Tips for First Session in a New Campaign

[CinciREborn]

First off let me say if there is already a thread for this subject I apologize. I am new to this forum.

Just look for tips for the first session in a new campaign.

Me and my friends have been playing dungeons and dragons all our lives. We're in our mid twentys. When 4.0 hit we didn't hop on board. When pathfinders came forth we hopped on and have been rolling with it since :D

We are gearing up to start a new campaign. I will playing the roll of game master. We have I guess different levels of player we player with. The elite class of our guys have always had the same two guys be GM. In the elite class of guys I have never been given the chance to GM. I have it now and am massivly excited.

I have spent alot of time and work into building a world from scratch. The setting is completly custom and build from nothing.I have literally spent over a year building this world and I want to see this campaign flourish for multiple reasons. 1. The work I have put into it and 2. My first chance to GM with our best PCs.

I'm confident in everything I have prepared the one thing I'm hesitant with is just the beginning of the campaign.

I'm curious how the GMs on this forum begin campaigns. I WILL NOT begin this with "okay your in a tavern" or "You wake up, what do you want to do"

I want a memorable beginning. Tossing a few ideas. Also just like I have put work into the world the PCs are putting work in there characters. What ever happens in the first session I want it to be an intro to the world and progression for the PCs characters.

[Gregory Connolly]

I have started campaigns off well, and I have done it poorly too. Mostly the difference was in how much buy in I got from the players. If you pay attention to their back stories, it helps you make them the main characters of the story you tell. If you don't communicate with them many times they make a group that won't work well together. Getting everyone to buy in at the start is more important than any of the specifics of the game system or the setting.

[CinciREborn]

I'm working with the pcs closely in developping their characters and back grounds. I plan to play off all their backgrounds and build the first session around those backgrounds

[Lincoln Hills]

1. The first session can sometimes be a little rocky but it's also going to set the precedent for all the rest. If you're making major changes to your house rules, if you're going to start (or stop) serving snacks or playing background music, if you're changing the hours of play, this is the best time to do these things.

2. The first session is an ideal time to distribute handouts. Handouts make the situation more real to the players. If you're focusing on a dungeon, a page of "legends and lore" about the location - or a partial map from a previous expedition - are both good. If it's city-based, a map or a list of notable city locations is good. For wilderness exploration, again, a partial map cries out to be filled in, while an inventory of "expedition supplies" that the PCs get for free is a welcome relief for folks trying to make sure their starting money covers all their future needs.

3. Nobody said the first session had to start at the beginning of the story. In fact, the players will be more intrigued and involved if you don't make them fish around looking for the plot. Start with the first combat: start with "roll initiative." Once the fight is over, explain "the story so far" to the players. (I use this rule more often for superhero systems, but it works for Pathfinder too.)

[KahnyaGnorc]

CinciREborn wrote:

I'm working with the pcs closely in developping their characters and back grounds. I plan to play off all their backgrounds and build the first session around those backgrounds

With that, give them each a personal prologue, so the first session starts with each of them up-to-speed on things.

[Broken Zenith]

In general, you want to start them in the middle of action. Don't count on your players to take the first steps. The first couple of minutes they will usually be timid and listening rather than active. You also absolutely need a reason for them to work together.

In my previous three campaigns, I've had my characters:

1: Get sprung from prison by a rebel group in a case of mistaken identity. They immediately have to get out of the prison and are thrust, indebted, into an organization.

2: Be sent on a crucial mission to an alternate plane, only to be immediately discovered by a group of merchants. They have a clear objective and must immediately make roleplaying choices.

3: Working together as prison labour miners when the tunnel they are in collapses. They must find their way to freedom and then work together to evade capture.

At the start of the campaign, don't be afraid to railroad, and put them on a set task. Once the group is warmed up, feel free to move into more sandbox territory.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Party Origin Toolbox.

In the years since I've done that, I found that if the first thing you do is have the players roll initiative and describe a battle they're in you'll start the campaign off with a bang. For more advanced gaming after the combat you can say: Nowhow did we get here?

Then you can "Rewind" to the players meeting up and taking the adventure hook.

[NerdOfTheYear]

DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

Party Origin Toolbox.

In the years since I've done that, I found that if the first thing you do is have the players roll initiative and describe a battle they're in you'll start the campaign off with a bang. For more advanced gaming after the combat you can say: Nowhow did we get here?

Then you can "Rewind" to the players meeting up and taking the adventure hook.

Yeah, I'm definitely a big fan of the "flash forward" intro. I once played in a campaign where our story started with "Roll Initiative". We all had level one character sheets in front of us, but when we rolled to attack, the GM added extra descriptions of what was going on. Our fighter's sword was glowing with arcane runes, our lvl 1 sorcerer's magic missiles came out as immolating fireballs and so on. But he best bit was the BBEG who seemingly knew us all, and was super intent on killing us.

After about 3 rounds of this powered-up combat, the dm just stopped. And then started the campaign with us actually meeting with the local guard of a small town. Obviously, milage may vary, but we were all hooked.

[Corlindale]

Prison escape is admittedly almost as big a cliché as the tavern thing these days, but it still works pretty well. Unlike the tavern scenario, a common goal is immediately established by the setting and it's not a big stretch that the various characters would naturally want to work together in this scenario.

My most succesful start was actually when I simply told the players that they were all working for the church of Pelor (this was back in the days of 3.5). It made things so much simpler to just have them be part of a common organization from the beginning, but of course it requires that your players are willing to do this.

[Propsken]

An idea I used once - I remember the players liking it quite a bit.

The PC's wake up in a strange room. They remember nothing, but they realize they know each other somehow. There's only one door, and it leads to an armory. After gearing up, they leave the room by the only exit to find a cave, with some Goblins waiting to attack them.
After defeating the Goblins, the (again) only exit to the cave brings them to a small mountainside warcamp, full of Orcs - none too happy with the PCs' intrusion.
The pattern keeps repeating itself: only one exit, straight into an encounter, each one different and more difficult than the last. Eventually, the PC's will be overpowered and...
...wake up in the Dreamstate Simulation Laboratory of the Adventurer's Academy. If they got far enough and learned to flee from battles they couldn't win, they passed their final exam and get their "license to adventure"!

[Kwauss]

Now, a mature group that has constructed their characters together is ideal. If not, I like interweaving back stories as you can, but I'm a fan of starting with an encounter that is directly out of one of the characters back stories, but strikes a common chord with some others. Perhaps on of the PCs committed a crime prior to starting their career, and is wanted. A bounty hunter could stumble upon them that one of the other PCs knows to be very unscrupulous and violent, so sympathizes with the wanted PC and will help.

I think the 'roll initiative' and flashback approach is very intriguing, but I wouldn't use it successively on the same or a common group of players.