Over the weekend, I found myself watching the rightfully maligned 2007 movie "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer" and it inspired a thought. Rise of the Silver Surfer—like so many better movies—begins at a wedding. Weddings really are an ideal place to start a DnD campaign, and it got me thinking;
"What are ideal places to start a campaign?"
Ultimately, I think there are thousands of great starts but for my money, these five are my favorite.
Ideal Places to Start a DnD Campaign
Taverns
The first ideal place is a fantasy classic; The tavern. I will never forget reading Dragonlance and being completely taken in by the vivid descriptions of The Inn of the Last Home. Taverns are great meeting places full of opportunities to introduce interesting characters and plothooks. But even I have to admit that it is a pretty tired trope at this point. It is familiar for players and that familiarity tends to lead to a little bit of stagnation.
Funerals
The second ideal place to start is a funeral. Funerals have everything we need to get a story rolling. There is an instant emotional investment by our players as they morn a loved one or celebrate the death of an enemy, each character is linked to the others right from the get-go, it is easy to introduce plot hooks like mysterious deaths and or final wishes, and there are lots of opportunities for world and theme building that we can use to set the tone for the whole campaign.
Parties
As Tolkien proved, a birthday party for an old adventurer is a perfect place to start a story. It has opportunities for worldbuilding (firework dragon anyone?), plenty of interesting NPCs to introduce, and a group of adventurers gathering all in one place is an excellent time for the BBEG to strike while no one is expecting it. So, whether it be an old friend retiring from the life of adventure, an invitation to a mysterious dinner party, or the birthday party of an old friend parties are full of opportunities to introduce a campaign.
Imprisoned
Starting with the characters in prison can be a great way to introduce the characters and the world. It allows us to place them in a closed environment with strict rules and built in bad guys and gives them a reason to team up whether that is to escape or to survive. There is a reason every Elder Scrolls game starts with the player character in prison and that is because it is a great way to build a tense and strong start to a campaign. It prompts immediate response to the question:
"Hey, you, you're finally awake".
Weddings
Weddings are a happy medium between parties and funerals. Like funerals, they give us a fantastic chance for each character to have a connection. Perhaps they are a relatives or friends, maybe one of them is a former lover, maybe the rogue snuck into the wedding to snag some free food and drink. There is also nothing quite like an interrupted wedding to kick off the action. Maybe a villain kidnaps the groom or an assassin poisons the cake. There are a thousand great plot hooks you can introduce at a wedding.
It is no easy task to start off a new campaign. We want to introduce characters that will be meaningful later on, give our players a sense of the world and how their characters fit inside of it, and give them a common goal that binds the party together. Session One is a tricky balancing act but with a little inspiration from the fiction around us (even a movie as ridiculous as Rise of the Silver Surfer) and some solid GMing basics we can pull it off without a hitch!
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