So your characters DIDN'T meet in a tavern ...

CharlieRock · Post by **CharlieRock** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 12:43 am

Here is an alternative to the standard starting point for a campaign. Instead of having the heroes meet in a tavern and find a common destiny amongst each other, have them start out as the supporting cast for a greater hero. Like Doc Savage's five allies, or Batman's endless array of sidekicks. Here is how it would work:

The PCs all work for a famous and gallant hero named Arcadias.

The Fighter is his armorer, spending most of his day shining swords and polishing armor. Arcadias spars with this character on rainy days.

The Cleric is his personal counselor on divine subjects. Whenever Arcadias runs into something requiring a divine perspective he asks the Cleric. Also accompanies Arcadias to public engagements so the people think of Arcadias as pious.

The Thief is a charity case for Arcadias. The glamorous hero captured the thief stealing at a young age and adopted her out of pity. Now the Thief works as a waitress at the tavern supplying Arcadias with access to the underworlds' rumor mill.

And last but not least, the Wizard is Arcadias' niece staying with him for her education (Arcadias is massively wealthy).

This sets the stage for the PCs to emerge from supporting characters to main characters in their own right when Arcadias comes up missing from his latest excursion. Will the PCs be able to find out what happened to Arcadias? Will they be able to fill his massive adventurer's boots?
_________________
The Rock says ...

Know your roll!

concobar · Post by **concobar** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 9:26 am

Nice!

I may steal that.
_________________

Relaxo · Post by **Relaxo** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 10:14 am

BRILLIANT!

It also creates your first adventure story and can lead to a whole campaign.

SWEET!

A similar but less-thought-out hook is they all reply to a call to arms and are picked to be the team (or one of several teams) to go do a mission. This makes them all meet for the first time on this first adventure but gives it structure so they're not just adventuring together 'just because'. A plot twist here can be the other team(s) may get to the goal before the PCs so it's a race on top of the mission.

CKDad · Post by **CKDad** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 1:33 pm

I've put them all on a ship, bound for some great city. Some were messengers, others the guards of a merchant, some we just heading for the big town.

Then I shipwrecked them.
In one memorable Traveller game, they were all just minding their own business in town and got caught up in a riot - part of a long-running, slow-burning resistance movement - and they had to band together to make it to a safe haven, then find a way to smuggle themselves into the starport to the detached-duty Scout's ship.
_________________
"I don't wanna be remembered as the guy who died because he underestimated the threat posed by a monkey."

PayToFlay · Post by **PayToFlay** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 3:51 pm

Nice. I like less cliche meet ups. The bug of it is, you have to force them together at the beginning, but making them not mind it...

Similar to CKDad, I kind of pulled the rug out from my group. I built up a city with history, maps, NPCs... the works. I gave them an evening in the city, where they thought they were going to meet up in a tavern.

Instead, I blew it all up.

They were at a loss, so of course they found reasons for their character to flock to drift towards each other, and increase their chances to escape.

Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 2:03 am

CKDad wrote:
I've put them all on a ship, bound for some great city. Some were messengers, others the guards of a merchant, some we just heading for the big town.

Then I shipwrecked them.

Yeppers...I had one lenghty 1e game run from 0th level and the Treasure Hunt module. In it, my PCs were kidnapped from their lands and put aboard a ship, which got shipwrecked. They had previously not known each other before that incident, but it was the one "hook" that got everyone together. That might have been the first game that I ran that the players didn't all know each other.
_________________
LD's C&C creations - the witch, a half-ogre, skill and 0-level rules

Troll Lord wrote:
Lord D: you understand where I"m coming from.

Sundog · Post by **Sundog** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 8:37 am

In an old Alternity campaign I ran, the heroes were aboard a diplomatic transport when the whole thing got taken over by separatist terrorists. Adventure ensued quite nicely, and although a couple of starting heroes did bite space dust, it was easy to replenish them from the ranks of the ship's crew, diplomatic staff, etc.

Whilst not exactly meeting in a tavern, my Broken Kingdom games (you can't call em a campaign yet, just a bunch of loose one-shots so far, mostly written for cons) do describe swords-for-hire looking for work in the ragged edge of an empire ravaged by plague, famine, civil war and supernatural menace. In one adventure, it's a good way to bail themselves out of lockup and escape a local crime lord.

Hang on, Charlie. Arcadias? You been watching Krod Mandoon?

old school gamer · Post by **old school gamer** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 2:49 am

I had my present campaign start with the characters in a stronghold that was about to be destroyed by a massive army of humaniods. They were then given a quest thrust upon them by a dying cleric and the rest is history.

anglefish · Post by **anglefish** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 8:13 pm

Yeah. I don't like the disparate collection of bored fools who "meet" at a tavern. Too many bad memories of people that made it harder on me that way.

I often start player with character and TEAM building session. Not only who is your PC, but why all the PCs hang out together. Some ideas from these sessions:

- Army platoon

- Old veterans of a war that now stick together

- The party leader's "entourage" (when only one person provided solid ideas)

- Ship's crew

- Traveling carny or band

- Roving authories.

Lurker · Post by **Lurker** » Thu Dec 10, 2009 2:42 am

old school gamer wrote:
I had my present campaign start with the characters in a stronghold that was about to be destroyed by a massive army of humaniods. They were then given a quest thrust upon them by a dying cleric and the rest is history.

I've been thinking about something like this, but mine will be various groups come onto the end of an ambush and find that the various mercenaries/humanoids/ and monsters have split up and taken hostages,treasure and trade goods three separate ways. The players each have a chance to join up and hunt down one of the 3 sets of monsters.
_________________
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

Knight Errant & Humble C&C Society Contributor
C&C Society

anglefish · Post by **anglefish** » Thu Dec 10, 2009 5:22 pm

... or decide to split up and tackle all three at once.

Lurker · Post by **Lurker** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 2:34 am

Nope, other people from the groups are going down the other 2 paths.

The hook is that each group had a reason to link up with the ambushed caravan and will want someone from their group going after each of the separate bands of marauders to insure their interests are covered. Say one group was to meet up and pick up the lords wife and ladies in waiting (who they fear the other group might "have their way" with the fair ladies) a second group had commissioned a priceless & magical mirror - to spy on the lords of the other group- the third is looking for a spy - one of the ladies in waiting - and the info she has of a rival lord, etc etc.

Then as they adventure and see that they all serve lords who are less than admirable and they will have a better chance of living in the long run if they work together. Hopefully they then become a true adventuring party.
_________________
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

Knight Errant & Humble C&C Society Contributor
C&C Society

DocEldritch · Post by **DocEldritch** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 3:24 pm

Finding ideas that are not "you all meet in a tavern" is always good! Some of the ones I have been tossing about have been:

** The PCs are all members of a merchant fleet, being sent to find out why contact was lost with a colony on a newly discovered continent. Shipwrecked in a storm, their only hope to get home is to trek overland to the colony site and find out what happened...

** The PCs are all trainees in the King's Guard, when a war with a sorcerously created foe breaks out. The foe quickly overwhelms the kingdom, and as a last resort, some of the trainees and knights (the PCs included) are put into a "crystal stasis" to await the call of the true royal line, hopefully in no more than a few years. Several hundred years later, they awake, to find that only they have done so, most of the other crystals are still intact, and there is no king around to have woken them.

** They are all working for a noble patron, basically as his personal adventuring party. He sends them out after things to add to his collections.

** Used this one in Warhammer. The PCs all answered an add for a job as Roadwardens. Why they wanted to be roadwardens was up to them (though since the job included limited amnesty for past crimes and decent pay, that was a draw for some).

** One I was planning for a Freeport style game. The PCs were all survivors from various pirate raids, sold at slave auction and press-ganged into being "City Watch" in a notorious slum of Freeport or a similar city.

** And of course, the old chestnut of "you're adventurers, you tell my why you are all working together now".

gideon_thorne · Post by **gideon_thorne** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 7:12 pm

I always prefer the 'series of unfortunate events' approach. It sometimes requires a bit of steering. But it starts out with the characters not knowing anything about each other, and meeting as they go. Takes a couple or three game sessions to make it work sometimes, but ultimately more satisfying with some pre set plot threads to run with.
_________________
"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Fri Jan 01, 2010 6:52 pm

gideon_thorne wrote:
I always prefer the 'series of unfortunate events' approach. It sometimes requires a bit of steering. But it starts out with the characters not knowing anything about each other, and meeting as they go. Takes a couple or three game sessions to make it work sometimes, but ultimately more satisfying with some pre set plot threads to run with.

I use this type of method almost exclusively in most of my recent campaigns. GT is right, if the characters kind of learn each other as they go through a session or two, it creates interesting dynamics. In my last campaign or the one prior, the players created their characters away from the game table. We assembled for a game session and each other didn't really know about the others character. I started off the campaign by saying, "Well today is about to be an interesting day. Roll for initiative." This worked well.

~O
_________________
> Omote's Advanced C&C stuff <
Duke Omote Landwehr, Holy Order of the FPQ ~ Prince of the Castles & Crusades Society

Arazmus · Post by **Arazmus** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 4:59 pm

anglefish wrote:
... or decide to split up and tackle all three at once.

Split up, we can do more damage that way.
_________________
I'll tell you what I do like though: a killer, a dyed-in-the-wool killer. Cold blooded, clean, methodical and thorough. ~Zorg