Unique Ways to Start Campaigns?

[Yanagi]

I'm still not used to how fast this forums answers questions....

Anyway, campaign is 5th level. Characters are as follows: Human Rogue 3/Urban Ranger 2 archer, Darfellan Barbarian 5, Dwarf Fighter 1/Wizard 4 (going for Runesmith), Human Cleric of Pelor 3/Church Inquisitor 2 (going for Warpriest and Shadowbane Inquisitor), Human Duskblade 5, Half-Aquatic Elf Bard 5 (I bumped the half elf a little by giving all the bonuses of the Water Adaptation feat and superior low-light vision as racial traits), and Wild Elf Druid 5

Setting is a custom one. The Rogue and Darfellan are on a ship together, the wizard, cleric, and duskblade are together on foot, the druid is on foot on her own, and the half-elf has yet to describe her backstory to me, but will probably be arriving on foot or live in the city they're starting in.

They're starting in a port city and the first mission will be them being hired (as a group) to put an end to the pirate attacks on the nation's trade lanes (which are unusually frequent and organized). They don't have access to a ship themselves, so they'll have to charter one, commandeer one, Diplomacy a naive captain, or stowaway on one (possibly a pirate ship). They'll soon discover that the pirates are being hired by an opposing nation as deniable assets, leading them into plots between nations.

Have the pirates be raiders and slave-takers--they capture the different PC groups/indiivduals one after another. The PCs meet in the hold of the ship; or a secret island base; or even on the slave-auctioneer's block. Or maybe they're the sole survivors of the pirate ship sinking in bad weather (or because a kraken had at it), or even of a skirmish between pirate bands. The last one would be an interesting twist--they're captive and bound, and suddenly their captors free them and re-arm them because they're frightened of the other buccaneers....

Alternately have the pirate group uses false lights, or an illusion, or something to cause the ship with the two PCs on it to run aground (or get stuck in a shoreside berm or shoal). Coindcidentally, this event occurs on the shoreline path the other clump of PCs are taking. Melee ensues as the crew (and PCs) end up fighting the wreckers trying to pick over the ship's cargo (and, if they're slave-takers, the crew).

As to keeping them together, structure that initial share experience in a way that not only creates a bond but also a shared pool of information/experience that makes others treat them as a group. For example, they're the only people with any knowledge of the pirate group that seized them, or the big finale of their first adventure together involves magic or supernatural events...or just plain strangeness...such that their positions as sole survivors marks them socially.

This could be a variant of the "only you have the knowledge" path above...but more darkly, they could all be stigmatized, because surviving escaping (this pirate group) is so rare that they're suspect as being collaborators or spies. This gives them motive to clear themselves.

[The Glyphstone]

The bits about fire are entertaining, because I had just come up with a new one.

"So, you're all [on the road/in the tavern/in the street]. Player 3, you're on fire. No, I don't know how you got on fire, you guys tell me, and decide how you're putting it out."

[Qwertystop]

The bits about fire are entertaining, because I had just come up with a new one.

"So, you're all [on the road/in the tavern/in the street]. Player 3, you're on fire. No, I don't know how you got on fire, you guys tell me, and decide how you're putting it out."

Nicely done. Very nicely done.


Start a game inside a Mirror of Life Trapping, except all one big chamber, and some minor effect can be had by the players on what's showing on the outside (that is, they make their images show up). They have to convince the random hobo who found the shiny mirror to let them out. He's very suspicious.


Start the game inside someone's mind (presented like one of the numerous books/shows/whatever that put it as a series of rooms, one allowing them to manipulate the guy's senses), and you are all constructs of his mind, or MPD fragments, or guys who got trapped by a bad guy. Small manifestations to outside will be possible, as will occasional total possesion. Get the guy to find a wizard or something to make bodies for you. You might eventually be able to do it just by bugging him so he wants to get rid of you (Warning: might instead result in your destruction through mindrape or something). Mind-affecting spells would form actual manifestations inside, which you will need to fight off. Damage to the walls will destroy his mind, eventually resulting in a mindless shell.

EDIT: Yeah, I know I'm not very good at this.

[Acanous]

"As you all wander about the town market, your attention is captured by a strangely dressed man making a loud spectacle and trying to convince passers by to draw a card from an intricately painted deck."

yeah, propably a TPK, but fun!

[Stix]

"you all die"
/add a weak ghost template to all characters
objectives become
1. find a way to return to the living world
2. find out why you were all killed
3. vengance