How did your campaign start? My favourite idea is for an Adventurer's guild in a tavern, then people put up quests for the characters, with a reward. And they can stay there and get food. Obviously they'll meet other adventurers, and some quests will be too hard for them. Share how your campaign started!!
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'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
The campaign I've been running for the last 2 years started with the players all working a smuggling job (smuggling magical texts out of a magic-hating kingdom) together, getting caught, breaking out, getting caught again, getting recruited by the King to join his uncontrollable Wild Magic sorcerer son in exile and escort him to a holding facility across the country, and then once out of the castle they said "screw that" and have been off doing their own things ever since.
I've seen a series of 1-shots start with the adventurers trying to find a place to rest after their previous (mis)adventure and coming across another adventure - coming across a destitute town with no pub, finding a man in stocks while heading to a tavern in a new town, getting interrupted by a druid mage while trying to have a picnic for once...
The three times when their quest started in a tavern, they were trying to find a place to rest, not get involved in anything, and got dragged into it regardless.
Player (after seeing companions sitting on breathing chairs, to barkeep): "So, what? Do we have to fight some furniture or something? What is this?" Barkeep: "You what?" Player: "My friends keep going up and down on the chairs! It's weird!" Barkeep: "Well, they're not meant to be doing that." Player: "What? My friends or the chairs?" *roll for initiative as half of establishment's chairs come to life*
Another pub was just a trap... as if a lovely, lone pub in the middle of the woods that has any possible drink (only without sparklers, though) would be anything else... but they had been taking tree-sap showers for 3 days trying to find another town after getting run out of a previous one for accidentally killing all 15 orphans in the orphanage.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
So many beginnings, and yet an inn and bar was almost always a key feature...but not always.
Dropped into a town by a portal from Sigil by accident. Eventually go to the nearest bar for rumors and meet other players
Two lizardfolk on a quest to understand civilization. They stop in a bar to understand the social interaction of 'normal folk,,' and are hired as muscle by the other characters. Zany hijinks occur.
Every player received a mysterious letter that presents a money making opportunities, and a vague threat to their well being if they don't show up. the meeting is in a Ghallanda Inn, in a remote section of Karnath.
Part of a caravan between towns, when an orc horde invades the area. Players were trapped behind enemy lines.
The characters were on a slave ship, which strikes a reef in the ocean. they awake as the only survivors in a longboat, with a locked chest.
I've certainly forgotten more, but a bar or bar fight was very common.
A lot of mine start in a tavern. It's just easy, and a lot of taverns are described in 5e. I even had my Spelljammer campaign start in a tavern.
I also like having them be captured for some reason. Out of the Abyss, Descent into Avernus, so on, all good to start captured.
Travelling is probably the best, you're already on your way, know each other, and you already have a mission. For sake of convenience, it is probably the best, though I've never done this.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
My first ever campaign started in a tavern, the owner picked out some likely looking people (the PCs) and started to tell us about a job he had for us. All very generic.
But then a huge boulder smashed through the side of the tavern, killing the owner mid-sentence. Goblins were attacking the town. He was a cool DM, liked to throw the unexpected at us.
My own idea to start a campaign is in the middle of a caravan journey. I'll have the players think of why their PCs would want to be travelling to the destination, are any of them travelling together? Perhaps the caravan gets attacked, or something gets stolen (property/pet/child?) and they have to get it back. Maybe the first few levels would just be them travelling with the caravan to get to the big city, depends.
I also use the "caravan method" where I have the PCs escorting a caravan to a particular city where the events will really begin.
This provides me with a reason the characters banded together as a party. I give the party a bunch of worldbuilding lore about the region they are travelling to by at least one overnight gathering around a campfire. I give the party an opportunity to describe their characters to one another and some insight into what motivates them. The party makes their first "contact" with an important NPC, the caravan leader, and they don't even realize he is important. And the party gets a little bit more gold to use when they arrive at the destination. This gold is enough to support the party for two days so they can poke around and decide what they are going to do once they arrive in this town.
And of course, while they are journeying with the caravan, I tell them they were hired just after having met one another … in a tavern.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
In lieu of a tavern, for new players I usually start campaigns in a major city with a celebration happening -- a royal wedding, a king's birthday, a holy festival -- a reason for different races from different places to have gathered in one central location for weeks at a time. The gist is that because of the overwhelming influx of people to the city, the local militia is hiring anyone with spell or sword to help maintain the peace and protect the kingdom. The party members have all arrived at the guard tower looking for work and are thrown together for a group interview with one of the commanders hanging out assignments. If they can impress the commander, they'll offer them something more interesting than guarding the marketplace. I usually offer them a couple assignments, one that pays less but is open ended, and one that pays more, but has a tight deadline.
In my own campaign books I really like mercenary organizations. It works as easy way to create a reason why people have come together to work for someone and money is very generic reason why characters from different parts of the world with different alignments have come together.
How did your campaign start? My favourite idea is for an Adventurer's guild in a tavern, then people put up quests for the characters, with a reward. And they can stay there and get food. Obviously they'll meet other adventurers, and some quests will be too hard for them. Share how your campaign started!!
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
The campaign I've been running for the last 2 years started with the players all working a smuggling job (smuggling magical texts out of a magic-hating kingdom) together, getting caught, breaking out, getting caught again, getting recruited by the King to join his uncontrollable Wild Magic sorcerer son in exile and escort him to a holding facility across the country, and then once out of the castle they said "screw that" and have been off doing their own things ever since.
I've seen a series of 1-shots start with the adventurers trying to find a place to rest after their previous (mis)adventure and coming across another adventure - coming across a destitute town with no pub, finding a man in stocks while heading to a tavern in a new town, getting interrupted by a druid mage while trying to have a picnic for once...
The three times when their quest started in a tavern, they were trying to find a place to rest, not get involved in anything, and got dragged into it regardless.
Player (after seeing companions sitting on breathing chairs, to barkeep): "So, what? Do we have to fight some furniture or something? What is this?"
Barkeep: "You what?"
Player: "My friends keep going up and down on the chairs! It's weird!"
Barkeep: "Well, they're not meant to be doing that."
Player: "What? My friends or the chairs?"
*roll for initiative as half of establishment's chairs come to life*
Another pub was just a trap... as if a lovely, lone pub in the middle of the woods that has any possible drink (only without sparklers, though) would be anything else... but they had been taking tree-sap showers for 3 days trying to find another town after getting run out of a previous one for accidentally killing all 15 orphans in the orphanage.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
So many beginnings, and yet an inn and bar was almost always a key feature...but not always.
I've certainly forgotten more, but a bar or bar fight was very common.
A lot of mine start in a tavern. It's just easy, and a lot of taverns are described in 5e. I even had my Spelljammer campaign start in a tavern.
I also like having them be captured for some reason. Out of the Abyss, Descent into Avernus, so on, all good to start captured.
Travelling is probably the best, you're already on your way, know each other, and you already have a mission. For sake of convenience, it is probably the best, though I've never done this.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
My first ever campaign started in a tavern, the owner picked out some likely looking people (the PCs) and started to tell us about a job he had for us. All very generic.
But then a huge boulder smashed through the side of the tavern, killing the owner mid-sentence. Goblins were attacking the town. He was a cool DM, liked to throw the unexpected at us.
My own idea to start a campaign is in the middle of a caravan journey. I'll have the players think of why their PCs would want to be travelling to the destination, are any of them travelling together? Perhaps the caravan gets attacked, or something gets stolen (property/pet/child?) and they have to get it back. Maybe the first few levels would just be them travelling with the caravan to get to the big city, depends.
DM - Storm King's Thunder
DM - Torosevia (WIP homebrew world)
Kelytha Meliamne - Matti Silverstorm - Silver - Star-Setting-In-The-East - Tor Baltos
I also use the "caravan method" where I have the PCs escorting a caravan to a particular city where the events will really begin.
This provides me with a reason the characters banded together as a party. I give the party a bunch of worldbuilding lore about the region they are travelling to by at least one overnight gathering around a campfire. I give the party an opportunity to describe their characters to one another and some insight into what motivates them. The party makes their first "contact" with an important NPC, the caravan leader, and they don't even realize he is important. And the party gets a little bit more gold to use when they arrive at the destination. This gold is enough to support the party for two days so they can poke around and decide what they are going to do once they arrive in this town.
And of course, while they are journeying with the caravan, I tell them they were hired just after having met one another … in a tavern.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
In lieu of a tavern, for new players I usually start campaigns in a major city with a celebration happening -- a royal wedding, a king's birthday, a holy festival -- a reason for different races from different places to have gathered in one central location for weeks at a time. The gist is that because of the overwhelming influx of people to the city, the local militia is hiring anyone with spell or sword to help maintain the peace and protect the kingdom. The party members have all arrived at the guard tower looking for work and are thrown together for a group interview with one of the commanders hanging out assignments. If they can impress the commander, they'll offer them something more interesting than guarding the marketplace. I usually offer them a couple assignments, one that pays less but is open ended, and one that pays more, but has a tight deadline.
They always pick the one without a deadline.
In my own campaign books I really like mercenary organizations. It works as easy way to create a reason why people have come together to work for someone and money is very generic reason why characters from different parts of the world with different alignments have come together.
I had all the PCs receive letters of invitation written on pink, perfumed stationery. You know, to make them curious.