Help!

[halo_monger]

I'm the DM in my gaming group and tomorrow afternoon I will be having a session with friends and family, but I have no clue what to do and I really haven't liked most of the ideas i've seen on gaming websites. I need help! Please post some good ideas for a starting campaign...

[halo_monger]

By the way we play a 1st and 2nd edition variant of D&D so anything with that...

[evil-frosty]

u can go with something cliche if your desperate like orcs threatening the town or someones family member is killed
u could wing it but i dont advise that
also there is a list of ideas in the 3.5 dmg

heres something my friend came up, have the party go thru some sort of dungeon and at the end have a mirror of opposition but instead of its normal affects have everyone else in the world switch alignments i.e lich is good paladin is bad and have try to fix that or work thru it.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Why are you DMing if you haven't got a single idea of your own?

[Grail]

Ask the players for assistance. Sometimes the best starts to games come from the players. Take the first session to sit around a bit, talk over what backgrounds the characters have, how they know each other, what reasons they have for forming a party, leaving their homes and adventuring.

Never underestimate what the players can deliver in terms of story. Also, if you do discuss with them what they think, you can get an idea for what they want out of the game.

Either that, or hoodwink them with a prophecy.

[charl]

Why are you DMing if you haven't got a single idea of your own?

That's a bit harsh.

Anyway, there are many little hooks you could throw in. Attacked villages, lost possessions, military skirmish, nearby monster antagonising settlement...

A trick I sometimes use is taking a film or TV plot, distilling it down to its bare minimum and then building a scenario around it. Can be done with anything really. Just disguise it so your players don't recognize it.

[herrhauptmann]

-- Man flies into town on back of dragon (rule of cool). Lands in town square and says "Royal wizard Bob has said there are adventurers here. And King Joe has offered you the chance for a royal seal of adventuring. Should you succeed, you will be able to make requests of army units and town watch as an agent of the king. However, you will also have greater responsibilities than the average citizen. Responsibilities which you cannot turn down."(basically they'll become deputies of the police force and lower ranked army officers)

-- Should they succeed, have them do a few adventures with a high level guy in the background holding a clipboard. (In 3.x I'd say he's covered by the spell sanctuary) In the event of the players being radically inexperienced, or just unlucky, he can step in and save them, though they'll gain less XP for the encounter.
-- I used one similar when I introduced my brother and his friends to the game for the first time. They enjoyed it, and it also made for some odd roleplay in the downtime because I (as the clipboard guys) would randomly mime as if I was taking notes on their actions. When I finally had a real adventure for them to do, I shoved them through a magical gate while the high level guy fought off a rampaging ogre tribe.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

A group of friends finish their last day of high school/apprenticeship/medieval equivalent, each return home to find their families missing. They frantically search, compare notes with their friends, eventually find a note from one of the parents who, even though she wasn't supposed to, out of compassion hid a note explaining why they vanished - that they weren't the real parents at all, but that each of the adventurers were hidden in this village as children for protection... blah blah blah. Just an idea, if you want to do something with it.

[Seatbelt]

You can run a whole session in an inn. Bar Fight! Tavern games, a mysterious stranger. Someone in the inn murdering guests?! Who's the better archer, the elf druid or the bard?

[chiasaur11]

I vote for the Orc in a room with a pie classic.

Because who doesn't like pie?

(Note: If the players are mummies or otherwise undead and socially inconvenienced cake can be substituted.)

[Egiam]

Here is an adventure that never fails, but gets tiring:
Town under attack by orcs, kobolds, goblins, etc. adventurers needed. Characters find camp. Characters fight their way through. Find villian that has taken over control (necromancer, young dragon etc.). Slay him, then come back and claim prize.
Always works if you are desperate.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Here is an adventure that never fails, but gets tiring:
Town under attack by orcs, kobolds, goblins, etc. adventurers needed. Characters find camp. Characters fight their way through. Find villian that has taken over control (necromancer, young dragon etc.). Slay him, then come back and claim prize.
Always works if you are desperate.

Improvement. Village puts out call for adventurers. Kobolds(non-Tucker) have been raiding them, killing townsfolk(the adventurers meet a widow, and the towns' men go about armed to the teeth), and stealing supplies the town needs to get through the winter, especially after the fields failed(the adventurers, if they investigate, note the fields are completely overgrown with weeds and brush, forcing out what little grain remains). When the PCs assault the warren/camp, they note a hardpoint defense of one location. After fighting through, they're in a nursery, with the womenfolk of the warren armed with pitiful weapons to defend their children the only remaining guards. During the ensuing "battle" the women make very odd comments that should prompt the players to investigate further. If not, their fight takes them next to the larders, where the PCs find mostly smoked meat and fungi-based foods, that the players find extremely unappetizing and "not what you would consider food for any but the most desperate 'civilized' humans". If the PCs don't investigate then, the townsfolk make odd comments upon their return before refusing to pay because they have so little. A fight may ensue. In actuality, the Kobolds grow the food, and the Townsfolk have found it easier and safer(farm accidents in Agrarian societies are killer) to raid the Kobolds for food, leaving them just enough to live through the winter. This year the Kobolds took it back, sacking the town in the process. The people didn't want to lose more people to another attack, having fought twice this year already, but they couldn't live without the food. So they hired out, despite not being able to afford it. If your players don't give them the Kobolds food or take it back after being attacked, the pitiable widow they met earlier claims they are killing her, and begs for their help as they leave town, then throws stuff at their backs.

Should make your players question themselves a bit, and keep them interested through a few sessions.

[Shadowbane]

I've always liked: "You awake in the night. Your room is very quiet, and illuminated by a small candle in the corner. Beside that candle sits an old man with short white hair and wise, possibly mischevious eyes. As you try to talk, you realize you cannot move. The man stands up and walks up to you. "Listen to me." He says."

And cue your story.