Ways to start a new campaign
TWO TYPES OF START
There are of course many ways to describe story techniques but I like to think of campaign starts in one of two ways.
1. Everything has been normal up til now
Ask yourself two questions:
- Do the characters have a clear next action in mind when the campaign starts?
- Do the characters know each other beforehand?
The answers will divide your adventure into one of 4 subtypes.
I will give an example of each type, but there can be a lot of variety within each!
Example:
"In the same boat" (variation of Meet in a tavern)
The characters all happen to be on the same airship flight and don't know each other beforehand. There is a decieving lack of action when the adventure starts, but when the airship power source fails the characters will quickly need to start working together.
Clear | "Common quest" You have accepted a quest but realize that you aren't the only one. You will need to work together. | "Old collegues" You and a few people at the same workplace/guild/order have been given a mission from your superior. |
Unclear | "Meet in a tavern" You sit at a tavern and a bunch of other people are sitting at the same table, talking and drinking. | "Childhood friends" You and your friends all come from the same village and have known each other for years. |
Weak | Strong |
Clarity of next action
Clear next action
You establish in the backstory or during session 0 that the characters have accepted a quest or mission when the story starts. There is no hesitation at the start of the adventure if they should do this or not, that has implicitly already been decided.
Unclear next action
The campaign begins with the characters idling until an adventure presents itself. You will need to work with character (and player) motivation to get the story going, otherwise you risk one or more characters turning the suggested adventure down, preferring things as they are.
Weak initial relationship
The characters meet for the first time and it is worth spending some roleplaying time to make them get to know each other. If the players are new to roleplaying this can feel awkward, but for experienced players it can be part of the fun.
Strong initial relationship
The relationships has been established implicitly before the adventure begins, which means you can skip that part and jump straight into the action. When the characters have a quiet moment around a campfire you can go back and explore the relationships further, if you want.
Strength of initial relationship
2. Normality has already been disrupted
Hot start
When the session starts the characters find themselves in the middle of an ongoing barfight. Beer mugs are flying through the air, scrums of melee are going of everywhere, the bartender is hurriedly removing all the expensive bottles and a very angry dwarf is standing in front of them ready to smash a chair at one of them.
Victims of theft
One or several of the characters have been the target of a theft, and they lost something important that they need to get back! If you want to encourage roleplay you can have only one character lose something, needing to convince the others to help. A more surefire way is to make each of them lose something and thus be equally motivated.
In prison together
For one reason or another, they have all been put in prison. No matter if they know each other or not, working together is the best chance they have to escape.
Disaster aftermath
A comet has struck the world or an apocalyptic demon war has turned the physical realm into a wasteland. The characters are thrown way out of their comfort zone and nothing will ever go back to normal. They will have to work together to survive and find out more about their new reality.
Here are some examples:
When we come into the story something has already happened and the characters now need to react and do something about it.
In a campaign with new players you can use this start to quickly throw them into action. If they have never played RPGs before backstory writing can be difficult, but you can always get back to that after a couple of sessions.
A word on motivation
It can feel demotivating as a DM if you lay out some beautifully prepared adventure hooks and one player/character goes
"No thank you, those problems doesn't concern me, I will stay here"
Maybe this is ok and you have ways to deal with this, but sometimes you really want your players to follow your prepared path. If you are unsure about what motivates your players or their characters, you can work with several types of motivation simultaneously!
MORAL
It is the right thing to do, and you would
be proud to tell your grandmother
PERSONAL
Whatever happened, it got personal
and you are now properly pissed off
REWARD
Money, power or magical items have
a nack at motivating most people
You can get interesting effects in your campaign if you play these motivations against one another. Give the characters tough choices to see what they value most. Maybe you can help the orphans, but doing so will risk losing the treasure you found. Or you can set your father free from slavery, but only by also releasing an old vampire from his bonds.
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Example:
There is an evil dragon plauging the land...
...who killed my parents...
...and there is a big reward for killing it.
A child has been kidnapped by an evil wizard...
...that went to the same school as me and bullied me all the time...
...and he owns lots of magical items.
The city has asked me to attend to a charity ball...
...and I don't want to be a greedy rich uptight bastard like my brother...
...and it could boost my political career.
