[Any] Starting over... maybe

[Duos Greanleef]

So, I started an Eberron campaign a few months ago, and we play about every other week.
We started with
Player 1: Dwarf Cleric
Player 2: Elf Ranger
Player 3: DMPC Human Ranger|Fighter (She had a bear that tied the party together... sort of)
Player 4: Eladrin Wizard

We've gone through some story-based party changes, and now we have
P1: Same Cleric
P2: Whatever he wants to play tomorrow (this will be his fourth character)
P3: DMPC Elf Avenger (Second character. planning on betraying the party... a little on the necessary side)
P4: Human Warlord (second character)

Player 1 is considering switching his character, which would put us at exactly 0 PCs from the original party, and my story arc kinda needs at least a few of them around for.. well... story purposes.
We may have another guy coming in in the next session or two.
EDIT: The new guy has NEVER played D&D before. We'll be teaching him from scratch.

So here's my question:
Would it be unreasonable of me to start back at level one with a new story, in a new setting, with new characters?

[jiriku]

This is probably a question better directed towards your players, rather than the Playground. However, I would agree that when the PC lineup changes substantially, it's time to rethink your overall gameplan.

[Mongoose87]

Maybe just go back one level, to level three, so you have the space of a level to make things happen to get their new characters involved in the plot.

[Shpadoinkle]

Personally, I don't think so. Not every campaign is going to get off to a good start.

Which isn't to say that a rocky start will neccesarily make the rest of the campaign unplayable, but sometimes things just don't pan out.

Also, have players 2 and 4 had ther previous characters die, or have they just decided they wanted to play something else?

[Duos Greanleef]

The first time the party changed, 2&4 became fugitives from the law that 1&3 wanted nothing to do with in character, so they decided to build new ones instead of breaking character to stay with the rest.
The next time, Player two decided to jump off of a cliff with the BBEG tied to him to kill them both. Then he played a wizard with short term memory loss.
Now I think he wants to play a dwarf fighter from "the mother land."

[Grumman]

P3: DMPC... planning on betraying the party...

Don't do this. DMPCs are bad. DMPCs that betray the party are worse, and a tired cliche.

[Choco]

DMPCs are bad. DMPCs that betray the party are worse, and a tired cliche.

Unless it is VERY obvious and played more for humor than anything else, of course .

I don't create stories for the characters cause of the same problem you are having. I have an overall epic plot happening that the PC's can ignore at their own risk, but the players have to create their own stories via giving me hooks in their backstory and such. Every time I try to create a story for a PC, then either the player gets bored and makes a new character or the character gets killed. If they forging their own story, they seem more likely to stick to that character and be more careful in life or death situations I noticed.

[Tyndmyr]

Don't do this. DMPCs are bad. DMPCs that betray the party are worse, and a tired cliche.

This. Its roughly as bad an idea as using the storyline from lotr and hoping nobody notices.

[Tequila Sunrise]

This is probably a question better directed towards your players, rather than the Playground.

This.

Also, you may not want to make specific PCs important to your future campaign story arcs -- clearly PCs in your group have a healthy turn-over rate, so tying the story to individual characters is shooting yourself in the foot.

Also #2, I've played level one a dozen times, so I suggest you ask your players before starting there. Maybe they like level one, but a lot of players get tired of it -- so just remember that it's not 'cheating' [or whatever] to start higher.