*Let us know your favourite way to start a campaign in the comments below!* Check out *RPG Table Finder* here: www.rpgtablefinder.com or if you looking to take your campaigns to the next level check out *The Complete Guide to Creating Epic Campaigns* here: www.greatgamemaster.com/dm/product/the-complete-guide-to-epic-campaign-design-pdf/
plucas1 Perhaps a bit, but letting each player decide their own reasons for being in a place takes a lot of the “railroad-y” feel out of it. What do you think of my idea described above?^^
@@mirkopolyak3592 I agree, and I think that's something you should figure out with each player before session one. The party needs to form. It just does. You can ensure that happens and give each player agency by talking over character motives and backstories with them beforehand. Think of ways to align the party's goal with each character's goal, and set that up
the more the setting is created the less railroading is necessary admittedly this works better after the game world has seen several parties come and go
My favourite start for a campaign is always some kind of festival. Spring, harvest, historic event... whatever. The point is there'll be many npcs around to get to know, some shopping opportunities, and there will be some fun games with small prizes to win. Which is a great way to teach new players the game mechanics without any pressure or risk. Teach them the melee combat mechanics by having them hit each other with sacks of hay over a mud pit or something. Teach ranged combat mechanics by shooting targets, contested checks by an arm-wrestling match, the climbing rules while racing to climb a pole, etc. It's a nice, fun begin... and if you don't like that tone, you can change it in an instance. Want your campagin to be a bloody war epic? Have a bunch of goblins attack and kidnap or slaughter the festival-goers. Horror? An evil witch shows up to put a horrible curse on people. Lighthearted fun? Track the escaped award-winning pig. Mystery? Have them win a mysterious artefact. You can easily go almost anywhere from here.
I like to replace the tavern with the adventurers guild hall. Makes explaining why they're already together easier. Gives them a base of operations. Gives a continual supply of work when they're not following the main story, and it means there are plenty of other npc's to interact with. Mine also usually have their own smithies and shops or are in close proximity to those two things.
@@Kestas_X for my first session I just had my players mess around and get on the ship, talk to NPCs, set sail, etc. Then on the last night of the voyage they were attacked by about 30 small, weak monsters that were easy to fight but overwhelmed them. Once it looked like they might gain the upper hand, I had a sea serpent destroy the ship. They managed to find a life boat but there wasn't enough room for all the NPCs, so they had to look away in horror as people drowned. Then the serpent swam by and and its spines tore through the boat. We ended session 1 with them certain they would all drown. They loved it. I haven't told them, but session 2 will start with them waking up on the shore with only 1 NPC left alive.
I started my current campaign by telling each player that the local trading town was hosting a festival to celebrate their lord’s impending nuptials. Each had to come up with their own reason for being there. One chose to enter an archery contest. Another chose to pick pockets in the crowds. The bard decided he had been hired to perform. Our fighter wanted a temporary job as an extra guard for the event. And the Druid was there to meet an old friend who lived nearby. Then, the festival was attacked by hobgoblins. While defending festival goers from the hobgoblins, the party discovered the others and became a group. Afterward, they learned of the first 3 plot hooks: 1) During the commotion, the lord’s fiancé disappeared. Foul play was suspected and a reward was offered for her safe return. 2) Meanwhile, all the acolytes from the local temple had rushed to render aid to the wounded. When it was over, they discovered that a holy relic had been stolen from the temple. 3) During the attack, several paladins (sent by a neighboring kingdom to participate in the tournament) died defending others. A funeral parade is arranged to send the bodies home with honor, and the party is asked to accompany/guard the parade. Best start of any campaign I have ever played. Very proud of that one. Steal it if you like it.
I have actually asked nearly every dm that my character be introduced randomly as the party is starting their quest. My rogue recently, came to the room of the cleric at the early hours of the morning. He was bleeding out, & lied about how he got wounded, then proceeded to pass out. The cleric healed him & now he's bound to repay the cleric for saving his life.
I'm personally a big fan of mixing the Common Problem and the Backstory Link together. After I get all the player's backstories, motivations, and so on, I create a common problem that I know will personally touch and appeal to their characters. The origin adventure sounds unreal though and I'm absolutely going to have to try that. Nice video as always!
I tried that for my current campaign... it's all going and slowly tying up the BG's of all characters without them realizing that yet, except for that character with the poorest BG whose player insists the only motivation to even get of bed in the morning is money. We're talking about a player with years and years of experience under his belt. It really pisses me off.
What I think works quite well with players who dont know each other is the "travel buddy" intro. This can be preceded by a zero/prologue session with each or groups of different characters, but its not really necessary. It basically puts the characters on either a ship, cableway, or makes them part of a caravan. They could be crossing a dangerous mountain pass, navigating some tunnels, or might even be waiting in line to be teleported somewhere by a wizard. This kind of intro does give the players an opportunity to describe their characters and to interact with their environment before they are forced into some kind of a dangerous situation when a mundane journey turns into something unexpectedly dangerous or challenging. It could be viewed as a variation of the common problem starter, but gives the players a bit of breathing space before jumping into the combat/puzzle/problem solving.
I seem to remember learning that in the real middle ages people almost always traveled in large groups (approximately 100 folks, I believe), if they were on pilgrimage, traveling among various kingdoms, or even across country in their own kingdom. It was just that dangerous.
Guy. I can't tell you enough how I needed this video, I've been planning MY FIRST campaign and I've been struggling and stressing over how to start it.
My first-ever "campaign" started in a tavern. The PCs were there when a bloodied, out-of-breath man stumbled in, shouting about how all the corpses in the local church cemetery have risen up. Someone in the back out the tavern shouted out, in exasperation, "Not again!", and the local priest stood up, pointed to the PCs and said "You're adventurers, right? Come help me deal with this." Since the campaign had no overall story or progression, and was just a series of quirky one-session encounters with minimal plot justifications, I still think it set the tone and expectations well. My first real campaign started with all the PCs on a ship, for various reasons (since I told all of them at character creation to have a reason to be on the ship which, due to their choice of reasons, ended up as a dinosaur smuggling ship). Then the ship was attacked by a mutant sea serpent, leaving them stranded on the cursed island that the campaign was about. My second campaign, I'm sorry to say, began with a 10-minute lecture about the basic history and politics of the city, followed by the PCs, already recruited by an NPC, arriving there. (Then they ran into their greatest obstacle, a 10 gp entry fee!) The lecture was certainly a blunt tool on my part, but since the entire campaign was about that city and its intrigues and everything I said was common knowledge, I thought it really was best just to get it out of the way, especially since it wasn't important for the players to remember all the details of that lecture, just the general picture (it's a colony, who settled it, what local relations are like, what the economy is and why that makes it strategically important, how it was taken over by another power 10 years ago and who runs it now). It helps that I already knew these players, so I felt confident that they weren't going to quit just because of that opening. My most recent campaign had all the PCs meet while getting on the one available boat to travel to a local island that was recently hit by a meteorite. My pre-campaign instructions began with the fact that each PC needed a reason to be venturing to the island (and I mentioned some examples, like hoping to find treasure, investigating rumors of monsters or looking for a missing person who was there), so that went pretty smoothly. In general, I think having as a part of the Session 0 discussions "This is the first thing you will be doing, so start with a reason to be doing it" is generally the way to go. And it is certainly true that once the PCs have gotten one adventure under their belt as a team, even if they started with different motives, the party generally has a good excuse to stick together.
I found myself a twinge more excited to use each one of those ideas for my next group, I think you got a really good order for them and I appreciate the video! I saved it for later, and shared with my friends who may start their own games soon.
Amnesia can work well for a single character, especially when the player is unfamiliar with the genre. In my first cyberpunk game, my PC had amnesia, which allowed me to discover the setting as my character discovered it. If your system's rules for amnesia allow the GM to add details to the character, all the better; the GM can use that to tie the amnesiac PC into the adventure. But an entire party of amnesiacs sounds pretty brutal.
Ive experienced it quite a bit. Its not that bad to adjust to, but can be much more railroad than charter building. To me its overdone and cliche at this point.
Just imagine 5 people at the table, every time they get new information, replying with "Updated my journal".
4 года назад
Guy, gotta thank you for the video. I'm planning a holiday one shot for later this year and was completely stuck on how to begin. The prologue is the answer. My players will get an up close glance of what has been happening all these years that they've been out adventuring and fully understand the horrific outcome should they fail the mission they are about to set upon. Props!
I think the most important thing to starting a campaign is player buy-in at session 0. My campaign I'm running now, they started in a brewery (which I know is just a fancy tavern). However, all of their characters had these fliers as a hiring campaign to gather a group to go somewhere. These fliers told them all to meet on a specific day at the brewery, and my players never felt railroaded because they went into character creation knowing they would need to make someone compelled by adventure (difficult, I know).
To be fair... starting in a tavern can be fun if you put an interesting spin on it... like one or more of the players working there. Also I think it's ok if the characters already formed a group as a part of their backstory and they're there preparing for an objective they already know about.
Or put the plot right in there. Quick start and find reasons to why the players should work together and not just: "Well those guys on that table look interesting i guess" (metagaming)
Ha! I want to do that for a start now. You are all in a Tavern for the evening. Fighter, you are serving drinks at the bar. Barbarian is tending to the horses in back. Cleric is preparing bed chambers upstairs. And bard is being... well a bard in a tavern. Guess for some it doesnt change. Wizard, your prestidigitation show is getting some yawns.
I was thinking of starting my campaign (LMoP) with "Suddenly a cloud of arrows flies out of the woods and you are off on the greatest adventure of your life! ... But first, let's find out a little bit about you..." And flash back to a "you all meet in a tavern" scene (or maybe something a little different (I was thinking of the wedding of Gundren's niece or something.)) I figure that they are going to instantly figure out that they are walking into an ambush in the first encounter anyway, so I'm not giving away anything with this.
There is a good one I enjoyed: The walking story. The DM (GM; it is not exclusive for D&D) tells the players that he will start to tell a story and the players interrupt him to tell how they enter the campaign. It is fun cause the players will find their way to be part of it, and the DM will adapt his storytelling to fit the PCs and making them a party. One way I used it was for a travelling carriage with a few NPCs and a PC in there, I kept the story saying about the lands and how it looked like a storm would come. Them one of the players sayed he was a ranger, walking accross the road, so I made the carriage to stop, and there was a interaction, he joined the group. The next PCs was "that guy" and he sayed he was cleaning the skull of a deer he hunted for sport (yes, that guy) and refused to talk to anyone, just overlooked to everyone in the carriage, he stayed behind. The fourth and last player was giggling, cause he fought to be fun not to ask to enter. So a railroaded him, calling out the storm, the carriage had to stop in the closest Tavern, he was there, and few rounds of talkiing later, "That Guy" joined.
Best campaign starter i did (i took from Sword Coast Legends video game). Players roll initiative. Lots of monsters. Odds are they won't survive and they won't. All players sit in shock as they think thier characters are dead. 'You wake up from a dream, wet with swet. After talking to each other you realise you've all had the same dream. What could this mean?, is this the future'. The players loved it, as it adds suspense and that rush of finding answers.
This video has made me realize I was planning to run an Origin Adventure as my Pre-Campaign adventure. In this story, the characters are all students of the same Academy (something similar to the different schools in the Witcher series) which means that they pretty much already have a common background, so my idea was to have a one-shot where they would be playing as the child version of their characters, in order for them to be free to just explore the world and learn about the Fae without having the pressure of having to "save the world". It would also serve as an introduction of HOW they got to know one another and what sort of mischief they got into when they were kids, to help them have a bond between the characters when we jump ahead to their actual campaign age, which will be around late teen years.
I once started a oneshot with a massively background overloaded tavern full of personalities and story hooks. The player were brought there by "the common summons", so they all knew what to do and it was super important for the whole region. Put in the end they dug up the background story of the tavern and helped the locals out and never got to finishing their mission. They were shocked, when they found out it was a red herring and that I planed out two oneshots, so they could be misled. But it was totally worth it. Another table then got the chance and succeeded. We play to loose, I am always pointing that out ^^
No offense but I've never met a group of players that ever enjoyed starting at Level 0. In fact one guy who did that before refused to play a campaign that started that way. The best idea that I ever had, in terms of engaging the players, was: You all wake up in the local jail (drunk tank) after having too many drinks at the town's festival. Thanks to the mass bar fight that the players were in (fighting each other) that spilled into the streets you caused $$$ in damages. Do you have the money to repay that and the fines? No? Then you'll have to work it off by taking care of this one problem (they are let out of jail and the mission begins).
I always loved the "Friendly adventurer guild's attendant congratulating the ***part of the party*** for a job well done, introducing the newer adventurers and asking if it's ok to take them next mission"
Wonderful suggestion! I've probably missed the previous videos on this subject so I'm really happy you renewed the video :) For now I did the 8-10 starts, but I always have new players so I can't actually try something more complex. Thor meta-starts are really fascinating anyway, I hope to try them before forgetting them XD
Wonderful ideas as always, Guy!! I especially like #1, it makes me want to start up a new campaign just to try it with my players! Starting a campaign is often awkward but these ideas would take most of that out of the start and get things rolling with gusto. I will admit that I had my latest campaign start in a tavern (I know, but it was half the group's first time and I do like tradition) but then a group of ruffians came in and tried to shake down the PC's favorite barkeep. The PC's liked the place enough to take the fight outside and then questioned the baddies to discover they were paid to harass local businesses. So now they are tracking down an organized crime ring and the last clue points to a notorious pirate captain. Adventure on the high seas? We will see! Get it? "See" but like "sea"? Ah, my players hate my puns too. I'll see myself out but thanks again!!
My favorite is stranded on a jungle island. It has the crisis element to encourage them to work together. But it also helps me get them into sandbox mode as I dump them on a beach, describe their surroundings and just open ask them what they want to do. It gives everyone a chance to get used to each other, figure their characters out, gain trust in me, and when it's done in two or three sessions they escape the island with a new ship under their control and can go wherever they want (with several narrative options).
Fantastic video! Prologue is mine choose! Our prė campaign is set 2000 years before main campaign i Final Fantasy Ivalice world and it's amazing rpg experience. Setting plot roots, creating nations and cities because they play as Queen, Prince, scientist, King and Revolution Leader. Fantastic and I highly recommend. They rolled for order at the beginning and each session is concentraded on one PC. Next session is closing one, and can't wait!
old school : you all meet in a tavern modern: you're fighting pirates on an airship as it crashes into a tavern OSR: the entire world is a tavern post modern: you are a tavern
I started my last campaign by splitting the party into pairs. It was a group of 4 so two pairs. Each pair got a mini adventure before the campaign started. This was our session zero. We started off with going over their characters, making sure everything was good and then we played. One pair both had military related backgrounds and backstories so they started in the King's Army. One of them is higher ranked and is to lead a small group to scout a beast that is killing soldiers near the frontlines. It's the two of them and two NPC soldiers to make sure no one dies at level 1. They do some skill checks and a small battle with lizardfolk, the enemy that the King's Army are fighting. Eventually, they find the trail of the beast and from what they can tell it's big. The trail leads to a cave where they find and kill a massive ape. One of them almost dies but pulls through. In the cave they find an egg and one of the PCs pockets it even though their C.O. told them anything found is to be brought to them. They get back and one of the NPC soldiers tells the PCs he knows they took the egg and it looked exotic. He wants to desert the army and sell the egg and live the good life somewhere far away. If they don't go along he's going to rat them out. They go along with him and ditch him on their way to a port city. They get on the first ship available with the egg still in their possession. The second pair began in a college. One was a bard and the other an artificer. They hear rumors about some students going missing and roleplay a bit with some NPCs. Then an NPC comes to their dorm room asking for help. His sister is the newest student to have gone missing. They promise to help, mostly because a reward was offered, and go in search of clues. Everything leads to the college storage basements but those are locked and only staff have access. They go to one of their favorite professors and find he's in a bit of trouble. A construct he recently purchased is in his office destroying everything. He doesn't want to go to the other staff because he'll get in trouble. The pair offer to help for the key to the basement and they go in to destroy the construct. Next they go down into the basement and find what appears to be cultists performing a ritual on the NPC's sister. They interrupt it and as the cultist leader dies a demonic spirit is released. They have a close battle with the spirit and defeat it. They are then contacted by the dean and offered a job in a secret organization of truth seekers. Their first job is on the other side of the nation and the fastest way there is by ship. It just so happens there is one at the dock. The first session with everyone at the table is on the ship that both pairs boarded and they are attacked at sea by sahuagin. The monsters are defeated and the ship docks at the starting town and the real adventure begins.
Personally, I love the tavern intro, but then I haven't got any taste, so don't listen to me. I used to only use "Immediate problem", but that got repetitive quite quickly. There's only so many dimensional rifts with angry skeletons turning up in the UK in 2012 that can be exciting, surprisingly.
@@HowtobeaGreatGM Well, it worked okay. It was run by a highly religious scientist, who was giving the party some information, until one of the players crushed him with a phone booth. R.I.P Dr Ezekiel Murvin. True Insurgent, fighting the odds, the power armoured death squads breaking into the cage fighting bottom floor of his bar, but not the PCs.
So, something along the lines of "You start just outside a tavern. You would still be drinking in the tavern, if a dragon hadn't set it on fire 10 seconds ago."
3 of you are standing outside of the tavern after having been told to leave by the bouncer. Roll a D20 to see who gets thrown out the window. Now, tell me what your characters did to deserve this?
I've done the Common Problem and it worked out well. I also like to figure out everyone's backstories in session 0 so we can come up with reasons the characters could already know each other. We come up with adventure ideas in the past and funny quirks between characters so it feels like they've been together for a while.
wow! those are some great openings. as always i learned a lot and was also entertained. thanks for putting in the work you do on these videos. here's one of my favourite openings: at session zero, have the pc's work together to create characters who know each other kinda sorta. they are level 1 characters who are both initiates of the same order. they've seen one another around, but aren't very knowledgeable of one another. they are sent out on an errand of low importance i.e. bring the supplies to the orphans or pick up this weeks dirty laundry from the settlement or whatever. something mundane and boring with no real hooks to keep the attention of the pc's. start at the end of that mundane task and say something like this: "You have finished (whatever) and are tired and hungry. You have decided to push on to get back to (blah) as you are anxious to sleep in your own beds after two weeks of sleeping on the ground. As you approach the (fort, house, temple, compound, whatever) you see very few lights lit. Not surprising for this time of day. As you get closer you notice that there is a great deal of devastation to the (towers, docks, guard baracks, whatever) and hurry your pace. You arrive to find the place razed to the ground and deserted. You begin to explore the ruins of your once proud (order, klan, society) " from here awareness rolls can let the pc's discover a remnant of the attackers (bonded in battle) or a beloved master at his moment of death (avenge the death of the parent figure) or just dead bodies of comrades and a few broken shields with odd symbals or pictures or markings or coats of arms or whatever on them. they can search the runs finding a few goodies they can start their campaign off with. magic swords, talking boots, singing fish hooks, whatever they asked for in session zero that wasn't too over the top for a level one character to reasonably start with. a bit more rummaging about discovers tracks leading off into the (plains, desert, forest, mountains, nearby city) or doesn't. this is something that should be hashed out in session zero. will they go their seperate ways making their way through the big bad world as best as they can? will they try to track down the invaders and bring vengeance to their dead comrades? will they wander off to a nearby town or settlement seeking to report this attrocity? some of this can be hashed out in session zero as well. this allows the gm and the players to have a setup that explains how the pc's know each other, how they came to have the stuff they have and why they are currently doing what they are doing at the start of the campaign. from here it is just a matter of good gming and good playering to have a grand fun time. it also makes it easy to introduce other players to the campaign. they can be long lost comrades thought dead in the original devestation. this allows for easy insertion of the new character into the group with out that awkward moment of "you see a stranger standing in the middle of the road looking at a map. he hails you and asks if you know the way to (wherever the current players are going)" At which point the stranger instantly becomes a best friend and brother in arms. Later in the campaign during a slow moment while lunching in a diner or sharing an ale in a tavern or sitting around the camp fire we can let the players describe why they each joined the order and what their aspirations were. it's a nice bonding moment and a good way to fill in some back story without being too "onthenose" about it.
I really like your number one. That is kind of the way I just started my current campaign. However, the starting at lvl 0 was the key. They started out as commoners with jobs of their choice and I asked them to think of a class that they may want to be when they reach lvl 1. This still is not in stone yet, but they seem to really enjoy it so far.
For my main campaign I used a common summons. I session zeroed the players individually and wrapped it up with them being teleported to the same location. My off week setting is a collaboration with my players. I started by having them answer twenty question about the world they wanted to play in and then created a common threat and a small amount of connective lore that fit into that to draw their characters together.
My first campaign had a start that became tradition since then. It was 2016 when we started it. I make my players make thematic groups. all characters have something in common, something that links to the adventure. they are all friends with the quest giver, they are all of a certain race or from the same place or from the same school. in that first particular adventure they all were part of the same travelling caravan of outcasts. and their matriarch was the quest giver and was kidnapped by the BBEG. And that drove them along naturally for an entire year of campaign. :)
I once planned a campaign where the players would start by meeting on a battleship turned ferry, the room they would meet up in was a former armory for the ship, now converted into a makeshift lounge, which the captain (begrudgingly) approved for morale purposes, the players can do jobs for the officers and/or other passengers on board, and one of the players can work as one of the crew, if only this damn cornavirus stuff hadn't come up.
Soon I'm planning to start my first time dming with a bunch of new players. We're starting with a 3 session campaign where they play themselves teleported to a fantasy world as themselves (0th level characters to start with time skips to levels 1 and 10 for following sessions). Im hoping starting at 0th level and leveling quickly will avoid analysis paralysis and give a good taste of what different levels will be like when they get there. And then being themselves will help set realistic (as a genre) expectations about what they can do and ease them in rping. After that we are going to make characters from scratch for a prebuilt campaign. It might be very fun to prologue that campaign with the ending of the first short one. The new characters wouldnt know much from it, but could be fun forshadowing for the players.
My second campaign I've DMed started in a Tavern, but for actual reasons as one of the PC's was a bard, one of the others was a dude who thought he was a god and was trying to convert people at the tavern, and the third was a broke trickster who showed up for free rootbeer float night. They had about twenty minutes to interact in said Tavern with the two important NPC's before a frost bitten skeleton broke down the door, introducing the driving conflict for said session 1 that was ice monsters appearing nonstop around this town due to a mysterious creature in the belly of an old abandoned temple riddled with puzzles. Fun fact though, it's a oneshot that turned _into_ a campaign. Definitely worked out well!
I enjoy single one shot adventures that draw the PC's together. It establishes individual goals that can draw to group goals and gives the players a sense of their new character as an individual rather than as a set piece.
my last campaign hard opened with the group standing on a teleport pad being the first batch of adventurers teleporting to a remote outpost on a newly discovered continent for them to explore... was a fun way to start a campaign
Originally, I had planned the start of a Sci Fi campaign to begin -- in a tavern -- partly for some RPG genre self referential humor. The story-line here was that a mining company had had their survey ships confiscated by the government due to a recent war. With the war now over, the ships were being returned. The mining company no longer had the crews to for the ships and opted to have a contest to "give" them to qualified teams to complete a long-term survey mission. Upon completion, the (old, due for replacement) ships would become the property of the team. The tavern was a useful clearing house for teams to form, meet, find additional members etc. Not to mention meeting potentially useful NPCs. However, that isn't what I ended up with. Instead, I had the team meet on a quarantine facility in orbit above the planet with the tavern being a destination they had to reach in order to formally enter the contest. On the way down their shuttle was attacked by a nefarious party which allowed the players to get familiar with the combat rules, kick off one of the plot lines, and just have some fun. Some of the potentially useful NPCs were on the shuttle as well -- which I hope added to the overall flavor. I have a great set of players -- they managed the introductions to each other all by themselves by responding to the "capt'n's" online call for a crew. Oddly enough they met at bar on the orbital quarantine facility. Genre self referential humor intact -- without any GM intervention!
I tend to do a common problem /battle that I develop after discussions with all my players. We talk about their characters, back stories etc and I weave that into why they are there.
In the two campaigns I'm running one was a module and a bit of a 'tavern starter'...probably could've been more original if it wasn't the first module I've ever run. Other we did a session zero and we did a sort-of 'pre-campaign' game where I just told them "you're level 2 players and you've been exiled from your country, tell me why" ...more about building group backstory I could draw on than getting them to a given point.
I started my current campaign by playing solo-oneshots with each player during the week before. Pros: it made the players really know their character and their backstory. They lived it before it all started. Cons: it was extremely railroady to get 5 individuals to one place in the world. But the group appreciated it.
Something that I really want to try as a campaign start is having my players imprisoned, with a jailbreak quest. They don't know each other, but they have to work together to get to freedom. It would also allow you to introduce a villain (their captor) right from the start, and allow you to work with the repercussions of escaping from them.
What I like most is somewhere in between Backstory Link and Origin Adventure. Instead of you as the GM coming up with the adventure, players write there own little stories from their character's point of view. Each player starts with a paragraph or two, hands the story to the next player who adds a paragraph, before handing it to the next player again. With four players you end up with four stories each involving three PCs. After reading those stories loud you decide on two or more of them to be canon (each PC should be included in at least one story). Those stories (as they usually lack conclusions) become the starting point for the first adventure. Depending on the stories you might want to adjust starting levels (i.e. if the stories written would be suitable as a second level adventure start at level three). You can include that in your session zero and character creation process. So players can start with a concept and adjust the mechanical details of their character to match what was written in the story. This method has two requirements not given for every party however: - players have to be mature enough to not write 'off-topic' or have their PC accomplish super human feats - GM has to be cool with handing all the power to the players for that process
Guy, you should consider turning your Katana around to make the edge of the blade face upwards. I know it looks less cool, but as far as I know this is the traditional way and better for the blade.
I started my campaign off with my players crawling out of a mass grave and after checking themselves over realized they were actually killed. Then they had to figure out who killed them and how they are alive again.
Thanks. These are some really good ideas. Food for thought. @GreatGM, I have a question for you. I'm preparing to start a treasure hunting campaign. The PC's will travel from the starting continent to an archipelago following clues to find treasure (and, no, it's not "Isle of Dread," in case you're wondering :D -- it's my own setting and adventures). I was going to have a prince ask them all to his palace to ask them to search for the treasure, offering them appropriate adventure hooks (payment, arcane knowledge, the chance to do good, etc., etc.). SPOILER: The twist will be that the Prince wants to forge an empire by conquering neighboring kingdoms and intends to use the treasure to do so. Once the PC's figure this out, they'll have to decide what they'll want to do, and their choices will all have different consequences. (And if they don't take the quest, the prince will assure them there are others who will... inaction is also an action, which also has consequences.) Only thing is... according to your list of starters, that opener is okay, but not great. You pointed out that it takes agency away from them. Are there some ways I can keep this basic plot, but give the PC's more agency?
One that ive leaned on lately is the "you are already on a job" opener. Some mundane tradesmen hires the pc's to get them to a destination safely. And the campaign starts minutes before said destination. The party isn't familiar with each other, but they know they aren't enemies. Plus they just got paid and got to this nifty little town where the campaign is about to happen. Insert local guards needing help/ goblin attack / strange being appearing or any other quite obvious hook.
to be honest, this Guy (pun fully intended), reminds me so much of my friend. I love the videos, they has made me a better GM and world builder. Keep that energy, you rock man
My last campaign game started with everyone standing in front of the notice board that was just outside the tavern. Of course it's only meant to be a short term campaign while one of our members is at boot camp. Our long term campaign start was a bit more exciting and started with a prison break. Everyone got to decide why their character was there and it gave them a starting goal that would force them to work together.
My GM started our current campaign (which recently turned one year old, hooray!) with a citywide feast of the homebrew setting. The hunters had brought back their best prizes (which introduced one PC) and then went on and the GM made a big deal out of letting the players describe what they did. And when all the players had set their part of the stage the GM set the story in motion. Everything was going great and we all had fun in character, until things started going wrong with children starting to speak in tongue about something with the Raven Queen and then promptly dying after a few seconds in a most gruesome way of which I shall not mention. And that brought our characters together because now we had to deal with something we still, one year later, are no closer to resolve but we've had some amazing arcs that will eventually lead to the moment where we find out what happened to the Raven Queen. My GM is a fantastic world builder and he managed to make all of us care about the world we're playing in, and I'm so proud of him as well as honoured to be allowed to play with such a dedicated GM.
I have a campaign start idea I want to try. The players would control regular villagers. They should visualize the characters as silhouettes, with 2 or 3 distinguishing characteristics like strong blacksmith, pretty talkative maiden, etc. There's a fiest or a wedding at the village. They get to enjoy for a while. Then a group of armed soldiers or adventurer's arrive. They begin butchering the villagers. Maybe some of the players manage to escape, maybe not. Then ask they players, why did you kill those villagers? Their characters are the ones that attacked the village, possibly along with a bunch of NPCs. The players have to come up with a backstory for what happened. Are the players evil bandits, were they seeking the Stone of Gulgurath, maybe the villagers were evil cannibals, or they had committed other heinous crimes.
Critical Role Campaign 2 sorta started in a tavern. I say sorta because they had groups of PCs that knew each other with past history and a pre-game game(I think. Could be wrong but felt like they'd tested out their characters a bit already) so it wasnt just a tavern. They used other methods too and I think that's the more important detail.The tavern was just the set piece.
For my last campaign I used a mixture of three starting scenarios. We had two groups of PCs that had created shared backstories (a group of smugglers + an old veteran owning a bar and his droid bouncer) The smugglers came to the veteran's bar to make a deal and then out of the sudden the planet was attacked and the PCs had to work together to escape.
So my upcoming campaign is going to deal with time rifts. I am going to use deja vu moments to bring the characters together. For example one character will see another and find that they are very familiar for some reason. But why? Due to the issue with someone messing with the fabric of time they will recognize each other from something that they had done as a group in the future. Of course they will not know this until much later in the game.
I have a way of joining up players in a quite "realistic" way, but it only works with specific campaign types and world types. >Have players all going about doing their own business. >Have 2 of them meet on the road somewhere where they become temporary road-mates. >Have another player meet them on the common destination. >Have the last player join by introducing a common problem or imminent danger. Once I had a player who was kinda self-centered and he hated the Idea of becoming a team with other players. I don't know why, and he didn't provide any reasons for him avoiding other PCs at all cost. Other than that, this approach usually brings players together without making them feel all like soldiers who had to show up somewhere on a command.
My current campaign started with most of the players as mercenaries, working for a warlord who'd dispatched them to retrieve an important artifact. On their way back, the artifact was stolen from them and they had to go on a journey to retrieve it, knowing that their employer would blame (and kill) them for losing it. That simple start has now developed into an ongoing sandbox campaign as they're learning more and more about the artifact and why it's so important (to the point that they've now retrieved it and are trying to prevent their former employer from getting his hands on it).
I'm actually starting with a summons, but they aren't at where they're supposed to be yet. It'll give them time to find other side quests on the way and learn more about each other and how/why they may have received these mysterious letters. But there is a tavern I 100% expect the PCs to go to as soon as they arrive haha
A variation of #3 with the giant spiders, is one where they start in a situation where they are fighting a fierce battle and in turn they all die. Instead of flashing back to a tavern, A TAVERN!?!?!, they are in a room with a seer, like Whoopee Goldberg in the movie Ghost, in a trance showing them what they just went through.
What I like is a kind of mixt between "flash" and "common problem" technique: the characters begin with a cataclysmic-like event (earthquake, a gigantic beast crashing on the ground etc...) which lead them to cooperate or help each other, but at a moment filled with pressure, their conscience is teleported. They now are people they don't know, and they have great skills, shiny armors and so on, but they are facing a huge problem (a legendary beast, a magic crystal that's got wild...), and ultimately they are badly hurted. Then they come back to their original body, and understand that the people they were are renound heroes, who helped to solve the origin of the common problem but die or disappear to save them. Characters don't know why they were able to "be" these heroes, they have a common experience, but also a common burden and mystery to be solved, in a world mourning for their heroes.
My personal favorites : Everyone gets abducted by a roch and taken to his nest, it starts with the last player being abducted and thrown to the other players into the nest. A tournament where the players meet as contestants, either something big official or illegal, players may fight in teams or against each other, then meeting afterwards where something happens in the square they are at. They are in prison and something destroys it, e.g. A terrasque unborrows and makes his nest in town, next to the prison now they have to work together to escape. Before anything happens actionwise, they are cell neighbors.
I tend to start with each of my players a single one2one Game after we created his/her character. This introduces them to that part of the Storyline, that they know about, builds their personal motives - cause I link this motive somehow with the origin-story of each player - and stop the one2one, when each player reaches the location of there first gathering. So when they meet, they already know small parts of the Background - each an other part, so they can start to find out who the others are, what they know and how they can profit from building a party. This is a starter you can always use, cause it is always different.
I like how Fate Core links character creation with their backstory and each other NPC. The mechanic has similarities to the no. 4 as in that players cooperatively describe their characters' first adventures in rather broad strokes and where they met two other PCs. I think it's brilliant because it quickly creates connections between the PCs, helps define their personality and backstory. It also seeds plot hooks the GM can use. Sure, this doesn't directly affect how you start off your new campain and it could still be the awkward inn, but at least the PCs can role-play their reunion until something else comes up. But instead you could hook up one PC based on their backstory and then they recruit their old comrades. -------- The start at the inn doesn't need to be awkward. In one adventure I have run a couple of times, the PCs arrive at a lonely wayside inn and soon notice that something is wrong. The food is bad, the innkeeper is acting weird, another guest outright suspicious and suddenly there is a mystery so solve. Things escalate from there. By the end the PCs should have transformed from a group of strangers to a decent party without leaving the premises once.
I started two campaigns in the same place, in two different physical locations, watching the same terrorist attack happen to a sky port. One group was then escorted away to make their statements after helping some clerics that got stuck under debris, while the other group were nearly hit by pieces of the sky port falling down in a ball of fire. The second group was then ushered into a temple on top of which an air ship crashed not long after. I just love to listen to the players of both groups try to figure out who is responsible, while only one group is actually following that trail. The other group is following a sub-plot to that event.
My campaign is centered around a hub city with a seedy underworld, not unlike Rogueport. It began in the town market district, just before a terror attack perpetrated by a cult. Two characters are newly arrived smugglers looking to make their names in a new part of the world. A third is a former member of the city underworld and knows it well. A fourth is a former pirate who knows the seas but not the city. A fifth is a former gladiator who knows about the economics of nearby arenas and stadiums. The last is a disciple of a locally popular deity trying to root out the cult with the help of local clergy.
Combinations of these techniques also work together very well. In a one off start to a campaign i have had the group of evil PCs wake up on the shore of a land before timey kind of island after the prison ship they were on became shipwrecked , all of which have have amnesia.
I have challenged myself to come up with ways to make the tavern start more unique and interesting. I've come up with a few ideas, but most are specific to my homebrew world and won't help anyone else. They weren't hard, though. I encourage anyone to take one of #10-6 and try to make it seem fresh and new, or just compelling and immersive.
I like to use the common problem start. Not as unavoidable like a burning ship, but something like a heavy rain or simply the onset of night on the streets.
I've been running a homebrewed space-opera campaign that started with the PCs looking for odd jobs, specifically finding a miner who had gone missing in an asteroid - which in turn led to them discovering something about that miner that has much larger implications for the setting as a whole. My advice: start with a simple action set-piece that will set the tone for the campaign at large and give the players something to be curious about.
@Ian Robertson kobolds in a space opera? Originality is a fallacy. As Guy is fond of saying, there's only one story that's ever been told, it's just the context that changes.
I plan to start my next campaign in the awkward tavern. And just at the moment the players will get something together with rumours or whatever the entire town is destroyed by an giant attack and they have to flee through the crumbling buildings and attacks. That'll kick of the adventure of them trying to find out why that happened.
ive got a few campaigns on the go, one is all bards, they were summoned by the new Goddess of Music for a tournament of sorts only for it to end up being a battle of the bands, quick, best find a group... another, they were shanghaied and awoke in a cell on a slaver ship, oh, who's that in the opposite cage? the captain that the crew mutinied against, might be worth your time helping him etc
I don't run d&d but i decided to run a one shot for my two nephews that were new to gaming. I simplified the rules for them so they wouldn't be overwhelmed. I started them out in a tavern setting except i made the place a bit grander. I added live singing and live storytelling and i started them out in separate areas. I chose the song that the lady in the game was singing from real life and played it. I then went to the other side of the tavern and role played the storyteller bit. Suddenly i had everyone freeze except the players. This is how they met each other for the first time. Since they were so new to gaming i made the path very simple to find as to where to go next. Eventually they made it to a monster of my own make. This monster was looking for an item that the players did not know they even possessed. He had used an ability on them that allowed him to travel through there memories. So he was able to eject them from there bodies so he could watch them relive the past. When they eventually found the monster. They could see themselves standing in front of it. Once they got close enough to there real bodies they were sucked into themselves. This brought all there memories back and i explained to them how they got there in the first place and then they fought. Of course i skipped a few details but you get the idea. It proved to be an interesting game and they had a lot of fun. Oh and in case you're wondering i am a storyteller for Werewolf the Apocalypse. I've been storytelling it for about 17 years now.
What about starting by determining each PC’s relationship to every other one? As in, every PC has some significant preexisting relationship with every other one, but a player cannot determine what his own character’s relationships are. For example, you have Jack, Jill, Jon and Joe at the table. First, the GM sets a precedent... GM: Jack, Jill, your characters used to be married - but not anymore. Now, one of you, what is the relationship between Jon and Joe? Jill: Um, Jon is Joe’s fencing instructor. GM: Excellent, we have a teacher/pupil dynamic in the party. What else? Jon, what’s the deal with Jill and Joe? Jon: They’re brother and sister. GM: Okay not bad, but let’s not lean too hard on familial relationships. Somebody, what’s going on between Joe and Jack? Jill: They’re rivals at the fencing school. And continue until every PC has some reason to care about every other one. After that they might just start a scene unprompted. I’m pretty sure I heard about this from Lindybeige, but I forget what the video is called.
I honestly never used the tavern. I try to use the "immediate problem" start. For example I used a crashing plane or an under attack/siege city. Not only does it add to the excitement, no it brings newer players (that aren't that good at roleplaying yet) to do *something* Because the situation demands action (just from a logical standpoint) You refered to it as the "Common Problem". But I wouldn't agree that it's a railrode...well not more or less than every other start. I mean you HAVE to bring them together. But if you use something like the besieged city you can bring them together while they escape/get imprisoned etc. and just play the very beginning for everyone individualy. That is one hell of a dynamic coming together in my opinion. Imagine Skyrim, but the game starts how you live your life in a city and suddenly an army comes by. You end up in the prison cart, but everyone of those Characters is a player which may have started differently but ended up the same.
I find that as long as the current imperative is strong there's no need for a origin story or elaborate beginning. That said, I prefer Dungeon World's rule of starting In Medias Res, usually with a battle and then learn about the characters, the world and the party's current goal from there. I'd like to add Keith Johnstone's maxim of impro theatre: "Dare to be average!" Anecdote: Many moons ago, when I was still young, but I'd taken over the DM Mantle (or hat) and three persons new to our group joined. Three players made the characters right there, and a fourth had made his alone without adding much so I apologized and had them all meet throughtout the day in the inn were the elven bard worked (owned by her parents). The ranger just sat there in a corner, the paladins had to deliver something and the wizard (who was a teacher, *not* and adventurer) had to go there and discuss how the children's choir the elven bard was directing ruined the musical... and the priest from way up in the Icy lands up north just followed "The Signs" and recognized his latest on the Wizard's Robes, and thus the party was gathered. Afterwards the three fresh players were all in awe of how cool it was to just have everyone randomly enter the same inn. You see, this was probably when there was much stigma to the "You all meet in an Inn"-trope, and even purchased adventures had other ways of bringing disparate characters together. Just because something is often used doesn't make it bad. Oh, and the "start as 0th level persons/kids" is totally brilliant and much, much fun. It's probably one of the top 10 campaigns I've played in, and it kept colouring the world long after. @How to be a great Game Master
I has a DM start a campaign with a misfired summon monster spell. The PCs took the place of the summoned monsters and appeared to fight a powerful sorcerer. The summoner apologised but made us fight anyway. We were swiftly defeated by the sorcerer and his minions and woke up in our beds in our homes without injury but with full memory of what happened. The next night the spirit of the summoner appeared. She explained that she had been killed and that the sorcerer now sought to destroy us, as witnesses to his evil. We must flee and find the others that we fought with in order to protect ourselves. We had to figure out who the others were and where they were from the heraldry on their armour, their accents, their style of clothes, etc. It was a great way to start the game.
My favorite is a simplified version of common backstory of sort. One I have used off and on from back in the ADnD days if lead a new group, but more common now with adventure leagues, pathfinder society etc. It is the common goal origin. I reference adventure league/society because they need some start that anybody can come any time. Known world lore, you decided go join up with the Pathfinder Society for whatever reason you choose. So I give them during session zero the known world info, and where they are/what they are doing. It is a festival to the pumpkin king. You have first guild assignment. Something kinda mundane on its own. Then the players all have their backstory end there. Take pumpkin festival. Players have my map at s0 know what is around and then can make their backstory lead to the moment I say. "You all ended up being sat at the same table during the feast". End session 0, start session 1.
I was so close to starting my game in a cantina (Star Wars Tavern) instead I started with them getting dropped off at the base of the mountain at the start of the quest. They knew in advance however that it would unfortunately be a railroadey adventure because it’s the tutorial of the game system. Weak but it was my first real campaign with more than 1 player.
your vids could use some timestamps in the description. Aparat from that your tips helped me out a lot, and i find your videos hilarious, keep up the good worka mate!
If you want an interesting counter argument to this aversion to starting in a tavern, try Matt Colville's video on the subject. I think there are benefits as well as drawbacks to starting in a tavern. Having said that, I'm probably going to use a few of these campaign starters in the future.
Combine 10 and 8. "You're in the tavern. Suddenly the doors are slammed shut and you hear people outside pushing heavy objects against the door. You start feeling hot and notice smoke filling the room."
good ideas and advice - - i usually start with variations of your #4 (backstory link), and rarely i have tried your #5 (in battle) - - i might yet attempt your #3 (flash forward)
I was just finishing preparing my next game, an introductory one-shot to the Wrath & Glory system (warhammer 40k). Since noone know the system and only one of the platers know the setting, I’ve made some delimitations on characters, stablishing the classes, and spending some (but not all) of their initial experience points, such that they are capable of doing what they need to do to achieve victory, yet leaving enough unspent points and open background for them to use as they see fit (I let my players expand their BG throughout the game, linking their characters to places, events or creating new events in their past to fit the narrative). An Ork WAAAGH! Started in a certain subsector, and the characters were stationed in a nearby planet, Lanum, that was preparing to face off against the Orks... but, somehow, they got there an entire week before they were estimated to arrive. The still unmanned defenses were easily overrun, and the characters, recognizing the lost cause, are trying to get to the nearest spaceport in hope of finding a voidship (space ship) to escape the planet. A minimum of 1 and max of 4 (I have 3 gaming groups that dislike each other, so I prepare games to be run with “minimum of 2, max of 6” players so I can run it for each group) can play as Imperial Guards that arrived early on the planet and where supposed to guard a local administrator, when their position got attacked. They routed and rallied at a local sub-prefecture (a district-administrative center). Theyare the last survivors of their entire detachment (because they routed, had they stayed, they would be all dead), and the common shame/secret bounds them together. They know there is a spaceport close by, and, though (1 to 4) guards can’t hope to face an entire WAAAGH! The distance is nothing if compared to the marchs and physical training they had to do in basic camp... problem is, they have nothing to offer that could get them a place in a voidship... Up to 2 players (no minimum requirement) may play as agents of an inquisitor, sent to prepare a forward-operational-post from where their boss would launch his actions against the WAAAGH! But with the Orks arriving an entire week earlier, they had to evacuate... and their transport got shut down. Only the agent(s) who a player wish to play as will have survived. One of them is an infiltration specialist, and believe himself capable of sneaking past a good part of the Orks, at least those close by, by going down a level on the Hive-City, since the attack is still restricted to the highest level... the nearest access to a lower level is at a sub-prefecture nearby, and he may also need to loot the place after something that could buy him access to a voidship capable of outrunning the Ork blockade. As an infiltration soecialist, his existence was erased from databanks, which is likely to raise distrust from any ship commanders, hence the need for either valuables... or people capable of vowing for him... The other inquisitorial agent is a burocrat, a walking library, a poliglot, a connoisseur of the arts, and architecture, to the point of locating possible secret rooms by walking around a building and noticing misfits on his mental blueprint of the place, as well as man capable of documentation-forgery. Now, what he is not, is a combatant, a stealthish figure, a field operative. The Sage could easily get passage on a capable ship, for him and his coworkers, if not by the sheer Influence of his position, by... less glamorous ways... the problem is getting to the spaceport. Luckly, there is a sub-prefecture nearby, where he may get some help. As soon as they meet at the sub-prefecture, and do the initial presentations (and hopefully agree to work together), they will be asked to perform an investigation check, with bonus for burocrats; a basic success (pretty much anyone should be capable of getting it) will have them identify the shooting pattern of the automated turrets as being in “ammo conservation” mode, meaning it is bellow 25% ammo. If they have any Shifts (a system mechanic, likely to be achieved by the Sage), they can time the ammo will last for 2 narrative-rounds, that is, each character will get to do 2 “actions”, explore 2 rooms, or explore 1 room and then perform some task on it, before the ammo runs out and the Orks breack into the sub-prefecture. I think not having an exact time will get the players even more on the edge to do what they got do and get out of the sub-prefecture, before the Orks run the place over, but even knowing they only get 2 actions each (and waiting IS an action) should be enough to get them acting quite fast. Even if by any chance they manage to all fail this initial test and not use the “succeed at a cost” mechanic (you pay a price, chosen by the GM, in this case “a future threat will happen one Time Stamp sooner than it originally would”, to get a minimal success. In the case, they would only get 1 action each, but they would know the ammo was running out) they should still get quite the game start when, out of the blue, the automated turrets stop and Orks barge into the sub-prefecture after them. Of course, each of the 4 rooms connected to the lobby have tasks for the Guards and at least 1 of the Agents that can potentially help the group start the game, from finding the access to the lower levels, to sneak past the Orks (and release them at an entire new level of the city as they barge into the sub-prefecture and find the way open), to actually contacting the spaceport and having the last Rogue Trader on the planet wait a bit more for their arrival... increasing how many “Scenes” they can use to get there before the voidship just leave, ending any chances of victory to the party. I’ve also put quite a bit of emphasis on time in the game-call, they know that Time will be a factor in the game, and they might be cut-off from the Spaceport if they take too long to advance, the voidships might just depart and leave them behind, or the spaceport might even be overrun, to there are 3 time stamps they must beat to win the game, and only 2 of them have a way around (the ganger can take the party down a level in the hive city and sneak past the upper level Orks, even if the group started doing an “Imperial Guard scene” for the second act, walking around the Orks cutting them off from the Space Port, and the Sage calling the Spaceport from the sub-prefecture allow him to convince the Rogue Tarder to wait for them... until the spaceport gets overun by Orks... the Guards have noway to walk around any of the Time Stamps, but if they play smart, they have the best chances at not failing any of the Time Stamps
Last game I run, couple months before The Force Awakens was released, they all started jailed by the Empire in a space station. They are them taken to am Imperial Officer (heavily guarded) and get a simple proposition: the Empire needs black-ops operatives, agents that can’t be linked to them to perform their dirt job. They will be allowed a great deal of freedom if they do so... bu whenever the Empire call, they MUST comply... and, of course, they got an initial task, to prove they were up to the task... the Kessel Run have had quite a bunch of smuggler passing near an Imperial building site, and the players are to take down the last planet on the Run (this was before Solo completely changed what the Kessel Run was). Now, taking down a planet is not some death-star kind of thing (indeed, it is exactly the death star they are trying to hide:, but to jeopardize operations on the single smugglers port on said planet, dissuading other smugglers from acting up there, which, in the case of my players, they decided to start a gang-war and take the place over for them, and stablish some new rules so as to make the Kessel Run not profitable enough, hence making the smugglers either look for another route, or drop the Run all together. It gave them quite the strong start for their future operations, on hindsight, I should have made the gang-war a bit harder/longer
Interesting. Even though I do not really have a problem with starting the campaign. My problem seems to be to get the PCs to know each other. For some reasons the players always try to go for backgrounds where they do not know each other, favourably because they are from different kingdoms...
*Let us know your favourite way to start a campaign in the comments below!*
Check out *RPG Table Finder* here: www.rpgtablefinder.com or if you looking to take your campaigns to the next level check out *The Complete Guide to Creating Epic Campaigns* here: www.greatgamemaster.com/dm/product/the-complete-guide-to-epic-campaign-design-pdf/
The table search on RPG table finder doesn't work for me. No matter the filter, it keeps saying there's an error.
A bit of Cleese in that lot!
@@Wineblood Thanks we have now fixed that issue!
We begin at the door to the dungeon.
ALL starting points are 'Railroad-y.' The characters have to be *somewhere* for the campaign to start.
plucas1 Perhaps a bit, but letting each player decide their own reasons for being in a place takes a lot of the “railroad-y” feel out of it.
What do you think of my idea described above?^^
@@mirkopolyak3592 I agree, and I think that's something you should figure out with each player before session one. The party needs to form. It just does. You can ensure that happens and give each player agency by talking over character motives and backstories with them beforehand. Think of ways to align the party's goal with each character's goal, and set that up
I agree. The point is for players to form a group and that is what happens anyway. There are all sorts of ways to be creative about it.
the more the setting is created the less railroading is necessary admittedly this works better after the game world has seen several parties come and go
@@mirkopolyak3592 Which is why you work with the players to make sure everyone's backstory leads to them accepting the hook
My favourite start for a campaign is always some kind of festival. Spring, harvest, historic event... whatever. The point is there'll be many npcs around to get to know, some shopping opportunities, and there will be some fun games with small prizes to win. Which is a great way to teach new players the game mechanics without any pressure or risk. Teach them the melee combat mechanics by having them hit each other with sacks of hay over a mud pit or something. Teach ranged combat mechanics by shooting targets, contested checks by an arm-wrestling match, the climbing rules while racing to climb a pole, etc. It's a nice, fun begin... and if you don't like that tone, you can change it in an instance.
Want your campagin to be a bloody war epic? Have a bunch of goblins attack and kidnap or slaughter the festival-goers. Horror? An evil witch shows up to put a horrible curse on people. Lighthearted fun? Track the escaped award-winning pig. Mystery? Have them win a mysterious artefact. You can easily go almost anywhere from here.
This is my go-to Campaign Start - The Fayre!
That's so cute!
hey are you the game designers of Neverwinter Nights 2?
Festival containing A tournament
WRITE THAT DOWN WRITE THAT DOWN!
But legit how I started my most recent campaign. A festival
I like to replace the tavern with the adventurers guild hall. Makes explaining why they're already together easier. Gives them a base of operations. Gives a continual supply of work when they're not following the main story, and it means there are plenty of other npc's to interact with. Mine also usually have their own smithies and shops or are in close proximity to those two things.
My favorite start to campaigns is being on a boat just arriving at the port. This can go so many ways and has allot of flexibility.
I'm doing a similar thing with my next one.
@@LordReginaldMeowmont Me too. My first campaign ever. Hope I pull it of.
@@Kestas_X for my first session I just had my players mess around and get on the ship, talk to NPCs, set sail, etc. Then on the last night of the voyage they were attacked by about 30 small, weak monsters that were easy to fight but overwhelmed them. Once it looked like they might gain the upper hand, I had a sea serpent destroy the ship. They managed to find a life boat but there wasn't enough room for all the NPCs, so they had to look away in horror as people drowned. Then the serpent swam by and and its spines tore through the boat. We ended session 1 with them certain they would all drown. They loved it.
I haven't told them, but session 2 will start with them waking up on the shore with only 1 NPC left alive.
Jack Sparrow
Morrowind!
I started my current campaign by telling each player that the local trading town was hosting a festival to celebrate their lord’s impending nuptials. Each had to come up with their own reason for being there. One chose to enter an archery contest. Another chose to pick pockets in the crowds. The bard decided he had been hired to perform. Our fighter wanted a temporary job as an extra guard for the event. And the Druid was there to meet an old friend who lived nearby.
Then, the festival was attacked by hobgoblins. While defending festival goers from the hobgoblins, the party discovered the others and became a group. Afterward, they learned of the first 3 plot hooks: 1) During the commotion, the lord’s fiancé disappeared. Foul play was suspected and a reward was offered for her safe return. 2) Meanwhile, all the acolytes from the local temple had rushed to render aid to the wounded. When it was over, they discovered that a holy relic had been stolen from the temple. 3) During the attack, several paladins (sent by a neighboring kingdom to participate in the tournament) died defending others. A funeral parade is arranged to send the bodies home with honor, and the party is asked to accompany/guard the parade.
Best start of any campaign I have ever played. Very proud of that one.
Steal it if you like it.
I have actually asked nearly every dm that my character be introduced randomly as the party is starting their quest. My rogue recently, came to the room of the cleric at the early hours of the morning. He was bleeding out, & lied about how he got wounded, then proceeded to pass out. The cleric healed him & now he's bound to repay the cleric for saving his life.
I'm personally a big fan of mixing the Common Problem and the Backstory Link together. After I get all the player's backstories, motivations, and so on, I create a common problem that I know will personally touch and appeal to their characters.
The origin adventure sounds unreal though and I'm absolutely going to have to try that. Nice video as always!
I tried that for my current campaign... it's all going and slowly tying up the BG's of all characters without them realizing that yet, except for that character with the poorest BG whose player insists the only motivation to even get of bed in the morning is money. We're talking about a player with years and years of experience under his belt. It really pisses me off.
What I think works quite well with players who dont know each other is the "travel buddy" intro. This can be preceded by a zero/prologue session with each or groups of different characters, but its not really necessary. It basically puts the characters on either a ship, cableway, or makes them part of a caravan. They could be crossing a dangerous mountain pass, navigating some tunnels, or might even be waiting in line to be teleported somewhere by a wizard.
This kind of intro does give the players an opportunity to describe their characters and to interact with their environment before they are forced into some kind of a dangerous situation when a mundane journey turns into something unexpectedly dangerous or challenging. It could be viewed as a variation of the common problem starter, but gives the players a bit of breathing space before jumping into the combat/puzzle/problem solving.
I seem to remember learning that in the real middle ages people almost always traveled in large groups (approximately 100 folks, I believe), if they were on pilgrimage, traveling among various kingdoms, or even across country in their own kingdom. It was just that dangerous.
Guy. I can't tell you enough how I needed this video, I've been planning MY FIRST campaign and I've been struggling and stressing over how to start it.
My first-ever "campaign" started in a tavern. The PCs were there when a bloodied, out-of-breath man stumbled in, shouting about how all the corpses in the local church cemetery have risen up. Someone in the back out the tavern shouted out, in exasperation, "Not again!", and the local priest stood up, pointed to the PCs and said "You're adventurers, right? Come help me deal with this." Since the campaign had no overall story or progression, and was just a series of quirky one-session encounters with minimal plot justifications, I still think it set the tone and expectations well.
My first real campaign started with all the PCs on a ship, for various reasons (since I told all of them at character creation to have a reason to be on the ship which, due to their choice of reasons, ended up as a dinosaur smuggling ship). Then the ship was attacked by a mutant sea serpent, leaving them stranded on the cursed island that the campaign was about.
My second campaign, I'm sorry to say, began with a 10-minute lecture about the basic history and politics of the city, followed by the PCs, already recruited by an NPC, arriving there. (Then they ran into their greatest obstacle, a 10 gp entry fee!) The lecture was certainly a blunt tool on my part, but since the entire campaign was about that city and its intrigues and everything I said was common knowledge, I thought it really was best just to get it out of the way, especially since it wasn't important for the players to remember all the details of that lecture, just the general picture (it's a colony, who settled it, what local relations are like, what the economy is and why that makes it strategically important, how it was taken over by another power 10 years ago and who runs it now). It helps that I already knew these players, so I felt confident that they weren't going to quit just because of that opening.
My most recent campaign had all the PCs meet while getting on the one available boat to travel to a local island that was recently hit by a meteorite. My pre-campaign instructions began with the fact that each PC needed a reason to be venturing to the island (and I mentioned some examples, like hoping to find treasure, investigating rumors of monsters or looking for a missing person who was there), so that went pretty smoothly.
In general, I think having as a part of the Session 0 discussions "This is the first thing you will be doing, so start with a reason to be doing it" is generally the way to go. And it is certainly true that once the PCs have gotten one adventure under their belt as a team, even if they started with different motives, the party generally has a good excuse to stick together.
I found myself a twinge more excited to use each one of those ideas for my next group, I think you got a really good order for them and I appreciate the video! I saved it for later, and shared with my friends who may start their own games soon.
Amnesia can work well for a single character, especially when the player is unfamiliar with the genre. In my first cyberpunk game, my PC had amnesia, which allowed me to discover the setting as my character discovered it. If your system's rules for amnesia allow the GM to add details to the character, all the better; the GM can use that to tie the amnesiac PC into the adventure.
But an entire party of amnesiacs sounds pretty brutal.
I mean if you’re introducing a wired setting and don’t want to overload on lore that could be useful.
Ive experienced it quite a bit. Its not that bad to adjust to, but can be much more railroad than charter building. To me its overdone and cliche at this point.
Just imagine 5 people at the table, every time they get new information, replying with "Updated my journal".
Guy, gotta thank you for the video. I'm planning a holiday one shot for later this year and was completely stuck on how to begin. The prologue is the answer. My players will get an up close glance of what has been happening all these years that they've been out adventuring and fully understand the horrific outcome should they fail the mission they are about to set upon. Props!
I think the most important thing to starting a campaign is player buy-in at session 0. My campaign I'm running now, they started in a brewery (which I know is just a fancy tavern).
However, all of their characters had these fliers as a hiring campaign to gather a group to go somewhere. These fliers told them all to meet on a specific day at the brewery, and my players never felt railroaded because they went into character creation knowing they would need to make someone compelled by adventure (difficult, I know).
To be fair... starting in a tavern can be fun if you put an interesting spin on it... like one or more of the players working there. Also I think it's ok if the characters already formed a group as a part of their backstory and they're there preparing for an objective they already know about.
Or put the plot right in there.
Quick start and find reasons to why the players should work together and not just: "Well those guys on that table look interesting i guess" (metagaming)
@@ladyd.705 "You're in a tavern... and the tavern is on fire!"
@@madengineerkyouma exactly xD
Ha! I want to do that for a start now. You are all in a Tavern for the evening.
Fighter, you are serving drinks at the bar. Barbarian is tending to the horses in back. Cleric is preparing bed chambers upstairs. And bard is being... well a bard in a tavern. Guess for some it doesnt change. Wizard, your prestidigitation show is getting some yawns.
"Now then, where was I? ...Ah, yes, The Prologue!" - Frankie Howard, starting every episode of "Up Pompei."
I was thinking of starting my campaign (LMoP) with "Suddenly a cloud of arrows flies out of the woods and you are off on the greatest adventure of your life! ... But first, let's find out a little bit about you..." And flash back to a "you all meet in a tavern" scene (or maybe something a little different (I was thinking of the wedding of Gundren's niece or something.))
I figure that they are going to instantly figure out that they are walking into an ambush in the first encounter anyway, so I'm not giving away anything with this.
There is a good one I enjoyed:
The walking story.
The DM (GM; it is not exclusive for D&D) tells the players that he will start to tell a story and the players interrupt him to tell how they enter the campaign.
It is fun cause the players will find their way to be part of it, and the DM will adapt his storytelling to fit the PCs and making them a party.
One way I used it was for a travelling carriage with a few NPCs and a PC in there, I kept the story saying about the lands and how it looked like a storm would come. Them one of the players sayed he was a ranger, walking accross the road, so I made the carriage to stop, and there was a interaction, he joined the group. The next PCs was "that guy" and he sayed he was cleaning the skull of a deer he hunted for sport (yes, that guy) and refused to talk to anyone, just overlooked to everyone in the carriage, he stayed behind.
The fourth and last player was giggling, cause he fought to be fun not to ask to enter. So a railroaded him, calling out the storm, the carriage had to stop in the closest Tavern, he was there, and few rounds of talkiing later, "That Guy" joined.
Best campaign starter i did (i took from Sword Coast Legends video game).
Players roll initiative.
Lots of monsters.
Odds are they won't survive and they won't. All players sit in shock as they think thier characters are dead.
'You wake up from a dream, wet with swet. After talking to each other you realise you've all had the same dream. What could this mean?, is this the future'.
The players loved it, as it adds suspense and that rush of finding answers.
This video has made me realize I was planning to run an Origin Adventure as my Pre-Campaign adventure.
In this story, the characters are all students of the same Academy (something similar to the different schools in the Witcher series) which means that they pretty much already have a common background, so my idea was to have a one-shot where they would be playing as the child version of their characters, in order for them to be free to just explore the world and learn about the Fae without having the pressure of having to "save the world". It would also serve as an introduction of HOW they got to know one another and what sort of mischief they got into when they were kids, to help them have a bond between the characters when we jump ahead to their actual campaign age, which will be around late teen years.
I once started a oneshot with a massively background overloaded tavern full of personalities and story hooks. The player were brought there by "the common summons", so they all knew what to do and it was super important for the whole region. Put in the end they dug up the background story of the tavern and helped the locals out and never got to finishing their mission. They were shocked, when they found out it was a red herring and that I planed out two oneshots, so they could be misled. But it was totally worth it.
Another table then got the chance and succeeded.
We play to loose, I am always pointing that out ^^
That is some solid and thorough dm-ing right there
(Also it's "red herring")
Jeepers McGee thank you, I edited it ☺️
I'm def a snot goblin...IN A TAVEN
No offense but I've never met a group of players that ever enjoyed starting at Level 0. In fact one guy who did that before refused to play a campaign that started that way. The best idea that I ever had, in terms of engaging the players, was: You all wake up in the local jail (drunk tank) after having too many drinks at the town's festival. Thanks to the mass bar fight that the players were in (fighting each other) that spilled into the streets you caused $$$ in damages. Do you have the money to repay that and the fines? No? Then you'll have to work it off by taking care of this one problem (they are let out of jail and the mission begins).
I always loved the "Friendly adventurer guild's attendant congratulating the ***part of the party*** for a job well done, introducing the newer adventurers and asking if it's ok to take them next mission"
Wonderful suggestion! I've probably missed the previous videos on this subject so I'm really happy you renewed the video :)
For now I did the 8-10 starts, but I always have new players so I can't actually try something more complex. Thor meta-starts are really fascinating anyway, I hope to try them before forgetting them XD
Wonderful ideas as always, Guy!! I especially like #1, it makes me want to start up a new campaign just to try it with my players! Starting a campaign is often awkward but these ideas would take most of that out of the start and get things rolling with gusto. I will admit that I had my latest campaign start in a tavern (I know, but it was half the group's first time and I do like tradition) but then a group of ruffians came in and tried to shake down the PC's favorite barkeep. The PC's liked the place enough to take the fight outside and then questioned the baddies to discover they were paid to harass local businesses. So now they are tracking down an organized crime ring and the last clue points to a notorious pirate captain. Adventure on the high seas? We will see! Get it? "See" but like "sea"? Ah, my players hate my puns too. I'll see myself out but thanks again!!
Hey Guy, i just want to say thank you so much for pluging RPG table finder again it's such a great tool for getting games it just needs more people
Glad you enjoy it!
My favorite is stranded on a jungle island. It has the crisis element to encourage them to work together. But it also helps me get them into sandbox mode as I dump them on a beach, describe their surroundings and just open ask them what they want to do.
It gives everyone a chance to get used to each other, figure their characters out, gain trust in me, and when it's done in two or three sessions they escape the island with a new ship under their control and can go wherever they want (with several narrative options).
Fantastic video! Prologue is mine choose! Our prė campaign is set 2000 years before main campaign i Final Fantasy Ivalice world and it's amazing rpg experience. Setting plot roots, creating nations and cities because they play as Queen, Prince, scientist, King and Revolution Leader. Fantastic and I highly recommend. They rolled for order at the beginning and each session is concentraded on one PC. Next session is closing one, and can't wait!
old school : you all meet in a tavern
modern: you're fighting pirates on an airship as it crashes into a tavern
OSR: the entire world is a tavern
post modern: you are a tavern
I started my last campaign by splitting the party into pairs. It was a group of 4 so two pairs. Each pair got a mini adventure before the campaign started. This was our session zero. We started off with going over their characters, making sure everything was good and then we played.
One pair both had military related backgrounds and backstories so they started in the King's Army. One of them is higher ranked and is to lead a small group to scout a beast that is killing soldiers near the frontlines. It's the two of them and two NPC soldiers to make sure no one dies at level 1. They do some skill checks and a small battle with lizardfolk, the enemy that the King's Army are fighting. Eventually, they find the trail of the beast and from what they can tell it's big. The trail leads to a cave where they find and kill a massive ape. One of them almost dies but pulls through. In the cave they find an egg and one of the PCs pockets it even though their C.O. told them anything found is to be brought to them. They get back and one of the NPC soldiers tells the PCs he knows they took the egg and it looked exotic. He wants to desert the army and sell the egg and live the good life somewhere far away. If they don't go along he's going to rat them out. They go along with him and ditch him on their way to a port city. They get on the first ship available with the egg still in their possession.
The second pair began in a college. One was a bard and the other an artificer. They hear rumors about some students going missing and roleplay a bit with some NPCs. Then an NPC comes to their dorm room asking for help. His sister is the newest student to have gone missing. They promise to help, mostly because a reward was offered, and go in search of clues. Everything leads to the college storage basements but those are locked and only staff have access. They go to one of their favorite professors and find he's in a bit of trouble. A construct he recently purchased is in his office destroying everything. He doesn't want to go to the other staff because he'll get in trouble. The pair offer to help for the key to the basement and they go in to destroy the construct. Next they go down into the basement and find what appears to be cultists performing a ritual on the NPC's sister. They interrupt it and as the cultist leader dies a demonic spirit is released. They have a close battle with the spirit and defeat it. They are then contacted by the dean and offered a job in a secret organization of truth seekers. Their first job is on the other side of the nation and the fastest way there is by ship. It just so happens there is one at the dock.
The first session with everyone at the table is on the ship that both pairs boarded and they are attacked at sea by sahuagin. The monsters are defeated and the ship docks at the starting town and the real adventure begins.
Personally, I love the tavern intro, but then I haven't got any taste, so don't listen to me.
I used to only use "Immediate problem", but that got repetitive quite quickly. There's only so many dimensional rifts with angry skeletons turning up in the UK in 2012 that can be exciting, surprisingly.
If it works for you and your players then it's golden!
Just spice it up. Have it be like a family dealie. Owned by Eric and Jennifier, married couple.
Can call it the Jen N' Eric Tavern.
@@HowtobeaGreatGM Well, it worked okay. It was run by a highly religious scientist, who was giving the party some information, until one of the players crushed him with a phone booth.
R.I.P Dr Ezekiel Murvin. True Insurgent, fighting the odds, the power armoured death squads breaking into the cage fighting bottom floor of his bar, but not the PCs.
So, something along the lines of "You start just outside a tavern. You would still be drinking in the tavern, if a dragon hadn't set it on fire 10 seconds ago."
3 of you are standing outside of the tavern after having been told to leave by the bouncer. Roll a D20 to see who gets thrown out the window. Now, tell me what your characters did to deserve this?
I've done the Common Problem and it worked out well. I also like to figure out everyone's backstories in session 0 so we can come up with reasons the characters could already know each other. We come up with adventure ideas in the past and funny quirks between characters so it feels like they've been together for a while.
wow! those are some great openings. as always i learned a lot and was also entertained. thanks for putting in the work you do on these videos. here's one of my favourite openings:
at session zero, have the pc's work together to create characters who know each other kinda sorta. they are level 1 characters who are both initiates of the same order. they've seen one another around, but aren't very knowledgeable of one another. they are sent out on an errand of low importance i.e. bring the supplies to the orphans or pick up this weeks dirty laundry from the settlement or whatever. something mundane and boring with no real hooks to keep the attention of the pc's. start at the end of that mundane task and say something like this: "You have finished (whatever) and are tired and hungry. You have decided to push on to get back to (blah) as you are anxious to sleep in your own beds after two weeks of sleeping on the ground. As you approach the (fort, house, temple, compound, whatever) you see very few lights lit. Not surprising for this time of day. As you get closer you notice that there is a great deal of devastation to the (towers, docks, guard baracks, whatever) and hurry your pace. You arrive to find the place razed to the ground and deserted. You begin to explore the ruins of your once proud (order, klan, society) " from here awareness rolls can let the pc's discover a remnant of the attackers (bonded in battle) or a beloved master at his moment of death (avenge the death of the parent figure) or just dead bodies of comrades and a few broken shields with odd symbals or pictures or markings or coats of arms or whatever on them. they can search the runs finding a few goodies they can start their campaign off with. magic swords, talking boots, singing fish hooks, whatever they asked for in session zero that wasn't too over the top for a level one character to reasonably start with. a bit more rummaging about discovers tracks leading off into the (plains, desert, forest, mountains, nearby city) or doesn't. this is something that should be hashed out in session zero. will they go their seperate ways making their way through the big bad world as best as they can? will they try to track down the invaders and bring vengeance to their dead comrades? will they wander off to a nearby town or settlement seeking to report this attrocity? some of this can be hashed out in session zero as well. this allows the gm and the players to have a setup that explains how the pc's know each other, how they came to have the stuff they have and why they are currently doing what they are doing at the start of the campaign. from here it is just a matter of good gming and good playering to have a grand fun time. it also makes it easy to introduce other players to the campaign. they can be long lost comrades thought dead in the original devestation. this allows for easy insertion of the new character into the group with out that awkward moment of "you see a stranger standing in the middle of the road looking at a map. he hails you and asks if you know the way to (wherever the current players are going)" At which point the stranger instantly becomes a best friend and brother in arms.
Later in the campaign during a slow moment while lunching in a diner or sharing an ale in a tavern or sitting around the camp fire we can let the players describe why they each joined the order and what their aspirations were. it's a nice bonding moment and a good way to fill in some back story without being too "onthenose" about it.
I really like your number one. That is kind of the way I just started my current campaign. However, the starting at lvl 0 was the key. They started out as commoners with jobs of their choice and I asked them to think of a class that they may want to be when they reach lvl 1. This still is not in stone yet, but they seem to really enjoy it so far.
For my main campaign I used a common summons. I session zeroed the players individually and wrapped it up with them being teleported to the same location.
My off week setting is a collaboration with my players. I started by having them answer twenty question about the world they wanted to play in and then created a common threat and a small amount of connective lore that fit into that to draw their characters together.
My first campaign had a start that became tradition since then. It was 2016 when we started it. I make my players make thematic groups. all characters have something in common, something that links to the adventure. they are all friends with the quest giver, they are all of a certain race or from the same place or from the same school. in that first particular adventure they all were part of the same travelling caravan of outcasts. and their matriarch was the quest giver and was kidnapped by the BBEG. And that drove them along naturally for an entire year of campaign. :)
I once planned a campaign where the players would start by meeting on a battleship turned ferry, the room they would meet up in was a former armory for the ship, now converted into a makeshift lounge, which the captain (begrudgingly) approved for morale purposes, the players can do jobs for the officers and/or other passengers on board, and one of the players can work as one of the crew, if only this damn cornavirus stuff hadn't come up.
Soon I'm planning to start my first time dming with a bunch of new players. We're starting with a 3 session campaign where they play themselves teleported to a fantasy world as themselves (0th level characters to start with time skips to levels 1 and 10 for following sessions). Im hoping starting at 0th level and leveling quickly will avoid analysis paralysis and give a good taste of what different levels will be like when they get there. And then being themselves will help set realistic (as a genre) expectations about what they can do and ease them in rping.
After that we are going to make characters from scratch for a prebuilt campaign. It might be very fun to prologue that campaign with the ending of the first short one. The new characters wouldnt know much from it, but could be fun forshadowing for the players.
My second campaign I've DMed started in a Tavern, but for actual reasons as one of the PC's was a bard, one of the others was a dude who thought he was a god and was trying to convert people at the tavern, and the third was a broke trickster who showed up for free rootbeer float night. They had about twenty minutes to interact in said Tavern with the two important NPC's before a frost bitten skeleton broke down the door, introducing the driving conflict for said session 1 that was ice monsters appearing nonstop around this town due to a mysterious creature in the belly of an old abandoned temple riddled with puzzles. Fun fact though, it's a oneshot that turned _into_ a campaign. Definitely worked out well!
I enjoy single one shot adventures that draw the PC's together. It establishes individual goals that can draw to group goals and gives the players a sense of their new character as an individual rather than as a set piece.
my last campaign hard opened with the group standing on a teleport pad being the first batch of adventurers teleporting to a remote outpost on a newly discovered continent for them to explore... was a fun way to start a campaign
The "NEW" world!!! I like it, might have to steal it for later!!!
Originally, I had planned the start of a Sci Fi campaign to begin -- in a tavern -- partly for some RPG genre self referential humor. The story-line here was that a mining company had had their survey ships confiscated by the government due to a recent war. With the war now over, the ships were being returned. The mining company no longer had the crews to for the ships and opted to have a contest to "give" them to qualified teams to complete a long-term survey mission. Upon completion, the (old, due for replacement) ships would become the property of the team. The tavern was a useful clearing house for teams to form, meet, find additional members etc. Not to mention meeting potentially useful NPCs.
However, that isn't what I ended up with. Instead, I had the team meet on a quarantine facility in orbit above the planet with the tavern being a destination they had to reach in order to formally enter the contest. On the way down their shuttle was attacked by a nefarious party which allowed the players to get familiar with the combat rules, kick off one of the plot lines, and just have some fun. Some of the potentially useful NPCs were on the shuttle as well -- which I hope added to the overall flavor.
I have a great set of players -- they managed the introductions to each other all by themselves by responding to the "capt'n's" online call for a crew. Oddly enough they met at bar on the orbital quarantine facility. Genre self referential humor intact -- without any GM intervention!
I tend to do a common problem /battle that I develop after discussions with all my players. We talk about their characters, back stories etc and I weave that into why they are there.
In the two campaigns I'm running one was a module and a bit of a 'tavern starter'...probably could've been more original if it wasn't the first module I've ever run. Other we did a session zero and we did a sort-of 'pre-campaign' game where I just told them "you're level 2 players and you've been exiled from your country, tell me why" ...more about building group backstory I could draw on than getting them to a given point.
I started my current campaign by playing solo-oneshots with each player during the week before.
Pros: it made the players really know their character and their backstory. They lived it before it all started.
Cons: it was extremely railroady to get 5 individuals to one place in the world. But the group appreciated it.
Great Vídeo, i'm starting a campaign today, and i'll be using the Flash Foward Start. thnks a lot
Something that I really want to try as a campaign start is having my players imprisoned, with a jailbreak quest. They don't know each other, but they have to work together to get to freedom. It would also allow you to introduce a villain (their captor) right from the start, and allow you to work with the repercussions of escaping from them.
I really like #4 would love to try it. Not sure if my PC's are quite creative enough though. Would love it if you went into more detail on this one.
What I like most is somewhere in between Backstory Link and Origin Adventure. Instead of you as the GM coming up with the adventure, players write there own little stories from their character's point of view.
Each player starts with a paragraph or two, hands the story to the next player who adds a paragraph, before handing it to the next player again.
With four players you end up with four stories each involving three PCs. After reading those stories loud you decide on two or more of them to be canon (each PC should be included in at least one story).
Those stories (as they usually lack conclusions) become the starting point for the first adventure. Depending on the stories you might want to adjust starting levels (i.e. if the stories written would be suitable as a second level adventure start at level three).
You can include that in your session zero and character creation process. So players can start with a concept and adjust the mechanical details of their character to match what was written in the story.
This method has two requirements not given for every party however:
- players have to be mature enough to not write 'off-topic' or have their PC accomplish super human feats
- GM has to be cool with handing all the power to the players for that process
Guy, you should consider turning your Katana around to make the edge of the blade face upwards. I know it looks less cool, but as far as I know this is the traditional way and better for the blade.
I started my campaign off with my players crawling out of a mass grave and after checking themselves over realized they were actually killed. Then they had to figure out who killed them and how they are alive again.
Thanks. These are some really good ideas. Food for thought.
@GreatGM, I have a question for you. I'm preparing to start a treasure hunting campaign. The PC's will travel from the starting continent to an archipelago following clues to find treasure (and, no, it's not "Isle of Dread," in case you're wondering :D -- it's my own setting and adventures). I was going to have a prince ask them all to his palace to ask them to search for the treasure, offering them appropriate adventure hooks (payment, arcane knowledge, the chance to do good, etc., etc.). SPOILER: The twist will be that the Prince wants to forge an empire by conquering neighboring kingdoms and intends to use the treasure to do so. Once the PC's figure this out, they'll have to decide what they'll want to do, and their choices will all have different consequences. (And if they don't take the quest, the prince will assure them there are others who will... inaction is also an action, which also has consequences.)
Only thing is... according to your list of starters, that opener is okay, but not great. You pointed out that it takes agency away from them. Are there some ways I can keep this basic plot, but give the PC's more agency?
One that ive leaned on lately is the "you are already on a job" opener. Some mundane tradesmen hires the pc's to get them to a destination safely. And the campaign starts minutes before said destination. The party isn't familiar with each other, but they know they aren't enemies. Plus they just got paid and got to this nifty little town where the campaign is about to happen. Insert local guards needing help/ goblin attack / strange being appearing or any other quite obvious hook.
Thank you so much for this, this really helped me start me campaign!
to be honest, this Guy (pun fully intended), reminds me so much of my friend. I love the videos, they has made me a better GM and world builder. Keep that energy, you rock man
My last campaign game started with everyone standing in front of the notice board that was just outside the tavern. Of course it's only meant to be a short term campaign while one of our members is at boot camp. Our long term campaign start was a bit more exciting and started with a prison break. Everyone got to decide why their character was there and it gave them a starting goal that would force them to work together.
My GM started our current campaign (which recently turned one year old, hooray!) with a citywide feast of the homebrew setting. The hunters had brought back their best prizes (which introduced one PC) and then went on and the GM made a big deal out of letting the players describe what they did. And when all the players had set their part of the stage the GM set the story in motion. Everything was going great and we all had fun in character, until things started going wrong with children starting to speak in tongue about something with the Raven Queen and then promptly dying after a few seconds in a most gruesome way of which I shall not mention. And that brought our characters together because now we had to deal with something we still, one year later, are no closer to resolve but we've had some amazing arcs that will eventually lead to the moment where we find out what happened to the Raven Queen.
My GM is a fantastic world builder and he managed to make all of us care about the world we're playing in, and I'm so proud of him as well as honoured to be allowed to play with such a dedicated GM.
I have a campaign start idea I want to try. The players would control regular villagers. They should visualize the characters as silhouettes, with 2 or 3 distinguishing characteristics like strong blacksmith, pretty talkative maiden, etc. There's a fiest or a wedding at the village. They get to enjoy for a while. Then a group of armed soldiers or adventurer's arrive. They begin butchering the villagers. Maybe some of the players manage to escape, maybe not. Then ask they players, why did you kill those villagers?
Their characters are the ones that attacked the village, possibly along with a bunch of NPCs. The players have to come up with a backstory for what happened. Are the players evil bandits, were they seeking the Stone of Gulgurath, maybe the villagers were evil cannibals, or they had committed other heinous crimes.
Critical Role Campaign 2 sorta started in a tavern. I say sorta because they had groups of PCs that knew each other with past history and a pre-game game(I think. Could be wrong but felt like they'd tested out their characters a bit already) so it wasnt just a tavern. They used other methods too and I think that's the more important detail.The tavern was just the set piece.
For my last campaign I used a mixture of three starting scenarios. We had two groups of PCs that had created shared backstories (a group of smugglers + an old veteran owning a bar and his droid bouncer) The smugglers came to the veteran's bar to make a deal and then out of the sudden the planet was attacked and the PCs had to work together to escape.
So my upcoming campaign is going to deal with time rifts. I am going to use deja vu moments to bring the characters together. For example one character will see another and find that they are very familiar for some reason. But why? Due to the issue with someone messing with the fabric of time they will recognize each other from something that they had done as a group in the future. Of course they will not know this until much later in the game.
I have a way of joining up players in a quite "realistic" way, but it only works with specific campaign types and world types.
>Have players all going about doing their own business.
>Have 2 of them meet on the road somewhere where they become temporary road-mates.
>Have another player meet them on the common destination.
>Have the last player join by introducing a common problem or imminent danger.
Once I had a player who was kinda self-centered and he hated the Idea of becoming a team with other players. I don't know why, and he didn't provide any reasons for him avoiding other PCs at all cost.
Other than that, this approach usually brings players together without making them feel all like soldiers who had to show up somewhere on a command.
My current campaign started with most of the players as mercenaries, working for a warlord who'd dispatched them to retrieve an important artifact. On their way back, the artifact was stolen from them and they had to go on a journey to retrieve it, knowing that their employer would blame (and kill) them for losing it. That simple start has now developed into an ongoing sandbox campaign as they're learning more and more about the artifact and why it's so important (to the point that they've now retrieved it and are trying to prevent their former employer from getting his hands on it).
I'm actually starting with a summons, but they aren't at where they're supposed to be yet. It'll give them time to find other side quests on the way and learn more about each other and how/why they may have received these mysterious letters. But there is a tavern I 100% expect the PCs to go to as soon as they arrive haha
A variation of #3 with the giant spiders, is one where they start in a situation where they are fighting a fierce battle and in turn they all die.
Instead of flashing back to a tavern, A TAVERN!?!?!, they are in a room with a seer, like Whoopee Goldberg in the movie Ghost, in a trance showing them what they just went through.
Wish I had this when I started my first campaign back in May. Great to have it now though as it looks like I may be starting a new campaign soon.
Love this intro! XD I have to come back time-to-time just to listen to it! XD
What I like is a kind of mixt between "flash" and "common problem" technique: the characters begin with a cataclysmic-like event (earthquake, a gigantic beast crashing on the ground etc...) which lead them to cooperate or help each other, but at a moment filled with pressure, their conscience is teleported. They now are people they don't know, and they have great skills, shiny armors and so on, but they are facing a huge problem (a legendary beast, a magic crystal that's got wild...), and ultimately they are badly hurted. Then they come back to their original body, and understand that the people they were are renound heroes, who helped to solve the origin of the common problem but die or disappear to save them. Characters don't know why they were able to "be" these heroes, they have a common experience, but also a common burden and mystery to be solved, in a world mourning for their heroes.
My personal favorites :
Everyone gets abducted by a roch and taken to his nest, it starts with the last player being abducted and thrown to the other players into the nest.
A tournament where the players meet as contestants, either something big official or illegal, players may fight in teams or against each other, then meeting afterwards where something happens in the square they are at.
They are in prison and something destroys it, e.g. A terrasque unborrows and makes his nest in town, next to the prison now they have to work together to escape. Before anything happens actionwise, they are cell neighbors.
I start mine in a tavern with the words ""It was a dark and stormy night..." :)
I tend to start with each of my players a single one2one Game after we created his/her character. This introduces them to that part of the Storyline, that they know about, builds their personal motives - cause I link this motive somehow with the origin-story of each player - and stop the one2one, when each player reaches the location of there first gathering.
So when they meet, they already know small parts of the Background - each an other part, so they can start to find out who the others are, what they know and how they can profit from building a party. This is a starter you can always use, cause it is always different.
I like how Fate Core links character creation with their backstory and each other NPC. The mechanic has similarities to the no. 4 as in that players cooperatively describe their characters' first adventures in rather broad strokes and where they met two other PCs.
I think it's brilliant because it quickly creates connections between the PCs, helps define their personality and backstory. It also seeds plot hooks the GM can use.
Sure, this doesn't directly affect how you start off your new campain and it could still be the awkward inn, but at least the PCs can role-play their reunion until something else comes up. But instead you could hook up one PC based on their backstory and then they recruit their old comrades.
--------
The start at the inn doesn't need to be awkward. In one adventure I have run a couple of times, the PCs arrive at a lonely wayside inn and soon notice that something is wrong. The food is bad, the innkeeper is acting weird, another guest outright suspicious and suddenly there is a mystery so solve. Things escalate from there. By the end the PCs should have transformed from a group of strangers to a decent party without leaving the premises once.
I started two campaigns in the same place, in two different physical locations, watching the same terrorist attack happen to a sky port. One group was then escorted away to make their statements after helping some clerics that got stuck under debris, while the other group were nearly hit by pieces of the sky port falling down in a ball of fire. The second group was then ushered into a temple on top of which an air ship crashed not long after. I just love to listen to the players of both groups try to figure out who is responsible, while only one group is actually following that trail. The other group is following a sub-plot to that event.
I actually like the " on the way to the common summon interrupted by battle". LmoP did that actually quite well tbh
My campaign is centered around a hub city with a seedy underworld, not unlike Rogueport. It began in the town market district, just before a terror attack perpetrated by a cult.
Two characters are newly arrived smugglers looking to make their names in a new part of the world. A third is a former member of the city underworld and knows it well. A fourth is a former pirate who knows the seas but not the city. A fifth is a former gladiator who knows about the economics of nearby arenas and stadiums. The last is a disciple of a locally popular deity trying to root out the cult with the help of local clergy.
Combinations of these techniques also work together very well. In a one off start to a campaign i have had the group of evil PCs wake up on the shore of a land before timey kind of island after the prison ship they were on became shipwrecked , all of which have have amnesia.
I have challenged myself to come up with ways to make the tavern start more unique and interesting. I've come up with a few ideas, but most are specific to my homebrew world and won't help anyone else. They weren't hard, though. I encourage anyone to take one of #10-6 and try to make it seem fresh and new, or just compelling and immersive.
I like to use the common problem start. Not as unavoidable like a burning ship, but something like a heavy rain or simply the onset of night on the streets.
I've been running a homebrewed space-opera campaign that started with the PCs looking for odd jobs, specifically finding a miner who had gone missing in an asteroid - which in turn led to them discovering something about that miner that has much larger implications for the setting as a whole.
My advice: start with a simple action set-piece that will set the tone for the campaign at large and give the players something to be curious about.
@Ian Robertson kobolds in a space opera?
Originality is a fallacy. As Guy is fond of saying, there's only one story that's ever been told, it's just the context that changes.
Guy, my first campaign is starting Sunday. Excellent timing
Lol, im writting an adventure just like #1 right now! Its so easy. It gives them backstop and a tie that binds.
I plan to start my next campaign in the awkward tavern. And just at the moment the players will get something together with rumours or whatever the entire town is destroyed by an giant attack and they have to flee through the crumbling buildings and attacks. That'll kick of the adventure of them trying to find out why that happened.
ive got a few campaigns on the go, one is all bards, they were summoned by the new Goddess of Music for a tournament of sorts only for it to end up being a battle of the bands, quick, best find a group...
another, they were shanghaied and awoke in a cell on a slaver ship, oh, who's that in the opposite cage? the captain that the crew mutinied against, might be worth your time helping him etc
I don't run d&d but i decided to run a one shot for my two nephews that were new to gaming. I simplified the rules for them so they wouldn't be overwhelmed.
I started them out in a tavern setting except i made the place a bit grander. I added live singing and live storytelling and i started them out in separate areas. I chose the song that the lady in the game was singing from real life and played it. I then went to the other side of the tavern and role played the storyteller bit. Suddenly i had everyone freeze except the players. This is how they met each other for the first time.
Since they were so new to gaming i made the path very simple to find as to where to go next. Eventually they made it to a monster of my own make. This monster was looking for an item that the players did not know they even possessed. He had used an ability on them that allowed him to travel through there memories. So he was able to eject them from there bodies so he could watch them relive the past. When they eventually found the monster. They could see themselves standing in front of it. Once they got close enough to there real bodies they were sucked into themselves. This brought all there memories back and i explained to them how they got there in the first place and then they fought.
Of course i skipped a few details but you get the idea. It proved to be an interesting game and they had a lot of fun. Oh and in case you're wondering i am a storyteller for Werewolf the Apocalypse. I've been storytelling it for about 17 years now.
What about starting by determining each PC’s relationship to every other one?
As in, every PC has some significant preexisting relationship with every other one, but a player cannot determine what his own character’s relationships are.
For example, you have Jack, Jill, Jon and Joe at the table. First, the GM sets a precedent...
GM: Jack, Jill, your characters used to be married - but not anymore. Now, one of you, what is the relationship between Jon and Joe?
Jill: Um, Jon is Joe’s fencing instructor.
GM: Excellent, we have a teacher/pupil dynamic in the party. What else? Jon, what’s the deal with Jill and Joe?
Jon: They’re brother and sister.
GM: Okay not bad, but let’s not lean too hard on familial relationships. Somebody, what’s going on between Joe and Jack?
Jill: They’re rivals at the fencing school.
And continue until every PC has some reason to care about every other one. After that they might just start a scene unprompted. I’m pretty sure I heard about this from Lindybeige, but I forget what the video is called.
Taverns are perfectly fine places to start a campaign. It’s a trope because it works.
I honestly never used the tavern.
I try to use the "immediate problem" start.
For example I used a crashing plane or an under attack/siege city.
Not only does it add to the excitement, no it brings newer players (that aren't that good at roleplaying yet) to do *something*
Because the situation demands action (just from a logical standpoint)
You refered to it as the "Common Problem".
But I wouldn't agree that it's a railrode...well not more or less than every other start. I mean you HAVE to bring them together.
But if you use something like the besieged city you can bring them together while they escape/get imprisoned etc. and just play the very beginning for everyone individualy.
That is one hell of a dynamic coming together in my opinion.
Imagine Skyrim, but the game starts how you live your life in a city and suddenly an army comes by.
You end up in the prison cart, but everyone of those Characters is a player which may have started differently but ended up the same.
I find that as long as the current imperative is strong there's no need for a origin story or elaborate beginning. That said, I prefer Dungeon World's rule of starting In Medias Res, usually with a battle and then learn about the characters, the world and the party's current goal from there.
I'd like to add Keith Johnstone's maxim of impro theatre: "Dare to be average!"
Anecdote: Many moons ago, when I was still young, but I'd taken over the DM Mantle (or hat) and three persons new to our group joined. Three players made the characters right there, and a fourth had made his alone without adding much so I apologized and had them all meet throughtout the day in the inn were the elven bard worked (owned by her parents). The ranger just sat there in a corner, the paladins had to deliver something and the wizard (who was a teacher, *not* and adventurer) had to go there and discuss how the children's choir the elven bard was directing ruined the musical... and the priest from way up in the Icy lands up north just followed "The Signs" and recognized his latest on the Wizard's Robes, and thus the party was gathered.
Afterwards the three fresh players were all in awe of how cool it was to just have everyone randomly enter the same inn. You see, this was probably when there was much stigma to the "You all meet in an Inn"-trope, and even purchased adventures had other ways of bringing disparate characters together. Just because something is often used doesn't make it bad.
Oh, and the "start as 0th level persons/kids" is totally brilliant and much, much fun. It's probably one of the top 10 campaigns I've played in, and it kept colouring the world long after. @How to be a great Game Master
I has a DM start a campaign with a misfired summon monster spell. The PCs took the place of the summoned monsters and appeared to fight a powerful sorcerer. The summoner apologised but made us fight anyway. We were swiftly defeated by the sorcerer and his minions and woke up in our beds in our homes without injury but with full memory of what happened.
The next night the spirit of the summoner appeared. She explained that she had been killed and that the sorcerer now sought to destroy us, as witnesses to his evil. We must flee and find the others that we fought with in order to protect ourselves. We had to figure out who the others were and where they were from the heraldry on their armour, their accents, their style of clothes, etc. It was a great way to start the game.
My favorite is a simplified version of common backstory of sort. One I have used off and on from back in the ADnD days if lead a new group, but more common now with adventure leagues, pathfinder society etc.
It is the common goal origin. I reference adventure league/society because they need some start that anybody can come any time. Known world lore, you decided go join up with the Pathfinder Society for whatever reason you choose. So I give them during session zero the known world info, and where they are/what they are doing. It is a festival to the pumpkin king. You have first guild assignment. Something kinda mundane on its own.
Then the players all have their backstory end there. Take pumpkin festival. Players have my map at s0 know what is around and then can make their backstory lead to the moment I say.
"You all ended up being sat at the same table during the feast". End session 0, start session 1.
I was so close to starting my game in a cantina (Star Wars Tavern) instead I started with them getting dropped off at the base of the mountain at the start of the quest. They knew in advance however that it would unfortunately be a railroadey adventure because it’s the tutorial of the game system. Weak but it was my first real campaign with more than 1 player.
your vids could use some timestamps in the description. Aparat from that your tips helped me out a lot, and i find your videos hilarious, keep up the good worka mate!
If you want an interesting counter argument to this aversion to starting in a tavern, try Matt Colville's video on the subject. I think there are benefits as well as drawbacks to starting in a tavern. Having said that, I'm probably going to use a few of these campaign starters in the future.
Combine 10 and 8. "You're in the tavern. Suddenly the doors are slammed shut and you hear people outside pushing heavy objects against the door. You start feeling hot and notice smoke filling the room."
good ideas and advice - - i usually start with variations of your #4 (backstory link), and rarely i have tried your #5 (in battle) - - i might yet attempt your #3 (flash forward)
I was just finishing preparing my next game, an introductory one-shot to the Wrath & Glory system (warhammer 40k). Since noone know the system and only one of the platers know the setting, I’ve made some delimitations on characters, stablishing the classes, and spending some (but not all) of their initial experience points, such that they are capable of doing what they need to do to achieve victory, yet leaving enough unspent points and open background for them to use as they see fit (I let my players expand their BG throughout the game, linking their characters to places, events or creating new events in their past to fit the narrative).
An Ork WAAAGH! Started in a certain subsector, and the characters were stationed in a nearby planet, Lanum, that was preparing to face off against the Orks... but, somehow, they got there an entire week before they were estimated to arrive. The still unmanned defenses were easily overrun, and the characters, recognizing the lost cause, are trying to get to the nearest spaceport in hope of finding a voidship (space ship) to escape the planet.
A minimum of 1 and max of 4 (I have 3 gaming groups that dislike each other, so I prepare games to be run with “minimum of 2, max of 6” players so I can run it for each group) can play as Imperial Guards that arrived early on the planet and where supposed to guard a local administrator, when their position got attacked. They routed and rallied at a local sub-prefecture (a district-administrative center). Theyare the last survivors of their entire detachment (because they routed, had they stayed, they would be all dead), and the common shame/secret bounds them together. They know there is a spaceport close by, and, though (1 to 4) guards can’t hope to face an entire WAAAGH! The distance is nothing if compared to the marchs and physical training they had to do in basic camp... problem is, they have nothing to offer that could get them a place in a voidship...
Up to 2 players (no minimum requirement) may play as agents of an inquisitor, sent to prepare a forward-operational-post from where their boss would launch his actions against the WAAAGH! But with the Orks arriving an entire week earlier, they had to evacuate... and their transport got shut down. Only the agent(s) who a player wish to play as will have survived.
One of them is an infiltration specialist, and believe himself capable of sneaking past a good part of the Orks, at least those close by, by going down a level on the Hive-City, since the attack is still restricted to the highest level... the nearest access to a lower level is at a sub-prefecture nearby, and he may also need to loot the place after something that could buy him access to a voidship capable of outrunning the Ork blockade. As an infiltration soecialist, his existence was erased from databanks, which is likely to raise distrust from any ship commanders, hence the need for either valuables... or people capable of vowing for him...
The other inquisitorial agent is a burocrat, a walking library, a poliglot, a connoisseur of the arts, and architecture, to the point of locating possible secret rooms by walking around a building and noticing misfits on his mental blueprint of the place, as well as man capable of documentation-forgery. Now, what he is not, is a combatant, a stealthish figure, a field operative. The Sage could easily get passage on a capable ship, for him and his coworkers, if not by the sheer Influence of his position, by... less glamorous ways... the problem is getting to the spaceport. Luckly, there is a sub-prefecture nearby, where he may get some help.
As soon as they meet at the sub-prefecture, and do the initial presentations (and hopefully agree to work together), they will be asked to perform an investigation check, with bonus for burocrats; a basic success (pretty much anyone should be capable of getting it) will have them identify the shooting pattern of the automated turrets as being in “ammo conservation” mode, meaning it is bellow 25% ammo. If they have any Shifts (a system mechanic, likely to be achieved by the Sage), they can time the ammo will last for 2 narrative-rounds, that is, each character will get to do 2 “actions”, explore 2 rooms, or explore 1 room and then perform some task on it, before the ammo runs out and the Orks breack into the sub-prefecture. I think not having an exact time will get the players even more on the edge to do what they got do and get out of the sub-prefecture, before the Orks run the place over, but even knowing they only get 2 actions each (and waiting IS an action) should be enough to get them acting quite fast. Even if by any chance they manage to all fail this initial test and not use the “succeed at a cost” mechanic (you pay a price, chosen by the GM, in this case “a future threat will happen one Time Stamp sooner than it originally would”, to get a minimal success. In the case, they would only get 1 action each, but they would know the ammo was running out) they should still get quite the game start when, out of the blue, the automated turrets stop and Orks barge into the sub-prefecture after them. Of course, each of the 4 rooms connected to the lobby have tasks for the Guards and at least 1 of the Agents that can potentially help the group start the game, from finding the access to the lower levels, to sneak past the Orks (and release them at an entire new level of the city as they barge into the sub-prefecture and find the way open), to actually contacting the spaceport and having the last Rogue Trader on the planet wait a bit more for their arrival... increasing how many “Scenes” they can use to get there before the voidship just leave, ending any chances of victory to the party.
I’ve also put quite a bit of emphasis on time in the game-call, they know that Time will be a factor in the game, and they might be cut-off from the Spaceport if they take too long to advance, the voidships might just depart and leave them behind, or the spaceport might even be overrun, to there are 3 time stamps they must beat to win the game, and only 2 of them have a way around (the ganger can take the party down a level in the hive city and sneak past the upper level Orks, even if the group started doing an “Imperial Guard scene” for the second act, walking around the Orks cutting them off from the Space Port, and the Sage calling the Spaceport from the sub-prefecture allow him to convince the Rogue Tarder to wait for them... until the spaceport gets overun by Orks... the Guards have noway to walk around any of the Time Stamps, but if they play smart, they have the best chances at not failing any of the Time Stamps
Last game I run, couple months before The Force Awakens was released, they all started jailed by the Empire in a space station. They are them taken to am Imperial Officer (heavily guarded) and get a simple proposition: the Empire needs black-ops operatives, agents that can’t be linked to them to perform their dirt job. They will be allowed a great deal of freedom if they do so... bu whenever the Empire call, they MUST comply... and, of course, they got an initial task, to prove they were up to the task... the Kessel Run have had quite a bunch of smuggler passing near an Imperial building site, and the players are to take down the last planet on the Run (this was before Solo completely changed what the Kessel Run was). Now, taking down a planet is not some death-star kind of thing (indeed, it is exactly the death star they are trying to hide:, but to jeopardize operations on the single smugglers port on said planet, dissuading other smugglers from acting up there, which, in the case of my players, they decided to start a gang-war and take the place over for them, and stablish some new rules so as to make the Kessel Run not profitable enough, hence making the smugglers either look for another route, or drop the Run all together. It gave them quite the strong start for their future operations, on hindsight, I should have made the gang-war a bit harder/longer
Interesting. Even though I do not really have a problem with starting the campaign.
My problem seems to be to get the PCs to know each other. For some reasons the players always try to go for backgrounds where they do not know each other, favourably because they are from different kingdoms...
easiest way to ensure that the PCs know each other? set that as a requirement.