How do I begin a campaign avoiding tavern memes and associates?
>>43819234
Try starting the game with the party meeting at an Inn
use the naked dungeon meme
>your characters find themselves chained to the walls of a damp,and dark dungeon cell.
erase your inventory.
I don't get the backlash against the tavern opening. The tavern, inn, coaching house, or what have you is THE perfect place for strange to meet. Everyone needs to eat/sleep, and if all of the PCs are strangers to each other the tavern/inn is a place where social interaction can be lubricates or forced. Moreover.it's where you would logically be before setting out on or finishing a journey. So what is the fucking problem, its too mainstream for hipsters?
>>43819234
They're meeting at an will-reading for some eclectic wealthy dude, everyone for some odd reason or other.The eclectic wealthy dude blew all his cash on a life-sized golden statue of himself, whoever finds it gets the gold.Except he's a lying little shit.
He basically handed it to his son before the challenge was stated to you, with legalese bullshit allowing him to do this and basically string along a bunch of strangers for shits and giggles.
His son, though righteous, isn't allowed to tell you because he would lose the money if he did and it would be used to purchase roasted chestnuts in bulk.
He picked you guys out of a hat.
One time I DM'd a game and began it with the players in a forest. They immediately set out for a tavern so that they could, and I quote "Start this campaign out right."
Everything was fine after that, but they were adamant on drinking imaginary alcohol before the mission.
>>43819234
Begin with everyone getting aboard the Titanic.
>>43819395
>Begin with everyone on a floating tavern that is also an iron-clad railroad.
>>43819338
This.
I recently started a game with a bar opening. Worked juuust fine and players didn't see or feel anything negative about it. One of the players was waiting for the rest of the party as he needed their services.
>>43819411
Actually everyone starting on a train that's pulling into station could be neat. They could meet on the landing. Or in the dining car. Yknow. THE TAVERN
Plop them in a dungeon where they have to work together to get out. They were left for dead by a group of bandits(or associates of the bbeg). They can learn some of their strengths, and what their life was before they got tangled in with other folks
>>43819234
"You've managed to barricade the entrance, but you can still hear the mushroom-addled orcs on the other side of the door. You're on the third floor, so you could survive the jump out the window, but it would be a Very risky move if you land ANYWHERE but the moat and even that's just Half the falling damage which is more damage dice than you have levels. You have your starting equipment but you know damn well that the thieving son of a bitch you met out front has your wallets, the reward you came here for in the first place and you'll be damned if he gets away with it."
This is your opening sentence sans any other explanation. How's the party met up there? Where are they? Why are the orcs loud and causing trouble such that they needed to barricade the door? That's entirely up to you to decide and lay out clues, details and little bits of information via context of the scenario so that they can discover it all in media res.
Things like how the halls are full of tapestries of famed orc warriors, leaders and heroes to show that the place isn't under attack by outsiders; this is Orc territory. The thief's probably a former tag-along or hireling that revealed themselves to be a dick-ass thief rather than a would-be-dashing-rogue. If your party has a healer, alchemist, cleric, etc that can help the orcs overcome their sudden mushroom-induced frenzy, you'll be able to have those NPC's help the party cure the rest and then see about tracking down the bastard who's got your stuff.
Better still if the party members have something personally valuable; guild charter, adventuring license, child-hood teddy bear, spell-book, etc. This is the villain who'll be haunting their nightmares, their pasts, and their bank accounts later in the game if he can manage to survive it the first time around.
>>43819234
You all are entering the city
You all are at the docks
You all have just survived a battle
You all are at the quest board
You all have just risen from the grave roll a d10 to determine how decayed you are after that roll a d20 to determine how many villagers are around and how many shit themselves and run
You all wake up in a field
You all wake up in the brothels alley, erase your money and valuables
For one person, to start shit with them. You suddenly wake frome a vogue state up balls deep in (insert most powerful kingdom)'s princess, guards are knocking saying they heard noises, you remember nothing and are naked, what do you do.
>>43819477
You all see a crowd gathered near a tavern, upon approaching you see a dangling halfling with his balls trapped in the window shutter, this making him unable to reach the ground. What do you do.
>>43819490
Shoot first, think later.
"I climb the walls, sever his balls and he falls to the ground.
>>43819497
Congrats you have just castrated his lordship fizzlebottom the third, the kings beloved half cousin, and publicly I might add. Someone screams for the guards as the halfling sits in shock at his bleeding gooch. What do you do.
>>43819534
I roll to hide in his anus.
>>43819561
The crowd starts screaming in shock and terror as you start to force yourself up the ass of Lord fizzlebottom, stretching his sphincter wider and wider until he starts to split apart at the middle, his screams drown out the sound of his pelvis cracking and his ribs seperating at the breastbone, as soon as you attempt to fit your shoulders in he explodes like a bad alchemical experiment, the crowd starts running and vomiting, the guards who were nearby arrive at the scene and start retching, one old lady dies of a heart attack in the street. The guards start screaming monster and run away, you are now alone outside the tavern covered in the late Lord fizzlebottom, what are your next actions.
>>43819614
I roll to seduce the corpse.
>>43819629
Lord fizzlebottoms severed penis lying some 3 feet away suddenly becomes rock hard so quickly it jumps 6 inches skyward or twice it's length upwards, And rolls towards you. Determine your next actions.
>>43819614
>>43819629
After that failed attempt I enter the tavern and go collect the said balls from the window upstairs.
>>43819629
I roll against dc 10 to give him a +2 on the seduction. Think of it as me handing him flowers and chocolate from offscreen.
>>43819234
One of my favorite ways to begin an adventure is to have them all be slaves. In my setting, there is a large empire of dwarf slavers. The campaign begins when the party is in transport to a near-surface slave auction. Despite never having known one another, they must now escape and forge their destiny. Other benefits to this is that it starts the campaign off with some excitement and the PCs can really be anything they want since they know have a good excuse to be from all over the land.
>>43819649
Upon entering the tavern covered in viscera the patrons staring fearfully at the door scream and rush to their feet towards the back entrance, clogging it. You find the deflated scrotum and the two testes lying under the window. The barmaid fainted and the inkeep suddenly vanished as you looked away, what's your move.
>>43819653
The severed penis grows another half an inch.
>>43819683
Unsheathe katana
>>43819338
Think about. You've just finished character creation. One character is a tiefling who draws fearsome power from a faustian pact with a archfiend, one's a sorceror with the blood of a dragon in his veins who delves into ancient and forbidden lore, one's a ranger who can shoot the wings off a gnat at a hundred paces and seeks to avenge his family who were slain by bugbears.
Aaaaaand then the campaign starts, and you're all in a fucking tavern, and you get a half-hour of
>I sit in a dark corner of the tavern and nurse my drink
>I also sit in a dark corner of the tavern and nurse my drink
>I too sit in a dark corner of the tavern and nurse my drink
>I... Uh... Seduce the barmaid?
You're kneecapping the narrative before it even begins.
>>43819477
THIS. Figure out what the first *interesting* moment of your campaign is, the first crisis or decision that needs to be made, and start playing there.
>>43819691
The barmaids unconscious body begins to slide away as you unsheathe your 300$ katana you bought at the mall knife shop. As soon as the blade leaves its sheath a trench coat appears on your shoulders and a fedora floats slowly down to your head, roll a will check to avoid tipping it and declaring your love for m'lady pony at the hitch post out the window.
>>43819534
>>43819561
>>43819614
>>43819629
>>43819648
>>43819653
>>43819683
>>43819690
>>43819719
>mfw
You're part of a mercenary army deep in enemy territory. Suddenly, the guy who hired you is dead and your whole reason for being there is gone. One thousand miles from safety. One thousand miles from the sea. One thousand miles with enemies on all sides. Are you a bad enough party to get out alive?
>>43819234
No one ever minds the tavern. One time, I had the players all start out as prisoners and they all bitched that I was "copying skyrim". They weren't about to be executed, no big monster attacked. They were literally just prisoners and they escaped. And they weren't like "this is an elder scrolls meme where we're always prisoners", no, it was just TOO much like skyrim for their immersion. This was 2 months ago btw, not even just after it had come out.
tfw you have to play with normies.
>>43819732
You are, the expendables.
>>43819719
I use my daily at will, tipping my fedora and negating your will save by flipping my trap card.
I summon my noodle companion, having stowed him in my coat pockets as m'lady doesth protest to smug marks on my good sweat pants.
We set off, for the brothel and high adventure.
Rolled 47 (1d100)
>>43819719
>>43819234
I don't, I try to get creative with it.
Better question: How do you get your party to hang out together?
>>43819732
I've always wanted to play a game where the PCs are deserters trying to make their way back home from a bloody and pointless war. They'd be dealing with sacked and loot villages, paranoid peasants, wild magic, vengeful former comrades-in-arms...I guess it's basically fantasy Going After Cacciato
>>43819743
>>43819745
Your daily only adds a +15 to your roll, with a roll of 47+15=62 you pass the save but barely your hand reaches up and touches the brim of your fedora. As noodle spills out of your pockets onto the floor you remember hearing about the best brothels being in the kingdom of hamsterdyke, and so you set off towards it. Your journey will take 2 months on foot.
>>43819749
>How do you get your party to hang out together?
Honestly, I prefer to figure this out during character creation. Otherwise you end up with twenty minutes of hemming and hawwing over who's going to pay who to accompany them where. Plus, you can establish a little bit of history between the chars to help kick of roleplaying.
>>43819782
>teleports behind brothel
>slices door in two
Ladieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssss
>>43819796
The townspeople had smelt your coming for nigh 19 days now, as the door falls open you see cheese bread and pillows with badly painted tits on them awaiting you. With bottles both empty and those filled with watered down absinthe.
>>43819783
Uhuh and what about after character creation?
What about characters dropping into parties?
>>43819811
I swagger in, taking my thrown on the comfiest vinyl beanbag chair they have, call my mother to get over here and set myself up as these primitives god.
>>43819827
Your mother calls back that you don't have enough of your GBP and she'll give you more if thou wouldst but find employ.
>>43819817
Same deal, basically. Chat OOC around the table and figure out how to slot the new guy in. You can roleplay some/most of it out once you have the basic idea down. It's just to avoid those situations where the new PC has absolutely no reason to be a part of the original party's quest.
>>43819827
throne not thrown
Fuck, its 4:30am, night you bastards/
>>43819834
I roll to blame the economy
Rolled 34, 76 = 110 (2d100)
>>43819838
>>43819838
You succeed in your roll but your mother is relentless the roll to convince your is a dc99 on a d100. Yet you find solace in posting notes at an anonymous messeage board in a dark shady alley.
>>43819692
>what is introducing an npc that brings urgency and begins the plot
>what is having an organised meet at an inn for the purpose of beginning a job
Furthermore,
>I sit in a dark corner of the tavern and nurse my drink
>I also sit in a dark corner of the tavern and nurse my drink
>I too sit in a dark corner of the tavern and nurse my drink
Your PCs are fucking edgelords, they can go fuck themselves if they're too busy angsting to begin a plot.
>>43819749
I try to find a way during character creation. Other than that, the fist mission is usually consensual and supposed to create bonds of don't-split-that-party-up.
>>43819857
>what is introducing an npc that brings urgency and begins the plot
>what is having an organised meet at an inn for the purpose of beginning a job
Both excellent options. No disagreement there.
>Your PCs are fucking edgelords, they can go fuck themselves if they're too busy angsting to begin a plot.
It's not even about them being edgelords, it's about starting them off with a scene they can sink their teeth into. Honestly, it's not even the tavern that's the problem, it's the lack of a precipitating event:
>you're all hanging out in a tavern
vs.
>you're all hanging out in a tavern when a dying man stumbles through the door and presses a blood-stained map into your hands with an imploring look in his eyes
The second situation immediately suggests options: try to stop the bleeding, quietly pocket the map, ask him what happened... The first situation just gets you
>Uh... I order a... Beer or something?
>>43819913
The meme 'You all start out in a tavern' is shorthand for any scenario that happens in a tavern. I don't think anyone suggested an eventless tavern opening.
>>43819344
>it would be used to purchase roasted chestnuts in bulk.
sounds like a reasonable goal to fight for
>>43819296
I like it
elder scrolls opening
>>43819338
plus its pretty much the safest place in town for meeting new people
>>43819737
to much like skyrim doesent even make any sense I never played morowind so I don't know how that starts but a prision is more arena and oblivion.
>>43819835
indeed some things just have to be worked out ooc
>>43819857
I started a campaign with the seven party members all at different corners of a tavern nursing their drinks, until suddenly the spell keeping three of them on the ceiling gives out, a wizard laughing as he flees the scene with the last keg of ale.
>you wake up to the sound of alarms, high-caliber minigun fire and nu-trance
>you are lying on a dirty mattress on the floor, one naked girl in your arms
>you got a massive headache
>you don't remember shit
>the concrete walls around you are covered with graffiti :
Welcome to Milano
>>43820250
oh fuck my sides
>>43819234
Orbital drop pod into a warzone. None of the PCs remember being in the military. GO.
Gotta say that as I grow older I increasingly embrace cliches on purpose. Playing them totally straight is a great deal of fun.
Im not a fan of the pcs cant remember shit starts.
if its just waking up after a night of heavy drinking or something sure but I don't like anything more then that
>>43819234
I usually start my games by having the players take turns telling a short story about the party's first meeting and short adventure. Each player introduces their character and then we begin around the table stating 2-3 sentences about the meeting/adventure/hijinks that brought them together. Players like it, instantly memorable, and it gets everyone involved quickly. Usually takes 10-25 minutes. I had one group of 9 players take an hour making a long and very awesome story that remains memorable to the whole group today. So, try that out.
>>43820323
Why is the catgirl spreading her asscheeks?I already know why.
>>43819234
I like to have the premise of the campaign or at least the first part of it agreed upon before the character creation even, so where to start has never been an issue.
When there is clear agreed upon goal, there also, usually, is obvious starting point.
Characters are in for an journey, start in the first days, or from preparations, if you feel that is important.
Characters are about exploring a new place, start by arriving there.
Characters are all about protecting something important to them, start with the first sign of trouble arriving at where players/the things they want to protect are.
>>43819234
"You don't remember exactly how you died. Of course, that doesn't really matter at this point, does it?"
One of my personal favorite starts (besides >>43820250) was the concept of "You all meet by crashing the party of a cult summoning at the same time, how do you arrive?"
Now, it sounds like something silly, but the thing that made this memorable was just how the players arrived.
The paladin and the cleric were sent there in holy quests.
The rogue snuck in, pretending to be one of the cultists
The ranger had been stalking them for days, trying to find out what was going on.
The wizard, on the other hand, was the thing the cult accidentally summoned because a bunch of retards showed up and interrupted the rite.
Normally this wouldn't be a big deal for the wizard, but they had caught him in the middle of a bath, and his lair was completely eradicated in the summoning, so he arrived completely naked outside of his pointy hat.
>>43819234
Stop running stupid campaigns where you have to figure out why 5 people who never would associate are going to magically hang out for ages.
Try to have everyone be from the same village or be related or be co-workers or whatever once in a while.
>>43820454
Wait.
Why was the wizard wearing his hat while he bathed?
>>43820517
all wizards bath in wizard hats anon.
>>43820527
Fair.
I'll admit, it was a stupid question.
Tfw you start a thread then you forget about it and after a couple hours you see it on the first page and it's full of high resolution 320 kbps memes
>>43820471
They are two groups of 2 and a single dwarf meeting up
>>43820517
Honestly, that was the player's decision.
This is the same player who dispelled the floating tables from my last story.
Finally, one of my all time favorite entrances had to be the one where two of the party members "Old Spice'd it" and arrived in some truly insane ways, with the barbarian crawling up through the floor screaming, and the ranger appeared out of thin air (the player just said he appeared out of thin air.)
Said appearances lead to a great deal of adventures, especially for the ranger who still has no idea how the fuck he got there, either in or out of character.I plan full well on making him out to be someone born with the gift of planar travel, his first trip being brought on by pure enough stress that he blocked it from his mind.
Last one-shot I ran, the players got a summation of a 3-year Goblin war, localised raids by remnants of said war, a scene stolen from 13th Warrior (little kid runs into town naked and screaming about "monsters"), and finallyhanded the reins after their characters were described as already on the road to investigate said "monsters."
Exposition-choo-choo. Worked.
>it's the thirty-eighth day that you finally notice something wrong.
>The mechanical movements of the shady figure in the corner as his hand drags fhe empty mug to his dessicated lips.
>the barman repeating the jolly joke over and over, flickering as he finishes laughing at his own humor only to begin again
>the way your body feels emaciated, as though you haven't moved in weeks
>as you pull the IV drips off yourself and stagger out of the tavern into the harsh, artificial light the drugs start to wear off.
>"Oh, good," the wizard says over the intercom. "The control group is ready."
>>43820712
indeed sometimes you just need to start with a little railroad
>>43820250
>>43819656
I like it, its neat
>>43819234
>avoiding memes
I don't understand.
>>43821268
Doing something ironically so much it becomes unironic, defeating the point.
>>43819234
Once i, when i was a player, had a campaign start with a circle-chase with each party member chasing one another for a reason of another.
Me, the wizard, was chasing the party rogue because he stole a book from me.
The rogue was chasing the party fighter because the fighter had captured one of the rogue's friends and wanted revenge and information.
The party fighter, a bounty hunter, was chasing the party barbarian because there was a bounty on her head.
The barbarian was chasing the party druid because the druid had healed her from near death out of mercy after finding the barbarian, humiliating her in the eyes of her gods.
And the druid was chasing me because i had tainted a meadow with magic, turning it into a field of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
>>43821404
all while Yakety Sax plays in the background
>>43821426
It started with yakety sax but then turned into a Scooby Doo door scene when a lich decided to fuck around with us.
>>43819234
>>43819338
You don't. The whole point of the tavern meet is that you're starting with a familiar trope that everyone recognizes. You start them in the familiar to ground the campaign, give the players a sense of familiarity so you can gradually introduce what's novel about your setting, and provide rhetorical contrast to the (hopefully) epic amazing adventure to come. It also is 'neutral ground' where characters of wildly different backgrounds can plausibly come together.
LotR starts in a quaint little farming village. Star Wars starts on a shitty little farm in the middle of nowhere. Schindler's List starts in a friday night family shabbat dinner. Band of Brothers starts in a boot camp in rural Georgia. The Matrix starts in a crappy apartment with a splitting headache. Die Hard starts on a boring airplane flight.
It's a bridge between the mundane and relateable on one hand, and the fantastically epic on the other.
I'm embarrassed to say that in 20 years of GMing, I've never ACTUALLY started a campaign in a tavern. But I strongly approve of use of the trope, precisely BECAUSE it's a cliche. It gives you somewhere to go up from.
>>43821445
Fucking liches man, always ruin the fun.
>>43819234
>How do I begin a campaign avoiding tavern memes and associates?
Talk to your playersthey exist rightand ask them how they'd like to start the game
>>43819234
I always give the players a general hook, when making characters. "You're all chasing after this guy. You're all from this tribe where this thing happened, you're all looking for this treasure", and use that for the groundwork.
>>43820790
Underrated post of this decade
I've used "washed up to shore after a shipwreck" and "classroom of a magic academy" to great effect before.
For my next campaign, I'm just going for "You all live in <Small Town>, tell me something about it and what you'd be doing in the middle of the day. Suddenly a mob of kobolds attack! You all happen to rush to defend the same thing, what is it?"
>>43819234
>How do I begin a campaign avoiding tavern memes and associates?
You have the party meet in the backstory.
I've taken the habit of making a group creation session, and things like "how did the party get together" and "why did they stick together" have to be discussed before getting to the character sheets.
Alternately, you have some sort of outside force (a mentor or an employer) form the team.
>>43819440
>wake up an smell the ashes
>>43819234
Alcohol is banned and so are all establishments that serve or COULD serve it. The ban and restructuring is enforced by a god. Drinking alcohol or talking about it means your are struck dead instantly. all destroyed taverns are replaced with juice bars who are monitored 24/7 by police and are designed to be perfectly round so there's no corners for criminals to skulk in while also ensuring their are always within eyesight by no less than 3 officers and/or the bartender who also happens to work for the police. Can your party gather power and forces to attempt an overthrow of the Prohibition God and restore the oldways or will the Health Craze turn every race into a weak effeminate version of themselves forever?
>>43822911
> what is Utah
>>43819234
Look for some commonality between all the PCs personalities or goals, or tell them before character creation to think of why their PC would be at X or want to do X.
I had one where 2 PCs were in a military unit dispatched to a village to find a monster. One was a wizard hobo who happened to be in the village. The last PC was the "monster" hiding out after being attacked by wolves. Chaos and party forming ensued.
>>43819234
Have the players start by each of them as part of a larger band of NPCs, all carrying pails of water and fire-hooks to pull down thatching to put out the fire that's burning the local tavern down.
>>43819234
>Whore House
>City Gate waiting to get in
>Magic Shop
>Church to get local sickness removed
>Bandit Toll Booth
>Courtyard Play or Street Magician PC get picked to help
>Crazy Mage runs through crowd Magic Branding PCs (no meaning he just testing out his first spell)
>Burning alter to sacrifce cattle to rain god (PCs always go tosmoke in distance)
>Soup Kitchen (free food)
>Kid shouting partys names (he is clairvoyant or someone he knows is)
>each are in town seeking employment frim the lord (waiting room)
>Guy is tossing out money/gold from a rooftop (its cursed or has a plage)
>>43819234
Have the players all meet while chained up in a dungeon.
>>43823246
>Soup Kitchen (free food)
so that's where murderhobos come from
"Alright, everyone ready? Here we go."
"The tower explodes, debris flying everywhere as the shockwave sends you stumbling. A chunk of debris smashes straight through the left propeller, sending your airship careening wildly to the side as it plummets to the earth. What do you do, answer in five seconds or your character does nothing."
>>43819234
the characters in the group already know each other. they're friends. they go to the bar every weekend to meet up and shoot the shit.
they head to the tavern, but it's been closed. shuttered. the innkeeper tells them that the corrupt peasant mayor of fuckshit kingdom has tried to strongarm the tavern into paying a "protection fee" and he asks if the group can do something about it. babby's first plothook, first quest, and a reason for them to actually quest together all in one.
there, i solved it, because i am the coolest
>>43819497
>>43819534
>>43819561
dying oh fuck dying
>Playing an elven barbarian, wenching, singing, and fightan' round the world.
>Ho's in area codes.
>Oh god wait they're pregnant, skip town.
Buddy is playing a human rogue.
>Private investigator, specializes in locating people
>Process server when investigations are scarce
>Serve summons to some elven barbarian for child support
Rogue eventually catches up with barbarian in a port on the other side of the world
>Fafnir the Barbarian?
>Yes?
>You've been served.
>RAGE
Enter last member of our party, human paladin
>Break it up, break it up
>You're both under arrest
>Bringing you both back to your original city to face justice
On the ship back to the homeland
>TO ARMS, PIRATES
>Let the barbarian outta the hold, it looks like he can fight
>Pirates beaten, but ship is on fire
>Shipwrecked
"You guys groggily, faces in the sand. The sun glares fiercely in the tropical heat and in the distance you hear the foreboding beat of tribal drums."
>>43824694
>* "You guys awaken groggily"
Ironically after we subjugated the native orc tribes (the paladin beat their leader in ritual combat) the first thing we did was build a beach side tiki bar as we waited to be rescued.
"As the ship you were traveling aboard slips beneath the softly-lapping waves (extinguishing the raging inferno amidships), you cling to your floating luggage. You notice triangular fins break the sea's surface, homing in on your drifting fellow survivors..."
>>43819692
You're doing it wrong. The tavern opening is never about just sitting in a bar ordering drinks. Shit should be going down, like any good opening.
Seriously, you can make any opening boring if nothing's fucking happening. It's not just taverns.
>>43819338
It gives them no real reason to actually meet together, just because they all happen to be at a tavern.
This is a weakness I see in so many games - players build their characters separately and don't really bring them in until the day of, and definitely don't try to decide if they might already be travelling with another character, and then the GM just has them all vaguely be in the same location and the only reason they might team up is because of OOC reasons - especially if the GM doesn't actually throw anything at them to force them to work together and realize they could make a good team. Character backstories and personalities clash, and some characters will just fuck off and try to find blackjack and hookers before being drawn back in, or just piss off other players.
I like sandboxes as much as the next guy, but I hate when GMs don't throw that aside for just the first session to make sure everyone gets together and learns how to get along, and the tavern is the cornerstone of why they don't do that in so many ways. And on top of that, half the time it's boring - no effort to make an exotic coffeehouse, or a forgien-style teashop, or even a really cozy and cheerful, if generic, tavern with a crackling fire and good mead and plenty of laughter and comfy seats. It's just a tavern, and that's it.
>>43824798
Man, reminds me of the one time we let the autistic kid in our group DM a campaign of his own making.
Cold open; we're all on a ship. Kraken attacks.
DM proceeds to literally give no description of what's happening. No description of what sort of effect our attacks are doing, or the general situation of the ship. For fifteen minutes it's just round after round of attacks, completely mechanical. We eventually abandon attempts at roleplay and just try to roll our way out of the situation.
Eventually OOC the players get exasperated and ask the DM how much health this kraken has.
"Oh you guys aren't supposed to kill him, he has a hundred thousand health."
>mfw
>>43819234
>you are slaves being transported to a backwater city
>your slave-master sets up his stall and starts addressing the market to sell his slaves
>later in the afternoon when the traffic slows a small gecko familiar fly's down to a small slave-child bindings and frees him
>the slave was about to sneak off to the sewers but on second though unbinds the party
>he lifts on of the sleeping slave guards weapons
>follow the familiar into the sewers to escape the city and to find freedom.
This is my intro into my next campaign. I have The pilot episode set up.
Advice /Tg??
>>43820323
Dem muscular wings.
>>43824869
This is why you have a pre-session session that perhaps leads into a semi session or end the final session with chatting about character creation. It ALWAYS goes better when the players can talk about their idea's with each other and soundboard shit so it all inevitably meshes.
>>43820323
that's actually not a bad idea.
>>43819234
I like to ask around and have one of the players act as a patron for the others, promising ample reward for dangerous work. If they accept I usually bump their starting money up so that they can afford to pay even if it goes badly.
>>43824937
Give your party a chance to escape on their own if they want to. Stronk barbarian might break their rusty chains, a dexterous rogue might dislocate their thumb/s and pick the other locks or just have everybody mass tackle their keeper and steal the keys, all depending how the slaves are bound of course.
>>43824869
What the hell is going on in that video? Is that a bottomless pot of coffee?
>>43824937
What >>43825050 said. Even if it means they end up naked and have to scavenge their own equipment and weapons, it'll be more fun for the characters if they get to do it and build themselves up. I had a game like that, and afterwards I joked that no matter how weird things got, we'd already all seen each other naked.
Is the slave and his familiar going to end up important, or was it just happenstance? You can still include him escaping, but maybe as a parallel escape so that you don't take away focus from the party.
>>43824975
As a forever GM every single new game I start, whether IRL or online, I specifically tell any potential players right out of the gate to not even think of character ideas until the pre-session. I don't give them any info on how characters will be generated beyond the system.
And yet, without variation, all but one or two sho up with a sheet and fully developed backstory, usually heavy with Mary sue/snowflake elements, and always with egregious cheese or ignorance of the rules.
Fuck players, man, I'm trying to tell a story.
>>43825108
I don't agree with that last bit, though the rest is pretty sound. Forever DM or not, it should be your players' story as much as yours. Otherwise you might as well write a book.
>>43819477
>You suddenly wake frome a vogue state up balls deep in (insert most powerful kingdom)'s princess, guards are knocking saying they heard noises, you remember nothing and are naked, what do you do.
But my character's a grill. No one cares if the prince sticks his dick in some commoner.
>>43820187
I never really liked erase your inventory because in some games it puts certain classes at a severe disadvantage. An alchemist without supplies is just a guy, a wizard just an old man, a magus just someone marginally better at swinging a sword.
Hell, a fighter without proper armor is at a severe disadvantage.
>>43820225
Morrowind starts you out as a prisoner on a ship, hauled out of the dungeons of the Imperial capitol. Pretty much every Elder Scrolls starts off the PC as an anonymous prisoner. I like it.
>>43827044
have them in the Governor's Office, they have to use their wits and work together as a team to escape
and/or you can hide things in the descriptions of areas for them to notice to give them suitable (if very low quality) class equipment for the start, eg:
a still hidden in one of cells and various moulds and weeds for the alchemist
the spellbook pages of one or two of the wizards spells carved into a wall
the means to make shivs, clubs and slings in them as well
a bonus would be putting stuff in the cells of PCs that can't use them and only describe things as their class would see it
eg; the martials just see the spellbook wall as insane scrawlings
>>43827055
only Daggerfall of the main games has you not a prisoner at the start
>>43819234
The party meets while tunnelling out of jail and all their tunnels accidentally intersect.
>>43825090
Hot sand, apply turkish coffee pot to sand, coffee heats up and boils over, pour.
>>43827194
10/10
>>43827220
If its indian coffee isn't it a brewed filter in the middle and milk underneath and they boil it through the filter?
>>43819234
>You all meet at the tavernkeeper's funeral
>>43827346
Would it be inappropriate to pour a drink on his grave?
>>43827379
nigga, you sirius?
>>43824915
>>43827191
>aunt got me Daggerfall for christmas one year when I was a little guy
>tried playing it many times, was hard as fuck, never played it for too long, but loved the shit out of it
>a few years later
>see review on Toonami for Morrowind on Xbox
>game looks fucking tits
>go get game
>have a fucking blast for hundreds of hours
>get a bunch of my buddies hooked into Morrowind
>rinse and repeat for Oblivion and Skyrim
>only find out a few years ago that that hard as fuck computer game I played a long time ago was actually the precursor to Morrowind
>time is a flat circle
>mfw
>>43827490
You have a girl's face. Ha!
>>43822911
fuck off achmed
>>43827692
My face is both of theirs
>>43819477
You ALL wake up naked in bed with the princess. The sheets are sticky, your gear is missing, and someone's pounding on the door.
Roll for initiative.
>>43830447
The level of want for that scenario is dependant on party composition.
Also it could be funnier with different members of royalty and different party compositions.
>>43830447
>tfw I rolled a princeDad taught us to share
>>43819395
Roll up some OD&D characters
The adventure starts in a single, cramped room aboard the Titanic. On the wall of the room a prophecy is scratched, it is the exact time and nature of the ship's demise.
That character's have their equipment and backstories still intact. The world they now occupy is still linked to the one they call home.
1d10 Encounters:
1- Pickpockets: Scoundrels seeking to take advantage of others.
2- The Butler: A low level servant who constantly shirks his duties. He may appear anywhere on the ship and has a 3/8 chance of having a useful piece of information which he will share for a price. He has done horrible, amazing things. Lvl 2 Fighter
3- 2d8 Brigands: A band of unruly louts. They may be a mad throng of dregs from the lower levels of the ship, staff who have turned to anarchism, drunken German imperialists looking for a fight or pirates. +6 on 2d6 reactions, never more than 1HD
4- A party member's lover in the arms of another man: The bastard!
5- 2d4 Gentleladies: They will giggle conspiratorially. If approached they willingly involve the party in a scandalous plot. When they provide the players with rumours roll a d% this is how true the information is. One of the women is a gigantic Dutch widow who has a 2/6 to fall madly in love with a random party member
6- Lady Lucifer
7- An Escaped Beast from the Lower Levels: 3-5HD, Nightvision, 1/8 of being intelligent. Roll d4: 1.Polar Bear 2.Tiger 3.Angry Irishman 4.Shaved Gorilla
8- 1d4 Artists: Unpredictable bohemians, servants of dark thinkers. Detect as chaotic. When allowed to perform there is a 2/6 that a random cleric or M-U spell will be cast that is useful to their cause. Roll reaction. 1-3 HD
9- Entrepenurs hocking goods: 40% chance of junk 10% treasure 50% of dangerous
0- Ruben Folberg: A suspiciously old man with keen eyes and tight lips. He likes Marx and lounge music. 7HD Outsider
>>43830447
I spend a Fate Point, the sheets are sticky with blood.
>>43832620
>7- An Escaped Beast from the Lower Levels: 3-5HD, Nightvision, 1/8 of being intelligent. Roll d4: 1.Polar Bear 2.Tiger 3.Angry Irishman 4.Shaved Gorilla
>1/8 of being intelligent.
>3.Angry Irishman
As an Irish-American, I kek'd.
>>43819234
Have the players develop well thought out characters with semi detailed pasts. Start them in the middle of a forest clearing, on the ground. They have no memories of who they were as they get up. After a few moments of conversation they are attacked by a lion or two.
>>43833210
fellowman. How many potatoes does an irish man have to eat before it will kill him?
None.
>>43819464
In media res is good. Another take on it is "So, person 1, you've just been thrown through a window. Person 2, what kind of window was it?" And wing it, until you've got a team.
Alternatively, do all the character generation together on the first game night, and ask questions like "Oh, wow, so you've got a past as a pirate? Cool, Person 2, tell m about that time you were saved by a pirate..."
>>43819692
All bars in my setting are round buildings specifically because there's no corners that way.
>>43825101
The slave is the adopted son of an minor aristocrat. The idea is the aristocrat is glad to get her son back so she helps the party escape the slaver's bounty hunters.
She writes them a reference to a military academy so they can be granted a scholarship (The sewer level is going to be difficult, if they make it they deserve a reference) and immunity from slavery if the are accepted into the Academy.
Does that sound cliche?
Gonna admit that three party members met at a strip club while telling stories about how they ran into supernatural beings.
Then they met the fourth party member in the woods while dealing with some summoned kobolds.
Last session they met the fifth party member by rescuing him from a cult in Newark, New Jersey intent on sacrificing him to Beelzebub.
>>43821404
>And the druid was chasing me because i had tainted a meadow with magic, turning it into a field of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
>>43819234
>and associates
That's just a little bit broad. When you've been around long enough you see it all, and you stop fearing "unoriginal" ideas and start fearing lazy implementation.
I mean really, it's all a variation on a set number of themes: taken prisoner (gaol, dungeon, bandit camp, dragon's lair, etc.), attending a publicly planned event (coronation, annual festival, ship christening, funeral, ritual sacrifice), participating in or bystanders at a secretly planned event (assassination, sabotage, theft, surprise party, pirate announces they're dividing spoils then and there, etc.), bystanders in a completely unplanned event (man falls dead from poison with a heavy item in a satchel on his back, the barn they were sleeping in bursts into flames, merchants of different allegiances quarrel at a crossroads making it impassible, etc.), second act intro (cut straight to the action and fill in backstory later as a consequence of play)... it goes on, really.
Here's what you have to decide:
- what reasons do they have for interacting with events?
- what reasons do they have for interacting with each other?
- why are they in the same place to begin with?
- how well do they know each other to start?
- what are their reasons for traveling together long enough for a party to form?
- how well aligned are their motives?
- how much free reign will you to decide the above on their own will you give them at first, how will you know when they deserve more, and how will you know when you need to step in "help" make the decision so it doesn't interfere negatively with play?
Does that help at all, or am I just being a pompous ass?
I'm fond of the caravan or expedition myself, as it gives a bit more direction than a tavern does.
>>43819234
Have them all be imprisoned at the same place at the same time but for different reasons. Start the campaign off with an exciting jailbreak, or make them a Suicide Squad style group doing work for the government of the place that's got them captured.
>>43819234
Have them have a reason to be a party from the kick off
Such as:
>the fighter's the oldest son of the Earl of Nob's Hollow on his first outing since earning his spurs
>the rogue's his varlet, who's supposed to be concentrating on his physical well-being in the social side with a side order of backstabbing
>the cleric's one of the Earl's castle priesthood, who's supposed to be concentrating on the young knight's actual well-being
>the mage's the apprentice of the Earl's court wizard, out to prove his worth to earn his black belt of junior wizardry.
Change specifics as you wish. The bard? He's there to chronicle the (mis)adventures of the Earl's youngest son. The ranger? One of the Earl's verderers to provide wilderness-survival assistance, etc.
That way, they all have reason to be together, have a reason to actually care about each other since they've probably known each other for a long time, due to living in the same castle, and a knight errant's supposed to be out looking for damosels to incite adventure anyway.
One of the most fun campaigns I've ever played was two fighters (2E AD&D, so lance spec for both), a bard and a cleric, who did the actual mediaeval-style tournament circuit, getting into adventures whilst traveling to/from/at one.
>>43837060
>the caravan
This is one of my favourites as well. The AD&D Horde box even has a caravan generator for people wanting to travel between Shou Lung and the west, with Not-Mongol Land in between.
>>43827722
go back to tumblr
>>43821545
Star Wars starts on a big spaceship being chased and boarded by a much bigger spaceship. The farm comes a bit later.
>>43824937
slavery - the athasian equivalent of meeting in a tavern.
Once started a campaign where what we did was all meet up at the same town for entirely unrelated reasons.
>It's coming on nightfall.
>Barbarian is a local blacksmith.
>Paladin is passing through on a search for clues to clear his name.
>Bard is in the tavern, doing bard things.
>Ranger is passing through on a personal quest and stops at the tavern.
>Wizard arrives in a caravan from which he sells his alchemical goods and parks it right in the middle of the main street of the town.
Then a vampire showed up being ominous and dropped a wolf pack on the town, which we solved in your typical adventurer fashion. We started adventuring together from that point, using the wizard's caravan as our travel vehicle.
Eventually, we ran into a devil posing as a traveling smith (he was dealing cursed weapons) and after defeating him added his caravan to our train. The DM actually didn't expect us to do this.
Make them play monster characters.
