I don't care what the anyone says, Tavern is still the literal best Opening in DND...
Imagine it, beer getting drunk around, beef sausages getting forked around, bards playing guitars, your party there...
That's when the Bandit suddenly appears in the door. Everyone has the knife pointed at their torsos - "50 GOLD RINGGIT OR I LITERALLY ASSASSINATE EVERYONE HERE!"
That's why it's the best. The Adventurers get to be Adventurers... and save the whole Tavern from the Bandit!
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I like in medias res something like the tavern is burning and the crow of angry peasants is approaching you with pitchforks and torches. A dung collector's cart pulled by a pair of mules storms through a side alley, dung flying everywhere. The dung collector yells at you "Jump in if you want to live!".
Let the party members figure out what happened in the tavern during the ride and eliminates murderhobos that would try to slaughter the peasants.
>”I murder the dung collector and take his cart”
>while disguised as the dung collector one of the characters realises that there's no need to keep doing this bs of adventuring
>risking his life for some petty rewards or "ancient secrets" sounds too fricking hard
>the manure smells is not too bad either, he could get used to it
>he decides to become a full time dung collector instead
I started my campaign by having the travelers meet on the road to the tavern, fight some giant rats or wolves or something, then start talking with each other at the tavern when suddenly skeletons seiged it leading to a bar fight with more skeletons breaking in through windows and the party and barkeep and patrons teaming up against them
I did this is WFRP. The party meets on the road...because they're all fleeing from beastmen. A short mounted chase/fight, then holing up in a coaching inn and helping fight off an attack. After that, they realized they were all headed in the same direction and chose, under the circumstances, to travel together.
IMO more than the initial framing device, it's important for the GM to have or give the group a reasonable shared objective. In that game I did it before chargen - the players were told whatever else was true of their character, they needed a reason to be traveling to Kislev. I did it diegetically in the game before that; the PCs had been in the Nuln gaol for petty offenses and been recruited as extra hands clearing a sewage blockage in lieu of a fine or an actual prison sentence. They, along with their work chief, encountered some shady dealings, and after being released from custody, the work chief contacted them again soon after when one of his coworkers who'd been there was murdered, as he reasoned that the work detail had been the only people he knew absolutely were not in on any frickery.
>The party meets on the road...because they're all fleeing from beastmen. A short mounted chase/fight, then holing up in a coaching inn and helping fight off an attack. After that, they realized they were all headed in the same direction and chose, under the circumstances, to travel together.
This is a good one anon. Probably going to use it soon for a new game coming up, thanks.
Enemy Within?
No, I didn't actually run any pre-printed adventures because I was concerned one of my players might have read them. One of them definitely had.
I hope it works for you, too.
Tarven starts are comfy but I personally think the tavern being attacked is a little cheesy.
This
is the way
I have the players meet at the tavern before going off to delve a dungeon or out on an adventure.
The adventure doesn't drop into their lap.
>A group of stout warriors sit huddled around a table in a tavern
>You... are none of these men
>Your party busts in the door, ready to remove the brigands who have taken over the local watering hole
I prefer shipwreck starts, gives the PCs a reason to work together regardless of whether they knew each other beforehand and lets you do a wilderness survival adventure before they have spells that can solve any problem. But taverns are fine, never see it done anymore because everyone's convinced it's a cliche that should be avoided now.
N4 Treasure Hunt is the epitome of this scenario - does it well I think.
Taverns are great but imagine
>before you is the entrance to the dungeon. You know peril awaits you, but so does gold, glory, and the kidnapped princess.
>How do you proceed?
Beginning in a tavern has the potential problem that you have to find the adventure, and even if there's a fight or something what next? If you start at an adventure site, you instantly establish what's important in the campaign. Then the tavern scene comes later, maybe as an intro to session 2 or 3.
I'm setting one up right now that takes it a step further: you all wake up deep in a dungeon with no memory of why, and must escape to the outside world, at the end of your adventure if you survive your reward is going to a tavern
Try a different board, nogames spammer
Try staying in your containment, homosexual.
D&D not only isn't the only game, but it isn't a game.
I don't care about your mental illness, this is a thread about starts in D&D, and throughout most of /tg/'s history the catalog was mostly 40k threads, and the rest mostly D&D or quests. You have no grounds for your complaint, no room to speak, and I hope you get cancer.
Same feeling. It's better to cut the crap and just get right to the adventuring. It also sidesteps the chance someone doesn't take the DM's bait by implying everyone already agreed to go on an adventure.
>It's better to cut the crap and just get right to the adventuring. It also sidesteps the chance someone doesn't take the DM's bait by implying everyone already agreed to go on an adventure
NTA but I like the tavern start so we can break the ice and maybe hire some retainers before setting off, I don't like to waste a lot of time in the tavern.
I also tell the players that they've gathered at the tavern specifically to go out this adventure. One PC has posted the job and they're all looking to make some gold.
Based trips. Most recently, I've tried using the dungeon itself as the main plot hook. Their patron needs a band of hardy adventurers to do their dirty work, and their selection process is to construct a labyrinth full of traps and monsters, abduct total strangers, and force them to run the gauntlet. Those who make it to the end are offered a lucrative opportunity to undertake an epic quest, and get to keep any gold they picked up as a signing bonus.
I like that idea of a mock dungeon being built for training purposes. Maybe if a setting has an “adventurers guild” type of group maybe they run it as part of an initiation/test for trainees
>Tavern is still the literal best Opening in DND...
Never was. In medias res has always been superior.
My adventure will start with the players getting off a ship in a new continent
At night
But luckily there is a tavern nearby....
Yep, can't beat the good ol tavern can you
Why the frick would a bandit() try to hold up everyone in a bar? dead man walking.
—= BREAKING NEWS =—
D&Dgay has shit taste.
Film at 11.
>The Adventurers get to be Adventurers... and save the whole Tavern from the Bandit!
Not my problem.
>the gang meets in a public house.
It's how our group met, The only thing I didn't like was the DM stonewalling my attempts at world building.
This pub was in a port city and I would assume a port city has a more literate population. Things like reading charts, bills of landing, provision lists, cargo manifests, passenger lists et al
Apparently it was to much of an ask for the bar maid/house to have had pencils and paper for posting on the pubs bulletin board. Quick notes and listings. No sonnets and stuff
The only good tavern opener I've seen in my life was in the Dead by Dawn adventure on SotDL, since you're forced to collaborate from the people in the tavern to save your ass from a goddamn zombie apocalypse. It's either working together or fricking dying.
Give me a good reason why I should be interested on working in a random job, in collaboration with random ass people you just found chilling in a pub, which neither of us have a connection with. Otherwise I'd just assume you're looking to scam people, pay my drink, and leave the table.
>Give me a good reason why I should be interested on working in a random job, in collaboration with random ass people you just found chilling in a pub, which neither of us have a connection with
Your character is responding to a help wanted message posted somewhere and/or spread by word of mouth by one of the PCs. Your motivation is treasure and glory.
If you don't like it find another group to game with.
Simple as.
I will. I want a table that is interested on the character I'm bringing, not sucking the DMs wiener doing whatever dungeon crawling / scavenge hunt bullshit they're willing to make me go through.
If that wasn't the case, I'd just join an Adventurer's League.
>I want a table that is interested on the character I'm bringing
News flash.
No one really gives a shit about your level 1 character or their backstory.
Play the God damn game and see if they survive session one before you info dump on your group, butthole.
Run a game that it's worth playing first, homosexual.
Funny you should say that.
I'm coming up on the 2 year anniversary of my campaign and it was started like this
And I have been in one that had a proper start back in 2019. Trying to show how big is your dick is not an argument.
>And I have been in one that had a proper start back in 2019
>I have been in one
>in one
>implying you're a player and not the DM
When you're the one running a campaign for multiple years then maybe you can talk shit.
Till then sit the frick down and don't info dump your backstory on session one.
There's nothing wrong with a simple start to campaign. Just because a campaign starts with humble beginnings doesn't mean it can't grow into something more.
>When you're the one running a campaign for multiple years then maybe you can talk shit.
It takes more than one people to play a game, anon. If you want your players to ride on your dick while having zero agency on a collective story, then do us a favor and write a book instead of running games.
>Till then sit the frick down and don't info dump your backstory on session one
Well frick me, I guess having a character that doesn't fit into the "Oh you're looking for money and this and only THIS QUEST will give you the money and fame you want" trope equals having a biblical backstory.
>Just because a campaign starts with humble beginnings doesn't mean it can't grow into something more
+2 characters going different paths, only to be interrupted by a common inconvenience they all need to personally deal with is also a humble beginning and an opportunity to connect, and doesn't feel as forced as "you accepted this job from a stranger because... YOU JUST DID OK?"
>zero agency on a collective story
They've been pursuing their own goals amd driving the story ever since they left the first dungeon.
>Oh you're looking for money and this and only THIS QUEST
>"you accepted this job from a stranger because... YOU JUST DID OK?"
One PC had a family connection with the dungeon. His cousin went missing in it. Two others were best friends. They all have backstories just brief ones.
>only to be interrupted by a common inconvenience they all need to personally deal
So a quantum orge?
Lol
Lmao even
>One PC had a family connection with the dungeon. His cousin went missing in it. Two others were best friends.
So the characters HAD a relationship with the campaign plot and between them beforehand, thus "starting in a tavern" for them is completely irrelevant, if not pointless. They're not meeting for the first time there, and they're not accepting a mission that came out of the blue. They have personal goals and pre-established relationships that allows them to organically collaborate, which is what I've been talking about since the beginning.
>So a quantum ogre*? Lol, Lmao even
You're now going into the opposite extreme. Make players and characters do stuff they'd be interested of because they'd CARE, not because they're forced to.
>So the characters HAD a relationship with the campaign plot and between them beforehand, thus "starting in a tavern" for them is completely irrelevant, if not pointless. They're not meeting for the first time there,
ONE PC had a family connect to the adventure location, he's the guy looking for help. Two OTHERS were best friends. That's the only connections we started with.
Reading comprehension.
The two friends and a few others were responding to the help wanted request. The rest were hired in the tavern on the night of the meet up, mostly npc retainers to fill out their numbers. Most of them are either dead or went their separate ways after a few delves.
Everyone besides one PC was just responding to a help wanted posting or hired in the tavern, all for gold and glory.
>You're now going into the opposite extreme. Make players and characters do stuff they'd be interested of because they'd CARE, not because they're forced to.
No one was forced to do anything. I was up front with my players about the adventure hook and the campaign beginning with a dungeon crawl. They were all excited to begin and some of them came up with specific reasons for why their characters would take a random job like this. We talked it out. Your DM sounds like he let you play around for awhile before dropping his quantum orge tied into your character's interests. Which is fine. Having a quantum orge in your back pocket can be helpful. Like a handful of pre made mini dungeons to drop into the game while the party is traveling or one clue reserved for when your players are really think outsider the box.
Both of us had a quest that "you must go on because... JUST BECAUSE OKAY?!?!" but we got there in two separate ways. Your DM used a custom tailored quantum ogre and I was up front with my players and started them in a tavern on a job.
>I will. I want a table that is interested on the character I'm bringing, not sucking the DMs wiener doing whatever dungeon crawling / scavenge hunt bullshit they're willing to make me go through.
You are a nobody, you are not special. Nobody gives a shit about you or your pathetic characters, you pretentious homosexual pseud
I've done on a cart on the way to a destination, post first adventure (i.e., we all know each other), in prison together, shipwreck, sent from the same organization to be on a team, etc. Never once set up the tavern start.
Then again, I force everyone, at start, to clearly mark how they know each other. I don't play around.
All of my groups main campaigns have started in a tavern. It’s a fun tradition.
>meeting each other for the first time to meet our mutual benefactor on a stormy night
>banding together to join an expeditionary committee in the inn the barbarian works at
>waking up from a shared vision in an inn nestled at the base of a mountain
>choosing to team up in a speakeasy the evening before a great race begins
But our mini campaigns have both started in vehicles
>the washed-up band that is the party arrives to the town a music festival is happening in
>the gang readies up to crash into the armored transport and rob them blind
Those all sound like comfy campaign openings.
Nooooo! You can't use a popular and useful idea! You have to make everything different so you stand out from all the other GMs! You can be special and unique and worthwhile of attention, but only by being different in a conformist way!
"You start at the opening of the dungeon"
A hangover type campaign would be awesome
>character? What do you mean, I just play Chaotic Good
It's a classic.
I prefer “a wizard comes to call”. It’s even more classic than the tavern.
Does the whole party live in the same hobbit-hole, or do they get collected separately?
I start things off by telling the players before the game begins to come up with a reason why they would be travelling to some particular place, and have them all meet on the way there, so they already have a reason to get to know each other since they're going to be spending probably a few weeks together anyway
then you can just come up with some shit to make them want to keep working together once they get where they're going
Ways I've started campaigns:
>The party members were traveling with a caravan and got lost in a thick fog, upon emerging from which they find themselves in a desolate valley, when they double back on the trail and walk back into the fog they find themselves magically emerging in the same location
>The party members are called before the king, who burdens them with an important quest
>The party members are traveling on a ship, and find themselves washed ashore on a small island with other survivors, one being the son of a powerful senator
>The party members belong to a crew of a flying ship on the cusp of exploring a giant, otherworldly vessel
The first is still my favorite.
System Neutral Tavern SLOP!
Don't let the taverns of your world feel lifeless and empty.
Tavern Menu
Drinks
>Ale $
>Wine $$
Food, all served with a hunk of bread
>Soup $
>Roast & vegetables $$
>Cheese, cured meats & fruit $$$
Any bonuses/healing from food are at your discretion.
The Old Drunk Rumor Table
>write a d12 rumor table 50/50 true/false
>both true and false rumors should sound borderline insane when the Old Drunk tells his story
>the higher the number the more serious the rumor
>buy him a beer to roll 1d4 on the rumor table
>second beer roll 1d8
>third beer roll 1d12
>forth beer, he passes out.
>in his drunken forgetfulness he will repeat rumors
Gambling
>Ship, Captain, Crew
>it's a simple d6 4,5,6 dice game. Look it up
>there's always an equal number of NPCs vs PCs whenever gambling
>make sure to keep NPC bet limits reasonably within the means of their assumed wealth status.
A Brunner story more-or-less starts this way, with a druchii exile and his band of scum accosting an inn. They're specifically there to assassinate an assassin, though, whose presence a chaos artifact warned the exile about.