How do you guys normally start your campaigns? Classic tavern, or something unique each time?
I’ve been thinking of starting my next one with a surprise DMPC.
He’ll be mid-high level and over the top, inducting the players into his party because despite his power, the contract he has specifies it must be accepted by a party. He’ll want them to do nothing but stay out of his way. I’m thinking the contract will either be a bounty or goblin clearing task. The target either way will be in a small fort with only a rope bridge for access. He’ll tell them to stay with the horses, go off on his own and promptly have the bridge cut out from under him, dieing to the fall.
If the party want the payout, they’ll have to both get the contract from his corpse and then complete it on their own.
Totally depending on the game/setting/campaign genre. I see the classic you’re in a tavern as a bad practice and try to avoid-it (OSR may be an exception). In general, I would address the group consistency/relationship/and why they want to work together as part of character creation, but sometimes I’ll start in media res by breaking the PC relax life with a dramatic event
I like to start my party off immediately after they failed their first quest. Session 1 is explaining the consequences of that failure, what that quest was, and how it went wrong.
For example: “Two towns hold us responsible for the bridge that collapsed in our fight with the troll, who escaped, because we didn’t burn the body. We’re at worst fugitives, and at best in extreme debt. The adventurer’s guild is pissed that we failed, too, and is demanding their cash advance back.”
Typically, something like Fate’s phase trio: https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/phase-trio . The tldr is you establish history between the characters before you start.
I don’t really like the “you are working together because you’re both players at the table, not for any in-character reason” trope at all.
The example you give in your OP is not a good idea for an interactive storytelling game with friends. It has too many spots where the players might want to do something, and you’re going to want to reject it because you have a set idea of what needs to happen. Either take this idea and move it to your “I should write a book” folder, or start the game where it has already happened.
You can totally start a first session with "You were hired by Dmitry Peacile to do a job. The whole time he was aloof, arrogant, and insisted things be done his way while you stay out of the way. It became apparent you were only there for a technical reason in the contract, even though he kept the paper on his person and never let you read it.
Well, just a few minutes ago he rode his horse over a rickety rope bridge while insisting you all wait here. The bridge gave way, Dmitry, his horse, and the contract that entitles you all to a big payout plummeted into the depths of Goblin Song Gorge below.
What do you do?"
Now you’re starting where the players have some agency instead of possibly wasting hours doing stuff where you don’t want the characters to change things.
I may be old fashioned, but I love to start in a tavern. It’s a place that can have a lot of npcs hanging around that can be introduced and then reappear later in the adventure.
Usually I prefer to start with the party already formed, or have the characters have a connection between each other from before the start of the adventure. Imo it speeds up the initial stages of the game and gives everyone a preexisting reason to be in the party.
I had some pain in the past with players that didn’t want to find a reason for their character to join the party, and asking them to have one as a prerequisite can help to filter too mich edginess from the scene.
I also like to start with combat or some other dangerous situation. I start with some talking and a breef introduction to the aim of the adventure, then have something unexpected interrupt the talking, a fight, then back to the talking.
