New Campaign, how start?

[Pink_Paladin]

Im starting a new campaign. The setting is homebrew but with LARGE inspiration of Eberron. I got 5 players + a DMPC. The party is :

All lvl 1
Changeling Rogue (pickpocket)
Human Rogue (Law keeper/avenger...weird concept)
Human Rogue (dungeoncrawler)
Half-Orc Barbarian
Human Psion(Kinetecist)
Human Fighter (DMPC)

I have created an Empire and I dont know if I should make them start in the capital (Huge City builded on a death volcano) or a little village. You guys have any suggestions on how start my campaign?

[Snadgeros]

In a tavern.

What? It's tried and true!

[the_tick_rules]

well i'd need to know a little more about the world first.

[Ralfarius]

In a tavern.

What? It's tried and true!
Seconded.

You can either go with the big city, or if you want a less overwhelming feel for a new setting, go for the nearest smaller town. Something with some activity, but not the middle of the capital big.

[Moral Wiz]

I wouldn't recommend the tavern. Personal preference, but...

Can you give us a few details about the characters? That'd be helpful. And personally, i'd place them at a "rural" style town; out of the center of fashion and politics, and away from major current events, but home to people who at least know about such things, and maintain some involvement with them. Large rather than small though; but still feeling at least slightly remote.

[Sleet]

They're all siblings or half siblings, except the changeling, who is an indentured servant to the lawkeeper rogue (punishment for a crime committed offscreen)?

[Moral Wiz]

So, no introductions needed?

That'd work well with a rural town environment. Everyone knows everyone, social life is constrained, but still important. Plus, it provides a good excuse to go and see the capital; the town is comparatively boring; where the capital is where things happen.

Of course, anything can happen on the roads these days... :smallamused:

[shaggz076]

I like the idea of them all being childhood friends (and troublemakers) in a small town. It is the eve of the harvest fair and the group is on the prowl for some good ol' mischeif making when the town is attacked by a band of Orcs intent on killing all the men and children and kidnapping the women for later pleasure. The heroes have the option to stand and fight against the Orcs or to flee. If they stand and fight they have a chance of dying but at the same time, gaining a huge amount of EXP.

[FlyMolo]

That's an awesome idea.

My personal favorite way to start a campaign is to have all the players kidnapped by the Elemental Plane Of Flesh. It's a homebrew plane that basically makes the players microscopic inside a giant creature. They fight red blood cells, cancer, etc. However, there are stomachs that summon creatures from other planes and digest them for food. I find that's a good way of pulling together people with no backstory. One problem, they're about to be digested.

However, if the rest of the campaign relies on them being divine minions, this isn't so much of a problem.

[random11]

Im starting a new campaign. The setting is homebrew but with LARGE inspiration of Eberron. I got 5 players + a DMPC. The party is :

All lvl 1
Changeling Rogue (pickpocket)
Human Rogue (Law keeper/avenger...weird concept)
Human Rogue (dungeoncrawler)
Half-Orc Barbarian
Human Psion(Kinetecist)
Human Fighter (DMPC)

I have created an Empire and I dont know if I should make them start in the capital (Huge City builded on a death volcano) or a little village. You guys have any suggestions on how start my campaign?


Simple "escort caravan" setting.
Divide the group to 3:
Two people are sent by a local crime organization to steal something from the caravan (not too expensive, after all they are level 1), one who is a law enforcer sent to discover the thieves, and the rest are regular mercenaries on a guard job.

Stick them in the same cart or guard shift, and after several days or regular random events, do something that will force them to work together (regardless if anyone discovered the other's true intentions)

[Accersitus]

One way to start unrelated chars is to have them all start in prison/about to be executed.

An original way to start in a tavern, would be for the
chars to own the tavern, and not just meet randomly.
It's also a nice way for the chars to have a base of
operations (Just make sure that the main Bartender
is an NPC so the Tavern can keep on without the PCs)

But with a group of siblings it's normal to start in the
smaller rural village.

[Artanis]

Just have them start in the middle of a mission (escort, dungeon dive, whatever) with the descriptions of how they met and possibly-contrived reasons for working together just being swept under the rug as "assumed to have worked out one way or another".

[Moral Wiz]

They are related chars. Another player (resumably) chimed in to say that they are siblings. They don't need an "Intro" as much as they need a starting setting; like Small town, Capital city, desert wandering ect.

[Attilargh]

They are currently exploring an ancient ruin in some backwoods near a conveniently placed village, when their employer, an NPC professor from the University of Sumthinor-Oter gets squished by a rolling boulder trap. Think fast!

[Devils_Advocate]

Haven't you ever played a console RPG? Obviously, they start in a small town with cruddy equipment and low-powered bad guys, and gradually work their way to the bustling metropolis with all the high-level people and the best equipment. :smalltongue:

Seriously, though, starting them in a location isolated from the major goings-on of the empire allows you to gradually introduce them to the campaign world, and probably makes it easiest to set up a linear series of adventures. If the plot hook for the next adventure is the only really interesting thing going on wherever they are, they'll probably follow it up.

On the other hand, if you want to hand them a bunch of pages of information on the setting right off the bat, to provide them with a rich, detailed, environment, to give them a plethora of options to choose from and let them decide their own path, whatever that might be... then start them off in the great big capital.

The second option is really a lot more work. Personally, I would want to build up to that, starting from something small. The players get a chance to develop a deeper understanding of the setting if it isn't dumped on them all at once, and having to earn that degree of freedom helps one to appreciate it more.

[Solo]

Start at the very beginning,
A very good place to start...

[Pink_Paladin]

Haven't you ever played a console RPG? Obviously, they start in a small town with cruddy equipment and low-powered bad guys, and gradually work their way to the bustling metropolis with all the high-level people and the best equipment. :smalltongue:


Of course I did! But starting as a child that seek revenge because his village burned and his father and sister died seems not very original.

The setting is not really big right now. I created a Empire and not yet thinked about the rest of the world. The capital is a metropolis located on the top of a dead volcano. Lands around aren't very good for agriculture. The towns around then depend on the importation from the west of the empire. Flying ships and caravan arrives daily from the fertile regions. Since the rise of Artilus as an Emperor, the Empire seems less war-oriented. The Empire is now celebrating the first 100 years of peaces. The emperor and the senate are preparing a to change the Empire for a New Republic.

I dont know how bring the characters from mundane to heroic slowly. I dont want them to save the world or even the emperor. Maybe starting in jail and escaping from the city that is in fire could be cool. The city would be the first clue of a comming war.

[Artanis]

They are related chars. Another player (resumably) chimed in to say that they are siblings. They don't need an "Intro" as much as they need a starting setting; like Small town, Capital city, desert wandering ect.
Even then it isn't such a bad idea to start them off in the middle of something. It'll help the players get comfortable with each other and the setting and whatnot before having to wander around looking for somebody to send them off to kill things.

...unless the group really likes RP, of course.