Unique Ways to Start Campaigns?

[only1doug]

I'm still not used to how fast this forums answers questions....

Anyway, campaign is 5th level. Characters are as follows: Human Rogue 3/Urban Ranger 2 archer, Darfellan Barbarian 5, Dwarf Fighter 1/Wizard 4 (going for Runesmith), Human Cleric of Pelor 3/Church Inquisitor 2 (going for Warpriest and Shadowbane Inquisitor), Human Duskblade 5, Half-Aquatic Elf Bard 5 (I bumped the half elf a little by giving all the bonuses of the Water Adaptation feat and superior low-light vision as racial traits), and Wild Elf Druid 5

Setting is a custom one. The Rogue and Darfellan are on a ship together, the wizard, cleric, and duskblade are together on foot, the druid is on foot on her own, and the half-elf has yet to describe her backstory to me, but will probably be arriving on foot or live in the city they're starting in.

They're starting in a port city and the first mission will be them being hired (as a group) to put an end to the pirate attacks on the nation's trade lanes (which are unusually frequent and organized). They don't have access to a ship themselves, so they'll have to charter one, commandeer one, Diplomacy a naive captain, or stowaway on one (possibly a pirate ship). They'll soon discover that the pirates are being hired by an opposing nation as deniable assets, leading them into plots between nations.

Seems fairly straightforward;

Sea battles viewed from afar: (Visable from several miles away)

The skies darken as a storm gathers from nowhere, all eyes are drawn to the distant sight of a merchant ship being repeatedly hit by lightning. Another ship nearby strangely seems to be completely ignored by the storms fury. As the 2nd ship pulls alongside the first the storm seems to abate. after some time of rendering assistance the ships seperate and the damaged ship limps toward a small port town nearby.

The ship that is carrying the Rogue and Darfellan decides to put into the port to check on the afflicted vessel.

The Other Pc's will hopefully sense a plot hook and close in on the town where the damaged ship put in to investigate (if they don't then you may have problems getting them to engage with your game).

The captain of the ship already carrying some PCs may decide to hire additional protection (eg the entire party) and refuse to leave port until sufficient protection is found ("go find some more help!") leaving the existing PCs to recruit the other PCs.
The PCs ship can be attacked by pirates on its way to the capital, earning the PCs the attention of the merchants guild for successfully foiling one attack.


Sounds fun, go for it.

Edit: Some of your other PC's could already be at the small port town, or they might be near enough to see the sea battle and hopefully intrigued enough to investigate. Should the PC's not already at the port town decide to go the opposite direction some further subtle hints (every NPC they meet talking about it) might convince them to investigate.

Should they ignore the subtle hints then let them sit and watch while the rest of the party gets to fight off pirates.

Then subtly suggest to them that they find a reason to join the game. Perhaps a secret note to the player saying "think of a in character reason to join the party or you will have to continue to sit and watch everyone else play."