78% of DMs start their adventures in a tavern...

[SpikeFightwicky]

(Sorry for the thread title, that signature quote sort of irks me but apparently it's effective)

Back in 2nd ed., whenever an adventure was started, we had this thing we did where the DM would start the campaign off with a single character with a random roll. The other characters would be introduced (also in randomly rolled order) as appropriate (and all character would be introduced/join up before half-way through the first session). The DM would have planned a possible entry point for the different characters appropriate to their character.

In 3.X, I DMed one campaign that I started off similarly (though with a new group that didn't know what I was doing) that went on for about 2 years. After that, other players wanted to try DMing, but none of them liked it and I usually ended up 'inheriting' the game and moving to DM position when when DM got tired/fed up with the DM seat, so I never really started any other adventures (the newer DMs from my group tended to use the 'all knew eachother beforehand' method).

So for curiosity's sake, I was wondering what other methods DMs use (or have used) to not start their party out in the tried and true tavern trope.

[Citizen Joe]

The podcast Fear The Boot goes into much of this. They advocate something called a 'group template' where a bunch of questions are answered before people make characters. This way much of the interparty conflict and questions about WHY you are even adventuring together get answered before play starts.

[ZekeArgo]

I generally prefer "mission-based" games to tell the truth. Doesn't rely on the PCs to make up reasons to want to talk to each other: they've all been called in by contacts to do whatever job for an employer, and things can go from there.

Even helps with player absences, since if they can't be there, can just be explained that they weren't needed for the "mission"

[Miraqariftsky]

In my first ever campaign, the PCs answered an ad put out by the Sharn Inquisitive for adventurers to explore certain strange happenings in Xen'drik but post a deadline. Seeknig to beat the deadline, they took the Sharn-Stormreach airship...

...suffice it to say, they met onboard.

[Gig_Complex]

Well my first D&D game that I DM'd I started the party out in a prison in separate cells a couple of hours before an army arrived to break out several of its PoWs.

Back in 2nd ed., whenever an adventure was started, we had this thing we did where the DM would start the campaign off with a single character with a random roll. The other characters would be introduced (also in randomly rolled order) as appropriate (and all character would be introduced/join up before half-way through the first session). The DM would have planned a possible entry point for the different characters appropriate to their character.

I've done this before but it was born from me playing way too many JRPGs at the time.

Now I tend to vary things based on the plot of the campaign and I usually try to keep things new and not use the same type of intro twice in a row.

[Indon]

In my most recent campaign, I had an NPC assemble the team, X-man style (i.e. looking through disparate locations for the PC's and selecting them).

[Ganurath]

I favor a commision by one of the Lawful city states. If one of the characters has a history of crime (typically the skill monkey) then they're added to the commision as "community service." Quotes need only apply in the Hextorian theocracy.

[Deadmeat.GW]

I have people meet each other while traveling in appropriate places, for instance the barbarian was introduced to the party as a slave and the party proceeded to free him.

From there on they traveled together, another member was fleeing for her live from a pack of Gnolls who had ambushed here and killed her horse.
One of the party members is a ranger and has favorite enemy Gnolls so she was hunting down Gnolls near her town...and from there it rolled on.

Funniest I have done was in a game of Tankgirl RPG, one of the party members was a bunny crossbreed, and he had styled himself completely on Bugs Bunny...
Him I introduced in true cartoon-style to the party...
Drop him from the sky with a big 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

SPLAT!'

(gets up and dusts himself off)

'What'sup Docs? Never seen a rabbit fall from a plane?'

[valadil]

I deliberately avoid the tavern.

First game started with each player one his own quest. The thief robbed a house. The urban ranger tried and failed to track down a murderer. The wizard got kidnapped. Can't remember what the barbarian did. They were each led to a cave by a near omniscient druid who hired them to save the world and revealed that he brought them there intentionally through overly circuitous means. It was my first game and I thought overly complex was good.

Second game took place in a town that was being founded out in the savage frontier. A festival was being held (which is a common theme for my games). One player was there as a slave. Another was jousting in the tourney. I think someone else was a guard and another player was there to seek a reversal to a curse. One of the activities for the festival was a public execution. The final PC was to be hanged for crimes against humanity. I'd worked out with the player ahead of time that we'd introduce his real character the next week, but for now we were going to watch everyone metagame to save him because he was a PC and therefore should be saved.

Third game was set in a thieves guild and everyone had to be at least half rogue. Players individually made contact with a hiring thieves guild. The recruiter told each player to meet him at dusk in the back room of some hotel. The players showed up, quarreled over the only chair left in the room, and waited. And waited. And waited. I call this the Andy Kaufman approach. The thieves guild recruiter had them wait awkwardly for upwards of an hour. They were so paranoid that they didn't really speak to each other. When he finally did show up he took the chair for himself. The first quest was actually a reversal of the standard tavern quest - the group drank the last of the guild's beer and as was custom had to replace it. But the guild had a simple rule that stolen beer tasted better, so the group had the lovely task of stealing a keg from an active bar. Good times.

[Rutee]

I always felt the Tavern sig didn't really address what you're really using; A contrivance in some measure that draws the players together before the adventure. The sig also annoys me, since it seems to be mocking genuine newbies, but..

I used a church requesting the aid of the adventurers; One was a Demon, he was kinda forced into service on a serve-or-die contract..

[Squash Monster]

I asked everyone why they were in a given town. Then a traveling adventurer came to the town center and started yelling for volunteers to lute a deceased dragon's cave.

Pretty simple, but it gets the job done. He accompanied the players into the cave then turned on them when they found the treasure (and the undead remains of the dragon). Good times.

[Tura]

I favor a commision by one of the Lawful city states. If one of the characters has a history of crime (typically the skill monkey) then they're added to the commision as "community service."

That actually reminds me of my first game as a 2nd Edition Thief.

GM (collects sheets): OK, George, what are you playing?
George (beaming): A fighter!
GM : Cool, you're with the City Guard. Tura, what are you playing?
Me (beaming) : A thief!
GM : Cool. You're in chains. You've just been sentenced to death for stealing. Georgie here is dragging you to the gallows.
Me : !!!
GM : John, what are you playing?
John (reluctant) : A cleric?
GM : Cool, you're there to perform the last rites. Begin!

Fun times.

[Jonesh]

The first game I DM:ed started with an assasination attempt. The characters were kind of paired up already before that so it was a rather smooth way to get those capable-looking (and odd-looking) fellas chase to after the assassins because everyone else there wasn't as capable as the PCs or even had the free time to embark on such a mission.
Not to mention most of them has the strong motivation of personal survival.

"The hitmen ran off that way. We'll, uh, stay here in case they come back."

[Talya]

My bunch of swashbuckling mercenary scoundrels started off as actual mercenaries, on a battlefield, fighting in a huge battle. (That they lost.)

[Duke of URL]

While not many of the games have lasted much, I must have joined in upwards of 20 PbP games here at GitP. Of these, only two had the party meeting each other in a tavern/pub, and one of those was after each player had a solo (but still linked) encounter on the way to the meeting place.

I think the whole cliche is known, and is easily worked around, at least in the games I play (which generally have a reason for the adventure/campaign prior to its start).

[horseboy]

In the last one I ran the party was not only all from the same underground sealed city, but their mentors were a prior adventuring party. They all had been hanging out while not training for a couple of years since their masters hung out with each other. A double whammy.

[Cby!]

I started my present campaign in a mercenary camp.
3 of the player where brother/sister, the 4th one a barbarian who escaped from an gladiator arena. They where given their first assignement by the camp's leader, the barbarian joined them for the second one.

Later as one of character died i introduce one in a prison, as they were caught while trying to steal from a huge mansion.

The player left and new character was introduced. It was a white elfe necromancer that escaped from a sect that use her as a focus for divination. She was retain prisoner on a oriental ship but manage to kil a few guard before falling inconscious in water, bleeding. My player where wearing shark armor a detect the blood from afar and decide to kick some samurai ass.
She died the game session after :P

He decide to make another black elf, same as two other and i decide he would be one of there cousin. They meet im outside a tavern , as he flew trew the windows.

[DeathQuaker]

I think my very favorite beginning of a game was provided by a very good GM who ran a Star Wars d20 in. He looked at me and my co-pilot and said, after describing briefly the planet we were starting on and why we were there, "Now: you have 10 seconds to explain why the armed guards are chasing you. Go."

As another example--in an AD&D game I played several years ago, my GM told me my cleric was on a mission from my church to pick up a package and deliver it from A to B. They gave me funds to hire hirelings--coincidentally, the most competent mercenaries in the caravanners' hall were the rest of the party. That worked extremely well for that particular game and the characters involved (but it was specific to certain classes and personalities being present, so I wouldn't say all campaigns should start like that).

That's the thing--the trick is to look at the characters and come up with a viable reason why they are together--or ask the players themselves to come up with such a reason and start the game with them all being together.

I have to admit, one of my big campaigns began in a tavern, which was kind of an intentional nod to tradition. If I did it all over again, though, I probably would have pulled more upon the experiences/practices of the GMs I had listed above.

[CrazedGoblin]

in my one they are going to start aboard ship heading to a city on call from a bounty notice, mainly so they cant fart about in shops on the first session

[Triaxx]

Oddly, I've only ever started a single adventure in a Tavern, but that's because it was the only standing building in the town, and was crammed full of people. Fortunately, we were already traveling together, so there was no need for complicated backstory ellucidation.

Usually we just make something up on the spot.

[crimson77]

(Sorry for the thread title, that signature quote sort of irks me but apparently it's effective)

I was actually just thinking of a thread similar to this this morning after reading one of the many people who have that in their signature.

What I am curious about is that statistic, where did it come from?

[Rutee]

I think my very favorite beginning of a game was provided by a very good GM who ran a Star Wars d20 in. He looked at me and my co-pilot and said, after describing briefly the planet we were starting on and why we were there, "Now: you have 10 seconds to explain why the armed guards are chasing you. Go."

I like the variations of that that have come up throughout the thread, actually.. XD

That's the thing--the trick is to look at the characters and come up with a viable reason why they are together--or ask the players themselves to come up with such a reason and start the game with them all being together.

I need to normalize my sleep schedule, 'cause I'd have thought to mention this if I weren't tired; Agreed in full. The players can usually come up with something, I've found (I think they came up with the church I mentioned in my above post..)

[Irreverent Fool]

I never start the campaign in a pub, but the PCs invariably end up going to one. Why? Because pub stands for 'public house' and this is the location people go to meet and talk about the goings-on of the local area (in a faux-medieval setting). If you want to get the word out about something, chances are you start at the pub.

Besides, it's not cliche, it's iconic!

[Hazkali]

I don't see what's wrong with starting an adventure in a tavern. Of course, it's been used since the year dot, but then it makes perfect sense.

• In a pseudo medieval/renaissance setting, the tavern is a natural focal point of the community, just as it is in modern villages and small towns.
• Taverns are a source of relaxation, making them the logical place to find the heroes after they've finished a hard adventure.
• Everyone likes to drink, eat or listen to music so taverns attract all sorts of people. Of course, some taverns are shadier or more upmarket than others, but you'll always get a broad spectrum of patrons.
• In the stereotypical campaign, the "adventurer's notice board" is a perfect way of introducing quests, as they require no player motivation other than gold.

Of course, the question as to why the PCs are together in the first place will plague DMs for centuries to come...

[Talic]

I like jails. It's easy to start an adventure in a jail.

Even goodly law type people can be there... After all, people can get arrested wrongly :)

[Cybren]

One thing you can do is give the players a shared background or link while they create characters so you don't have to play the "everyone make a random lunatic and I get to figure out how they meet together".

[Nero24200]

I usally try to put my group in a position where it's "team up to save yourself". The last time I tried this involved all of them on an airship headed to a big adventuring citytm, then having the ship attacked by Orc Sky pirates. I had stated the orcs and the ship crew in such a way that the orcs would win unless a handful of folks with class levels helped out, thus giving the party a reason to work together, possibily without even getting each other's names. Seemed to work out, this is one of the few campaigns I've done where none of the players feel their characters are being "forced" to continue the plot.

I honestly think the best way is to take somthing they would all be part of (such as an airship ride in the example above) and add an element of danger to it.

[spotmarkedx]

I was actually just thinking of a thread similar to this this morning after reading one of the many people who have that in their signature.

What I am curious about is that statistic, where did it come from?

81% of statistics found on forums are made up on the spur of the moment. I believe the 78% in question in this thread to be one of such.

[horseboy]

What I am curious about is that statistic, where did it come from?

98.6% of all statistics on the internet are made up.

[Jack Zander]

FOOLS! The tavern is the ONLY way to start an adventure! All other methods of party members meeting each other is boring and unrealistic.