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ExHunterEmerald
2007-02-13, 06:44 PM
I was just wondering, what sort of creative takes on the "beginning the game" story do you take? I hear stories about tavern after tavern, but I've really yet to ever see one.

I'm planning on using the Lightning Rail in an Eberron setting I'll be running soon, given that the first adventure will take place on it.

I've also been mulling over a few funny takes on the stereotypes...

The Blue Bauble inn has been your favorite haunt for as long as you can remember. Many a night it was that you hoisted a tankard in her walls, with fire aglow and songs floating on the air.

Fortunately, you were nowhere near it when it burned down yesterday.

goat
2007-02-13, 07:01 PM
Throw everyone in jail.

Free everyone from jail.

Send them off to war.

Send some of them to kill the others on false pretences.

Have one of them sleep with another's spouse/sibling/parent/child/dog.

Glue one's foot to another's face.

silentknight
2007-02-13, 07:13 PM
A campaign I will be starting soon will start with the characters being resurrected and then sent on a quest.

Saph
2007-02-13, 07:16 PM
I just ran a game where the group of 2nd-level PCs were summoned monsters. A blue dragon pulled them from various corners of the world to kill some hobgoblins so that he wouldn't have to get his claws dirty. He hadn't read the small print on the scroll and didn't realise the spell was 'calling' and not 'summoning', and was annoyed at having a bunch of adventurers cluttering up his cave afterwards.

After he threw them out the PCs had to make it out through the hobgoblin patrols, away from the hobgoblin warcamp, and to the nearest town. It was a one-shot so we stopped there.

Worked pretty well. Fastest intro I've ever done. PCs appear, hobgoblins in front of them, dragon behind them, dragon points at hobgobs and says 'kill'.

- Saph

goat
2007-02-13, 07:21 PM
Have them each come up with a character idea and roll it up. Then have a god get bored enough that they swap their minds into each other's bodies.

BCOVertigo
2007-02-13, 07:28 PM
I just ran a game where the group of 2nd-level PCs were summoned monsters. A blue dragon pulled them from various corners of the world to kill some hobgoblins so that he wouldn't have to get his claws dirty. He hadn't read the small print on the scroll and didn't realise the spell was 'calling' and not 'summoning', and was annoyed at having a bunch of adventurers cluttering up his cave afterwards.

After he threw them out the PCs had to make it out through the hobgoblin patrols, away from the hobgoblin warcamp, and to the nearest town. It was a one-shot so we stopped there.

Worked pretty well. Fastest intro I've ever done. PCs appear, hobgoblins in front of them, dragon behind them, dragon points at hobgobs and says 'kill'.

- Saph

Your idea has just been stolen.

Quietus
2007-02-13, 07:37 PM
I generally don't worry about setting the PCs up in the same place. I drop them into the same general area ("Okay, you guys are all in Vaeles/Resta/Whatever, you've got a map that shows generally where things are - what would your character do?"). Once they're off doing their own thing, MOST of them tend to metagame a bit and gravitate toward one another. If they don't, then I start off whatever main thing it is that I have going - in my most recent adventure, an IRC game I run on Saturday evenings, everyone's now running around attempting to find the source of a blue beam of light that came down from the sky at four AM. One of them was on watch outside the city, two were sleeping in the inn (one of whom woke up to see the light - the other was "too pooped to get up", aka not present), and the fourth is so far an MIA, but she is shipbound, and would've seen the light on her way in. So far no-one seems interested in the light, they're more interested in sorting out the problem with these strange, colorful creatures that have been showing up, which is fine, since the two are connected. But all three that have been present at all are now in the same general area, and working on solving the problems they've found.

In my experience, if you give one flashy thing that WILL get the PC's attention, you'll get them all congregated in one place. You don't need to start them all off in the same building. The players are there to play together, NOT to bugger off and wander aimlessly. Set a hook, and they will come.

Dareon
2007-02-13, 07:42 PM
Glue one's foot to another's face.
I'm stealing this. Heck, I might do it to the entire party. Glue Party Member A's foot to party member B's face, party member B's foot to C's face, C's foot to D's face, and D's foot to A's face. Then they could roll through the dungeon like a katamari full of weapons and magic.

Maxymiuk
2007-02-13, 07:55 PM
Then they could roll through the dungeon like a katamari full of weapons and magic.

+1 cool point.

AoiRorentsu
2007-02-13, 08:10 PM
One idea I've been toying with is starting all characters in NPC classes (though that's not strickly necessary for this to work), and then have them all sorta take the reigns when a disaster strikes the town- ie, a massive fire, some kind of thug takeover, a politically-motivated imposition of martial law, or a warlord takeover or something. This way, the characters can meet each other "in the thick of it." When they deal with the problem, they get regarded as local heroes, but also start learning to work together. When the townsfolk have another disaster, the heroes start working together again, and eventually some kind of bad-guy, who's been behind it all, decides to hunt them down. Boom- the accidental party. Haven't tried it though, so if anyone has and has any insight, listen to them before me.

Talyn
2007-02-13, 08:22 PM
My favorite was all the PCs were members of a traveling circus! The mage was a fortune-teller, the two rogues were the knife-throwing girl and the trapeze act, respectively, the 18 STR fighter was the strongman and the lion-tamer, and the cleric just kept everybody alive (and drove the wagons).

Then the circus gets attacked by bandits and all the non-PCs die, leaving the PCs with nothing but each other, and a burning desire to hunt down the bandits... which in turn gets them hailed as local heroes, which leads to another job, etc. etc.

crazedloon
2007-02-13, 08:58 PM
Well our latest campaign started with us (all evil characters) sitting in a bar (the DM had no clue what he was going to do to start us off) so he said go. Well I was the CE character with a pension for orphan skulls so I killed a family in the bar. First I killed the two parents of 2 kids then killed the two kids slowly (i.e. I killed the parents to make the orphans before I killed them). This cleared the bar out (everyone that was not a pc was afraid and ran away) which pissed 2 other PCs who were going to mug the families and other patrons as they left through the front door; however everyone left via the back door. Then the other member of the group choose this time to start killing the bar maids. That was when the last player in the group had a good idea and decided to offer me and the rest of the group (there was a bunch of role playing and threats here) a chance to help him rob the local town hall. So that’s how a real DM starts a campaign he doesn’t he leaves it up to the players :smallwink:

Ashes
2007-02-13, 09:06 PM
That made no sense at all...

Isomenes
2007-02-14, 12:28 AM
Our group has started two sessions now, and the DM has made most of the world, but he leaves it up to us to explore it. We spend a little time building 'seed' stories for our characters, and then we try to hook up with each other. Yes, both started in a tavern. But they were very colorful taverns, because we had contributed to the world-building :)

Really, a taverns's a great way to start in media res, as long as you color the NPCs appropriately. My bard knew the proprietor, for instance, and a couple of the PCs. We were sitting around playing poker on the gaming table, discussing the news of the city as if we were old friends. This does require that the group be willing to form a 'party', of course; but what's the point of starting a group if you're just going to run off and do your own thing?

My point: ask for input from the players, and you probably won't be disappointed with the results.

Viscount Einstrauss
2007-02-14, 01:10 AM
I started mine by just explaining that the players had been travelling together for at least the past few weeks, and have now arrived, exhausted, at a small town in the middle of nowhere. Everything else was ad libbed, as I came up with the campaign in literally one hour. The party almost instantly split up and had their own solo adventures for the next two hours of game time, but it somehow held together.

Toric
2007-02-14, 01:37 AM
Give players basic info about the setting, particularly the starting city/village. Require each player to come up with at least a few daily tasks that they do in the city/village. Once those are compiled, let them all pass by each other on their daily routines when danger strikes. Lightning rail variation: the PC's are all taking trips to the same city for their individual reasons (business, meeting relatives, taking a vacation, etc) and thus end up on the same lightning rail car when the adventure begins.

Or, if you want something less complicated, they've all been hired to escort a merchant convoy due to the unpredictable-yet-inevitable savage humanoid attacks. Or, in Eberron on a lightning rail, for suspected violent action from Emerald Claw members on the lightning rail with you.

Sardia
2007-02-14, 01:58 AM
Put 'em on a ship, each with their own purposes. Then wreck the ship something in in the middle of nowhere. By the time they get back to civilization, they may have bonded a little.

Quietus
2007-02-14, 02:19 AM
I'm curious, what exactly is a lightning rail? I haven't heard that term before I found these boards.

The_Snark
2007-02-14, 02:25 AM
It's a transportation system from the Ebberon setting, not unlike a fantasy-style train, I understand.

starwoof
2007-02-14, 02:26 AM
Time to look back on every campaign Ive ever been in.

You are sitting in the Drunken Dragon Inn. Theres a shady man in the corner...

You're all walking down the road when suddenly you're attacked by a bugbear and 2 goblins!

You're in the Drunken Dragon Inn again...

You're at the new years festival when you spot two assassins bearing down on the king! What do you do?

You're in the village square and theres an elf preaching about saving the rainforests...

Wow. That was a very lame look back on my adventures. My group digs the cliche'd openings. :D


A lightning rail is a train. Im pretty sure.

AoiRorentsu
2007-02-14, 02:31 AM
the lightning rail is an Eberron-specific method of transportation similar for all intents and purposes to a train. Good for travelling long distance and being "railroaded" (pardon the pun) into adventures.:smallsmile:

Case
2007-02-14, 02:36 AM
Let's see the first D&D game opening I ever had was...

Barbarian, wizard, NPC Fighter, and a bard (me) are all sitting at a bar talking and laughing when the NPC notices a sign saying:

ATTENTION:
Talk to bartender.

We went to the bartender to inquire about the strange sign, and he told us that he was illiterate, except for the words attention, talk, to, and bartender.

It was one of my best one session games ever. (Please note all my games have been one session, and not just a one-shot game either.)

Thomas
2007-02-14, 03:25 AM
Everybody's family (from a 20-100 person extended family, that is), and something happens at home.

Jade_Tarem
2007-02-14, 04:21 AM
As you sit discussing possibilites for the (insert trivial event here) a portal opens in the middle of the bar. A man with a guitar slung over his shoulder comes diving through and rolls out to the side of the portal as fire gouts through. The portal closes before you get a good look at what's on the other side. The man shakily gets to his feet and orders a drink....

The PCs will usually talk to this bard, and you can have him feed them whatever plothook you want - the bard and portal bit is just a way to get thier attention. :P

As you head through the street away from the town hall, you hear a loud *whump* and screaming coming from the central square. As you race back there you find none other than a colossal dragon, a terrifyingly large red, snort out a gout of flame. He looks around and says, "I'm looking for a favor, are there any volunteers?" and lets out a long, evil chortle...

I actually used this one in a campaign I'm running now, and the dragon is the BBEG (they got to meet him less than a minute into the campaign!). It's just a variation on the DMG's "a dragon flies into town and demands tribute" idea, but it works, especially if you have the dragon threaten the town (or the PCs, for an evil group). As before, it doesn't really matter what the dragon wants, so long as it send the party where they need to go to get rolling. It doesn't even need to be a dragon either, just something the PCs can't handle with something that needs to be done and a reason the plothook can't get it himself.

It really wasn't supposed to be this complicated. "Just go from Stormwinter to Loresanctus to deliver some books," they said. Jerks. As the group prepares to surrender, one of the bandits says, "Hey boss, I recognize this one!"

Your group, travelling together for convenience from your hometown to Greenhearth, finally comes to the part of the mountain path where Greenheart is visible in the valley below. Peering through your spyglass, you are heartened to see the merrily twinkling blobs of lights and the smoke billowing into the night sky. Rather a lot of smoke, really. A few seconds (and some spot checks) later, you realize that the lights shouldn't be visible as more than pinpricks at this distance, and it hits you that the city is on fire. A gust of wind blows a scorched page to your feet...

You meet a traveller on your way to the trade meet, he seems cordial enough, but just as you were about to move on, silver wings sprout from his back and his eyes begin to glow. When he speaks, his voice sounds nothing like it did before. "I am Darastis of the Celestial realms, and your entire group is under arrest."

Those are just some I though up on the fly, don't use them if they're no good. Bear in mind that a group of PCs will typically respond to as little stimulus as -

A well dressed man walks over to your table. "I would like to buy your group a round," he says in clipped, precise tones, "and talk with you. I have an offer for you if you wish to hear it."

It's really not all that hard, although it varies from group to group. Although your group would have to be denser than depleted uranium to ignore some of what's been put on this thread.

Hope this helps.

Siberys
2007-02-14, 04:39 PM
I'm going to run Chimes at Midnight for an Eberron campaign. Having the PCs as guards for a prison caravan, meeting each other through their work, and finding they fight well together when the criminals escape and a gigantic streetbrawl starts, is an absolutely brilliant way to start off. It's like the standard bar-brawl, but but in the middle of the crowded Sharn streets, and, ergo, better... :smallbiggrin:

Mooseman
2007-02-14, 04:43 PM
I basically just dropped the four players into the Wizard's Tower and said, "You are an amateur adventuring party who stumbled upon this tower. Upon entering, the door slammed behind you and is now magically stuck. Go."

Legoman
2007-02-15, 01:03 AM
The best way I've found to start is like this:

Roll initiative. Fight ensuses with a BBEG, adequately detailed, well described, well thought out. Make sure to mention the plot. At the end of the fight, something dramatic happens - for a greedy bunch, say: the biggest diamond they've ever seen rolls out of their purse.

Say some quippy noir quote, like: "Money. You know what that is. The stuff you never have enough of. Little gold things with the king’s picture that men slave for, commit crimes for, die for. It’s the stuff that has caused more trouble in the world than anything else ever invented. simply because there’s too little of it.

We needed bread when Armadaeus took us in, and we needed bread when he sent us to kill Lord Benson. With the size of that rock, there'd probably be a lot of trouble for not enough gain, and we'd probably be back in the bread line in no time."

Then, cut to the PC's outside of, say, Benson's mansion. It's raining.

It's about as arbitrary and railroading as starting in a bar and an old man runs up and gives you a map; but instead, the players feel like they know where the story is going, while still not knowing how the hell it's going to get to that point. If they break in, then chicken out and leave later? Send some goons to bring them back, and give them a chance to kill him.

My Rule 0: Make it look like you plan everything.

The Prince of Cats
2007-02-15, 07:17 AM
One of the best I ever had was doing a Castle Marrach; the party woke up in two rooms (women in one, men in the other) and had free access to the contents of the wardrobes. No character sheets, just a sheet of A4 and a pencil, where they made notes. That one was co-DM'ed, since we had all the character sheets. It was funny watching people try to guess at their roles.

Another one that my party enjoyed was waking up in the middle of the night to find themselves (individually) under attack and all running to wake the guard. The party were the only survivors of the attack in the whole village. Also, the bard was hung over (IC) and so spent the whole first session with an aversion to bright lights and loud noises.

Viscount Einstrauss
2007-02-15, 10:59 AM
I've got an idea for the next game I run.

Every character will be the same age, regardless of racial aging charts (besides, my players almost always pick human so it probably won't even stand out). As part of the introduction, the players will all select a small slip of paper from a larger stack. Each one will give a little history and bonus abilities based on those histories (like what family they're from, what their relationship with the other players has been, and perhaps a significant event). After this, they'll go through a sort of played out aging introduction, where they play for about a week out of every two years of their lives until they grow suitably old enough. Their choices will immediately reflect upon who they are by the end of the introduction. Along the way, they'll see sort of odd, bad things happen around their country. The ocassional friend will just die from an unexplained disease, a bizarre accident might claim another, bandits or monsters from out of nowhere might string up a few, etc, until by the end, they realize that all these deaths have something in common- they were all born on the same year, just like the players themselves. The plot twist is still forthcoming, but I figure that'll get the players' attention.

ExHunterEmerald
2007-02-15, 11:16 AM
Ooh, me likey.
I think I'll try that growing up thing, or a variant of it.

Woot Spitum
2007-02-15, 11:34 AM
War is always good, especially if you want them to do a certain thing first, before branching ou and letting them decide where they want to go and what they want to do. Alternately, you could start them in the wilderness, with their first mission being simply to get back to civilization.

Jade_Tarem
2007-02-15, 04:09 PM
Well, one into that I've used that's confused the snot out of the players without them leaving the table was kinda fun. The players basically hang out, and can be a pre-arranged "group" or not, as they prefer. Then some avatar of the gods, in my case a half-celestial phoelarch paladin, comes by and randomly arrests all of them to stand trial, right away, before the entire pantheon. They stand accused of stealing several powerful artifacts from various deities and are also linked with the new and total inaccessability of the astral plane. The players took the obvious route (they're level 1) and pleaded not guilty by reason of "we couldn't possibly have done that." The divinations of the gods reveal that a) the players are guilty and b) that they're telling the truth when they say they have no idea what the gods are talking about. Due to the contradiction, the gods are willing to give the players time to sort it out - one year and one day to retrieve all the stolen goods, fix the astral realms, and put things to rights. Any longer than that, and they are banished forever to the tender mercies of the Lords of the Nine Hells.

The players are returned to where they were with a large, mostly blank scroll and an unarmed airship with the ability to travel from plane to plane without going through the astral plane. The scroll fills in over time with locations for the players to go to retrieve the artifacts that they "stole." It's up to them, of course, to figure out the "why" behind it all. The players came up with several theories, ranging from "there's a group/individual so powerful that he could have done it and pinned it on a group of level 1s as a sick joke" to the KOTOR plot - that they're actually epic villians with thier memories wiped. They don't yet realize the truth...

So, that may help, if nothing else, it gives the PCs motivation and a definite goal - two good things for a beginning group to have.

Vance_Nevada
2007-02-15, 05:24 PM
As you head through the street away from the town hall, you hear a loud *whump* and screaming coming from the central square. As you race back there you find none other than a colossal dragon, a terrifyingly large red, snort out a gout of flame. He looks around and says, "I'm looking for a favor, are there any volunteers?" and lets out a long, evil chortle...

Got to say, I hate this one in all it's forms. There's usually never a good reason why the all-powerful dragon/wizard can't do the job himself - particularly, since as level 1 characters, it's likely to be something like "Eliminate a dozen goblin raiders".

The Orange Zergling
2007-02-15, 05:29 PM
One I'm thinking of using...

The group is in the square of a busy town, listening to some political/military figure speaking. Suddenly, a man garbed in whatever leaps out of the croud, landing knife-first on the figure's neck. Then he proceeds to dodge the guards, running through the croud, cutting people down where necessary, fleeing the city.

In case anyones wondering... this is highly inspired by Assassin's Creed.

Arceliar
2007-02-15, 05:41 PM
One campaign start I used began with everyone Chaotic a prisoner, everyone Lawful a prison warden, and everyone neutral a hired hand on the ship that was transporting said prisoners. As soon as they got there most all the NPC's got killed off by a ghoul attack while the PC's (whom had eachother as prisoners) escorted eachother to the prison. They realize it's literally a ghost town when they find the corpses of the prison guards which spontaneously animate as zombies and attack them.

It was a nice change of pace from the bar-ginnings.

crazedloon
2007-02-15, 05:50 PM
Got to say, I hate this one in all it's forms. There's usually never a good reason why the all-powerful dragon/wizard can't do the job himself - particularly, since as level 1 characters, it's likely to be something like "Eliminate a dozen goblin raiders".

its not that the dragon/wizard couldnt do it its just moe fun to watch a bunch of fools do the work for you and fail after all they will probaly die in a very funny manner (and if they succeed its less funny but you saved yourself some work)

goat
2007-02-15, 07:38 PM
I'm stealing this. Heck, I might do it to the entire party. Glue Party Member A's foot to party member B's face, party member B's foot to C's face, C's foot to D's face, and D's foot to A's face. Then they could roll through the dungeon like a katamari full of weapons and magic.

Right. I've been thinking about this. My basic plan would go something along the lines of:

Assign each of the players a number.
*Roll a dX* where X is the number of players in your party.

"Player X, you awake in a dark alley. Your memories of last night are hazy, but you can feel something pushing against your cheek. Being an experienced drinker, you're used to waking up with your face stuck to things. Groping around, it feels like a foot".

*Roll another dX*

[If the number is different from the first]
"Player X2, you awake as someone grabs for your lower leg. Pulling back, you find a heavy weight attached to your foot, what do you do?"


[If the number is the same as the first]
"Player X, roll me a D20 dexterity check vs DC20 to avoid hideously pulled muscles".

From there, I'd let them find themselves in a city where they've started off naked and bruised with vague memories of playing a gome of poker with a half-elf bard who had a wicked laugh.

Jade_Tarem
2007-02-15, 08:30 PM
Got to say, I hate this one in all it's forms. There's usually never a good reason why the all-powerful dragon/wizard can't do the job himself - particularly, since as level 1 characters, it's likely to be something like "Eliminate a dozen goblin raiders".

Sorry 'bout that. Turns out that I wasn't looking for your approval, though - just trying to help the OP. Oh, and I'll have you know that when I used it the reason that the dragon couldn't do what he wanted the PC's to do made so much sense that they didn't even question it (and my group likes to annoy the snot out of DMs by doing exactly that), nor realize the significance for another 15 levels, even though the objective of the task handed to them tied directly in with the entire rest of the campaign. Rest assured, I knew how cliche it would be without the proper backing.

Chavik
2007-02-15, 08:59 PM
One idea I've been toying with is starting all characters in NPC classes (though that's not strickly necessary for this to work), and then have them all sorta take the reigns when a disaster strikes the town- ie, a massive fire, some kind of thug takeover, a politically-motivated imposition of martial law, or a warlord takeover or something. This way, the characters can meet each other "in the thick of it."

Ive actually done this one. I started out with each player having a job class. The major event in question was a zombie-causing plague (It was referred to as the dawn of the dead campaign) The first one to notice it was the dwarven gravedigger.. and he went and told his neighbour the blacksmith who enlisted the aid of his apprentice, his apprentices brother...etc, etc... fun campaign with inventive players (the blacksmith fashioned a caber out of a dead zombie gnoll)

Raum
2007-02-15, 10:31 PM
I was just wondering, what sort of creative takes on the "beginning the game" story do you take? I hear stories about tavern after tavern, but I've really yet to ever see one.By beginning of the game, do you mean the first session after character creation or simply the beginning of a campaign or adventure?

Here are a couple ideas based on beginning a campaign with PCs who don't necessarily know each other yet.

- Ye ole shipreck. PCs were passengers on one or more ships caught in a disaster (storm, pirates, sea battle, sea monster, etc). They are the only survivors with the potential exceptions of immediate antagonists (pirates or enemy) or possibly a dying officer passing on a plot hook before kicking the bucket.
- Desolation. The town / caravan they were in is razed, the PCs are the only survivors. (Similar to shipwrecked.)
- The bequest. Some one they knew has died. The PCs have been left...something.
- Search for vengeance / justice. A friend or relative has been murdered. The city guard is covering it up and the PCs start noticing odd behavior at the funeral.
- The quest. Some person or organization (merchant, church, city council, etc) is hiring to accomplish a goal.
- The vision. The PCs all begin having identical dreams showing a tantalizing clue but leaving many questions.
- The prophecy. A crazy seeress sees the PCs once and loudly proclaims they are marked by the gods. A supportive populace may make them the toast of the town while equipping them to accomplish great things. More fearful cultures might run them out of town as fast as possible to prevent collateral damage.

They're all bare bones and need fleshing out, but none involve a tavern. :)

Dervag
2007-02-15, 11:06 PM
The Blue Bauble inn has been your favorite haunt for as long as you can remember. Many a night it was that you hoisted a tankard in her walls, with fire aglow and songs floating on the air.

Fortunately, you were nowhere near it when it burned down yesterday.
I once did:

"It all began on the night of Friday the 17th, when all of your characters were in a bar. However, no two of the characters were in the same bar, so you won't be meeting here."

I'm also a fan of one-on-one or one-on-two sessions to 'prep' the characters in advance.

Chavik
2007-02-18, 07:30 PM
I'm also a fan of one-on-one or one-on-two sessions to 'prep' the characters in advance.

i use this alot... ill take the players one-by-one into another room and ask them to tell me their characters background story... this way i can say "ok player x ran away when his father was killed by town guards....player y's father was the seargent that gave the order" and intertwine the players personal storylines.

That Lanky Bugger
2007-02-18, 07:42 PM
I always have my players build at least one plot hook into their characters, as well as giving general guidelines for alignment.

For example, in a game I recently started, the conditions for the game were as follows:

Make a Level 5 character. The character must not be an evil alignment, and must either know and respect or be heavily indebted to a Dwarvish Paladin named Craethe the Bold, formerly a well known adventurer who has recently retired to a modest tower in the primarily human port town of Hargrove.

By having them know and respect (or be flat out indebted to) the Paladin, I could generate a plot hook right from the get go while still allowing my players the freedom they wanted to create their own characters. This was for a group of four. Two were wandering mercenary types, a Sorcerer who was indebted to Craethe the Bold for saving his life some years earlier and a Rogue who was a member of Craethe's clan. The third was an aspiring Paladin who'd trained under Craethe during his years as an apprentice and the fourth was a Cleric who was actually assigned to Craethe's home as a clerk.

I've found that asking players to build plot hooks like this is pretty easy. The game started with Craethe inviting the PCs into his home and then getting promptly murdered. Those who respected Craethe wanted the murderer's blood for killing a Paladin, while the Chaotic Good Sorcerer felt that the only way to properly repay his debt at that point was to help the other three adventurers.

Edit: This, of course, relies on the players being decent enough to follow a plot hook when it's placed in their way. Players unwilling to go with the flow will always be problematic.

jjpickar
2007-02-18, 07:56 PM
I had a game once where each of the three pcs was a powerful chieftain of desert bandits. Each had had their bandit armies destroyed by the three large cities whose trade routes they had been raiding. Completely by happenstance, they had chosen the same rock to hide behind. Just as they are about to kill each other they hear the approach of an inevitable bent on their destruction...

Mewtarthio
2007-02-18, 08:01 PM
Edit: This, of course, relies on the players being decent enough to follow a plot hook when it's placed in their way. Players unwilling to go with the flow will always be problematic.

Yes, but that's always a given, even in the most cliched of beginnings:

The old man offers you a job.
I politely decline. It sounds too dangerous.
The old man offers you money.
I prefer life, thankyouverymuch. Plus he's ugly.
The old man offers you an incredibly expensive diamond.
Okay, there's no way he's actually intending to give me that much money. I tell him to go away.
The old man threatens you with death.
I draw my short sword and tell him to bring it on!
The old man gestures at you and intones a few mysterious syllables. You suddenly find yourself highly disoriented, covered in blood, and surrounded by kobold corpses.

Hey, there's a nice intro: The PCs suddenly find themselves inexplicably in the midst of a horrible slaughter following some sort of possession or magical control. Now they have to find out who was responsible for that, atone for whatever misdeeds they've misdone, evade the arm of justice, and clear their names by proving whatever has happened.

Lo-Alrikowki
2007-02-18, 11:06 PM
"It was a dark and stormy night...." Or not.

Campaign I started a couple of weeks ago was for an outsized party (11 people). I decided they were former caravan guards, who were all supposed to be on watch when the caravan was raided bare. Thoroughly embarassed/disgraced, they were all kicked out at daybreak on pain of Very Bad Things Happening, and had to stick together to survive the semi-wilderness regardless of their differences.