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Xaralin
Acolyte
USA
16 Posts |
 Posted - 22 Apr 2003 : 03:56:45
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Whenever a friend or myself starts a campaign, nine out of ten times you will start in a tavern. Where do you start your PCs?
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cheers |
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Mournblade
Master of Realmslore
USA
1287 Posts |
Posted - 22 Apr 2003 : 06:43:45
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I usually start the PC's as unfamiliar with each other and they happen to 'find' each other. Last one was a gnome under the sandle of an ogre. The party all met trying to rescue this gnome.
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A wizard is Never late Frodo Baggins. Nor is he Early. A wizard arrives precisely when he means to... |
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branmakmuffin
Senior Scribe
USA
428 Posts |
Posted - 22 Apr 2003 : 17:45:11
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A friend of mine used to start us out at random locations around the continent, and then we'd have to role-play getting together. Realistic, perhaps, but annoying.
When I DM, I try to see if 2 or 3 of the characters might already know each other. Once, we decided two of the PCs were brothers, for various reasons.
I rarely start PCs out in a tavern, but right now, I can't really say where I do start them. It varies all the time.
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Edited by - branmakmuffin on 22 Apr 2003 17:45:49 |
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Hymn
Senior Scribe
Sweden
514 Posts |
Posted - 27 Apr 2003 : 00:41:03
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| Ah the classic tavern. The curse of every DM. I usually bind the story’s together to at least the same area. Perhaps some are inside the city/town, or whatever, and some are outside. |
Sauro moki kara ochiro - Even monkeys falls from trees.
The path that leads to truth is littered with the bodies of the ignorant - Miyamoto Musashi |
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Edain Shadowstar
Senior Scribe
USA
455 Posts |
Posted - 27 Apr 2003 : 02:53:48
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| The tavern scenario is always effective, if not creative. Personally, the starting place in my case can often be based upon the campaign we're playing through. For instance, two or three of the player start out together and are hired to act as mercenaries and the employer adds the other members of the party. Simple, but it's worked well two or three times. I seem to remember a DM once starting a campaign with the players in prison for fighting each other and then when they got released (standard holding for brawling is about a day, though often only overnight if inebriation in involved) they decided to team up and 'cause trouble' (I love those campaigns where the characters aren't so much evil, as amoral). There's really a lot of ways to do it. I mostly start characters in cites or towns so there are some interesting locals to work with. It surprising how random meetings can result in adventures. |
Edain Shadowstar
Archwizard of Rel Astra and Waterdeep
"Mmm…pie…"
- Gaius Solarian, Captain General |
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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
Posted - 27 Apr 2003 : 11:46:59
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In the campaign i'm DMing i played with some of my players separetly.
Two of them where recruited as mercenaris by a druidess in Mosstown, one escaped from calismshan to go to the North.
The first failed to succeed there adventure (the nearly died against 4 goblin!) so the druidess had to recruit the others. Futhermore the one who escaped from Calimport had a very important letter for one of the member of the group. No one knew that and when he died they didn't take the letter with them, so the Eldreth Velutraa reading the letter decided to track them |
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ShadowPavement
Acolyte
11 Posts |
Posted - 28 Apr 2003 : 13:48:30
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One of my favorite ways that I started off a campaign was to have all the PC's in the same city square going about their buisness and all witnessing a rather flashy kidnapping. (hey, why did that globe of darkness engulf the carage of the Duke's daughter?). The PC's, all being witnesses to the crime, are then rounded up by the city guards to testify in front of the Duke about what they saw. The duke, enraged by the kidnapping of his daughter orders the PC's to find his daughter or face thier deaths. (He's much more pleasant and apologetic about the whole deal the next morning when he has had time to cool off and think about it, and actually pays the PC's for their services.)
Just some thoughts. |
Some people would complain if you hanged them with a brand new rope.
-Hanibal Smith |
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Brynweir
Senior Scribe
USA
436 Posts |
Posted - 24 May 2003 : 03:25:31
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| One of the best adventures I ever participated in actually began with most of the party members in a dungeon, and the others had to find a way to get us out. Difficult, but interesting. |
Anyone who likes to read something that's really dark and gritty and completely awesome ought to read The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. You can check out a little taste at www.BrentWeeks.com I should probably warn you, though, that it is definitely not PG-13 :-D
He also started a new Trilogy with Black Prism, which may even surpass the Night Angel Trilogy in its awesomeness. 
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31772 Posts |
Posted - 24 May 2003 : 06:51:36
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On most occassions, my campaigns have either began at a major church or temple within the city or town, sometimes at a wizards tower, and only rarely in a taverm or inn. I have even began a few adventures at Adventurer Guild's which I situate in different parts of my FR campaign. It helps to act as a central base just for adventurers.
Good learning...
- The Sage of Perth: For all your Realms Lore needs
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Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
Posted - 24 May 2003 : 10:14:22
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| In a campaign i'm playing, the inns are our main point of meeting. We live there and we look for info there (+having a lot of trouble too!) |
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unixx
Acolyte
12 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2003 : 09:35:25
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i personlly have this habbit of starting pcs on the trails and roads and giving them a little run for their money right off the start. sometimes it's not too awful nice. like this last one i recently did when they started they didn't know each other but i came down to who could run faster than who. see what i did was i put them down on this backwater path then i had them roll a VERY modified spot check to notice the ground moving behind them. which they all noticed after one of the party members was introduced by running by (this they rolled off for it gave that one a slight advantage) see what it was that was causeing the ground to move was in fact the tarasque! hehe. you'd be surpised at how fast a party will come together and fall apart when faced with that at 1st level. they didn't actually lose any party members and this was only because they persuaded the slowest one (a dwarf) to open a hidden door that he knew of in the area ona side of a moutain(another bad habbit i like forests and mountains) once sealed inside they where safe enough and then the true fun was able to begin. |
Unixx. |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31772 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2003 : 09:46:25
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A very interesting way to inspire motivation and co-operation among fellow members of an adventuring party.
A little evil , but interesting nonetheless.
Good learning...
- The Sage of Perth: For all your Realms Lore needs
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Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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Where do your PCs begin?
