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.
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.