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Post by joatmoniac on Mar 3, 2015 20:13:24 GMT
Loved this episode because I don't enjoy the stereotypical trope of the tavern. It definitely has its place, and for one off games it can work beautifully as a simple intro of "You all meet in a tavern, bad thing X needs handling, you all trust each other implicitly, let the monster slaying begin!" I recently had to use a more interesting method of starting a campaign, as I wasn't very strict on what races the PCs could choose from. Long story short the party is a Grippli (frog man) samurai, an Aasamir (half-angel) battle priest, a Tengu (bird man) alchemist, a Vanara (monkey man) cleric, a half-medusa (custom race) thief, and an elf ranger who is serious considering a race change because of how weird he essentially is in comparison. As you can imagine a tavern isn't really the place for them all to meet. So instead I took the most plausible NPC in the prewritten adventure (a high level transmutation wizard.) I built an NPC out of the idea of his familiar being transformed into a catlike person through magic, and becoming a wizard himself. I then had the now wizard familiar summon the party from all across the land into the home of the wizard, because the cat is very impulsive and the wizard kept saying he needed help, so why not just summon it?
I really really want to use the resurrection idea presented to spur on a high level campaign. Essentially things have gotten so bad that the people currently living in the world figure that the only way to combat it is to raise the heroes of yesteryear to help fight. This allows for some amazing backstory. You can have them flesh out their past deeds, and their ultimate demise.
What was everyone else's favorite part of the episode?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2015 19:33:28 GMT
Good episode, and the topic is certainly worthy of discussion. On a personal level, though, I didn't get much out of the meat. I haven't started a campaign in a tavern in... ever? At least, not my home made content. When it comes to published modules, I tend to run them by the book. If they start in a tavern, so be it.
Story Time was awesome, though. Drunken barbarian-wizard... Barbzard? Wizbarian? Whatever you call it, magnetic hiccuping sheep is the mad, mad result. Good stuff!
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Post by dm_mainprize on Mar 10, 2015 17:07:56 GMT
Loved this episode as well and listened to it on the flight back from iceland. My only feedback would be that while you covered a lot of great ways to start a campaign, it was more general campaign ideas and not location as specific as the tavern we were trying to avoid. So I jotted down all the listed ideas from the meat and have tied them to the actual location they could start in.
Prisoners -Jail -Prisoner Transport Carriage
Shipwreck -On the boat/airship -On the Beach -In the Ocean
Dream Sequence/Fashback -Anywhere
Ressurection -Graveyard -Laboratory -Morgue
Battlefield -War Camp -Commanders/Generals Tent -Mess hall/ feasting tent
Council meeting -Castle -Government building -Ancient council site
Common Enemy -anywhere -enemies lair
Summoned by gods -Churches/cathedrals -Shrine/Temples
Funeral -graveyard -funeral home
Guild members -guild hall -secret hideout
Bounty hunters -local bounty board where posters are hung -sheriffs office
So that is more of what I thought would be presented in the episode. Again I think the episode was great and I got some solid Ideas out of it, but it seemed to me to be more general "this is how you start a campaign" and less these are places to start your campaign that are more unique than a tavern or inn. Keep up the awesome episodes, about to listen to the survival/horror episode!!!!! Also glad to be back from Iceland!
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Post by DMC on Mar 10, 2015 17:46:12 GMT
It's funny, I just did the "Dream Sequence" thing when I started my current game a few weeks ago. They all had the same dream. Said they already knew each other, etc. Got in a fight with some Kuo-Toa, etc. Then set off on the high seas.
Then they woke up, and had no idea who each other were, but when they saw each other in town, they were like....Waaaaaait a minute, I feel like I know you, but...not? It was a kick-ass RP session afterwards as they actually got to know each other.
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dmstevev
Commoner
Developing a new campaign for 5e
Posts: 9
Favorite D&D Class: Cleric or Wizard
Favorite D&D Race: Human
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Post by dmstevev on Jun 26, 2015 20:24:13 GMT
I just finished listening to this episode and it has helped me out with my current starting point. I can't remember any specifics on having my games starting out in a tavern, though I am sure I did when I was younger. Of course now I can think of a few interesting ideas on starting out in a tavern. Thanks for posting the main points from this podcast, dm-mainprize. Now I won't have to go back and take notes.
In the 5e campaign I am working on, I was just going to have the players start right in the middle of the action, with no background as to why they were together. I would just have them assume they have been together for some time as a fight between them and a group of goblins they have been chasing for the past 2 days through the woods began. At some point, we would go back in a flashback and do their origin story when they were level 0. ( You know kind of like when they were high level, sitting in a tavern, and someone asks them about how they all met for the first time.) I've now thought better of that. I'm still having them start the first game night with the opening sequence being the goblin battle, but I am going to have the PCs all be from the nearby small city. They are finishing up their compulsory "military service" and have been together since "boot camp". They were on patrol when they came across the group of goblins and began the chase. Not all that original but it may be better than what I was originally thinking.
In my 4e campaign, I had all the players start out in a small area that I had mapped and fleshed out in quite some detail. I dealt with them on an individual basis until they were all in the same town from this area. (Some PCs knew each other from character background/creation night, so I had a couple of groups of 2. Luckily some were already starting out in the town) There was a BBEG that attacked the town they were all in and they grouped together to save it. Not really original, but it worked well and they all liked it since they each got personal DM time at the beginning. One PC had been given an item from an NPC during their solo time in the beginning. The NPC gave them this item and told them to run with their dying gasp. The PC did run right to the town and the BBEG was in close pursuit. Obviously this was something important to the BBEG and he wanted it back. Thus began the 4e game.
My 3.5 campaign I called the beginning Once in a Blue Moon. We had a character creation night and only 2 PCs ended up knowing each other before the game started- they were brothers. I gave each person about 15 minutes at the beginning for them to tell me what they wanted to do- some were in a town, some were travelling across country, some were at a festival, the players were from all over the world. At some point, they looked up into the sky and saw a full blue moon rising in the sky. This mesmerized all the PCs and they stopped doing whatever they were doing at the time. All they saw was the large full blue moon, it consumed their every thought, their very existence, and eventually all went to darkness. They all awoke in a glade next to a babbling brook and a small pond. Out of the woods came two elf like beings, a male and female. The players soon realized that they had somehow been transported to the world of the Fae and that they were before Oberon and Titania. Thus began my huge 3.5 campaign that dealt extensively with the light and dark Fae. The Fae mythology fascinates me IRL and I use them a lot in my games. (My opening adventure in 5E will deal a lot with the Fae.)
I also have a tenancy to weave in Cthulhuesque themes in my campaigns, which was another 3.5 game and is what brought the characters together from all parts of the city they started in. They were all dragged into a murder mystery and eventually uncovered a cult that was operating in the city and performing ritual slayings on the poor and dispossessed. This eventually led to a campaign where they had to stop a person from opening a gate which would have brought he who cannot be named into their world. The final adventure for that took place in a huge insane asylum.
That's enough rambling for now...
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Post by 00dlez on Oct 3, 2019 15:03:13 GMT
I had this idea while listening to the Divine Spotlight: Lathander episode, but think it's better suited here The game could begin with a communal blessing (town or village gathered in a square or market) - It could be a blessing from a Lathander type cleric praying for prosperity in the coming growing season - It could be a war cleric blessing the last of the brave defenders before the town is attacked. * - It could be a cleric of death giving a eulogy for a prominent member of town (died of plague? died in battle? was murdered?) - It could be a cleric of travel (or the sea, or storms) blessing the members of an expedition before they venture into the unknown * A few examples from Kingdom of Heaven - If you've not seen it, you must. Get the directors cut and buckle in for 4 hours - its a great movie by itself, but it is full of inspirational stuff for almost any campaign - shipwreks, political intrigue, war... on and on!
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lorddundar
Commoner
Posts: 11
Favorite D&D Class: Fighter/Cleric
Favorite D&D Race: Dwarf
Gender: Male
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Post by lorddundar on Oct 20, 2019 16:29:02 GMT
I loved this "Your not in a Tavern". I think that I have used in the past many of the ideas given. One thing I did with my "Kids Campaign" was start one player in the Tavern to meet a priest of Pelor (soon to be Ally/patron of the party) another on the back of a wagon traveling with a merchant to the meet a friend (the first player), and the last player is traveling back from a legion encampment as he left the military. They all ended up in the tavern but each was able to explain their backgrounds and have a different entrance into the tavern and the group as a whole. Once the NPC priest noticed them he saw them as tools of Pelor to solve the problem facing the Kingdom, and off they went adventuring.
This way the kids start with the classic "Your in a Tavern" but also got to see different ways to begin a campaign.
My plan, as more kids want to play, is use the festival approach for another adventure hook, and who knows maybe a funeral of a player (I told them that character death could happen).
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