Adventure Starters #2
Strangers On A Boat
A great way to start a campaign or story is having the party
separately traveling to a new destination from point A to point
B for their own various personal reasons. The session would
start out with all members at sea or travelling down a wide
river or channel on a passenger ship/ferry. This will be a
great opportunity to almost force the party to interact with
one another on a ship as it will probably only be carrying a
few dozen or so passengers. In a larger group of players you
could ask one player where and what they would be doing on
the ship and play that out to them running into a second party
member. Create a couple different interactions amongst the
players before progressing with the initial story. After which a
variety of options could unfold.
While a few of the party members are chatting and getting
to know one another as the DM you could be pointing out
several shady looking characters on the ship as well,
perhaps all dressed alike. If a party member explores the
ship they will notice that several of these people
congregating in the cargo hold almost to be on the lookout
or protecting something. Something could threaten the
ship causing these secretive cloaked figures to reach out
to a few members of the party promising gold to aid them
in protecting them. Perhaps they are members of a thieves
guild transporting illegal or stolen goods. Perhaps they
are a group of nobles having to travel in disguise or a
group of merchants transporting a powerful artifact.
Pirates! Alarms start sounding, the crew panicking and
running every which way. Finally you hear that dreaded
word.. PIRATES!! A pirate ship could be advancing
towards the party's ship. The pirates could be human and
are out to steal everything of value on the ship including
the parties items and gold. The pirates could be Orcs and
will be out to kill and loot everything in site. The ship will
not be able to outrun the pirates vessel and eventually will
be boarded and is a great way to push the group right into
combat. The captain of this ship will reach out to several
members of the party asking for aid to fight off the pirates
as several of the crew take up arms. The party could also
stand back and do nothing potentially as the pirates
advance and as a DM you can have the backup plan of the
party being offered a job with the pirates or walk a plank,
or be left in a sinking ship, which is a great way to start a
pirate campaign. Or can act as a way to get the party to
where you need them to go for your campaign.
Other ideas include the ship being threatened by a pack of
Kuo-toa, merfolk, lost through an aisle and several of the
crew lost to mermaids with the party having to help work
the ship back to its port or nearby land etc.
Competing Adventurers
A way I love to start adventures with a group is to act it out in
a few different parts before the party actually meets for the
first time. A great example is 2 different groups of
adventurers working towards the same goal but for
potentially different reasons. A great way of doing this is
splitting your party into your more academic group, your
wizard, sorcerer, cleric, etc. And having a group with your
fighter, ranger, rogue, barbarian, bard etc.
The adventure could start out with team academics being
hired by a local wizards guild or a powerful family looking
at uncovering more information about a lost powerful item
or weapon or artifact, a long lost ancient scroll of power. A
new day begins with them exploring a large new chamber
of the tomb or site they are studying. Eventually either
through serious investigating or clues left through text or
pictographs the party discovers a possible secret chamber
door in the form of a part of a wall panel that needs to be
moved. The party members would not be strong enough to
move it. Cut scene to the other group of adventures having
just sneaked into the tomb knowing that there is some
excavating going on. They are looking at looting and
potentially finding a nice little payday in the form of gold
or jewels. They enter a room in the tomb that would have
something of value that the party would want to grab,
perhaps a throne chair with a skeleton in a nicer suit of
armor or holding a nice sword sheathed. Something
would trigger and activate a trap that would turn the room
floor to sand and the party would fall as there would be
nothing in the room to hold onto. This could be an
activation of a self defense mechanism like the boulder in
Indiana Jones for example. The group would fall through
the floor into the main chamber perhaps taking a little
damage because they would fall onto a large pile of sand
infront of the other members of the party. There could be
a brief exchange of "what are you doing here's" until
something would arise that the group would now have to
deal with, perhaps a mummy coming out of a nearby
sealed coffin, or rising skeletons as an ancient defense
magical spell. After the chaos ends the party could then
deal with the door found with the help of their new friends
potentially. Depending on what is found. This could lead to
all kinds of negotiating between members depending on
what each person's goals are. Depending on where you
want the adventure to go to next they could discover an
item that needs to be returned to a powerful noble or
something that needs to be transported to a specific
wizards guild far away. An old scroll written in an ancient
form or elvish, dwarvish, giant, something that would
overlap into your next planned adventure. The
adventuring side of the group will want to be paid and the
hopefully the wizards sorcerers etc will want answers.