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I don't know if this has been done before, but I was thinking of alternate ways to get a new party of PCs together for the first time. I mean, while I love a good, old-fashioned tavern brawl as much as the next guy, sometimes I just wish for something more.
Here are two ideas that are a little different....
- A shipwreck: The PCs are the only survivors of a shipwreck that lands them on some wilderness beach. Their best bet is to work together to get back to civilization.
- Prison: The PCs are all put in the same cell in a small town's jail. Bandits raid the town while the PCs are locked up. The sheriff (or whatever you want to call him) is killed immediately, and the jail is set on fire. The PCs have to escape their cell and fight off the bandits.
Here's how I set up my last "meet the players" (set in Forgotten Realms):
* A farm girl leaves her family because they can't deal with her new sorcerous powers. She has heard of a place where she might be able to get "help", the War Wizards of Cormyr. She steps off the boat and is immediately targeted by local thugs who move in to steal what little cash she has. The thugs are spotted by
* A local urban ranger with a heart of gold. He takes a liking to the naive farm girl and tells her about the City Hall, where she might be able to find a job. There, they meet
* An elven druid, sent by his father to these human lands on a diplomatic mission. His contact works at the City Hall. The druid finds out that his contact has died of a mysterious illness that is affecting the citizens.
Since the ranger was a drow and the druid was a moon elf, there was a fantastic in-character shouting match between the two before the local authority said knock it off or I'll have you both arrested and thrown in the gaol. Knowing that the gaol is no happy place, the ranger does some smooth talking and says that in apology for their rude behavior, they'll take on the job of finding out the cause of the illnesses.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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If I only had the time to run every game that I want to run.
I like the shipwreck idea but it will probably get filed with the one I read in Dragon a while ago: Someday but not soon.
There was a list for unusual campaign starters, and I really liked the one where the PCs are found in a garden of statues and restored via potions of Stone to Flesh. Their benefactor in turn asks for the PC's services.
How about a will reading?
How does every player know the deceased? Up to them...
Here's something out of the Roleplaying Tips archives, issue #231:
Been reading the zine for a while now, and it's definitely helped my GMing, so I thought I'd contribute a tip of my own. I recently ran a game where, before the first full session, I ran each of the players through a separate, private solo session where we roleplayed through the character's background instead of just telling it or writing it down.The sessions were only a few hours each, and there were many time lapses and summarized scenes, as we were going through all the important moments of the character's history. Using my influence on the background that I had with this system, I had each of the characters meet and become good friends/allies with a character named Alistair Brighton. He was friendly, helpful, and likeable, if somewhat reserved about his personal life, and so was immediately liked by all.
When I started the first session, I had everyone gathered and looking forward to a great campaign. I started the session with these words: "Alistair Brighton is dead." Before I went on to explain, I took a satisfied look at my players as they first had expressions of shock and horror (they had REALLY liked Brighton, and he wasn't just a name in a back story since they actually roleplayed through it), but then understanding as each one realized that each of the OTHER players was also shocked by Brighton's death.
This immediately plunged all the characters into the story as there was immediate conflict. (Who killed him? How do we find out? What can we do?). This was also a common ground and connection between all the players. It worked out great.
The gmmastery Yahoo! group covered this idea recently as well.
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How about a will reading?
I really like that idea, PayToFlay! That could offer some really cool opportunities to give a minor magic item, an item that may not be useful until down the road away, something to reflect a character's personality, or even a small parcel of land for the group to use as a preliminary base. That has a lot of cool potential...I'll definitely try that some time!
How about a will reading?I really like that idea, PayToFlay! That could offer some really cool opportunities to give a minor magic item, an item that may not be useful until down the road away, something to reflect a character's personality, or even a small parcel of land for the group to use as a preliminary base. That has a lot of cool potential...I'll definitely try that some time!
I had this as a player in a Cthulhu game. The inheritance was an old house in which the first adventure was set. This worked out good as well.
Stefan
In the campaign I just started, I got the party together by having them all be disparate travelers at an inn, but in the night, they were attacked. They woke up bound and shackled in a cave kept by slavers, which is where the campaign actually began, as they had to work with each other to escape and free the other prisoners that the slavers had already taken.