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View Full Version : DM Help Starting a Campaign, Introduction Scene, New characters. What glues it all together?



gandwarf
2020-04-30, 03:52 PM
Hello, fellow d&d game masters and players!

I am currently starting a new D&D campaign, I have some plot ideas and some scenes and encounters for the first session. Even tho my players are already aware of the campaign setting and are coming up with great ideas and reasons for why they would be in the capital where our adventure starts, I find myself kinda stuck trying to come up with a creative way to get them all together.

Now, I know all about the 'you all meet in a tavern', and I am a fan of that, don't get me wrong. But this is the first time we play together and we don't know each other.

But there are so many problems with not implying that the party already is together. I mean, it gives space for things to go wrong, or for your adventure to be unclear - and I know that having a clear direction is the most important thing.

I thought about some scenes where they explain why they are in the city and what they are doing - after that I would start the first scene of the aventure with a explosion and a tower collapsing, that should be enought to get their attention and turn their head in the direction of the disaster.

Do you have some interesting stories about some epic campaign starters? Or some wisdom to help me plan this session? I really want to start this campaign right and I would appreciate any cool and intersting campaign starters besides the classic 'you all been summoned by the archmage'. Thank you all!

Martin Greywolf
2020-04-30, 05:09 PM
You could try to crib off of FATE and tell your players: "Okay, all of your characters have already met before and kinda worked together, not necessarily all at the same time. Tell me how."

What that does is remove the "why should we trust this random person" problem, creates investment in other player's PCs (as they are part of your backstory now) and creates backstories for you to reference by random NPCs. You get all of these things either way, but only after the first adventure.

EggKookoo
2020-04-30, 05:14 PM
You could try to crib off of FATE and tell your players: "Okay, all of your characters have already met before and kinda worked together, not necessarily all at the same time. Tell me how."

What that does is remove the "why should we trust this random person" problem, creates investment in other player's PCs (as they are part of your backstory now) and creates backstories for you to reference by random NPCs. You get all of these things either way, but only after the first adventure.

I agree with this advice. Perhaps there's a way to link backgrounds?

In my current (now 2nd level) campaign, I simply asked each player to come up with a way they met one other PC. It didn't have to be detailed. Just enough to create some kind of familiarity that would make it feel natural that they might rely on each other in a minor crisis. Then I dropped a minor crisis on them...

False God
2020-04-30, 05:46 PM
You could try to crib off of FATE and tell your players: "Okay, all of your characters have already met before and kinda worked together, not necessarily all at the same time. Tell me how."

What that does is remove the "why should we trust this random person" problem, creates investment in other player's PCs (as they are part of your backstory now) and creates backstories for you to reference by random NPCs. You get all of these things either way, but only after the first adventure.

I always do this in my games. Or the more "heist" approach of they're all hired to work together on this mission and told to get over their issues.

Although if your players are already starting the game off with "I don't trust this guy, why should we work together?" I'd honestly call that a red flag and be on the lookout for more. The PCs "get together" because their players happen to all be playing at the same table. Not saying they have to immediately like or trust each other (as even their players might not), but IME, a little meta-buy in is a small thing to ask for a new game and can go a long way to prevent in and out of character conflict.

prabe
2020-04-30, 06:37 PM
So, as examples, the last two campaigns I've started at least half the players were new to me (and I presume to each other). I started both of them at solstice festivals (one summer, one winter), and dropped major instigating events into them after giving the players an opportunity to place their characters (a bunch of zombies making corpses and taking them to the wight that had made them, a bunch of cultists determined to share their contagious madness). Both of those led to other things, then still other things, and the characters eventually became a party. The social contract arising from sitting down to play D&D helped.

So, on the one hand, I think you have a pretty good handle on how to start stuff; I prefer fights in D&D, because so many character abilities are combat-focused, but that's not absolutely mandatory. On the other hand, I think you might be overthinking this, or at least worrying too much about it; if they're all sitting down at the table you're probably most of the way there.

Bulhakov
2020-04-30, 06:54 PM
Things that worked well for me in the past:

- the PCs are prisoners and escape together in cricumstances that make it advantegous to stick together (e.g. far away from civilization)
- the PCs are childhood friends/relatives/old army buddies, brought together by someone they all know or the death of that someone (e.g. they all meet at a funeral of a friend and they all decide to investigate his highly suspicious death)
- the PCs are all fresh recruits in an organized band (military, mercenary, gang) but their commanding officer dies/disappears and they must complete their mission without further orders
- the PCs are "misteriously linked" but have no idea why (e.g. they all have the exact same birthmark)

gandwarf
2020-04-30, 07:36 PM
On the other hand, I think you might be overthinking this, or at least worrying too much about it; if they're all sitting down at the table you're probably most of the way there.

You got that right. I am totally overthinking. Had some bad experiences in the past, but that's it, it's simple.

prabe
2020-04-30, 08:14 PM
You got that right. I am totally overthinking. Had some bad experiences in the past, but that's it, it's simple.

I'm happy I helped. Ish. Looking back, I can see how someone who doesn't know me might have taken that as waaay more condescending than I meant it, and I'm happy you didn't. Clearly my own bad experiences are at play, here. :confused:

Roger_Druid
2020-05-01, 01:46 AM
Hi all,

Once I DMed a campaign that wanted to bring PCs from Level 1 to 14 - 15 in order to play "Labyrinth of Madness". We were all acquainted as persons but I wanted to give them a link to share so as to become a team. Now, I'm old enough to remember the clip of the song "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4) when it first came into being; in it, the members of a street gang join in various instances throughout the scenes to finally become a band and play the song all together. There was a leader (the lead singer) and everyone fell into step with him, seeming to have a role to play each. So, I started them in various small adventures to get the items I wanted them to have (in a state of inertia, though; each item would come into power as the PC progressed and came into maturity about her / his character), finally converging into the village near the "Labyrinth". There, I took a hint from the comic TSR (then the firm behind DnD) had made for the campaign; each PC entered alone a frightened village. Its inhabitants were all in various state of anxiety and regarded my players with adulation. Of course, my friends would investigate why, but all they could get from them was "Our Paladin is missing; can you help find him?". That tone of mystery, along to each PC alignment and their will to play was all they needed to get together and start facing all I had prepared so that to get to the necessary levels. In other words, the 'glue' you asked for could well be a mixture of happenstance; will; curiosity; helping others; be comfort in what you're supposed to do.

Roger

Quertus
2020-05-01, 02:38 AM
Hello, fellow d&d game masters and players!

I am currently starting a new D&D campaign, I have some plot ideas and some scenes and encounters for the first session. Even tho my players are already aware of the campaign setting and are coming up with great ideas and reasons for why they would be in the capital where our adventure starts, I find myself kinda stuck trying to come up with a creative way to get them all together.

Now, I know all about the 'you all meet in a tavern', and I am a fan of that, don't get me wrong. But this is the first time we play together and we don't know each other.

But there are so many problems with not implying that the party already is together. I mean, it gives space for things to go wrong, or for your adventure to be unclear - and I know that having a clear direction is the most important thing.

I thought about some scenes where they explain why they are in the city and what they are doing - after that I would start the first scene of the aventure with a explosion and a tower collapsing, that should be enought to get their attention and turn their head in the direction of the disaster.

Do you have some interesting stories about some epic campaign starters? Or some wisdom to help me plan this session? I really want to start this campaign right and I would appreciate any cool and intersting campaign starters besides the classic 'you all been summoned by the archmage'. Thank you all!


You got that right. I am totally overthinking. Had some bad experiences in the past, but that's it, it's simple.

"Be in the capital"? Is that your pitch? Then, yeah, you could definitely get characters who met those criteria, but are unable to keep from killing each other (classic Paladin, Paladin of Freedom, Paladin of Tyranny, Paladin of… Slaughter?), let alone work together.

IMO, you want your pitch to include both "everything that the players will know in the first ~15 minutes of the game", and "everything that they need to know to make a valid character, with reason to work together".

Personally, I find that the optimal way to design a game is to run a series of one-shots, and let the players and GM all display their range, then work together to design an adventure and party that will be enjoyable for everyone.

Also, describe your bad experiences. For example, here's two of mine:

GM *thought* that they had successfully communicated with the group, saying that they wanted the PCs to be poor / to not have money / some similar statement. Although *I* got what they meant, which was, "the character can be motivated by money", about half of the dozen players at the table did not, and you got the "Vow of Poverty" PC, the "my streets are made of gold; your offer is meaningless" character, etc from the other 6 players. GM prepared a single hook, telegraphed it poorly, players didn't bite.

This one time, in D&D, we had the party of the Paladin, the Assassin, the Undead Hunter, and his dear childhood friend, the Undead Master. And my character. This party actually worked - don't ask me how.


You could try to crib off of FATE and tell your players: "Okay, all of your characters have already met before and kinda worked together, not necessarily all at the same time. Tell me how."

What that does is remove the "why should we trust this random person" problem, creates investment in other player's PCs (as they are part of your backstory now) and creates backstories for you to reference by random NPCs. You get all of these things either way, but only after the first adventure.

I much prefer to create that in character via the first adventure, personally. But it's better than a horror story, if you cannot figure out any other way to prevent party implosion.

Galaxander
2020-05-01, 09:04 AM
You could try to crib off of FATE and tell your players: "Okay, all of your characters have already met before and kinda worked together, not necessarily all at the same time. Tell me how."

What that does is remove the "why should we trust this random person" problem, creates investment in other player's PCs (as they are part of your backstory now) and creates backstories for you to reference by random NPCs. You get all of these things either way, but only after the first adventure.

I agree with this. It can really help with getting the players to engage with each other.

BRC
2020-05-01, 09:15 AM
I find what can work pretty well is a mixture of approaches.

How many players do you have? It can work pretty well to start the characters in groups with pre-existing dynamics, let the players RP with each other for a bit within those groups, and then introduce a reason for those groups to work together. This way you still get some pre-established dynamic, and you only need to find a reason for the two groups to work together, but everybody also gets the opportunity to introduce their character, rather than jumping straight into "You all already know everything about me"

Sir_Elderberry
2020-05-03, 10:50 AM
I’m a big fan of starting with an imminent threat (like a goblin attack in a public place). The PCs respond to the threat and can pull the thread to figure out what’s going on, having been introduced to each other by the initial fight. One thing I like about this is that the PCs become distinguished as “the people who stepped up.” Might work better with some base level of assumed “heroism” in your PCs.

Nifft
2020-05-03, 09:45 PM
Ah, that new game smell.

My favorite way to start a campaign is to do a Session Zero, where the players and I collaboratively create the key setting elements like overall genre, racial palette, common monsters, and so on -- harmonizing expectations on both sides of the screen, and also stimulating creative juices.

That naturally leads into collaborative party creation, which has been very positive.



If you can't do a Session Zero for some reason, there are ways to fake it. If you can't collaborate in developing the campaign, then IMHO it's best to railroad a bit at the beginning to set player expectations about genre, acceptable behavior, and so on.

One of the best ways I've done that is using a literal railroad in Eberron.

It started off...


Your characters meet in Car 7 on the lightning rail, express to Sharn. You're all on your way to meet [patron], who will equip you for [expedition], in [location], which is known for [stuff].

1 - Why did you join [expedition]? What's in it for you?

2 - Somehow you're connected enough to [patron] that you got this job. Who's your link? How'd you hear about it?

3 - Do you recognize anyone else in Car 7? How'd you meet? Which one of you owes the other, and what?


Basically, tell them what their characters are all going to do together, and then solicit from them how they feel about it, and figure out what their expectations are. That way you can help ensure they get to do the things they want to do.

Then, when everyone seems comfortable and sufficiently well introduced to each others characters, the train gets attacked by dino-pirates.

LurkytheDwarf
2020-05-04, 05:05 AM
When starting a new campaign, I use the Life Events table from Xanathar's and have players roll three times on that before ever considering what characters they are going to play. From there I just connect the dots and before they start putting pen to paper on their character sheets, I tell them how each is related to the others.

And the best thing about that chart is that it can influence the direction a player builds their character (e.g. sometimes the connection between two players inspires them to take complimentary backgrounds) but just as easily it leaves them wide open to play whatever they want.

Here's an example I just rolled up and then connected:


PLAYER 1
Tragedy (brought terrible shame to yourself in the eyes of your family)
Background work
Friend of adventurer

PLAYER 2
Tragedy (lover disappeared without trace)
Tragedy (a second lover disappeared without trace) Yikes!
Friend of adventurer

PLAYER 3
Good fortune (commoner owes you a life debt, follows you around helping)
Enemy of adventurer (blameless)
Supernatural experience (Escaped certain death, believe a god saved you)

PLAYER 4
Weird (Dragon held you prisoner for 3 months until adventurers killed it)
Background work
Something magical (You identified an illusion for what it was)

So I rolled this up in two minutes and then thought about it for five, from that I got: Players 1 and 2 were sort of groupies for a time hanging around their same Adventurer Friend, that's how they know each other. This Adventurer Friend's party were the ones that saved Player 4 from the dragon and when he got brought back to civilization, Adventurer Friend suggested the three of them should form their own group, then went along his way to be seen at a later date.

Player 3 was a bit tougher, but I settled on them living in the same area during Player 2's succession of tragedies and actually witnessed the Enemy Adventurer stealing one of the disappeared lovers but escaped certain death at Enemy Adventurer's hands by being whisked away by something they believed to be a god (whether they choose a divine class/warlock or not and directly connect it to their character isn't that important). Let Player 3 know someone matching Enemy Adventurer's description has recently been asking around about them, likely trying to clean up loose ends. Later, after Players 1/2/4 have formed a new party, Player 3 encounters them and recounts what they know to Player 2 and joins their band for justice/revenge/protection/****s-and-giggles, depending on the character's motivations.

So I have three immediate NPCs (Adventurer Friend, Enemy Adventurer, and Commoner lackey), along with a mystery (the kidnappings) and some back burner stuff like the shame Player 1 brought on their family.

And it took me way longer to write this down than roll it up and put the pieces together.

It works wonders for casual players and those without the strong urge to create a detailed history. Which happens to be my average group.

Alternatively, there's a game called Beyond the Wall which has a character creation process that uses playbooks (which I believe are almost all available to download from DriveThruRPG for free) which builds characters' life stories through a series of random tables. The sixth table on each of those playbooks connects one player's character with that of the player sitting to their right. And there's a playbook which would be appropriate for almost any completed D&D character: Paladin?=Novice Templar, Cleric?=Devout Acolyte, Warlock?=Student of the Dark Arts/Witch's Prentice, Guild Merchant background?=Adventurous Trader, etc.

Quertus
2020-05-04, 01:26 PM
I’m a big fan of starting with an imminent threat (like a goblin attack in a public place). The PCs respond to the threat and can pull the thread to figure out what’s going on, having been introduced to each other by the initial fight. One thing I like about this is that the PCs become distinguished as “the people who stepped up.” Might work better with some base level of assumed “heroism” in your PCs.

Lol. The time I specifically remember the party getting together this way, with a rampaging barbarian hoard coming to town, I was playing 2 characters.

One, Ikou the Valent Hero, got on top of a building, picked out the enemy commander, and sniped him. Then he saw who took over and tried to rally the troops, and sniped him. Seeing this, the 3rd in command screamed, "burn the village" ("burn it to the ground"? Something equivalent), and fled for his life. Ikou quickly left his "sniper's nest", and "played cat and mouse" with the bulk of the hoard that was hunting him (ie, he fled).

K'Tamair, meanwhile, am be smarter. K'Tamair am be flying straight to shops with prettiest things, saving pretty things dumb dead talls left behind. K'Tamair am be finding more that K'Tamair am be able carry. K'Tamair am be seeing strong talls, kill happy fun times raiders. K'Tamair am be thinking strong talls am be able carry much pretties. K'Tamair am be stashing pretties (and munchies) on strong talls. K'Tamair am be letting talls carry pretties for K'Tamair.

Anyone strictly "heroic" likely died in the fire/slaughter, but the party got together just fine. :smallbiggrin:

aglondier
2020-05-06, 03:47 AM
Ran a game not long ago where all the characters were the half-human offspring of a particular noble lord, a couple were legitimate and fully human, most were not...made for some entertaining discussions when the subject of dating and procreation came up...turns out Prima Noctem does not really work for the next generation...the team worked out pretty well though...

Zakhara
2020-05-07, 07:13 AM
To abridge an older post I made, I like to:

1.) Open with action (grab attention and get moving)
2.) Start somewhere unsafe (to start with stakes and something needing immediate resolution)
3.) Leave a burning question (incite interest in what's next, establish further setting and goals)

CombatBunny
2020-05-13, 11:36 AM
For me, the first sessions must be all about the characters and their backgrounds. I don’t plan ahead of time what will my campaign be about, because it will spring out naturally from the PCs first interactions.

In the first sessions I try to introduce as few NPCs as possible, because each PC will be the NPC of the others and the first sessions will be about the motivations and background story that each PC wrote.

If one PC is looking for his lost brother, make his lost brother be as well the one PC2 is looking for because he owns him money. Try to tie that brother with as many PCs as you can. Or if another PC is looking for a sword that belonged to his grandfather, make the sword of another PC happen to be that exact same sword.

Start with a single PC, but if he needs to interact with someone, choose among other PCs to be that someone before creating a new NPC. For example, if PC-A wants to look for information at a tavern, don’t create an NPC barkeeper, rather make the PC-B that has the background “owns a business” be that barman.

And keep adding PCs at the first opportunity. The wench happens to be PC-C who is an adventurer that was temporarily hired because of reasons that that player must explain. Don’t fear to throw the ball to them to give explanations and build the world.

Yes, it can be scary, but with all the backgrounds and introductions of each player, you have more than enough material to run one or two sessions simply by making them interact with each other and building on top of their own backgrounds and inputs. You can add some minor and unrelated threats just to add some spice, like some goblings wanting to rob them or something like that, you will think later if they are tied to a major scheme. In fact, many movies use this trope, the first scenes are all about the characters and the threats that arise aren’t related to the main plot, rather they are just there to make the characters shine and that you as an audience can be aware of what are they capable of.

By the time this session ends, you will have a very solid source of inspiration to visualize what kind of adventure you can run, that grows organically from those first events.

kyoryu
2020-05-13, 03:51 PM
The Fate method is good. I recommend having players come together with only vague concepts, and then feed off of those concepts. By working on them together and incrementally, you get rid of a lot of the issues you often get from "okay, you've all made separate characters in a vacuum, now let's get together and see if they randomly formed a cohesive team". Spoiler: They won't.

Beyond that, I think the best thing to do is to start with some kind of impending doom. "Oh, no, if you don't do something, this Bad Thing will happen." That puts immediate stakes and urgency into the situation, and gets the players working together, presuming that they don't want the Bad Thing to happen.

Bonus points if you've agreed before what the game is about, and so the Bad Thing is something that's in line with what the players have already agreed the game is about.

Double bonus points if you tie it into the characters in some way, making it personal instead of just a general environmental thing.

farothel
2020-05-14, 03:37 AM
I'm also a fan of session zero.

Otherwise you can use the Shadowrun approach. Each person is hired by someone they know (they don't have to know from eachother that they all know this person) to do something (that person hired them because together they have the skills to do the mission) and they only get paid if they complete said mission. So they have to work together in the first mission and get to know each other.

This of course can only work in the long run if the characters are compatible. If he has given his word, a paladin will probably work together with an evil character, but he won't do so freely afterwards.

kyoryu
2020-05-14, 10:01 AM
Also a healthy bit of metagaming as a last resort.

"You're going to play as a party. Find a reason your character would work with these folks, or we can retire him and make you a new character."

prabe
2020-05-14, 11:31 AM
Also a healthy bit of metagaming as a last resort.

"You're going to play as a party. Find a reason your character would work with these folks, or we can retire him and make you a new character."

Some of that is in the social contract of coming to the table, of course--the players knowing they're playing a party-oriented game and operating in good faith. My approach is to tell the players I want characters who are at least willing to be heroes (they don't have to be looking for the opportunity, in other words). In the most-recent campaign I started, I also told them, "Y'all each received a letter telling you to be at [place] at [time]. Make characters who would have reacted to that by being at [place] at [time]." They picked up a couple of characters along the way, but that worked to start the campaign.

kyoryu
2020-05-14, 11:57 AM
Some of that is in the social contract of coming to the table, of course--the players knowing they're playing a party-oriented game and operating in good faith. My approach is to tell the players I want characters who are at least willing to be heroes (they don't have to be looking for the opportunity, in other words). In the most-recent campaign I started, I also told them, "Y'all each received a letter telling you to be at [place] at [time]. Make characters who would have reacted to that by being at [place] at [time]." They picked up a couple of characters along the way, but that worked to start the campaign.

Yeah. If people aren't playing in good faith, there's the door.

"Can I be evil?"
"Sure, but you have to be Jayne-evil, or less. Willing to work with the party, and not just constantly betraying them. Realize that the party is the best way to your evil ends. At the end of the day, the game is not about you being evil and screwing over the party, it's about the party overcoming things. If you can make that work, great. If not, your character will get punted."