>you all start out at the tavern
>Okay fine. How the hell would you have everyone come together then John?
>Mr fighter over there is ghinish, who come from an entirely different continent.cThe wizard's background states hems studying magic and "staying away from earthly indulgences". The Druid hates cities. The cleric and the rogue are the only ones who's actually be in the city and the cleric wouldn't be in a tavern in the first place.
>Now shut up and let's play.
>>44114402
>Posting a one line greentext along with a reaction image with no backing for your opinion whatsoever
Please explain why your statement is right.
>your thread starts with a single line of greentext
>>44114402
Nah, fuck you OP; I tried the "your characters all happen to meet by chance and form a ragtag alliance" alliance approach, going so far as to have one on one sessions with each individual player to set the stage for why they were where they were in the context of their character's overarching motivations, and while it may work for some, there's almost always That Guy who insist on being chaotic stupid and refusing to take the hint that you just want him to play nice with the other PCs and deliberately goes out of his way to make you have to railroad him and the rest of the party together.
Best approach I've had experience with thus far is the "your characters are all approached by mysterious person of interest A with the promise of 'doing this job will help your char. find what it is exactly they are looking for" and having them meet up for the 'job.'
Puts 'em all in the same place with a weak common connection that still allows for character RP freedom.
So I have a question for you guys.
I have a tavern in my setting with a steel grate for a floor built over a deep pit holding a huge monstrous crab.
There's a bunch of treasures left at the bottom of the pit from all the drunken warriors that tried to fight the monstrous crab and died.
Some of the tavern patrons amuse themselves with a "Game of Claws" where they try to grab treasures with their telekinetic powers or with simple fishing line if they have it.
What game mechanics would you use to resolve the Game of Claws as a mini-game? Doesn't need to be d20 based.
>>44114855
Does everyone have telekinesis in that setting? Also a flat reflex save on the crab and a reflex save on the patrons trying to get the treasure would be appropriate. Make the crab's reflex as high as needed to make it difficult. Be cinematic though.
>>44114964
It's a psionics heavy campaign, and githyanki (with their far hand ability) are relatively common in the area.
I was thinking about handling the challenge by playing blackjack instead of rolling dice, but tweaked so that instead of 21, they are trying to draw cards up to, but not exceeding, their dexterity score.
>>44114578
>>44114600
Can't we just make this a de facto "high quality content" violation?
>>44114402
>>44115211
I agree. These one liner greentext+reaction image threads are just annoying and repetitive.
>>44114402
>just because something is common, that means it's bad
/tg/ take off those horn rimmed glasses, and stop oiling your beard, you're turning into a hipster.
>>44114578
/v/ tier thread
>>44115580
On top of lowering the signal to noise ratio even further.
>>44114402
>implying you wouldn't
Natural clustering point for travelers, between sleeping and meals.
>>44114724
Agreed, players meeting each other at a job is the best way. It's not as forced as just having them meet and randomly decide to team up, and it's harder for a "that guy" to fuck things up because their paycheck is riding on cooperation.
>>44115644
>having a taste and slight ammount of imagination makes you a hipster
No wonder /tg/ is shit.
>Game starts out with team lined up and facing a firing squad>Every mission starts out with team lined up and facing a firing squad
>>44114402
B-but my character is a warforged...he can't drink or eat...
>>44114402
>You all start out as taverns
>>44114402
>you all start detained in a caravan on its way to jail, next to you a person keeps changing faces, races and even gender
>>44115644
It's bad because it's bad. Meeting in a tavern and randomly deciding "oh, that drow covered in skulls and drooling half-orc wielding a ladder over there look trustworthy, I should team up with them" is stupid, and you end up with weird situations like monks that don't drink alcohol and only eat rice gruel are inexplicably inside a bar. There are much better ways to bring a group together, and better yet if they meet with a plot hook to get the first couple games rolling when they don't know each other that well
>your group of strangers all start chained as prisoners in a small village tavern
>hooded stranger approaches you
>>44114402
Ok, ok, ok. I get it. So...
> You all start out at the café...
>>44115784
>And yet again you're facing the firing squad. It's becoming a tradition! How exactly will you escape this time?
>>44114724
Fucking this. It's like herding fucking cats, I did the same thing and made sure they would all end up together and have to work together. Told them all to just go with it and then get along even if it feels a little forced and play nice but no, Mr. Dick and the walk brigade always need to be awkward. And they all have secrets that they keep from each other. Jesus fuck this game.
Next time I'm just starting with "you are all in an adventuring party, work out why"
>>44115826
>making that stupid ass joke
I hate you and every fucking webcomic author who makes that dumbass fucking joke.
>>44114855
Bring out a game IRL that you have designed and built yourself that involves tiny rods in a plastic basin that catches little coins with rings on top to hook. Put a live crab inside.
>>44115914
>You all start out in a coffee house
My most recent campaign opening was essentially
>You all start out in the back of a corpse cart. The cart driver is having a one-sided conversation with the corpse that's been propped up and sitting next to him.
>>44114468
So your GMs defence for everyone starting at the tavern is that half the characters have no reason to be in a tavern?
>>44115818
Aww yeah, I'm game, so long as I get to be the upscale brothel.
>>44115992
worst part was that That Guy was doing it DELIBERATELY.
He knew what he was doing, and didn't give a fuck.
>>44114402
I'm not sure if its applicable but I want to accuse OP of grousing. Is that a thing?
>>44116073
Willingly choosing to play D&D requires disregarding logic.
>You all start out waiting in line at the post office
>>44116111
You don't like his whining, or you're annoyed that he's poaching your grouse?
>>44115955It's to fake their death over and over againIt's Paranoia
>>44116117
>You all start out in the waiting room in the DMV
>>44116143
definitely the former
>You all meet in the Sultan's / Sultana's harem
That was uh... fun, I guess.
>>44115955
I was just hearing the story of a guy that survived being executed by a German firing squad in WW2.
I guess you could start the game in a boat, believe dead and about to be thrown away in the sea with several bullets in your body.
http://www.amazon.fr/The-Empty-Coffin-composer-survived-ebook/dp/B00ZFSWLZY
>>44116059
Beginning of high sea adventures? Fighting pirates? Colonies?
>>44115914
Beginning of a political heavy campaign? or a detective campaign?
>you all start out on a 4chan thread...
>>44117622
I shitpost.
>>44115784
>>44115955
You could make a whole campaign about the party being executed but they keep surviving/escaping
>You all start out as boxed crooks, whether you were guilty of the accused crime or not.
>Do this job right, and they let you go, (allegedly) no catch.
>>44115848
Dude, just because you start in a tavern or an inn doesn't mean you need to do that. It's just a convenient place to get all the characters together for the first time. You've still got a fuck tonne of different ways to get them to leave as a party.
In media res tavern brawl ftw
>>44115790
Could be serving as a guard to a caravan full of people who do.
>>44122883
You would have to mix it up. Hanging, guillotine, stoning, drawn and quartered, drowning chamber, tossed off a cliff, tossed into a volcano, left on an ice floe in the middle of the ocean, etc.
>>44114402
This is always a good sign that the campaign will be complete shit.
>>44124237
I agree. Same with the big fat guy calling himself "Dungeon Master" or there being 20 sided dice anywhere near the table.
>>44114402
It's the place to be when looking for new adventuring companions and mercenary contracts. The local sheriff's office sponsored its building in order to lessen the amount of drunken brawling in the toen pub.
>Not having each player work towards a common goal, like restoring the former heir of a kingdom to power due to w/e bullshit reason
>>44114402
I actually set up a sequence to introduce a new character in a tavern. Character was a duelist chick who liked to start fights by passive aggressively insulting people until thy attacked her. So I set up a drunk to make unpleasant comments about her with the intention of her bonding with the group over a bar brawl.
The group resolved the situation nonviolently.
It's very strange being the DM for a party that actually sees value in the lives of NPCs and tries to pursue nonviolent forms of conflict resolution when realistically possible, I'm used to players starting battles on a whim and shrugging off hundreds of deaths.
>>44114402
>12 hours ago
Why are /tg/'s mods so shitty?
>You all start out at the very end of the campaign fighting the BBEG
>Just as you are about to be destroyed you are sent back in time to find a power great enough to destroy him
>>44126172
Do not reply to Aku posters
Ignore Aku posts
>you all wake up in prison
>you all happen to be in the same caravan/ship/zeppelin/whatever when it sinks/crashes/gets hijacked
>>44126674
>you all happen to be in the same caravan/ship/zeppelin/whatever when it sinks/crashes/gets hijacked
Withno survivors?
>>44126683
Well obviously the party survives...
>>44115580
>>44115211
>>44114600
>>44114578
This happens so often, someone should make a reaction image about it.
>>44126693
they'll be expecting one of them in the wreckage, brother
>>44126702
How much wreckage can a horse-drawn caravan possibly have?
>>44116059
>>44115914
You all meet in a cafe that sells coffee.
>>44126693
Well, they weren't evenon the flight planto begin with
>>44126747
Uhh, you don't get to bring animal companions
In a campaign I hosted, my players made a side quest: buy every tavern/bar in the kingdom
They had 4, one per town, before the campaign was closed for work reasons
>>44114724
>there's almost always That Guy who insist on being chaotic stupid and refusing to take the hint that you just want him to play nice with the other PCs and deliberately goes out of his way to make you have to railroad him and the rest of the party together.
Fucking this.
Tried to throw together a quick game the other day, to pass the time.
>Hand out sheets for a sorcerer and fighter that I've had lying around for ages, not being used.
>Player receiving orc fighter immediately complains of lack combat ability, despite the fact that at level 1, his strength is 22 and he deals 2d6+9 with a greatsword.
>Sorcerer is consummate professional and immediately gets into character.
>"You're in a tavern, yada yada"
>Fighter guy says he wants to roll for penis size, says he should get 4d6 because he's an orc.
>I let him roll 4d4-2 after 10 minutes of him badgering me about it.
>8 inches
>gets all huffy and moans about it being unfair
>I attempt to move the game onward
>Waitress asks him if he wants anything
>He immediately offers her money for sex.
>Rolls 1 on diplomacy to convince her to be prostitute.
>Bitches and moans about how this is his fantasy to be a horsecock orc, and he wants sexual gratification because he's horny and wants to do that in game.
>I tell him that I'm not doing this to give him anything of the sort.
>Other player successfully convinces waitress to sit and drink with her. (This other player is my girlfriend, btw)
>They hit it off after many successful diplomacy checks
>Sorcerer is polite and as a result, manages to get the waitress to maybe be DTF at some point later.
>Adventure starts, and a ranger invites them to work as mercenaries, to help check on a graveyard.
>They agree, and while they wait for the ranger to return, sorcerer takes waitress out for a walk.
>Fighter decides to be creeper and stalk them, successfully stealthing vs their perception checks.
>"I jerk off as I watch them!"
>I tell him he needs to cut this shit out.
>Continued
>>44126880
I get the feeling he was just being ebin.
>>44126880
>Mugger jumps out of bushes to rob sorcerer and waitress
>Sorcerer intimidates him and scares him off
>Waitress wants to go back to tavern
>They bump into the fighter, who is standing there with his dick out.
>"I run off after the mugger!"
>"Whatever, okay."
>eventually finds mugger's camp in woods
>Mugger is there, with his starving wife and child.
>"I'm going to kill the mother and child, and rape the father!"
>What the actual fuck is wrong with you?
>"Player sits there for 5 minutes, talking about how he totally doesnt want to do that, but is doing that."
>Ranger shows up, and explains that she'll kill him where he stands if he continues.
>She has been following him, since he started following the others.
>He tosses all of his money at the family and runs.
>"I jerk off again in the forest"
> ...
>Party finally meets up at tavern and heads out on adventure to graveyard.
>They get there, find cultists doing cultist shit, kill them.
>Fighter suddenly knows how to think like a normal person, and wants to save the life of a cultist who killed himself instead of being captured.
>Fails
>Whines for 5 minutes about how he could totally stop the bleeding by grabbing the stump where the guys arm used to be.
>They find a book
>Fighter obsesses over obvious demonic magic book, refuses to show anyone.
>Sorcerer casts daze on him, and he fails the save.
>Sorcerer takes book, find no magic, drops it.
>"SHE TOOK MY BOOK! THATS NOT FAIR! I WANNA KILL HER NOW!"
>I'm really regretting letting this asshole at my table.
>Sorcerer heads back to tavern with ranger.
>Fighter now wants to burn down tavern and murder sorcerer, because "muh pride and small penis"
>"Why the fuck are you acting like this?"
>IDKI'MCHAOTICNEUTRALLOLOLOLOLJUSTPLAYINGTHECHARACTER
>>44126957
I would be pretty angry if sorcerer was allowed to cast daze on me but I wouldn't be allowed to at least punch her. By the way this story is fake as shit.
>>44127086
He swung at her, and rolled a 2, missed.
Story is legit.
>>44114402
>You all start out at the tavern, planning out the route you will take through the desert to the rich cities beyond. Here is a map of the desert, how will you proceed?
>>44114402
>You all wake up a jail cells
>>44127168
Nothing wrong with this, as long as players are told before chargen.
>>44114402
roll initiative!
>>44126729
You all congregate inside an opium den
>>44115992
>And they all have secrets that they keep from each other.
I actually like when not everyone knows everything about the other. Having secrets spices the roleplaying a little bit.
>>44127168
>>44127173
>PC wake up in the drunk tank
>The first adventure is dealing with the fallout of what happened the night before
I've often thought that low-level PCs who want to travel or adventure would have an interest in banding together for mutual skill requirements and protection from bandits and monsters.
If there's no-one else available in the time period before they need to leave, then there's no-one else available, and within reason they'll band together and form an adventuring / travelling party.
IRL, though, if players aren't willing to agree to at least some weak reason to join the party then I have to question why they've wasted their time turning up to the group's table.
>>44114402
Our adventure begins in the Jolly Gnome Inn in the city of Farhaven. You are standing in the middle of the first floor, weapons in hand and drenched in blood. The walls are splattered red, and every patron inside the establishment is dead, gruesomely and wholly murdered - only you four remain standing.
Your last memory is of boarding a ship three weeks ago to the island of Azuredeep to seek the lost temple of Accord.
What do you do?
>>44114402
I'm completely shit faced and step outside to take a piss. I whip out my dick and I roll a 1 for piss check. What happens?
>>44114402
>you all wake up inside in a large metal cylinder
>>44114724
My worst experience was suspending my disbelief and making my Paladin care about the PCs in the first session.
The one player - who I know outside of DnD - looked me in the eyes after the Paladin tried to help him in a fight and said "My character doesn't know yours, your character's just stupid to him."
I ate shit in-game while his character got a defacto promotion. My next character, reasonably, heard that this "sergeant" of the squad had all his previous subordinates die. The guy got pissy with me when my cowardly character was EXTREMELY apprehensive.
>>44115784
>you all start out at the gallows
>one of you is the executioner
>>44129619
check for loot
>>44115790
Warforged niggas unite
>>44115992
Here's what you do: Start off the campaign with X job, and tell your players to make a character that is showing up to do that job. They can make any kind of character they want, and have any motivation for doing the job, but the job is why they're all there. Now they have a reason to both be there and work together.
>>44127173
Except it's completely unimaginative and lazy, and serves only as a crutch to force unconnected snowflakes to work together.
Why is making characters fit together in char gen and jumping directly to the plot at hand with all characters already involved in it so radical an idea? Is it because D&D players are entitled retards?
>You all wake up on a wagon travelling along a narrow mountain path.
>>44132658
>The guards are staring in horror while you all keep changing race, gender, and starting gear.
>>44132581
Yes, yes that is exactly the case.
Git Gud.
>>44129901
I would be so up for that. You have no idea.
You wake up blinded by bandages wrapped around your head.
>>44114724
I like doing a mish mash of both. I tell players a couple weeks before the first session that:
"This starts with a train ride going to city X. Tell me why you would be there."
>>44115790
>not buying oil to drink
>not paying in exact change
do you even robutt
>>44115818
>You all start as taverns
>Through trade and assimilating the buildings around you your goal is to become the city
I'd play it
>you all start out at your highschool reunion
>>44127168
I actually started out like that on a Vampire the Masquerade campaign.
We were all random people that got captured by a powerful vampire as tests subjects, and as such we were turned into our different clans artificially.
I don't even know if that's lore-friendly, but it was cool.
>>44127256
I think I'm stealing this.
>>44114402
>The Fighter is the bladed magnificentlyrics bearded wize bartender bro who'll always listen to your stories and woes
>The bard is the the bard. He bards
>The rogue is the serving wench who has a penchant for somehow getting you to spend that coin you thought you were saving
>The Wizard sells all manner of alchemical regents, products, and essayed esoteric junk. He also does parties on Saturdays
This is your new party and this is your tavern wat do who do you choose?
>>44127168
>Not "You are all locked inside of the back of a locked movimg carriage. Barely any light shines and it smells of feces and piss. Through what little light you see other people shackled and restrained."
>>44135195
>dude, where is my chariot?
>>44120132
Another anon tries to call you out on your bullshit. Roll to Bluff - you get a +2 bonus if you point out his bad spelling.
>>44127168
>playing a new system and none of us know how to handle using remaining experience points to buy items
>"okay guys let's just say you all start out as slaves and have to try and get stuff on your own when you break free, alright?"
>actually works out okay
You all start out naked inside a cold dark room with no distinctive features whatsoever besides a 2"x2" window letting light in. You're all chained to the walls and can speak to each other. Plan a escape.
>>44126716
It depends on how high the fire rises
>>44135845
I roll to break the chains attaching me to the wall, and will try again and again if I don't manage it at first. I then look out the window once I manage to succeed.
>not doing character creation as a group
>>44137243
That has nothing really to do with the start of the adventure half the time, anon.
