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GoblinGilmartin
2014-04-11, 04:46 AM
This is one of my biggest issues as a DM. How do I "start" a game? And I mean literally, start one. I ree-eealy don't want everyone to meet in a tavern, but I have trouble figuring out the first step of the adventures. I usually tend to start the games in medias res, while players are already on their way to the second step, but I'd really like to hear some other DMs thoughts and get some other opinions.

Yora
2014-04-11, 05:24 AM
How about this? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?340004-How-do-you-actually-start-an-adventure)

WrathMage
2014-04-11, 05:57 AM
It might sound obvious, and even a little like a rail-roadish, but how about an outside agency has brought the characters together? In Eberron for example, perhaps one of the Dragonmarked houses, or Morgrave University, a nationla intelligence agency etc. Any kind of secret society, guild, national body etc can work, and it can give all important direction for the early parts of the campaign. As an added bonus they can be used should the party run into a major problem or (god forbid) a TPK.

GoblinGilmartin
2014-04-11, 06:25 AM
How about this? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?340004-How-do-you-actually-start-an-adventure)

's a good start.

Airk
2014-04-11, 08:13 AM
...

Examine the motivations of your characters.

Give each of them something that connects to their motivations and sets them on the path to adventure.

Profit.

Red Fel
2014-04-11, 08:28 AM
...

Examine the motivations of your characters.

Give each of them something that connects to their motivations and sets them on the path to adventure.

Profit.

This. One of the best ways to start an adventure is to go over the characters' backstories (you did ask for those, didn't you?) and motivations and determine something that would give them a common, immediate goal. It doesn't have to be something overarching, like slaying the lich or saving the world; it can be something simple, like employment, revenge, or finding a place to get a real drink in this crappy town. (Hence why taverns are so popular a quest hub. You try slaughtering your way through the countryside and wanting to stay sober.)

Any given player should be able to name something his character wants, in the short term if not the long term. If the player honestly can't say what the character wants, you have an aimless character, and that's likely to cause some trouble down the road. But if everyone can at least say something that's an immediate or short-term goal, then they've basically just told you where to start.

Fouredged Sword
2014-04-11, 09:16 AM
Well there are a few schools of though on this, and they are not mutually exclusive to one another, and elements can be mixed and matched as needed.

School A - The gathering threads - Things happen to individual characters that drag them into the plot. This can ether happen in backstory or the game can start with everyone spread out and you can go through a period where the party are all acting as individuals. This can be "X has kidnapped the princess your king is to marry, stolen the wizards orb of power, and subverted the thieves guild, cutting into the rogues profits!" Everyone has a unique reason for following the plot.

School B - The Focus point - You tell your party that the game will start at X location, so they need a reason to be at X, doing Y. This takes some of the work off the DM shoulders, but can give away the surprise. This is great for "You are on a boat going from X to Y city, the boat strikes a reef, and is going down. Save as much crew as possible and make it to the nearby unexplored island!" The motivation for the adventure is more generic, so the backstory of the players is less relevant except as it places them in a spot at a time.

Airk
2014-04-11, 10:03 AM
Well there are a few schools of though on this, and they are not mutually exclusive to one another, and elements can be mixed and matched as needed.

School A - The gathering threads - Things happen to individual characters that drag them into the plot. This can ether happen in backstory or the game can start with everyone spread out and you can go through a period where the party are all acting as individuals. This can be "X has kidnapped the princess your king is to marry, stolen the wizards orb of power, and subverted the thieves guild, cutting into the rogues profits!" Everyone has a unique reason for following the plot.

School B - The Focus point - You tell your party that the game will start at X location, so they need a reason to be at X, doing Y. This takes some of the work off the DM shoulders, but can give away the surprise. This is great for "You are on a boat going from X to Y city, the boat strikes a reef, and is going down. Save as much crew as possible and make it to the nearby unexplored island!" The motivation for the adventure is more generic, so the backstory of the players is less relevant except as it places them in a spot at a time.

These actually aren't really that different. They are, basically:

Here are some motivations, make a setup based on them.
AND
Here is a setup, come up with some motivations to get you there.

It really depends on whether you want the GM to do the work of 'putting the party together' or whether you want the players to do that work. That's it.

GoblinGilmartin
2014-04-11, 03:41 PM
...

Examine the motivations of your characters.

Give each of them something that connects to their motivations and sets them on the path to adventure.

Profit.

Yeah, but A. Most of the players I've ever met are lazy as balls, or come up with the back story as an afterthought, heck I've had players that take months to NAME their character. and B. I've always found that to be a tenuous reason at best, as it can lead to feeling strung along until something chances to intersect with their backstory. I remember once playing a VtM game where I was a malkavian trying to find my sire, and the DM was all "Oh, the Prince'll look into it if you do this thing for him" then we do the thing "Oh, he'll tell you a small piece of information if you do this other thing". F*** that.

ORione
2014-04-11, 07:24 PM
I used an idea I heard on this forum, where the PCs had been arrested (the players decided they had been involved in a brawl at an inn). Their sentence was community service: they had to go retrieve the Act 1 Macguffin. Fits in with Fouredged Sword's School B, I suppose.

Fouredged Sword
2014-04-11, 09:01 PM
My most memorable start to an adventure started with the party 2000ft up in the air freefalling out of a crashing airship.

It was a level 4 adventure.

Rhynn
2014-04-12, 05:28 PM
Quoting myself but whatever:


some examples from my games:

- You were part of a caravan headed to this city, but a sandstorm scattered the caravan in the desert. You've found each other and banded together to try to find shelter and water. Trudging through the trackless sand waste, you come upon ruins jutting out of the dunes...

- You've all come to the Tournament of Flowers. Tell me why you're all traveling together? [Some participating in contests happens.] At the feast, a merchant sitting next to [PC #1] asks him for a favor...

- You're all out working in the fields, when a young boy comes running up, yelling that bandits are attacking an outlying stead.

- You're old friends, meeting up at the tavern in your old home village. On the way, [PC #1] came upon the dead body of a Plainsman barbarian and next to him lay a staff wrapped in hides. Approaching the village, he's stopped by some goblins...

- You're all members of the Silver Knights of Silverymoon, riding patrol around the Nether Mountains in the wake of reports of orc attacks. You stop at Jalanthar...

- You've all been captured by slavers and taken to the slave pits of the city, where you are to be thrown into the arena. If you win, you'll live to fight again and again... until you don't win.

- [PC #1] is the eldest son of an old knight, but a bastard; now that his father has died, he's gotten the help of a nearby lord in overthrowing the heir before he is confirmed as the new ruler of the fief by his liege. You've approached the motte-and-bailey fort stealthily, and are laying out your plans of attack...

- You're LAPD detectives in 2020. Here's your current case...


Some others I've planned/written up but haven't used yet:

- It's an ordinary day at the manor, when suddenly... orcs!

- You're the family and servants of the lord of the manor, and are accompanying him to attend his liege, the Duke, at a feast. [Some traveling through the countryside that introduces the "neighborhood;" meeting the Duke and his household.] As the feast is winding down, a man in the robes of a priest enters. The guards stop him, but finally the Duke permits him to approach and speak. After they are done speaking in quiet and urgent whispers, the Duke stands up and announces that he needs a service performed...

- You're [viking-types] on a ship headed to raid the coast over here. After a rough sea voyage, you've sighted land and are nearing the beach.

- You've all been invited to meet an old friend at his house; some of you directly, some of you by other PCs (at the old friend's suggestion). [This is how all 90% of Call of Cthulhu scenarios start, really.]

sktarq
2014-04-12, 05:50 PM
A. Most of the players I've ever met are lazy as balls, or come up with the back story as an afterthought, heck I've had players that take months to NAME their character.

Something I find helps smooth things along. Establish why the party is together BEFORE people start rolling up characters. Helps build a cohesive team as well as gives starting places for adventures.

Airk
2014-04-14, 10:28 AM
Yeah, but A. Most of the players I've ever met are lazy as balls, or come up with the back story as an afterthought, heck I've had players that take months to NAME their character. and B. I've always found that to be a tenuous reason at best, as it can lead to feeling strung along until something chances to intersect with their backstory. I remember once playing a VtM game where I was a malkavian trying to find my sire, and the DM was all "Oh, the Prince'll look into it if you do this thing for him" then we do the thing "Oh, he'll tell you a small piece of information if you do this other thing". F*** that.

Then yeah, go with Rhynn's method and just F-ing TELL them.

"You guys are here to do X."

VoxRationis
2014-04-15, 11:59 PM
I once had an adventure start with a normal day in the life of a noble... until they received word that their beloved uncle had died.
I think that structure works pretty well: Establish, if only for a tiny bit, the normal status quo of what the character does. Then shake it up with some external event. Otherwise, the character's own agency has to drive them somewhere, and while that's good for player choice, it also results in characters on different continents when you wanted them to meet up and delve to the local dungeon.
Obviously, there are other good ways...

magwaaf
2014-04-16, 12:55 AM
well my campaign started out with the party split, half the party was stumbling into each other (rescuing my ass lol) the other was recruited by the npc i was going to meet up with and he was seeing if they were up to snuff and worth hiring