How to Start Your D&D Games

DM: you are in a tavern, feel free to roleplay. Players: sit around the table awkwardly DM: why is no one having fun? I specifically requested it.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" "IM LITERALLY PLAYING SHREK" ah yes dnd

“Most DM’s like to start their games in an easy neutral environment” does the funeral for the mothers of a party of estranged siblings count as an easy, neutral environment?

3:24 I immediately got all the second-hand excitement from hearing a player's character being introduced and described by the GM. Nice

"It doesn't say!!!", Is such a DM mood.

You: "Don't toss them into a void." Me, who takes that as a challenge: You find yourselves in a void.

My favorite is DM: “y’all meat at a tavern” Veteran player: “ugh here we go again, another tavern intro” DM: no you misunderstood you are meat at a tavern. You wake up hanging from meat hooks. You watch in horror as an ogre places a live dwarf tied to a spit over a fire with an apple shoved in the dwarf’s mouth. There are two other figures still knocked out hanging from hooks to your right. Role initiative. What are your actions?

"You start in a tavern. Around the room, you see four hooded figures, sitting in different shadowy corners."

"WHO ARE YOU!?!?!?!" "I AM LITERALLY PLAYING SHREK!!!" LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Using calculus to get your friends together to play D&D. That one hit home.

I had a lot of success with the way I started one of my early home-brew campaigns: Not in a tavern but an open-air festival (DM to choose reason for it). I spend just a few minutes describing the scene - the food available, the entertainment, the general mood, etc, while placing some unimportant NPCs in front of them and allowing them to interact if they choose to. I never ask for character descriptions (which is pretty boring for everyone and no-one ever remembers anything anyway). Any questions the PCs may ask of the NPCs gives me an opportunity to tell them a little about the campaign world and immediate surroundings (just in case of the highly unlikely possibility that someone didn't bother to read the world description and background that I gave them all beforehand). As soon as the players get into the spirit of the game, a bloodied messenger staggers into their midst and blurts out his final message before dying (I allow the cleric to save his life if he/she acts quickly - and give out a small XP award for doing so - immediately rather than waiting for the end of the session). The reason for the immediate reward is to indicate that I reward players for role-playing their characters and interacting with the world in an appropriate manner. The messenger is recognized by some of the NPCs present as being one of the guards on a trade caravan that left town the previous day. This hands the PCs their first quest - to find out what happened to the caravan - which leads to a one-session adventure during which I drop several seeds for other quests and see which ones spark an interest in the players. If they don't follow one of the other leads, they will be approached by another NPC (an important long-term ally this time) just as they return to the starting village. She has important information to fuel the start of the main campaign.

I just had, by far, the best intro to a DnD game ever. I met these guys through a videogame we all played on, and when i proposed a game, they all joined. 4 members, a Human Paladin (His first time), a Cleric Kobold who is very young and alone, a Dragonborn paladin who has been aimlessly wandering in search of his kidnapped son, and a Tiefling Rogue who used to be apart of the largest crime syndicate in the world. They started at lvl. 5 since its easy to throw decent sized threats at them. The Dragonborn was sitting inside the Tavern, drinking Ale in preparation for a long hike through the mountains, when the Human walks in. Both being Paladins under similar oaths, they start drinking together. The Tiefling steps off a large merchant ship in search for quality wine. As he moseys over to the Tavern, he sees an unusual sight, a Kobold fishing a frozen fishing hole. He walks over and asks in (Brainfart dont remember what lang.) if he was hungry. The Kobold nods, and they both go off into the tavern. Players did that. All on their own. I felt like fat thor sticking his thumbs up in great anticipation.

OK, so what you're supposed to do is toss them into a tavern, introduce one of the characters as a joke, then have them all fall down a void. Got it! Also, nice shirt. No idea how that handsome lad is wanted for arson though.

It's scary because one of my players is in fact literally playing Shrek.

I like the idea of starting a campaign on an airship. In general, the characters are being ferried to a specific city, but it means they have a tiny sandbox with a specific number of NPCs to work with and just enough to establish the type of setting you're working with. The characters can be general passengers, or perhaps a playef with no money or possibly with a bounty on their head would be a stowaway. Use the crew or NPC passengers to guide the situation to help the players stretch their feet a little, until- Oh no! The ship suddenly lurches as a smaller vessel rams the port side and a gang of brigands begin to board the airship! With enough guidance, the Players SHOULD have a common rapport by the time they disembark. If they need more of a push then maybe, as thanks, the Captain is willing to put them up in a set of rooms at the tavern for a few days until they get their bearings.

I had my campaign start in a tavern by introducing each character based off what I knew about them, but I also described how there was an entire other adventuring party celebrating having returned from a quest. Gave them a little while to interact with the tavern for a bit before an assassin dropped down from the rafters, wiping out that entire npc adventuring party in a surprise round. The last member of that party literally threw the magical mcguffin to one of my players characters, and the other two had to defend him from the assassin. Giving them an instant purpose for working together and a motivation they could go after the fight was over.

These Oblivion throwbacks are just chef's kiss perfection.

Step 1: Arrange to meet up the one day of the year when everyone doesn’t have anything else to do. Step 2: Watch in horror as everyone cancels 10 minutes before the session. Step 3: Cry Step 4: Find a new group and repeat steps 1-3

Session 0: everyone introduces a "at a glance" of their character, the basics of who they are Session 0.5: idividual itty bitty one shots for each player, to get them hsed to the setting and lead them to the primary location Session 1: everyone is at the primary location, and has been given a reason to follow it through 0.5, let the games begin

one of good ideas as how to start a game is to maybe give everyone one little connection (soldiers that fought in war, not knowing eachother and now they live normal lives after peace treaty for example) That grants players a topic to talk about in roleplay and also a reason why they maybe gonna be together