My group will be starting a new Pathfinder campaign next week.
I have GM'd for the group in 3 previous short campaigns. This will (hopefully) be our longest yet, and I'm hoping to make it particularly memorable.
Basically, all 3 of our previous campaigns began in an inn, but I want to mix it up a bit.
I have considered starting them in a prison (the group responded worryingly well to this suggestion), but I just want to get some other ideas: what is a good, original way to begin a campaign?
Thanks in advance.
Joint business venture. Hired guards for a caravan. Captives in a goblin camp. Guests at a wedding/funeral. Firends of a mutual friend. Guests at a ball/party. Hostages in an act of terrorism.
Those come to mind right off.
They can all be invited to a strange house for an evening by a mysterious host. Sort of a murder mystery mansion theme but they find clues that lead to further adventures.
They might all wake up together to find they've been tattooed with an odd symbol that causes intense pain if they are far apart from each other for long times, forcing them to work together to unravel a mystery. (sort of Curse of Azure Bonds-ish)
They could all be pressed into military service together.
They can be hired to "guard" a caravan but in reality they are being lead to a strange ruin for some nefarious purpose.
A fire or some sort of attack can occur in the city they are all in. They band together to put it out/fend of the invaders and so impress the local Magistrate he implores them to find the source of the attack/mysterious blaze.
etc...
Ask the players! See if they want to have any connections. Two characters in my game are brothers. Last game two served on the same caravan guard duty before becoming adventurers. It gives the players a small stake in the story. Granted, the beginning of the adventure is independent of that, but it helps.
I've had them wake up in military uniforms in the middle of a field of corpses following a large battle. None of them remember anything about the battle or where they are or to which nation the uniforms belong. They stand up amongst bodies several days dead. It is night but they appear to have limited night vision. They can feel several somethings lightly tugging at them from near-by, which is actually the force of the other party members. This lets them gather together. Once they find a reflective surface, they find that they look dead (though not to each other), gashes and physical damage that does not bleed, lifeless eyes, etc. They also look a few years older than they remember, with some new scars and different hair.
One character is excluded from this. He was a shapeshifter, so he got to emulate the look. He still glows but he remembers everything and decided not to expound on it.
Turns out the last 5 years was spent in a military crusade against undead nation. They were trapped in the valley by ambush and destroyed, which means the undead armies will be able to march unchallenged. They had some visions before waking up but it was your standard "you stand in a forest of trees but for one sick plant; as you watch, the sickness spreads and the trees around it start to die" kind of references to failure.
Players enjoyed not knowing what was going on, where they were, why they were there, or what they were to do next. It was fun because I got to work with information they didn't know and play a "necropolis" style game without having my players actually be dead (next they went to an undead basecamp and pretended to be undead until they had a chance to burn it all down and escape).
Unfortunately the game didn't last that many sessions.
They all start with no memories and a wrist band with dice on a spindle attached to their wrists...
See also Quag Keep.
They all start with no memories and a wrist band with dice on a spindle attached to their wrists...
See also Quag Keep.
Wow. Now THAT is a blast from the past...
One of the very first Fantasy/D&D books I ever read. Good stuff in there.
If you haven't read it then I can't recommend highly enough. It was, if I recall the first book written based off D&D and was sort of a marketing tool way back in the way back days...