.

Ernir
2010-10-02, 06:43 PM
Getting hit by a newspaper does more damage than being punched or kicked? :smallamused:

It was a Large newspaper, obviously.

boomwolf
2010-10-02, 07:13 PM
Well, I generally divide my games to "worlds", one world for each group I had, and each works differently.

One one world they are all mercenaries that do not know each other (yet), on most adventures. if they choose to send the same character to another contract (game), fine by me. (they make new ones often, sometime return to old one for lower level games, etc. the player with the least characters in that world has 5 that are still alive.)
If two of them happen to choose characters that were played in the same team before, fun times. sometimes things like "A adventures with B, next game B adventures with C, two games later A adventures with C, next game A, B, C are all hired.

Its quite amusing.

BTW, if you wonder about it-the "start" locations of all games (where the guy who needs mercenaries come to seek help) is a tavern. not joking, its the same tavern every time, and the "off" characters hang out there in the meantime. they even talk to their past PC's (now NPC's) from time to time.

The soul excepting was the first game, where they started on a village under attack as a bunch of childhood friends, and were sent after the attack to deliver what (probably) attracted said attack to a "guy who will know what to do", who owns that tavern, much like the NWN2 start (inspired by it a bit.)

Actually, from time to time I send them on quests relating to that damned broken statue. (like finding a man who might know what it is, or collecting another piece of it from some dungeon.)
No clue what to do with it once they get all pieces. (they already gotten all of it except the head and left foot.)

Techsmart
2010-10-02, 07:27 PM
I've had players meet a variety of different ways. My first group had a variety of reasons the players were brought together. Two of them got into a barfight with an inebriated orc who was a little too... huggy. They were put to work for the town guard to pay for their damages. Another one already worked for the town guard. One was a perverted wizard who happened to catch wind of some strange happenings in the town, and figured the fame could get him some lovely ladies. Another was a bar wench who took it upon herself to stop the barfight, and decided to keep the first two adventurers from getting into more trouble, joining the group. The last person was a traveling female cleric of pelor who fell in love with the perverted wizard (although the feeling wasn't mutual), and followed him around because if it. She was heartbroken when I smashed him to a pulp with my gazebo.
In my most recent campaign, the rogue was busy confusing wizards with his sleight of hand skills, and confused the party wizard. They had a heated argument, but eventually got over it and went to the tavern to get a drink. The paladin and cleric were traveling from another land and stopped at the tavern to get a drink, meeting rogue and wizard. A drinking contest ensued with my personal homebrew drink, sneaky fish (DC16 for inebriation, DC16 will or think you are a fish). They ended up getting recruited to do some work somewhere between the wizard flopping on the floor and the paladin being completely wasted. Later, they met the sorcerer, who the rogue framed for one of his own crimes. After having him arrested, the rogue posted bail for the sorcerer in exchange for his services in the quest.
The important thing in a quest isn't "did they meet in X?", its how and why they met in X, and what became of their interactions?

gallagher
2010-10-02, 07:34 PM
i just started my first campaign as a DM two weeks ago. i had my players start out captured on a pirate ship, with all their things stored in the captains lodgings. made for an interesting first day.

Ormur
2010-10-02, 07:36 PM
Never, but also, I have never taken up the DM's reins without the players having gone to the nearest inn on their own initiative in the very first session.

To be fair we also went everywhere else in that godforsaken village in the first session. :smalltongue:

I frankly don't recall whether my first campaign actually started in a tavern or if it the players just met there. However the main action was in front of the mayor's office to which the mayor's body was nailed to.

Coidzor
2010-10-02, 07:55 PM
Hmm, my first campaign started with us all having been hired/press-ganged/brow-beaten/bribed into investigating the BURNING PLAGUE as the only able-bodied individuals who weren't busy taking care of sick people.

The campaign after that we started out being a bunch of drinking buddies who decided to take a bounty from the mayor's office to check up on the light house after ships stopped coming into the harbor.

After that we again started out as already hired to do a job and it was a one-shot.

The next one after that I joined late so we met the rest of the party in the jails of a ruined keep that some orcs had taken over and then we busted out, grabbed our stuff, and murderlized the warchief.

The one after that, I was sick and missed the first session so I don't know how they met, but I met them after they rescued my character in the middle of a dungeon crawl in a ruined gnomish undercity next to/below a human city.

The campaign after that, we were a previously established Free-Chartered Adventuring Company that was having a dry spell, so we decided to move on to greener pastures and took up a job beneath us for a search and rescue that took us in the direction of Ravenloft accidentally.


So sort of an in media res beginning trend, though before any actual action started.

comicshorse
2010-10-02, 08:27 PM
A Fading Suns game a friend ran started with the players as prisoners being transported to a penal planet, until the ship crash-landed on a very hostile planet.

Swordgleam
2010-10-02, 08:31 PM
Threw all the PCs in jail.

All the PCs started out on a ship - they got to figure out why they were there - that got attacked by pirates immediately.

Had all the PCs receive mysterious letters directing them to the same place.

All the PCs were from the same village - getting them to go on the first adventure together was a bit of a stretch, though.


When I'm a player, I like to work my character into at least one other PC's backstory. One time, it backfired horribly. Other times, it's worked fairly well.

Pechvarry
2010-10-02, 08:56 PM
Similar to the OP, I started a campaign with 2 of the characters on opposing sides of a massive battle. It was all orchestrated to create an area where as many souls were leaving the physical realm at the same time as some evil force could muster. Bla bla bla, it didn't last long.

Ravens_cry
2010-10-02, 08:58 PM
The only campaign I did I had the PC's as part of a militia and they were on patrol together. It worked well enough, I think.

thompur
2010-10-02, 09:03 PM
Getting hit by a newspaper does more damage than being punched or kicked? :smallamused:

If it was the Sunday New York Times? Absoutely!

Noedig
2010-10-02, 09:12 PM
My favourite one was when the DM had us all on various points of the road to Waterdeep. Its the middle of winter and it starts to blizzard, and my character finds an abandoned tower to take shelter in. About three hours later the next character shows up, and due to local custom, we are forced to share the fire. The cycle repeats until we are all together. Then, hobgoblins who we did not know use the tower attacked us and we had to band together to kill them.

Morph Bark
2010-10-03, 04:40 AM
Getting hit by a newspaper does more damage than being punched or kicked? :smallamused:

It was a Large newspaper, obviously.

If it was the Sunday New York Times? Absoutely!

I guess I can rest my case before even starting it. :smallbiggrin:

Being a thrown Small monk weapon could also work.

Malificus
2010-10-03, 05:07 AM
I've not started a campaign in an inn/bar/tavern a few times

I've never done it in WoD games of any sort
One (and only one) D&D game I've been in started with us already together on the road
The Dark Heresy game I played started with us on a mission
The Exalted game started with us in the bordlerlands

FelixG
2010-10-03, 05:17 AM
In the most recent campaign i have joined i started on a ship i just bought...then was sent right off to a cantena to hire the other two players in the game for dangerous work

(star wars)

:smallbiggrin:

Ozreth
2010-10-03, 05:17 AM
I like it. I'm a sucker for "generic" fantasy hooks in games and books. I'm not the type to look for something "different" or groundbreaking in my fantasy, although I appreciate it when I see it.

Heck, my favorite fantasy novels are still the Drizzt series ha.

KillianHawkeye
2010-10-03, 06:16 AM
I only had the players meet at an inn the very first time I ever DM'd, and that was only because that was where the adventure I was running began. Back when I still ran premade adventure modules.

PrGo
2010-10-03, 07:22 AM
I like it. I'm a sucker for "generic" fantasy hooks in games and books. I'm not the type to look for something "different" or groundbreaking in my fantasy, although I appreciate it when I see it.

Heck, my favorite fantasy novels are still the Drizzt series ha.

I second you on both of those things :smallbiggrin:

Elvenoutrider
2010-10-03, 10:07 AM
I'm a fan of "All of you have been called to this location to be given a mission." The few times ive seen tavern meetings the party alwas misses or ignores the plot hook, wind up fighting each other, getting arrested, you know the drill.

A few notable exceptions to this:

- In my star wars campaign, the party wakes up aboard a wrecked republic capital ship with no memory of how they got there, nor do any of them remember any service to the republic.

- In my d20 modern campaign, the party met burning down a walmart...

jebob
2010-10-03, 10:15 AM
This idea isn't one I've used, but would love to try.

Snakes. On. A. Frigate.

MarkusWolfe
2010-10-03, 10:37 AM
I'm going to be playing a game soon where all the PCs work for one mercenary company/quest guild/adventurer's union. We might all meet in a tavern, as a way to introduce ourselves to coworkers. We might all meet in the boss's office when he's assigning us our first job. I have no idea.

Logalmier
2010-10-03, 11:27 AM
"You are all swallowed by an inn..."

Morph Bark
2010-10-03, 12:19 PM
"You are all swallowed by an inn..."

Does it taste me (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9361109)?

Dust
2010-10-03, 12:56 PM
M-Bark, first time I've seen that, and I am seriously going to pitch playing a Tasted character in my next 3.5 game. I'll let you know how it goes. :smallbiggrin:

FMArthur
2010-10-03, 02:00 PM
I once had a campaign start mid-battle atop a colossal dragon in flight, but mostly I just stick to inns and inn-psycheouts. There are so many interesting things to have happen at a natural gathering place for adventurers that I don't find it especially repetitive even after all this time.

Morph Bark
2010-10-03, 02:14 PM
M-Bark, first time I've seen that, and I am seriously going to pitch playing a Tasted character in my next 3.5 game. I'll let you know how it goes. :smallbiggrin:

Please do! I love to hear about people playing with homebrew and hearing about it!

Also, don't forget the follow-up PrC (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170098) (but only if you take Weresheep rather than Delicious) in case you'd want to take it. :smallwink:


Man, starting a campaign inside the stomach of a dead Tarrasque now seems like a plan...

Lord Vukodlak
2010-10-03, 02:29 PM
I had one start in the town square, the party members were individually drawn to the commotion occurring there. They stood next to one another and watched as a captured group of orcish pirates were sold into slavery.
Shortly after the execution of Commodore Grogbeard the pirate leader,

An Elderly woman known as Mother Maggie saw them standing together assumed they were an adventuring party and approached them for help to find some missing children.
And thus the party was born.

aquaticrna
2010-10-03, 03:00 PM
the way i started our most recent campaign involved the party being approached by a shady character wanting to buy them a drink in exchange for listening to a proposition... half way through they all have to make fort saves, the conversation went like this:
DM: everyone make a fortitude save!
wizard: low
bard: really low
cleric: 28
DM: you all fall immediately to sleep!
cleric: WHAT? i got a 28! what was the DC?
DM: plot device

anyway long story short they all got shanghaied by an evil sentient ship that played mind games with its crew for fun/revenge

Logalmier
2010-10-03, 03:05 PM
Does it taste me (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9361109)?

"Hmmm, this PC has fragrant aromas of sweetness, paired with crisp bitter overtones. A refreshing minty flavor hints at past monsters long vanquished, and the spice notes compliment the XP earned over the long years that this character has spent developing- I mean adventuring. I would serve with slices of pomegranite and gnome."

Everything tastes better with gnome.

Ragitsu
2010-10-03, 03:44 PM
Most of my campaigns start off with the characters on a vehicle (truck, bus, boat, etc), or getting on a vehicle pretty soon.

Logalmier
2010-10-03, 03:46 PM
Inn on wheels?

Ragitsu
2010-10-03, 04:25 PM
Inn on wheels?

Hey, i've seen crazier in Eberron. It just might work!

Morph Bark
2010-10-03, 05:52 PM
Inn on wheels?

Sapient inn on wheels!

Logalmier
2010-10-03, 06:00 PM
Sapient inn on wheels!

Makes me think of an epic mimic that poses as an inn. Truly epic mimics are the hidden terror.

Damascus
2010-10-04, 01:55 PM
Here are two methods you could try in your next game:

Half of the party is sent by their employers to the same place, where they meet. Example: If there's a temple taken over by undead, they can meet outside of it.

Another idea is that they have no idea they're getting help, and they come across a second party that's going after the same task (also good for an encounter).

Zhalath
2010-10-04, 09:13 PM
The most memorable time I remember was when the party had to meet a necromancer at an inn (evil campaign), and he had grimlock zombies fetching his ale and food. This campaign also had the GMPC named Keith, the desert half-orc binder with 18 Cha. Strangely, the PCs loved him. So, he had to die, killed in the night by a grimlock zombie. They swore eternal vengeance against that necromancer, and stalked him out of the inn to his next destination. And so it began...

Dralnu
2010-10-05, 01:14 AM
Is it really so common? I've played about 8 campaigns so far and none of them have started at an inn.

Hallavast
2010-10-05, 01:47 AM
I try to avoid the whole "you meet in a tavern for the first time" gig. I've done it dozens of times in my freshmen DM years. It has little appeal for me.

The main problem is not one of location. It's more the issue of having 4-6 random strangers meeting up for a random reason (if any) for the first time. Which campaign start is more compelling?

"A roguish heir to a large fortune, his base-born knight half-brother, his devout best friend, and his friend's sorceress wife rendezvous at the tavern outside of town in preparation for their quest to seek revenge on their former teacher's murderer."

Or

"A rogue, a fighter, a cleric, and a sorcerer wander into a pub at the same time. Adventure abounds!"

The Inn part is rather incidental.

Cogidubnus
2010-10-05, 01:56 AM
I started my first campaign with all the players in prison together. By the time they'd broken out, they had a quest (and a boat).

More recently, I had the players start on a boat, this time hired by a merchant house to explore a whole new continent.

Greymane
2010-10-05, 02:00 AM
Hm. My first ever campaign I believe began in a brothel. So, basically an inn, but the scenery was nicer and it was leaps and bounds more expensive.

The last game I played in (Tomb of Horrors) began as we entered Skull City. We were the only non-natives there, so we decided to hang out and brave an infamous dungeon together. (The gargoyle next to the first hallway killed us. Badly.)

My Red Hand of Doom game began in the private jail of the local Lawful Good temple in Dennovar. There were only two characters at the time and one was a Binder, you see...

I'm hoping the next game I run will be set in Mass Effect. If my players have played the games before, they will start off as Blue Suns merc recruits, slaving under a jerk Batarian commander.

If I have a lot of newbies, they'll be Alliance Explorers, activating a Mass Relay. Approximately ten hours prior to first contact with the Turians.

Morph Bark
2010-10-05, 02:00 AM
I started my first campaign with all the players in prison together. By the time they'd broken out, they had a quest (and a boat).

More recently, I had the players start on a boat, this time hired by a merchant house to explore a whole new continent.

I presume the next campaign starts on a new continent? :smallwink:

bokodasu
2010-10-05, 08:49 AM
Makes me think of an epic mimic that poses as an inn. Truly epic mimics are the hidden terror.

I've always wanted to do a campaign based on Appalachian mythology; I'm blanking on the name right now but there's a creature that does this. (And follows you while you're not looking.)

I did start my first campaign at an inn, but it was 1982, so it wasn't a cliche yet. (Ok, so maybe it was, but I give myself a pass for never having heard of it before, and because that's what the module said to do.) There was even a shadowy figure in a face-concealing cloak!

More successful campaigns have had the characters all be siblings (trying to restore the stolen honor of their family) or the old standby, "you've all been hired to guard this merchant caravan." (Which isn't much better than the tavern thing, but at least they start out with a reason to be working together.) The one I'm starting now starts with a shipwreck where only the PCs make it to land, which I think should be fun. (Especially since they don't know that's how it's starting.)

Snake-Aes
2010-10-05, 08:59 AM
In the current game, 2 characters are lifelong friends, the other two never met any of the characters. One of the friends is organizing things at his place, the other is a guard in a shady game, another is cheating at said game and the third is out there to reveal the game to the public. Cheater is caught. Revealer runs to the city. Guard is pissed. Hilarity ensues as Revealer's face is used as an improvised broom for a few kilometers by Guard.

DaMullet
2010-10-05, 09:17 AM
In the game I'm running now, the party were all entrants in a a tournament being held by some authority somewhere; This had the advantage of judging their relative power level by fighting each other in a non-lethal controlled setting.

Lord_Gareth
2010-10-05, 09:30 AM
Lemme see here:

The Prison Barge
Three of the four party members were prisoners of the Porthaven justice system being sent into the far north with a specialist (me) to hunt monsters. Those party members had collars on them that would slay them immediately if they attempted to escape or destroy them, which was good, since 3/4 of us (including me) were evil and planning much more than monster hunting.

The Citadel
We started in our personal fortress.

Yes. Our personal fortress. Top THAT.

Snake-Aes
2010-10-05, 09:35 AM
The Citadel
We started in our personal fortress.

Yes. Our personal fortress. Top THAT.

Well, you could always start in your personal kingdom?
Making the players flee from their castle as the king has just been killed, the invading army is everywhere and the only survivors are the two heirs, one of their teachers and a pair of bodyguards.

Lord_Gareth
2010-10-05, 09:39 AM
Note: it's somewhat awkward for the guy playing a NG ranger interested in justice when his party members are all NE and consist of an assassin, a conjurer and a thief.

magellan
2010-10-05, 10:20 AM
From this thread I gather the new "Tavern where you all meet" is a "Prison xy where you all meet" :smallcool:

Kerrin
2010-10-05, 11:17 AM
My current campaign started out via a little backstory put together by the players and myself to bring the characters together before the adventure started...

Two dwarf brothers (fighter and rogue) left home and came to the big city to find opportunities and make their mark on the world.

After a jaunt or two out of the city and getting roughed up - aka not so successful in their efforts - they always ended up returning to the big city and visiting a certain temple to get healed up - where they struck up a relationship with a human (cleric) who was the one who usually tended them.

Also visiting the same temple was an elf (wizard) who came there quite a lot to do research in the church's scroll and book collection. While there the elf (wizard) frequently bumped into the same human (cleric) who was helping out the dwarf brothers (fighter and rogue).

One evening while having dinner together at a tavern they were approached with an offer... *adventure beings*


So, yes, technically it started in a tavern. *sigh*

Magic Myrmidon
2010-10-05, 11:23 AM
When I was a DM, I started the campaign with a kind of mix between olympics and the old coliseum thing. The humans and elves were big rivals, and they always met every few years to do sporting events like kill each other for large crowds.

MarkusWolfe
2010-10-05, 11:32 AM
From this thread I gather the new "Tavern where you all meet" is a "Prison xy where you all meet" :smallcool:

Actually, my group is going to meet in the lobby of a temp agency/mercenary company we're all working for.

"Yeah, you got some problems with mind flayers? Ok, we got the perfect team for that. It's......those guys over there."