I'm a new DM

[20percentcooler]

I need a campaign idea, and I refuse to start in a tavern. Any suggestions?
And my campaign starts Saturday.

[RMS Oceanic]

A misunderstanding at a festival leads to your party getting arrested, but the Mayor will drop the charges in exchange for a quest.

[Grinner]

He needs you to rescue his daughter...from a band of marauding taverns.

[Andvare]

What type of campaign do you want to run?
Kingdom builder?
Heroes fighting against the evil?
Investigation?
Random adventuring for gold and glory?
Caliph instead of the Caliph? (AKA the campaign that iz no good)
Orcs on the warpath?
Crime and corruption?
All of the above?

There's a million directions to take a campaign, I even had one which purpose was more or less to make fun of all the RP tropes. Yes, we started in a tavern.

[Ranting Fool]

The party were on their way somewhere but at night as they rested Shadow Thieves ambushed them knocking them all out as they awake they find themselves in a cage of .... oh dear it looks like those pesky Minions who work for the Wizard Who Lives By The Coast are here to tell me off again.

When in doubt rip off popular fiction :smalltongue:

My good Gods that's IT! I now MUST have a vampire in my campaign that has a cursed item of Glitterdust that makes him sparkle all the time :smallbiggrin:

[20percentcooler]

I was trying to give it a fire emblem feel.

[prufock]

You start at a cavern.
You start out on saturn.
You start at a postern.
You start at a lantern.
You start at a lectern.
You start at a cistern.
You start as an intern.
You start at a u-turn.
You start out with heartburn.

[JeminiZero]

Your PCs are all in a village. It happens to be attacked by raiders. They manage to drive the raiders off, but not before the Chief's daughter is kidnapped. The chief seeing their combat prowess begs them to rescue her.

[Ceaon]

I was trying to give it a fire emblem feel.

While the party is visiting the castle of [insert name here] it is invaded by [insert country here]. The king/queen asks the party to bring his/her son/daughter to the safety of [insert allied country here]. The prince/princess is either a party member or a level 1 aristocrat.

[hymer]

You're new to DMing, and you need to build a campaign start in 2-3 days? And you've no place to start, save 'not in a tavern'?
Andvare has some interesting questions. I'll add some:

What do your players want, and what are they going to make for PCs?

[mattie_p]

Go with another trope - they all wake up in a cave with no memory of how they got there, who they are, or anything else. Total amnesia. As they adventure they rediscover skills that their bodies still know, they just don't know they know. Their minds instinctively work properly, so the guy who has the holy symbol around his neck and a prayer book to pelor can still pray and get spells, the wizard with his spellbook can memorize spells properly, etc.

They need to recover their memories, and solve whatever else you throw at them.

[lonely_cubone]

You start at a cavern.
You start out on saturn.
You start at a postern.
You start at a lantern.
You start at a lectern.
You start at a cistern.
You start as an intern.
You start at a u-turn.
You start out with heartburn.

All of these. At the same time.


What I like to do when I start a campaign is ask the players how their characters know each other. It makes more sense that a random group of people are going to adventure together if they knew each other already. Beyond that, maybe have a friend of one of the PCs ask him/her for help with something minor (like finding something the friend lost, clearing dire rats out of a cellar, something like that). Then, after they've been working together for a little while, you can start to introduce them to the main plot.

[Bloodgruve]

Roll for Initiative!>explain the scenario>immerse in campaign setting.

I really want to start a campaign this way. Reason being is that I feel it pulls the attention of the entire table right off the bat.

Throw a druid with some small fire elementals at um. Let them find a mission statement on the dead druid or whoever the druid killed as a plot hook. -or- Have the campaign open on the battlefield facing off against a low level enemy commander special ops style, reporting back to the PC's commander for further instruction (this does not need to be hack n slash).

GL
Blood~

[Tylerb7]

Have it start in a fashion boutique, where the party's goal is to make half a dozen dresses cooler by a certain relative margin (just roll percentile dice for this).

[Madara]

A large group of Gazebos have taken over the city and are moving on the capitol, you must stop them!

[Piggy Knowles]

The characters are hanging out when they see a young woman getting mugged and are prompted to come to the rescue. After doing so, they discover that the young woman is a notorious changeling spy and traitor, the muggers were bounty hunters, and the kingdom now has a price on the party's head for aiding and abetting. Bonus points if one of the bounty hunters was the son of a Duke or some such nonsense.

Nothing quite like starting the campaign as a fugitive!

[Ranting Fool]

The characters are hanging out when they see a young woman getting mugged and are prompted to come to the rescue. After doing so, they discover that the young woman is a notorious changeling spy and traitor, the muggers were bounty hunters, and the kingdom now has a price on the party's head for aiding and abetting. Bonus points if one of the bounty hunters was the son of a Duke or some such nonsense.

Nothing quite like starting the campaign as a fugitive!

My PC's have learnt the hard way that young women crying out for help isn't always what it seems :smallamused:

[Zaq]

Roll for Initiative!>explain the scenario>immerse in campaign setting.

I really want to start a campaign this way. Reason being is that I feel it pulls the attention of the entire table right off the bat.


This is fun. I prefer to handwave the "why are we working together, again?" issue and assert that you've been working together long enough to trust each other, and the rest is up to you. Now you're a band of fellows in a dangerous situation, and something's gotta be done.

Alternatively, you could have the chief of police-equivalent calling in his best specialty squad—i.e., the party—to crack down on those mafia troublemakers again. We got a tip from an informer, and there's no time to lose! I like having the PCs be explicit police-equivalent agents. Can be fun.

[Zubrowka74]

The group is on it's way to tavern, the only one in this village. The tavern explodes (fireball ?) leaving a burning ruin. The PCs must investigate... or find another tavern.

[20percentcooler]

I am actually doing a campaign where the pcs (who are polar opposites) are entered by their patron gods in a competition against other teams of mortals. They are FORCED to work together.

[Fluffy_1.0]

This works best in an e6 or any other low level environment where you aren't ending up in Tippyverse.

An empire is invading your country. They have a rule where if they cannot conquer a nation in a year they will make an alliance with them to avoid a protracted war. Your city is holed up behind its walls but food, weapons, supplies need to be gathered and smuggled in. Enemy supply lines need to be cut. High value targets assassinated and allies recruited. Basically, your player's mission is to play the role of a small strike force to accomplish these goals.

[Andorax]

Invite the players to introduce their characters to the group, describe their history and backgrounds. Then tell them to work out a common back history together amongst themselves. Get them engaged in the discussion, keep directing them back to it and encouraging them to go on at length.

Make lots of notes. Stall for time. Use up the entire gaming session having the players do the work of determining who they are, how they met, and why they hang out together for you.

Post the notes here, and we'll have your second session up and running for you in no time.

[Ryulin18]

The players are the best in their careers. Their names known from kingdom to kingdom.

That was 200 years ago

They have been caught in a tomb's trap during an adventure where they couldn't die or age but couldn't starve either.

They are breached out of it by new adventurers and enter an almost new world, where everything they knew has changed and their skills and talents lost down the years.

Can they be the heroes they were so long ago?

[Toy Killer]

The players are the best in their careers. Their names known from kingdom to kingdom.

That was 200 years ago

They have been caught in a tomb's trap during an adventure where they couldn't die or age but couldn't starve either.

They are breached out of it by new adventurers and enter an almost new world, where everything they knew has changed and their skills and talents lost down the years.

Can they be the heroes they were so long ago?

Psudo-avatar:The last air bender-esque... I like that, Mind if I steal it away for later?

[Ranting Fool]

Psudo-avatar:The last air bender-esque... I like that, Mind if I steal it away for later?

I was already planning on doing something like that but mid game.... our heroes do a bunch of heroic things.... stuck for x years... all their choices have affected how things have turned out so the town they saved has grown, that puny little NPC adventurer is now an epic hero thanks to their help ect...

[Tegannie]

Heehee, I jsut posted an idea I had, but I have no campaign to use it for:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=238772

"Heros of Old" are reincarnated (but could easily be summoned or resurrected) to save world/save princess/defeat evil monster/etc.

[Sutremaine]

I need a campaign idea, and I refuse to start in a tavern.
Start outside the tavern. (http://www.goblinscomic.com/03092010/)

Alternatively, is there a particular style to Fire Emblems introductions? Usually in CRPGs you have a couple of characters who go way back and then they pick up strays as the plot demands. If you want to do that and there'll be some players sitting out for a while until their characters enter the plot then maybe they could run monsters or NPCs.

[Spyder_Bait]

The emporer of *insert kingdom* is looking to retrive/rexcue *Thing of importance* he decideds to hold a competion/games/tournement and the pcs are all individual winners that have been tested for the specific task

i have used this in two campaigns gets round the whole random tavern and how do the pcs know each other

[Empedocles]

Rise of the Runelords classic start:

PCs don't know each other, but they're from the same town. They go to the town to celebrate a festival, something bad happens, and they're the only ones equipped to solve the problem.

[Orsayan]

Weave the characters backstories into the prelude.

Example:
One of the PCs is a cleric of Pelor, the PC has just arrived at the shrine of st. <Pelor Saint> and is now praying. The rest of the party awaits outside the holy area because theyre not that religious, instead they talk about the civilwar/bandits/orc invasion/whatever your campaign is about when suddenly.. DUN DUN DUUUN. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g9WjcGdxuM)

Example:
One of the PCs is an ex-scholars of the School of Abjurant Magic. He travels to town for the annual gathering for S.A.M and the rest of the party tags along for the festiveties. Now they're at a play where the famous bard <Flamboyant Bard Name> is rolling natural 20's on his perform in every act. During a break, an organizer rushes into the tent and... DUN DUN DUUUN. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g9WjcGdxuM)