8 Awesome Campaign Starts That Don't Begin in a Tavern

[@EsShinkai02]

Another great avenue the Funeral route can take is this. Tell each of your players in private that their character knows an NPC by the name of [Dead Guy] and that they're in town to attend his funeral and give a eulogy for him, but they can design the rest of his character. Who he was, what he meant to the PC, even his race/class. Then they all meet at the funeral and have to reconcile why they all know totally different people. Who was this guy really? how did he lead so many lives? Is that even his body in the casket?

[@CapnAlces]

IN~CREDIBLE. *begins furiously scribbling in notebook*

[@dragonfan8647]

😮

[@LoneWolffanwriter]

Amazing. I'm definitely stealing this for a one-shot.

[@Danothyus1]

I think it could be fun that after each player made their character, you tell then about the NPC, say that your character know this guy, and ask what is your relation to him. Them after everyone said, tell them the character is dead and all of them are going to his funeral. Not knowing the NPC is already dead might change what the players decide its their relation.

[@LuckySketches]

And then it turns out all of them are correct, but also the character isn't dead and they're the BBEG.

[@sharondornhoff7563]

I did an opening scene where the PCs have each set foot in a small mining town's market square, and gave them fifteen minutes to look around, find one another, exchange names, and so on. Then the tornado hit. Another fifteen minutes, and they're working together to guide a dozen hapless villagers through the abandoned mine in which they'll all sought shelter, trying to find another exit after the entrance was blocked by debris ... mostly, the wreckage of a collapsed tavern. ;-)

[@leonielson7138]

The campaign begins at a ta..rrasque! Roll for initiative. Run this as a Session 0, with the players picking 6 backgrounds, 6 races, and 6 classes - each round they roll 3d6 to determine which background/race/class dies to the tarrasque (or some other monster that level 1 characters have no chance of surviving), with you narrating how that character dies (in this case my personal favorite is actually the bulette, that way I can use the various "Tremors" movies as inspiration when narrating the kills). After five rounds, they will have a background, race, and class, for their character, chosen mostly at random. Session 1 begins with the newly created characters meeting up a safe distance from whatever horror just annihilated 5x the number of players other potential PCs.

[@trublgrl]

I love the idea of the characters coming together for an event like a wedding or a funeral. This fits in beautifully with a tip from Ginny Di, which is to have some of your players have established relationships at session one. Maybe the funeral is for a man and both his estranged children show up. Maybe two of the players are groomsmen and longtime friends, maybe the officiating priest is your party's cleric, and serves the town where many players live? I just started a campaign where no one knows each other, and it's a logical leap to even have them treat each other as friends, not foes. I love incorporating relationships into the shared backstory.

[@scottmarsh2991]

Reading of a Will sounds fun! I’m thinking of all the creepy relatives in the Grand Budapest Hotel. That’s a great way to provide some family portraits for the PCs. You can choose your backstory, but you can’t choose your family!

[@kiwinatorwaffles]

i’m a first time DM and i started the campaign with my players’ horses getting stolen at a fair. they got together to hunt down the thief and it was SUPER fun

[@lordnichard]

I like running themed games. A crew of pirates taking a dinghy to shore when the ship gets destroyed. A newbie knight and his retinue (hirelings) on what is definitely not his first quest. A group of students doing field work for their alchemy class. (Everyone knows kobolds like moonberries. That guy looks like he can fight. I'll ask him.) A few gamblers decide to rob a crypt to pay off their debts before a deadline.

[@deva3250]

I so much love the Funeral idea. Every Player gets different Informations about the dead NPC and has to decide, whats his Connection to him. The players are standing at the graveyard, without weapons or armor or speelbook, and Bam! 2 Zombies rise from a grave cause the earth is cursed. They have to fight the Zombies with nothing but their fists.. That would be a start to remember forever

[@desertdweller9003]

I love the idea of the funeral. My personal favorite so far is the one in my current campaign, where all the players met in the afterlife, having just died, and meeting the god of death, only for him to realize for whatever reason, our deaths were never meant to happen, sending us back to the mortal realm to find the cause and fix it.

[@ventusvindictus]

I have been a DM for 8 years now. I've used a wedding intro, some in media res intros, something very akin to the falling intro, the classic tavern intro, a pirate attack aboard a passenger ship, and several others. While the in media res intro is fun to plan, I have had very little success with it. New players I have run it for get bogged down in trying to pull out their combst rules right off the bat and often struggle to catch onto what is going on, even with me connecting the dots for them, and experienced players I have run it for have shown a lack of interest in what they view as a scripted event, miss out on how they had wanted to introduce their characters, and run into issues with their characters interracting after the encounter. I recommend giving it a go at least once, but temper your expectations and let your players know that you're planning that style of introduction well before the start of the first gameplay session.

[@ventusvindictus]

That said, I am interested in trying these others. The funeral in particular is interesting.

[@HelotOnWheels]

Awesome! Mind-blowing! I am now subscribed. The only one of these that I would be reluctant to use is the kick-down-the-door scenario, since it denies the players too much agency. At least one person in the group is going to say, “Wait, my character would never approach the situation this way.” I agree that *in medias res* is a promising approach, but the “res” shouldn’t require the DM to take the characters’ reins from the players. That’s why I like the “falling” scenario better. The “flashback” starter would be particularly good for players (like me) who enjoy writing detailed backstories, because the backstories immediately come into play.

[@burtonmiller]

Awesome kickoff ideas! A favorite of mine is the shared enemy that is hunting every party member individually, and they discover this in the opening scene… just as the enemy’s henchmen/forces arrive.

[@MH-dg6tw]

We once started with all of us in a cart/ coach to a city location, just a bunch of random travellers stuck together for the next few days or so. We were fully prepared for a scenic drive during which we could get the initial chitchat out the way. We got as far as names and the first person asking "so... [cleric] why are you going to [city]?" when the cart stopped due to a fallen tree blocking the road and then we get "right guys, surprise round, roll DEX saves please". By the time be dealt with the bandits, figured out why they'd ambushed our specific cart, escorted the NPCs in the coach to safety, paid the bandit camp a visit, discovered the name of a noble working with them and found out he was currently in the city we were initially travelling to, we'd gotten over the initial "so why exactly are we all hanging out together?" awkwardness of any new party and arrived in the city with both our initial set of character goals to get on with, but also an overarching quest as a reason to stick together.

[@ProjectBarcodeError]

One cool idea i've seen is in pathfinder's extinction curse: you start as a circus troupe that knew each other but went to make your own troupe as the original leader of the circus was mistreating everyone. So you start in a small town to get known but things happens over time. (sadly that theme gets less connected to the party after a couple book, but DMs can make it so it's a built system which gives them npcs carnies that can help gather informations or similar minor but helpful tasks especially if you do an investigation type of thing, and a fun hub to sleep at. gives also a reason for funky animal companions to be in civilised places.)

[@TheMichaellathrop]

For opening 3 I like the idea that they are (secretly) going through the litch ritual, and will be the BBEG later in the campaign, maybe have a situation mid campaign where the graveyard (including your friends grave) has been vandalized and contaminated with profane energies maybe causing wild undead to spill forth. One other thing I've done for a fun campaign start which is close to in media res is have the outbreak of a disaster, less your all in a tavern and more your all in the same town/city square when a sink hole opens up dropping you into a dungeon under the sewers or a horde of the undead comes around the the corner, or a dragon starts burning the town down with you inside it (note medieval towns were distinguished from villages by being walled settlements), so less in the middle of events but as events overtake everyone and only the PC's and a few NPC's are going to live through this opening.

[@tepropongoesto3928]

Great!!!...😐 Now I want to start in 5 different ways my campaign! I guess they will have a a fast-forward wedding memory of zombie's funeral and a queen's coronation from a falling trial after they remember they were drunk in a tavern... Amazing ideas man truly appreciate it 😊🤘

[@shaderax_storm6165]

I did a article on this years ago. Here are few other easy set ups. You start as slaves in a goblin/kobold/bullywug camp and have to find a way with limited equipment to escape. It's useful to help new players establish alignments, works perfect as a lvl 0 starting game, and you can set the start of the campaign literally anywhere. The best bit is that loot can literally be food or a cow, enjoy giving the players a grand piano worth a fortune or a the choice of a sack of potatoes. My favourite start is that you are a group of caravan guards on a journey to start a new outpost. The journey let's you try out skill, do some hunting to play with simple combat mechanics, and social interactions. Have the journey be uneventful and then leave the group in the middle of nowhere with nothing to spend their cash on, and then let the sandbox game begin. Or build the map around the adventurers. Ye olde boat crashing on a island is good fun for a experienced party too.

[@johncurry7246]

These are awesome, I definitely know how I'm going to open my new game of Age of Sigmar Soulbound now. The party will be attending a funeral for a former partymate and will get surprised by a bunch of Nighthaunt who materialize from the surrounding graves, including their former party member!

[@Artan9000]

The funeral one is somewhat similar to Frieren’s start

[@Jake200135]

I started a campaign with the players all arriving at and hiding in the same portside warehouse while the city was under siege by an enemy army. The next step in their journey was to escape the city and lead a small group of refugees to a ship on the opposite side of the port, fighting off soldiers the entire way.

[@leonielson7138]

I started a Chaos Earth campaign by telling the players, "You're on an airplane returning from a Silver Flag joint training exercise," and then narrated the coming of the Rifts with the airplane being teleported to random locations, including lunar orbit, before crashing in a forest 6 months later (though for them it was just a few minutes).

[@Adjusting1]

I lately thought about starting a campaing in a queue to a border crossing

[@alexalbaugh6972]

My last campaign began in the gooey, dark cave of a monster that had kidnapped each of them to store and eat later. They defeated the beast and barely escaped with its head and a mysterious egg

[@Robin_Goodfellow]

You might as well add a graduation to the list of large public ceremonies your players could attend. Are your players all students? Are some of them parent and child? Is one of them a beloved teacher?

[@neutronjack7399]

Kenning was a medieval custom of using paid mourners at funeral.

[@WarBird115]

Think my entry to my campaign was the last one(sort of). My party started in a cold wet sandy beach with a shipwreck next to them. There were some chests around from the ship containing their equipment and a mythical (small) chest/box that they cant open themselves(its you who can come up with a solution how to open it. i for example made it so that they need to visit a powerful and well known wizard). Since they had amnesia and they didnt know why they were there or how they got there - it forced them to get to know the surrounding lands and people. To find someone that could open that box. The box contained a letter explaining that they were sent to the new continent from their previous kingdom that they lived in and that kingdom was pretty far away. Their kingdom that the party comes from is already gone and the letter was meant for some noble(Pick someone that you have plenty of in the party. for example if you have a lot of elves in the party then the letter was meant for an elven king) both as a warning and a gift in one. The party is the gift and a warning themselves as in: they are there as a sign that things are dire but the party are also the ones that can get stuff done. They can rally up the new lands forces against the forces of evil. The intro takes time to develop but that really give you the time to bring in and introduce the different places, races and interesting characters. Every place could have a mission to do to take the players demands seriously. You can come up with the motivation for the bad guy yourself. Steal the idea. i dont mind. ^^

[@AsaNoGaijin]

these are SO good!!!

[@allanbaumadsen698]

This is great. Looking to build some fun short campaigns/long one shots. This is great. ❤

[@allanbaumadsen698]

Do you have simple adventures based on these starts.

[@trently89]

I love ALL OF THESE!! Thank you!!

[@vivian_492]

I started one of my campaigns with a cold open with the players waking up from a botched ritual they were the victims of

[@sko_psy]

Great ideas!!!

[@TakaD20]

Thanks for the ideas. At next campaign start I'll make the party fall out of a window at a wedding with the bard carrying away the bride...

[@invictuscenturion8468]

Cool ideas

[@LaPtaVerdad]

Absolutely epic advice :D

[@noamrichter]

Great advice!

[@Darkwintre]

After an attack on their home settlement they have to deal with the aftermath and discovering what caused this?

[@lordtroll7559]

I started in a tavern but you cant leave the taver

[@nunyabiznuss9869]

Great ideas 💡 thanks for sharing them despite some of these 👇🏻 ingrates comments 👍🏻

[@theredk4219]

Correction: a wedding is the end of a good life not a start of one.😂

[@warrenjoyer9422]

This is a weak list. Wedding, funeral and coronation are basically the same thing, a meaningful social event. Flashbacks and alt future are just bad. Falling? Really? Try remaking your list, put some effort into it. You need to do better.

[@neminem233]

Me, a never DM: Ah yes, I will certainly use this next time I don't play as a DM

[@FORB-k7m]

Please dm I am a forever dm and we're all tired boss

[@BilboBaggMan]

Fr never dms are the reason the hobby is dieing lol​@@FORB-k7m

[@dellandienstmanjr.7604]

I'm lucky enough to be friends with a fellow DM. We alternate DMing every Tuesday, one week my campaign and the next week his campaign. Gives us both a chance to relax and just play. Offer to do a one shot to give your DM a break. If you both enjoyed the one shot, offer to start your own campaign and alternate campaigns.

[@misterm7486]

Lucky potato

[@Hughes81]

Sounds like its time to try.

[@DareToWonder]

I live in Dublin and all my games start at pubs. Both irl and in game. I don't want to hear any flack about starting in a tavern.

[@joeyjohnson9586]

Cheers.

[@skarn81]

Stereotyped much?

[@jeffreyeshbach9372]

Had a DM do a cold open years back where all the players were meeting in a prison and were “absolutely guilty” for the crimes they were accused of. Kind of a crappy scenario for me who was playing a lawful good cleric of Amaunator. I was able to come up with a work-around for it (I think it was something along the lines of “accessory after the fact” because he didn’t know what was happening) but it taught me a valuable lesson for DMing now; Give your players the starting location early and let them create a reason for their characters to be there. Not the other way around.

[@VisonsofFalseTruths]

Counterpoint: a law need not be just. He was absolutely guilty of murder…for striking down a wicked nobleman who he had just discovered was leading a child trafficking ring. He knew the nobleman was careful enough to keep his own reputation spotless even as he secretly preyed on the innocent and the downtrodden. He knew he could never convince a court of his peers to convict the man; how many of them already knew and did nothing, how many were involved directly? He believed with his entire soul he had to act fast, that if he could cut the head off the snake the body would at least be in disarray, perhaps easier for other just authorities to dismantle entirely. So he put his sword through the noble’s heart, and now here he is. Just because you broke the law doesn’t mean you didn’t act in a lawful good way. Lawful in alignment terms need not refer to the law of the land; it could refer to divine law or to the personal laws one follows. Certain you may defer to mortal law when it doesn’t contradict divine or personal law, but I would argue the good-evil axis to be more important in determining a character’s actions. Would a LG paladin allow a starving child to be executed for food theft because the law says she should be? All that said, you’re not wrong; the GM should absolutely tell the party the basics of the campaign and where it’s going to take place. The player who built a barbarian expecting some kick-in-the-door hack’n’slash is gonna be disappointed to show up to a game of social intrigue and investigation in the royal capital. But don’t let “your start in prison and you’re guilty” shoehorn you into playing a specific kind of character. Being guilty and being deserving of punishment are not the same thing.

[@jeffreyeshbach9372]

@@VisonsofFalseTruths not a bad idea but wouldn’t have been in keeping with my character idea. If you’re familiar with the Stormlight Archives, think the Dustbringer order; fanatically devoted to following the letter of the law. Was part of my intended character development for him to come to realize that exact lesson.

[@VisonsofFalseTruths]

@@jeffreyeshbach9372OOOOH I see. That does change things, then. Yeah, that's a very specific character concept to play on. Still a dick move to have such a particular campaign lead and not inform your players; it's like someone showing up to the table with a warforged cleric and then announcing only then that actually this is a Dark Sun campaign not Ebberon. That's the biggest reason for session 0 imo; the DM can provide the setup for the campaign and the players can cooperatively plan out and build a team.

[@ADT1995]

Fully agree with telling your players first If you tell me we are starting in a courtroom or jail I'm going to create an appropriate character.... Otherwise I'm spending the first 30 minutes rolling up a new character or having an existential crisis.

[@retrostoryteller]

I like this. Thanks.

[@Thenarratorofsecrets]

I did the wedding. crashed by assassins. the one i REALLY want to do though. players start at half HP, no spell slots/ rest abilities. battered armor and broken shields. bodies of friends and foes surrounding them, smoke from their burning carriage/vehicle making it hard to see the enemies as they regroup for a final attack. in media res is the best way to start IMO

[@SH43418]

This is similar to an idea I had. The characters don't know each other, but each are mercenaries of different companies for an army, but they have been routed and are fleeing. Each being chased down. They meet in a clearing in the forest and group up against their pursuers.

[@SH43418]

So at table. Ask if everyone is ready and then immediately tell them to roll initiative.

[@dittrich04]

Awesome idea. This would work really well as a level 0 funnel. Everybody is part of a caravan overrun by [something] and everyone has 4 basic villagers/paid guards. The whole idea is a bunch of characters die and the ones left become level 1 player characters. Instant backstory for the group!

[@Animefan1803]

Start them off as kids living in a village. Let them have simple lvl 1 - 2 kids based adventures. (at that point no character has a specific backstory yet), then after they reach level 2, have an enormous threat destroy said village. That can be as examples: A greatwyrm, a tarrasque, a warring army from the neighbouring country and so forth. From there each player gets to flesh out their backstory with the knowledge that their hometown was ruined by said monster. They get to decide how that experience affected their characters and how they survived after being basically refugees. Then after a few ingame years you get them all back together.

[@jacksondavis9587]

I did a funeral hook for a campaign I started running a while ago. It revolved around a saint who was, during life, the mentor of several of the players, but all at different times so none of them knew each other. The campaign kicked off at his will-reading… it was really interesting to see all of the PCs role play about what the death of their mentor meant to them… and it only got better when baddies showed up and demanded an artifact that was supposedly in the saint’s possession when he died. What they didn’t know was that it was secretly buried with him and PCs would to dig up his grave to retrieve the macguffin… and destroy it. AWESOME CAMPAIGN. So much you can do with funerals, highly recommend.

[@silverjohn6037]

Go full Morrowind and have a group of convicts being landed in the port town of a foreign land. They can get their liberty and a trip home if they complete their quests. The land might be a new colony where you're clearing out monsters for the settlers or trying to make a diplomatic contact with the local tribes. Alternatively a group returning to a homeland that has been depopulated by a plague or a war to try and rebuild the kingdom. In the latter case, if the group is willing, you could even have one of them be the last descendant of the the royal bloodline.

[@mikelundun]

Starting line "You're finally awake"

[@DreamTiger5]

I want to start a campaign with the players as prisoners on a slave ship. They escape, gather strength, work to disassemble the slave trade, and it eventually cumulates into a siege on the fortress the slavers are based out of.

[@misterm7486]

What i would do with the funeral is ✨Lich✨. The party are simply people who have a connection with the dead, but during the funeral it gets crashed by some undead. As they unravel this attack with seemingly unconnected attacks they find out that their deceased friend turned themselves into a Lich. Great backstory and introduction potential

[@SerontTcg]

My current campaing started with My party in the preparation cell for a gladiator style battle, we just show up and got "randomly" asign together, then, as the winners, the leaders of the Town gave us other missions. Pretty fun

[@thomasmueller618]

I love me some in medias res starts, my two favorite I've done so far were: -the party, all for different reasons, ran quite physically into each other in the middle of the forest. each player provided a reason they were running to or away from this place, and I had them all start by crashing in an undignified pile. -the party came across each other on the road and were attacked by cultists with all of their names together on a hit list. this immediately raises the question of: why did the cultists have the names and descriptions of N relative strangers(n being party size) together and how did they know the party would be there? (my solution was that the cultists had gotten a prophecy of failure that their plan would fail if they didnt defeat the party. ironically, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy because if the cultists *hadn't* attacked the party, they would have not really interacted with each other and passed by.

[@tylerian4648]

Closely related to the falling opening: Shoved off the back of a perfectly good dragon. The party are conscripts/military volunteers and their commender is shoving them off whatever flying creature or thing their military uses while giving the ones who can't fly a scroll of feather fall as they are pushed off. The party lands in the middle of a battle behind enemy lines. Good Luck!

[@theinsanegamer1024]

My DnD campaign started in a prison. The fighter is a bodyguard for the Warlock, who is a noble. They did their job and threw out an uppity noble from a party, who, as you can imagine, got uppity. So they were put in jail for a day at the demands of the noble, though no other charges would be pressed. The warlock was at the prison to pick them up and get them out of jail. The other character, a goblin ranger, was arrested for accidentally starting something on fire and trying to flee. Then an explosion happened and there was a mass breakout, which led the characters to meet a heavily weakened simulacrum of the BBEG surrounded by several dozen dead guards.

[@zacharyweaver276]

There's a game called Grimrock spire that has the characters you control tossed into a dungeon at the top of a mountain while chained together. If they make it out they're absolved of their crimes. One of the best intros to a game I've seen

[@Elohist2009]

The beginning of Final Fantasy 9 is one of the most fun ideas to start a D&D campaign that I’ve never had the opportunity to try; having a couple of the more charismatic players get the chance to flex their early game performance skills and even throw in a couple of low stakes encounters for an action break. Plus, having a mid level, NPC as your boss, and an airship as your homebase would be amazing but that’s probably about as far as I would go to draw inspiration from the source material. I just really think that opening sequence is one of the best in the series and would love to role-play it in some form at the table.

[@johithestar414]

I also like the "end of battle" start where the players are just random soldiers that survived a battle, u can describe it smth like this: As the fog or war clears, ur blades (or beards) wet with gore, ur breath escaping ur mouth as u clench ur teeth and wounds, u see the remaining soldiers. And then the players introduce themselves one by one

[@TheFrostedfirefly]

Oh this is a good one, I like that idea a lot. Could also work even if some of the players were on the enemy side and quickly rushed to switch their gear or identification with a fallen soldier bc they chose their lives over loyalty or something.

[@luisaymerich9675]

The players could be guards or travelers in a caravan attacked by bandits and they were the sole survivors or were captured by the bandits.

[@dansunder7minutebeerreview271]

I always wanted to run a campaign like the A-team tv show, where the characters were all in the military and charged with a crime they didn't commit, they promptly escaped. Still wanted by the government, they surrvive as soldiers of fortune...

[@michaelpettersson4919]

I suppose that shipwrecks and in prison are somewhat common as well. Those are great ways to explain why the player characters have little to no gear. An idea I have had in the back of my head is a teleportation accident. Basically the character rematerialised in the wrong location. This may be accidental or deliberate. I once read a novel where someone tried to summon a tank (yes a military vehicle) from our world. It worked partly and the spell snatched a M113 APC with crew from the Vietnam war. Not what was intended to fight a dragon but it had to work. Flashback may be false flashback. Maybe a ghost is sending its own memories?

[@Plane-Walker]

I have one nobody would ever think of. You start on a Mindflayer Nautiloid.

[@achimsinn6189]

Here are some that I like: the briefing: The idea is to give the players the information about the quest you want them to get through an NPC. They get to introduce themselves and add some info on their characters and why they are being part of this and oncy everybody is finished and before that awkward moment where nobody knows how to continue you have your NPC end the briefing and the first quest starts. This works especially well for oneshots where you need to condense time and focus on the important bits of the adventure. the journey: The party is already travelling together and they meet each other during that journey. Maybe they all were hired for the same quest and are being introduced to each other while travelling to the location or they are travelling independantly, but happen to meet each other while travelling. In that case I like to use events that happen during the journey to tie them together as a group like maybe they are attacked during the journey, or maybe the city they are travelling to is closed down for some reason and they need to solve that problem to enter the city. the attack: The players are independantly at the same place while that place is attacked and they need to defend themselves. This has a similar effect as the break the door one - the players get to show off their character in a fight and to try out their new characters and abilities right away and can describe their characters while doing so instead of trying to do a conversation roleplaying as a character they are playing for the first time and talking to characters that are unknown to them and that character and who are roleplayed by players who are being in the same situation. being marooned: kind of an extention of the journey one - basically the ship they all travelled on sunk and they find themselves on a lonely island and have to work together to survive and get back to civilication. This one comes in with a built in first quest that could easily take the entire first session or even longer which makes it a good way for allowing players to get used to their characters before travelling the entire world with them

[@Bentron88]

A spin for the funeral idea is that the party was attending the funeral and were asked to get something from a dungeon regarding the will. However once they get passed all of the locks they find that at the bottom of this dungeon was a lich’s phylactery; turns out the guy that died was a lich and they’re phylactery was locked away. The players were duped into freeing them. Now they have to deal with this action. It also means you can have the players meet the BBEG right away.

[@masontrupe9047]

One of the strongest ways to start in general is "in media res." It's a fancy way to describe in the middle of the action, and it usually works great. Establish how your party is already connected; they're likely friends anyway. Skip the boring and awkward parts of introductions. That's what session 0 is for. Then tell them "you're off on this mission, something went wrong, and now roll for initiative." My current game in an "escape to the new world" scenario had the party and their immediate families trying to get to the coast to take a ship away from the evil empire. The game began with them getting found by a patrol and needing to hide, then fight, and then just ramped from there. Post session feedback was "strongest campaign hook to date." Choose action, not intros.

[@UllricLex]

We play Savage Worlds and started on a big ship, brought us to a city on a Island. We were all sold into slavery and tied together with ropes. One of us decided to jump into the water and pulled the rest also in. It was a great and intense start but also we were lucky that no one died at the start 😄

[@Jaronut]

For my upcoming campaign, the players will begin as prisoners in 3 cells in a lower deck on a pirate/viking ship being sent somewhere to be executed. It takes place during a massive storm, water soaking the ship. A key falls from the top deck allowing the players to interact with each other. When they go to the top, they notice all pirates are either dead or dumbstruck by a Kraken clinging onto the ship. A shipwreck happens and the game begins on a beach Allows some questions to fill in 1. Why were they being executed? 2. Where were they being sent? 3. Where are they? 4. Where is the starting loot? Found at the shipwreck site on beach?

[@Zakemaster]

So, my most recent campaign was themed as the players all being members of a mercenary company hired by a faction in a civil war. All of the players were given basic information of the company, the setting, and the mission. I had each of them design characters separately from each other, and had what I called a session 0.5. Essentially our first session was a series of vignettes the night before the battle, with each player getting their chance one by one to introduce their character and what they were doing. Some were drinking. Some were studying up on the mission, and some were off on their own. I’d then allow opportunities for players to willingly bring their PCs into the scenes to cooperatively build out the relationships between the characters organically, with them being combinations of in-character work and me asking questions to the players. The session ended with the introduction of the last player, playing the commander of the company, briefing the team on the details of a secret operation they’d been chosen for, to infiltrate the enemy castle in a small strike team and throw wide the gates. The first real session was the battle, with the five PCs successfully opening the gates and taking the castle. The second session followed the occupation of the castle where one of the PCs assassinated the captain with the help of a large number of dissatisfied members of the company, which left the remaining three PCs running for their lives in the middle of the chaos. Once they escaped the castle, they found refuge and were introduced to the true PCs for the players formerly playing the commander and traitor, and were thrown into a sandbox of civil war and political intrigue where they needed to figure out how to survive and potentially get revenge on the former members of their company. Obviously both the players playing the commander and traitor were in on it the whole time, but even they didn’t know all the details (commander knew they would be betrayed and killed, but not by a PC, and traitor knew they were going to betray the commander, but didn’t realize until the intro session that meant another PC). Just a fun, chaotic opening that was memorable for a lot of reasons and my players seem to have loved.

[@Toadimuss]

I sometimes use shipwreck/destroyed caravan survivors, it great for creating a reason why very different people are traveling together. When using this start I give the players a list of what equipment they have available and the first adventure is getting back to civilization.

[@MemphiStig]

Gygax recommends the In Medias Res opening in the 1e DMG. Start outside the dungeon, he says. The characters already met and decided to go exploring and here they are. Get on with it.

[@shadowwolfxvi6533]

Thanks for sharing! I Have been thinking to make a oneshot and needed some help brainstorming !

[@RealWorldGames]

Amnesia tied up on a ship in a storm. This was a 3.5 adventure I designed. The story begins in deeper darkness, the characters are blindfolded and tied up in the hold of a ship at sea and they all have Amnesia ( they can remember their name and they still have their skills, class abilities etc, but nothing else ). As they work their way free they discover they are alone on the ship . The ship is careening towards rocks , an island in the distance and the storm is still raging. I usually work a cryptic clue on each of the characters person ( a vague message in a pocket or maybe a piece of jewelry , a tattoo.) The storm and ship evoke that in media res idea with a need to focus on the action related to immediate danger. The absence of others lends questions about the ship's crew ( where are they? Are the characters the crew? ) Other questions beg answers . Why were they restrained? Why can't they remember? Where are they ? After crashing the ship and swimming to the island the characters can loot the wreckage and begin the adventure of trying to return home ....?

[@teeth716]

1. Wedding 2. Trial at court 3. A funeral 4. Breaking down a door 5. Falling 6. The coronation 7. Flashbacks 8. The Alternate future/flash forward (what happens if the party doesn’t act)

[@davide7039]

me starting the campaign just to be taken away by a mystical crow god (he promised i would see my dead son)

[@johnhansen4794]

The day the Sun went out.

[@trublgrl]

This is such a great comment section! Everyone has such great stories!

[@garrettdixon8350]

Most random idea I’ve ever had, but in extension to the funeral, Never played DnD. Don’t know if it would actually work. But. Here we go. Okay. Get the players to create two characters each, first name only. Flip a coin to see which character they will play. (Or just ask). Opening in the throne room of a massive castle, mid combat, low health and fading fast as they very quickly realized they are outmatch and going to die. The group takes one last look at each other, and the character they are using dies. All of them. Opening scene after only a few rounds. Dead. Fade to black or however you would say it. Then. The other character they designed, is who it starts as the “second time” and it’s the sons of the group who died, all attending their fathers funeral and going an adventure to avenge their fathers. Hence the no last names. Only first names. Because part of the mystery is the fathers left when the kids were very young and the moms all died in childbirth, sickness, etc. so the sons go to find out which of the original characters was their father, and to avenge them. Could even mix it around and make characters from other players be someone else’s father. Idk. But I’ve been watching a lot of DnD stuff lately and watching this video was great inspiration:)

[@PantherCat64]

I’d say don’t do the flash back start except if your players fail the In Medias Res start. Simple, flash backs just suck for introducing multiple characters as it’s basically the game form of that one player dumping their entire backstory that is 5 pages long. Yeah from experience, most will just tap out before the game even gets to the fun bit. However, if whatever middle of the story action your players were in failed, instead of dying and going “well that’s it that’s the end for those characters” they can be captured, rescued by a mysterious stranger, or the “hay you’re finally awake,” start. It creates a interesting start, all the characters already know each other and have been introduced by the fight, AND now they have an incentive to do quests as they’ll probably want their stuff back or get some simple revenge.

[@T4N7]

Oddly enough, most of the campaigns I've been at the start of did start in a tavern, all except my 1st n my current game. (Well 1 game had us start at lvl 3 n most of the PCs alrdy were a team since it was a reboot of the previous game after we lost a player, 2 others wanted to play different PCs, n the first time DM had bit off a bit more than he could chew n wanted a slower build n more freeform exploration) The 1st pathfinder game I played had a recurring NPC make his debut by being ganged up on by 4 enemies n it was the people who stepped in to help him that he recruited to help him with his quest n then for us to meet him at some place that we never got to before drama collapsed the playgroup. My most recent D&D game had a quarterly (every 3 months) merchant's fair n a man needed people to escort a flock of sheep he sold to a nearby village. So my half goblin ran around looking for recruits for her "new business" (she was convinced that she was the leader) n the people who bought the sheep turned out to be shady wizards n 1 thing led to another n the paladin's home town got nuked. At this point tho there's only 1 of the original 5 party members left (surprisingly no one died, at least permanently, n instead either the PCs left the party so we could play something new, or the player had to drop the game. But a kid that the party spared in that very first wizard fight just recruited my newest PC to break the party out (we get captured a lot, sometimes on purpose). So that act of kindness from my monk is the reason my cleric was convinced to help the party. Was a nice tie in moment by the DM n it reintroduced the NPC to the rest of the party in case our DM wants to use him afain in the future. I kinda hope if we defeat the mage guild that Keith (or Link Skywinker as we decided to call him) becomes the new leader. From apprentice to arch-wizard, it woupd be so fitting of an ending.

[@jamestaylor3805]

"The four of, having never met before, find yourselves awakening at the same time in slavers wagon." "You've all found yourself individually heading to city for its bicentenial celebration where one can earn citizenship through participation." "War has come to your homes, and you find yourselves sitting on the edge of a refugee camp together discussing your futures." "The corruption here is so severe you have found youselves arrested and now slated to work as a team in the arena for a chance to live." "A mysterious patron has invited you each to a meeting where he will discuss a job he wants to hire you to do." "While competing in some major regional contest, like a wilderbess race, you four happen to be the only four who witness the pressing story hook(like a kidnapping)." "You've all grown up together and decided to become an adventuring party. Please throw jokes at each other like old friends and concoct stories of your exploits as kids during the game sessions."

[@CalmestManOnMars]

Simply pick a player and say "as you flash back to reality, the sword nearly collides with your body, you bash the weapon out of the way, and finish off the enemy with a swift attack. You and your party stand closer together to fend off the incoming threat." And if everyone else is chill, they will immediately roll with their characters "knowing" each other. Hopefully they all can describe how each of their characters attack things.

[@michaelgreiner-qp4iz]

I started a campaign using a PCs backstory he was the 2nd son of the Reavee ( feudal lord/ sheriff ) In the lords manor he was assigned to find the 1st son whom vanished in a skirmish with some Kolbolds a week earlier .So the PC lead out an 1st went to the local temple to gather the local cleric (another PC) just in case the 1st son is injured an you can figure out the rest but no tavern start in this adventure.

[@JohnSmith-vk9ds]

The Trial opener is interesting, but I think it would require more buy-in from your players than most other kinds of campaigns. For one thing, having all the players present at the same trial makes them co-defendants all accused of being involved in the same crime. This may not jive with the background that one or more of your players has written for their character. Furthermore, the process of entering a plea agreement in the real world generally means that you are pleading guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence. If the players agree to this, it infers they are admitting guilt to whatever crime they were accused of, and this again may not jive with the character's backstory or personality. Even the case of a fantasy version of a deferred adjudication program, such as doing monster hunting in exchange for the charges being dropped, could be perceived by the player as their character admitting to the facts alleged at trial. It would not at all be unreasonable for players to discuss the matter among themselves and decide they'd rather fight for their innocence in court if they decided they did not do what they are being accused of, and I would recommend that any prospective DM who is considering this campaign opener to be prepared to conduct a trial scene, in lieu of the players just accepting your monster hunting scenario. Overall, I feel like this premise is much more susceptible to unintentional railroading than other approaches would be, and I'd only recommend it for more experienced GM's with player groups that are much more comfortable with on-the-spot improvisation for character backstories.

[@ryanflorian2047]

favorite start is to have them talk to the tribes chief this way I can tell them what they will be doing in game and give them a line of credit for any and all supplies/equipment they may need in order to complete the task this also lets them talk tactics an plan for what rout to take the other is I give them level 20s with full magical swag and then I kill them (pick any epic monster Gloom/leShay/Uvuudaum/Dream Larva/Hecatoncheires/Prismatic or Force Dragon) they role level 1s with starting gold complete the quest that the level 20s failed this lets them fully understand the danger an lets them know that some monsters will kill you no matter what level you are (plan carefully)

[@CurlyCross]

I am building a campaign right now. We're starting at level 3 and each PC is a Hero of a nearby area (a story about how they got to level 3) and the King has thrown a celebration for the Heroes. At the celebration the princess gets kidnapped. They are tasked with helping the King get the princess back.

[@WhimsicalCreature457]

I’ll be honest, I never liked starting campaigns on the “wrong side of the law” or “prisoners”. Like yeah a lot of people enjoy it, but I feel it’s just as common as the tavern start. It also feels kinda restrictive because I prepare all these items and such for my character and I don’t have any of it. That and our party is on the run when I just wanna focus on the adventure. I don’t wanna have to “fight for my innocence” or “make a break from the law” as my starting point. I like more open ended starting points and having more freedom.

[@DaniO8]

I watched recentyl your lvl 1 and lvl 2 epic encounter video, and i started to think about a same type encounter. You are in a dungeon/castle/anywhere where you want, and you fight with a monster that is far stronger than the whole party, and the objective is to acquire the Power Word Kill Spell Scroll to kill it. Could it work? Or its to lame, because the only thing the PCs need to do is to chase the scroll while the monster chasing them?

[@dannyleo5787]

Opening eight was my first dm starter for 5e. The heroes led armies for years against the millions of gargoyles that within a spam of the first sightings destroyed everything that we ever knew. Tired, battle worn, hopelessly surrounded by enemies of stone. To completely change this dark course our only time dragon had to sacrifice its own life to send us back to very past to hunt down the cause of it all.... problem was, the dessert protects its secrets, the gargoyles though few were still as deadly and the bbeg knows soul majic to a point where she may as well breath it.

[@dellandienstmanjr.7604]

How about "The Party is on a slave ship, each character captured in Slaver raids in thier homeand and stripped down to wearing rags and forced to row the ship. The ship wrecks and they find themsleves on a deserted island. Now they must survive, find/make makeshift weapons and armor (or even find some supplies and armed & armored slaver bodies washed up on shore) Turns into a survival on the island and leads to investigating further inland where there may be a way off the island...

[@174zuke]

I have had an idea that would dovetail into the Courtroom opener. The PCs are all sentenced to servitude, basocally as hirelings for some major local hero. This local hero turns out to be a privileged jerk, too arrogant and lazy to do the work himself, so he sends the party ahead to do it for him. Left at that, it could be a bonding experience for the party as they collectively kick him to the curb. I was also toying with ideas to give that local hero hidden depths, like a legacy that he fears he can't live up to. There was also a bard with the group, the child of one of the hero's ancestors' teammates who had been forgotten. This bard was driving the hero to great deeds so that they could become famous for writing the ballad of his exploits (which ends with that hero's glorious demise).

[@requiemforaheart517]

When I start a campaign I always go with a session 0 that is monumental to the lore of the world. Like an incoming war. That if the characters (who will start at a higher level) fail/die in session 0, the war will happen (in which i will kill them for sure) Hence the start of session 1 where a world and the decisions they made in session 0 will affect the world in session 1. Ravaged by war and monsters etc. and they go back to level 1.

[@falionna3587]

One opening my DM does that I like is that we start on a ship. We are traveling to plotville for our own reasons and bond over the adventure more or less. BG3 has a similar with a space blimp and eyeworm, inspired by arcanums blimp with plot device. think a problem with in media res is things can get awkward after the action, trying to establish what sort of relation the characters have after the fact and can lead to misunderstandings.

[@ArcCaravan]

An opening I like is having the party on a ride to a destination. Could be a boat, train, or other form of transportation to a destination everyone was heading towards. Maybe the party had time to chat or they decide to stick together inna new locale. Maybe they all have business that unites them. Either way it feels immersive of both character and player arriving in the game.

[@Mark73]

One time I had my players start by walking around a carnival that had set up outside of town. After a little bit of getting their bearings I had the animals in the cages start going crazy and escaping. Turns out it was the doing of a gnome illusionist trying to get revenge for the carnival firing him after he was caught stealing from the profit box. I had him disguise himself as a little girl on an elephant that was being used to give rides to kids and using it as an escape elephant.

[@TheLimeCrimes]

All of these follow one of the basic rules of writing an engaging story: Get in late, Get out Early. The theater of the mind will do a better job than you ever could.

[@marcmendez4371]

One idea I had with the courtroom scenario is in session 0 during character creation I ask everyone individually if they committed crime they're accused of. They tell me in secret without anyone else knowing their answer but I don't say what the crime was until session 1 where it's revealed to everyone else

[@BrianM-44041]

But every campaign must start in a tavern where a mysterious figure sits in the shadows in the corner, face covered in a hood who just happens to be offering a huge reward for a group of brave adventurers who might help him recover a lost item or unalive some big baddie...

[@IottiPH]

I'm preparing an adventure start where they meet in a big ship. It's a sea expedition and a party while they are traveling, so we can have some roleplay of why they are there, who they find and what important info they might get before they arrive at the island they're supposed to go. I think it's a good one that I might use other times in different shapes if it goes well.

[@cerberv5040]

Great Ideas. One thing though: Could you rename the video sections to the actual scenario names? Would be very helpful as a future reference.

[@mikecondo]

I've utilized In Medias Res start before. I had my PCs all starting captured in a slave caravan that is quickly attacked.

[@Drudenfusz]

As much as I enjoy flashbacks, I think they are horrible to start the game, since they are not earned then yet. The players often have not found their character and thus I would say flashbacks are better after the player has established their character first.

[@heero75]

If I may add one from my own game which will be starting soon, I am starting my players on a ship heading to a city through a storm a kin to the North Sea and they have to work together to protect the ship not only from the wind and the sea but from monsters which are boarding the ship.

[@maximetremblay6424]

I did a lot of them. Favorite one? Insane asylum. Pathfinder 1e have an awesome start in Strange Eon were amesiac character are in a haunted asylum in a riot