You all Meet at an Inn

[GenericGuy]

How many times have you started a campaign with this tried and true method of getting the party together? Anyone have a more interesting and original way to get a diverse set of characters all in the same place? EX: In my most recent campaign I had the characters find each other on a battlefield, with them all on the losing side. They were all hired mercenaries for a port city-state seceding from a Kingdom and they got to decide from there whether to retreat back to base or join up with King's army.

[Greenish]

Well, the obvious (and easy, from DM's perspective) solution is to tell players to figure out how their characters know each other. Bonus point: not having to worry about how the group stays together, because the PCs already have an IC reason(s) for that.

[The Rose Dragon]

I've had a campaign that started with "you never meet each other", but I was a player in that one.

[Ernir]

Never, but also, I have never taken up the DM's reins without the players having gone to the nearest inn on their own initiative in the very first session.

[Darklord Bright]

I did it once, on the very first time I DMed anything (A custom system I was working on), because I was told I was obliged to, given it was my first time. We all thought it was hilariously and purposely generic.

The next time I DMed that custom system, I started it off on a ship which was hit by a storm and crashed on the shores of a foreign land, only the 'heroes' of the story surviving the wreck, so they needed to work together to survive.

Speaking of which, I really should keep working on that system...

[Morph Bark]

My first party started as a meet-up of childhood friends at the gates of their small town, starting out on a scouting trip to a new cave one of them had found.

In the second campaign, we started at the mayor's office where one of the PCs worked and another was coming to get a year-round gate pass.

The third campaign started in an oriental seaside town where one of the PCs came drifting to in a rowboat without oars. The other PC was busy fighting the local Gym Leader.

The fourth campaign started at a mercenary company of sorts, where the two PCs were immediately pranked by one of their peers, called Zack. He instantly got dubbed The Zack-Ass and was pranked back many times.

The fifth one was prettymuch the same.

The sixth one started in outer space where we all got brought in to a slave trader colony. Two of the players, me included, didn't like our characters, so we made new ones and started over with our characters meeting the third, old one, as he crashed down into a nearby castle while fighting the BBEG-to-be.

The seventh one started in an inn... so yeah. It was hamlet and one of the PCs lived there since childhood.

The eighth and current one started in a run-down shack where the six PCs lived (actually five since one slept outside in the gutter). One got hit in the head with a newspaper and woken up due to the 1d4 nonlethal damage and the articles in it allowed for them to pick their quest and start their journy.


In all but the sixth I've been the DM.

[Tukka]

I haven't run a lot of campaigns, but usually I like to get a backstory from everyone and then just write in a hook that gets everyone in proximity to one another. I also would encourage players to work together to give their characters a common origin, so instead you only have to bring together 2 or 3 different parties instead of 4 or 5 individuals.

[Greenish]

One got hit in the head with a newspaper and woken up due to the 1d4 nonlethal damage and the articles in it allowed for them to pick their quest and start their journy.

Getting hit by a newspaper does more damage than being punched or kicked?

[Fuzzie Fuzz]

Heh, in my current campaign, my players were on the road to a new city when they got attacked by vampire sheep.

In the campaign I'm starting in a week or two, the players are starting in a tavern. The tavern is owned by one of them, and he will be very angry if any barfights erupt. In the current campaign, his character got kicked out of a city for burning down a bar, and likes nothing more than starting barfights. I smell karmic payback coming.

[Crasical]

I've played it and seen it played both ways, actually.

First game I ever played in, we started in a tavern together, and a shady old man looked for 'trustworthy looking folk' to do a mission for the king recruited the party.

First game I ever ran, the players where all in a several-mile radius of a large, visible landmark. I then told them a storm was rolling in and they all met in the small cave at the same time looking for shelter. The bonding of the 1st adventure kept the party together after that.

Second game I ever ran, I explained to the characters quite clearly that their superheroes where going to meet in a perfect storm of coincidence, but I would try not to be so obvious after that point. They all showed up to stop a heist at the exact same time.

[AsteriskAmp]

My first party got together at a Ballet Recital, it was weird but worked.

My second party began with two members and began aquiring members gradually as new players came.

My third party met in a gathering for a coup

My fourth party met at a gnome lab, Mercury elemental ensued

My fifth party met in a jail and had to get together to escape from a Tarrasque that began attacking it, they then got reasons to stick together.

[Ernir]

Getting hit by a newspaper does more damage than being punched or kicked?

It was a Large newspaper, obviously.

[boomwolf]

Well, I generally divide my games to "worlds", one world for each group I had, and each works differently.

One one world they are all mercenaries that do not know each other (yet), on most adventures. if they choose to send the same character to another contract (game), fine by me. (they make new ones often, sometime return to old one for lower level games, etc. the player with the least characters in that world has 5 that are still alive.)
If two of them happen to choose characters that were played in the same team before, fun times. sometimes things like "A adventures with B, next game B adventures with C, two games later A adventures with C, next game A, B, C are all hired.

Its quite amusing.

BTW, if you wonder about it-the "start" locations of all games (where the guy who needs mercenaries come to seek help) is a tavern. not joking, its the same tavern every time, and the "off" characters hang out there in the meantime. they even talk to their past PC's (now NPC's) from time to time.

The soul excepting was the first game, where they started on a village under attack as a bunch of childhood friends, and were sent after the attack to deliver what (probably) attracted said attack to a "guy who will know what to do", who owns that tavern, much like the NWN2 start (inspired by it a bit.)

Actually, from time to time I send them on quests relating to that damned broken statue. (like finding a man who might know what it is, or collecting another piece of it from some dungeon.)
No clue what to do with it once they get all pieces. (they already gotten all of it except the head and left foot.)

[Techsmart]

I've had players meet a variety of different ways. My first group had a variety of reasons the players were brought together. Two of them got into a barfight with an inebriated orc who was a little too... huggy. They were put to work for the town guard to pay for their damages. Another one already worked for the town guard. One was a perverted wizard who happened to catch wind of some strange happenings in the town, and figured the fame could get him some lovely ladies. Another was a bar wench who took it upon herself to stop the barfight, and decided to keep the first two adventurers from getting into more trouble, joining the group. The last person was a traveling female cleric of pelor who fell in love with the perverted wizard (although the feeling wasn't mutual), and followed him around because if it. She was heartbroken when I smashed him to a pulp with my gazebo.
In my most recent campaign, the rogue was busy confusing wizards with his sleight of hand skills, and confused the party wizard. They had a heated argument, but eventually got over it and went to the tavern to get a drink. The paladin and cleric were traveling from another land and stopped at the tavern to get a drink, meeting rogue and wizard. A drinking contest ensued with my personal homebrew drink, sneaky fish (DC16 for inebriation, DC16 will or think you are a fish). They ended up getting recruited to do some work somewhere between the wizard flopping on the floor and the paladin being completely wasted. Later, they met the sorcerer, who the rogue framed for one of his own crimes. After having him arrested, the rogue posted bail for the sorcerer in exchange for his services in the quest.
The important thing in a quest isn't "did they meet in X?", its how and why they met in X, and what became of their interactions?

[gallagher]

i just started my first campaign as a DM two weeks ago. i had my players start out captured on a pirate ship, with all their things stored in the captains lodgings. made for an interesting first day.

[Ormur]

Never, but also, I have never taken up the DM's reins without the players having gone to the nearest inn on their own initiative in the very first session.

To be fair we also went everywhere else in that godforsaken village in the first session.

I frankly don't recall whether my first campaign actually started in a tavern or if it the players just met there. However the main action was in front of the mayor's office to which the mayor's body was nailed to.

[Coidzor]

Spoiler

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Hmm, my first campaign started with us all having been hired/press-ganged/brow-beaten/bribed into investigating the BURNING PLAGUE as the only able-bodied individuals who weren't busy taking care of sick people.

The campaign after that we started out being a bunch of drinking buddies who decided to take a bounty from the mayor's office to check up on the light house after ships stopped coming into the harbor.

After that we again started out as already hired to do a job and it was a one-shot.

The next one after that I joined late so we met the rest of the party in the jails of a ruined keep that some orcs had taken over and then we busted out, grabbed our stuff, and murderlized the warchief.

The one after that, I was sick and missed the first session so I don't know how they met, but I met them after they rescued my character in the middle of a dungeon crawl in a ruined gnomish undercity next to/below a human city.

The campaign after that, we were a previously established Free-Chartered Adventuring Company that was having a dry spell, so we decided to move on to greener pastures and took up a job beneath us for a search and rescue that took us in the direction of Ravenloft accidentally.

So sort of an in media res beginning trend, though before any actual action started.

[comicshorse]

A Fading Suns game a friend ran started with the players as prisoners being transported to a penal planet, until the ship crash-landed on a very hostile planet.

[Swordgleam]

Threw all the PCs in jail.

All the PCs started out on a ship - they got to figure out why they were there - that got attacked by pirates immediately.

Had all the PCs receive mysterious letters directing them to the same place.

All the PCs were from the same village - getting them to go on the first adventure together was a bit of a stretch, though.


When I'm a player, I like to work my character into at least one other PC's backstory. One time, it backfired horribly. Other times, it's worked fairly well.

[Pechvarry]

Similar to the OP, I started a campaign with 2 of the characters on opposing sides of a massive battle. It was all orchestrated to create an area where as many souls were leaving the physical realm at the same time as some evil force could muster. Bla bla bla, it didn't last long.

[Ravens_cry]

The only campaign I did I had the PC's as part of a militia and they were on patrol together. It worked well enough, I think.

[thompur]

Getting hit by a newspaper does more damage than being punched or kicked?

If it was the Sunday New York Times? Absoutely!

[Noedig]

My favourite one was when the DM had us all on various points of the road to Waterdeep. Its the middle of winter and it starts to blizzard, and my character finds an abandoned tower to take shelter in. About three hours later the next character shows up, and due to local custom, we are forced to share the fire. The cycle repeats until we are all together. Then, hobgoblins who we did not know use the tower attacked us and we had to band together to kill them.

[Morph Bark]

Getting hit by a newspaper does more damage than being punched or kicked?

It was a Large newspaper, obviously.

If it was the Sunday New York Times? Absoutely!

I guess I can rest my case before even starting it.

Being a thrown Small monk weapon could also work.

[Malificus]

I've not started a campaign in an inn/bar/tavern a few times

I've never done it in WoD games of any sort
One (and only one) D&D game I've been in started with us already together on the road
The Dark Heresy game I played started with us on a mission
The Exalted game started with us in the bordlerlands

[FelixG]

In the most recent campaign i have joined i started on a ship i just bought...then was sent right off to a cantena to hire the other two players in the game for dangerous work

(star wars)

[Ozreth]

I like it. I'm a sucker for "generic" fantasy hooks in games and books. I'm not the type to look for something "different" or groundbreaking in my fantasy, although I appreciate it when I see it.

Heck, my favorite fantasy novels are still the Drizzt series ha.

[KillianHawkeye]

I only had the players meet at an inn the very first time I ever DM'd, and that was only because that was where the adventure I was running began. Back when I still ran premade adventure modules.

[PrGo]

I like it. I'm a sucker for "generic" fantasy hooks in games and books. I'm not the type to look for something "different" or groundbreaking in my fantasy, although I appreciate it when I see it.

Heck, my favorite fantasy novels are still the Drizzt series ha.

I second you on both of those things

[Elvenoutrider]

I'm a fan of "All of you have been called to this location to be given a mission." The few times ive seen tavern meetings the party alwas misses or ignores the plot hook, wind up fighting each other, getting arrested, you know the drill.

A few notable exceptions to this:

- In my star wars campaign, the party wakes up aboard a wrecked republic capital ship with no memory of how they got there, nor do any of them remember any service to the republic.

- In my d20 modern campaign, the party met burning down a walmart...