Alternate starts other then the you all meet in a tavern?

Alternate starts other then the you all meet in a tavern?

Your prison ship sinks, you all wash up on unfamiliar shores with little to no equipment or provisions

the PC's are all using the portable toilets at a festival when disaster strikes.
And flips the porta-shitters over.

You're all court officials at the same court. Any other workplace that calls for a variety of people with diverse skills can work for this as well.

You all meet in a tavern...30 years later, for a little get-together. The entire campaign is a flashback to the original events as you guys tell the story to a rapt audience in the tavern.

The flashback-campaign begins in media res, which is of course best res.

"So there we were as the giants descended upon Triboar..."

You stand before the your lord,
answering his summons.
Rumors to the North say over three Lords in neighboring holds have fallen to some 'Eternal champion'.
It's a Monday......you hate Mondays

You all meet at an orgy

Slaanesh orgy or normal decadent nobles orgy?

You're all looking for a short job and the burgomaster is recruiting all able arms on the main square...

You all meet in a brothel

the inn overbooked, you all meet in room 2B

Oh that would be comfy.
I d put at some Key moment conflicting memory and encoraging player to correct another one about what really happened, Tales From the Borderlands did that sometimes, it was hilarious, but its not something to be abused

>You all meet at a restaurant
>You all meet at a guild meeting
>You all meet at the local gods church
>You all meet at a carnival
>You all meet at the theater
It's like you're not even trying

Would be a super comfy campaign, but you'd need to have players on board with a full narrative campaign. Combat would be kinda pointless.

You all meet in a tavern in a whale floating in an aquarium.

What kind of campaign are you running?!

You all meet inside the Wizard's head.
No, you don't know whether it's metaphorically or physically.

wat?!

They are all prisoners on a prison boat. Their gear gets stripped from them, they are lined up, forced to drink a potion/be the target of a spell that makes it so they can only breathe underwater, tie their ankles to an anchor and drop them into the deep blue sea. Or at least that's how I started my underwater campaign.

you meet in a town hall to discuss what to do about _________ with your community.

A tavern decides to meet up within all of you

the latest one I've had was: You're all at a festival in your farming village. The mayor is mad at you all because someone put his cow in his living room.

related question to OP, what would be a good plothook to get the players to actually do something?

You are all waiting in line to put a case before the king. Suddenly everything is on fire. Work together to escape or burn.

you bitch

Oh yeah, I'm going to be all over that. Though this being D&D it's still going to be a sort of little subgame. I'm calling them "plot twists".

>THE PLOT TWIST DECK
>The Plot Twist Deck consists of 13 cards: 10 distinct cards, and 3 copies of a card called That is Not What Happened!
> At the start of the campaign, the Dungeon Master takes one That is Not What Happened! card, shuffles the deck, and then draws two additional cards. Then the players draw one card each. The remaining cards are set aside for the moment.
> The Dungeon Master and players keep the cards they drew secret from each other – no one but you should ever know what Plot Twist you have in store, until you actually play it.

>PLAYING A PLOT TWIST
>At any relevant time, you can play a plot twist card. Some plot twists only work under specific conditions.
> Once you play a plot twist, its effects generally happen at “the next convenient moment”. If not in combat, this usually means immediately, or close to it. If in combat, this means on initiative count 0.
> The Player Characters may play only one Plot Twist per session. The Dungeon Master can play as many Plot Twist cards as he has available.
> Once you’ve played a Plot Twist, you discard it. Discarded Plot Twist can’t be used until the Plot Twist deck is shuffled again.

>DRAWING NEW PLOT TWISTS
>If you’re a PC and you don’t like your Plot Twist, you can discard it and draw a new one from the deck, provided there are still Plot Twists available in the deck.
> If you’re a Dungeon Master, you can’t draw new Plot Twists at all until it’s time to re-shuffle the Plot Twist deck.
> At the start of the session, if no player character has a Plot Twist card, all Plot Twists (including any that the DM currently possesses) are shuffled into the Plot Twist deck. The Dungeon master gets a new That is Not What Happened! card automatically, draws two more cards from the deck, and then the players each draw one new card of their own.

You all meet outside a tavern.
You all meet beneath a tavern.
You all meet where the tavern used to be.

Serious question here, are there people out there so stupid and lacking in creativity that they can't think how to start a game? Really?

Why would they all meet right there and then?

I think meeting in the sewers beneath a bar might actually be fitting for games like Vampire:TM

I've spent all my time trying to make a compelling storyline and a homebrew world for all my campaigns to fit in so they can all click together and be something nice to look back on.

You're all in prison, how each character got there is up to the player, be it they were framed, actually committed a crime, etc.

You're all siblings

Hey, Martin did it.

>You all meet at the town square where an execution is taking place.
>One of the PCs is about to be executed. Little do the people know that he/she has (PC and/or NPC) friends that are about to intervene.
>Another PC is a silent supporter of the executionee. He or she takes advantage of the chaos to help the party escape.
>One of the PCs is someone else that is about to be executed as well. That PC could be wrongfully executed, innocent, guilty, an accomplice of the executionee, or a part of an unrelated crime. He or she joins for his or her own personal freedom, but may or may not care about the rest of the party aside from having someone to trust.

So Pirates of the Caribbean 5, then?

>Captain Jack Sparrow: Guillotine? Sounds French. I love the French! [sees what the guillotine actually is] ...Here's an idea, how about a good old-fashioned stoning? I'd kill to be stoned right now!

Custom tailored based on the characters and the campaign you fuck

I have a super hero campaign going down, where they all had private games before the first game, explaining the reason they ended up at Ground Zero, where a bomb went off giving them super powers. They all woke u[p a month later in the same hospital.

> Custom tailored based on the characters and the campaign you fuck

I'm going to choose to interpret this as "you all meet in a tailor's shop."

Classy.

I once had my players meet at a tavern, except the tavern was on fire. The first part of the game was them working with the local guard to figure out who burned it down.

They all already know each other and have been hired to assassinate a target together. They are lying in wait and the targets caravan is just now approaching.

You all meet in a tavern brawl. Roll initiative.

I'm gonna use this

My most recent start: PC's are hooded and chained in a prison wagon being transported to the capital. They were all arrested for various crimes, some legitimate and others under false pretenses. A powerful wizard specifically requisitioned the transfer. One night on the road they hear combat breaking out and get knocked out. They come to the next morning with no shackles and the transport guards dead. There are various traces of what happened sprinkled around, no matter which they pursue they'll end up on the main quest í have planned out.

So the elder scrolls.

Yeah I guess. I find that making people fight and survive together engenders more trust than just telling them that they should be friends. They're not the chosen ones or fated warriors like in ES, more like unwitting pawns in an eldritch scheme.

I plan on doing one where the party all meet at a funeral for a mutual friend. They'll all be left something in his will in another region that's being blighted, and that'll be their plot hook. They won't know of the blight until they get there, of course.

You all meet while taking shelter in the same tavern, boarding up the windows and barricading the door.

Well I like it. Mostly. Some players will certainly be upset about being imprisoned, even if you make it clear it was unjust.

How I started my last campaign:

>You finally see the city gates after traveling for 8 days, you carry with you Lady's Vimt sealed box to be delivered
>Now tell me (player to my left) why would your character take the mission to deliver this sealed box to the Baron of Jiliartir?

Worked really good, it put them in character right away, made them improvise and think a bit more about their characters and also gave us an excuse for their group to be together.

My party loves this kind of start. They'll have to loot and cobble together gear until they get to civilization. Lots of survival checks as they trek out. If your group is less inclined to start from nothing, have their equipment stowed away somewhere with a note from the wizard explaining they were arrested for his World Saving Mission or something. Personally, I don't get why being arrested matters, it's just a hook and they'll never go back to that podunk backwater ever again.

You are group of newbie travelers who have connections with each other.

I'm planning on having them start in combat for two turns before a bomb going off that frees another PC from the prison they're breaking

Man, you sold me. Starting with no gear and collecting it as you go actually sounds really cool.

You all meet in a tavern which is inside the belly of a massive dragon who is consuming the land. You were individually eaten and everyone naturally gathered in the only building still standing in order to plot a course of action.

"You lock eyes with your future traveling companions in the annual mass orgy as you're balls deep inside your subjugated cleric to the dark one, just before the female ranger blows her steaming shemale load all over your face."

>you all meet in room 2B

All of the PCs, sans one, show up drunk at the last PC's birthday party.

Glad I did! I prefer starting with nothing so even a +1 sword feels like a huge improvement. I try and keep magic items rare but overpowered with this group too. The world for their campaigns is very magic-skittish (think psykers from wh40k or wilders from Wheel of Time). They end up stupidly OP eventually, it's a bit more of a climb though and we all love the challenge.

I feel like my group though would never want to start with nothing, even if it's likely more fun.

Yes, what sort of campaign? Sounds fun.

Now I can only think of silly ones, apparently.
>You all meet at the Parent-Teacher Association meeting
>You all meet at a ski resort
>You all meet at an anime convention
>You all meet in a smoking lounge at Chicago O'Hare International Airport
>You all meet at Alcoholics Anonymous
Dammit, I know I'm going to spend the rest of the day trying to figure out the right way to make "you all meet at a Wal-Mart" work.

I'd actually like to use "you all meet at the PTA meeting" and "you all meet at a scientific convention," but I'm just never going to be able to run campaigns where those would be appropriate.

How would you pull off "you all meet at a wedding" and "you all meet at a funeral"?

>"you all meet at a Wal-Mart"
Isn't that just Shadowrun's Food Fight?

That tavern was everyone's favorite watering hole.
The PC were each heading there for a night of relaxation and fun, only to find upon their arrive that the building has mysteriously vanished, foundation and all. Who could have done this?
Bam, reason to be in the empty lot with a reason to start the adventure thrown in.

I really like the idea of working your way up to gears. Actually finding things you NEED, not just upgrades, as loot is so rare when you've got civilization to fall back on.

>Grab some random debris
>Smash the hell out of some random primitives for their new and improved stone tier shit
>Use craft abilities to create a safe place and gear in a (maybe?) hostile environment
>dominate/pacify/entreat local tribes for laborer hirelings
>Earn your stronghold with blood, sweat, and tears

You all met in the hot springs.

Unisex hot springs.

"You all meet at a funeral" is actually a great way to do it. Have the player each come up with a way they knew the guy in the box. Have them do it individually, and independently of each other. What was he like, what adventures did they go on. So naturally each one wants to be there to pay their respects to their dead friend. Then they get to reminiscing around the hole and realize their friend wasn't who they thought he was. The only thing they all have in common is that they know Sam would never just kill himself. He had no history of depression and had too much going to just check out like that. Something's up and it's not just the secrets he was keeping.

Irish wake style.
>Well that was miserable, lets all go get drunk

You all wake up in a first aid tent, the nurse is missing, it's quiet outside.

>You all grew up in the same orphanage. You are half-siblings sharing a father. Bonus points if you are all identical siblings.
>You're all migrant workers at a farm, a sinkhole into a dungeon opens up beneath them during a work meeting.
>The party works for the Bakers Guild cooking dwarven war bread. You are traveling to the capital with a load of bread thats stolen while you are sleeping. YOUR BOSS IS GONNA KILL YOU!
>The party all work for a circus, as clowns. You are all replaced when the ringmaster finds a better troupe of clowns.
>The royal zoo hires everyone to capture a baby chimera.
>In media res open of the fraternal hazing rituals.

"This campaign is going to be about X, so make characters that are interested in X-ing. "

if it's about X can I roll an alchemist?

Man that's a sweet ass idea. I'll pitch that for our next campaign. We each take turns dm'ing but that would be a big hit. Given the guy that's going to lead it next, I guarantee he'll be using spelljammer as a base and have us crash and try to get back to spess. Calling it.

Not sure who was a prisoner, who was a jailor and who was just crew on the ship... Damn

Classics!

I unironically like this.

That's actually pretty interesting. Gonna steal.

Gonna call it San Andreas prompt.

>Alternate starts other then the you all meet in a tavern?

Each of you wakes up, dust-covered and prone on a wide dirt road. The bonds around your limbs have loosened, and you can feel the tingling in your extremities as your ability to move freely returns. "How did I get here?", you wonder, "and for that matter, who am I?"

A rumble from down the road catches your attention, looking up past the recumbent forms of the other people lying there, you see a group of men on horses come around a wooded bend. "There they are!", shouts the leader. He draws an axe from a loop on his belt and spurs his steed into a gallop directly towards you.

You all meet in a tavern. Actually, you have already, 'cause you run this place, and you better not fuck it up again (insert debts, threats to family, whatever).

Proceed to have all the usual sheaningans PCs do at taverns on the the actual PCs.

You all meet in a skirmish: as you wander about the marketplace, soldiers of [other nation]'s newly-appointed child king start to attack the city, and it's clear the guards can't handle it. Not only that, but the soldiers are striking down innocent civilians, too.
The PCs are some of the few brave people who try to fight of a small band of soldiers coming at them. It encourages them to work together by threat of death.
Whether or not the PCs turn the tide of the battle and save the day, fight back the immediate danger and turn tail, or meet up with some guard quest-giver NPC is up to the DM.

I'm running a Planescape game at the moment
>All the players have died in some way
>You wake up on the cold marble floor of the civic festhall, while an advocate muses about death and the afterlife
>find out why you ended up in this weird shithole
fun so far.

Best start in my experience has been 'you're all prisoners.' Sometimes there's even an initial bit of scavenging if you don't get any equipment when/if you escape, and it forces you all to be together and work through a rough situation, instead of just going 'oh well I guess I'll join up with these random people for reasons even though I just walked into this town.'

>Alternate starts other then the you all meet in a tavern?

Here are some of the more interesting ones I've used before:

-The party meets up in front of the town's adventuring forum. They must find one another in the small crowd of other inexperienced adventurers.

-The party finds themselves inside the stomach of an unfathomably large beast. They must work together and find a way out that doesn't involve them being digested.

-The party meets while on a wagon ride to the front lines of a large ongoing conflict. They are, unfortunately, the reinforcements.

-The party has been petrified and then jailed inside a massive mega-dungeon for their crimes. They can learn to live inside of it with the other convicts and exiles or make a daring escape through the massive, semi-subterranean, complex.

Dunno about pointless, you just gotta raise the stakes some other way besides threat of death but yeah mostly narrative.

what's the difference? They're both degenerate as fuck.

>tfw any slaanesh reference could instead read "the aristocrats"

>tfw any slaanesh reference could instead read "the aristocrats"
You motherfucker I nearly shat myself

You all meet in a building you just happened to take shelter in from the literal flood of cats that has just poured out from the nearest dwarf fortress.

that sounds awful desu. You either need a game focused around that mechanic, in which case you need a bigger deck and for the DM to have a greater degree of control over the plot twists(DM gets 3 plot twists for every ten the players use? Seriously?), and they need to be largely neutral(some good, some evil, lots of situational) rather than almost all helpful as those ones are, and so on. It'd also have to be the main way of encounters happening and so on. Basically Hand of Fate, if you've played it, is what you'd want.

I hadn't heard of this before (I'm not familiar with Shadowrun), but yeah, that's right.

The first session is the mandatory hot springs episode? Madness!

Yeah, that would be a really good start to a somber, creepy campaign.

My thought was that weddings and funerals are both occasions where people who don't know each other that well could plausibly meet and interact.

>The party finds themselves inside the stomach of an unfathomably large beast. They must work together and find a way out that doesn't involve them being digested.
What sort of beast did you use? Did it come back later?

>The first session is the mandatory hot springs episode? Madness!

I kinda did it in Tenra, but no unisex.

>well, when the ninjas started doing their business shit went hectic as fuck.

The party stands above the corpse of the chimera they just killed. Joy and laughter are heard after the hard fight, and the characters think about the gold they're going to receive if they bring proof of murder.

Which one is your character? What's he doing? Is he wounded? How's he gonna spend the money? How did he meet the others? Did he have a prior connection to one of them (i force all my PCs to make at least one connection between them, such as friend, brother, rival, lover, whatever).

Bam, character generation and problem (obtain proof) instantly. Replace chimera with bandit lord or whatever.

Each member is at the festival to enter a grand competition
They all got there late and the only open event is a team sport
And there's only one slot left available.

There is a game system called Hillfolk, or drama system, that has this really sweet system for character creation, in which all the characters are determined to know each other, the game itself is so-so, but ever since I bought it whenever I DM a game of another system I have my players use elements of drama system to determine everyone's relations to each other, and then just have the adventure start from there.

I think there is a free pdf on the interwebs somewhere if you want to check it out.

You were all hired to escort a traveling merchant through a mountain pass. There's an avalanche, everyone roll to not get fucked by the giant wave of snow
I'll roll for the merchant
>roll, don't even look
oh he's fucked
Looks like you guys can't get back through the passes until winter's over, have fun on this side of the plot.

they loved this campaign

You hear a whistle and the volunteer city guard is forced to assemble at the city square due to dragon attack. It flames down the town, and the party switches from "fight monster" to "rescue people"

Bam, party is all armed and ready, and you can start with them going after the dragon which killed their town.

----
Alternatively, the Final Fantasy II

Have the party escaping their doomed home town. Run them down with knights, hopeless bossfight style. They wake up being ministrated by the Royal Physician. Join rebels, fight empire, done.

You all come to in a ditch.
There is a corpse.

You all come in each other. There is a corpse.

There is come in a corpse. You all ditch.

But can you 'That's Not What Happened!' a 'That's Not What Happened!'?

The stakes could STILL be death if there are means of resurrection. Maybe keep the status of the PCs in the tavern vague, so maybe one of them got reincarnation cast on them and came back as a squirrel or some shit.

The party awakens after being brought out of a medusa's lair. An adventuring cleric NPC has slain the beast & passed on, staying just long enough to unpetrify the victims. Everyone can be from different times & such & its a real mixed bag

When I have a party new to D&D I have them start in a dungeon where they've all been imprisoned for whatever illegitimate reason. I find it's a good way to teach players the basics since they're in a confined room and a simple goal.

"You all wake up in an insane asylum under other people's names"

Of course.

Never played Hand of Fate.

> rather than almost all helpful as those ones are

I'll make it so that the DM draws them more often, but as it stands I think most are fine because whether they're "good" or "bad" depends upon whether or not the DM plays the card. For example, "Momentous Discovery" when played by the DM could allow a DM to give an NPC a Potion of Resistance (fire) on the spot when the players are favoring fire damage. And of course there's lots of potential for abuse of "It Was All A Clever Ruse" to keep a seemingly dead NPC from actually *being* dead.