How to Begin a Campaign | 5e Dungeons & Dragons | TTRPG | Web DM 

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“Wait web dm did a video on how to start a campaign?” (Shouting at level six players in other room) “Alright we are restarting the campaign give me 45 minuets!”

I started my current campaign with all the characters crawling out of a mountain of corpses, wounded on a battlefield. They went in search of a tavern almost immediately.

I once started a campaign for new players at the county fair. Zero stakes, loads of games to show how various mechanics worked, random events for them to encounter (stop that escaped pig!), and the Challenge of Dread Pin-Ya-Tah (scary music), an obstacle course ending with a 'boss battle' against "the dread beast Pin-Ya-Tah" (don't get knocked off the platform as it swings around wildly, use of fire results in disqualification). Winning the challenge gets the party proclaimed 'Lords/Ladies of the Faire', a nice paper hat, and free drinks. Turned out great, the new players had lots of fun, and in session two the mayor of the town had a reason to know the party and offer them a 'chance to make some extra money', leading them into the next part of the campaign.

You all grew up in the same orphanage, but later you're split up and sent to different schools. You're called upon to provide a cheap bodyguard to the young daughter of a neighboring dignitary, but are quickly drawn into a conflict against a sorceress who you recognize as the matron of the orphanage you were raised it... Oh wait, no. That's Final Fantasy 8.

Just had a session 1 last weekend. We started in a tavern, but before we could really do anything to have our characters introduce ourselves to each other, an earthquake happened. All of sudden the tavern is on fire and we're pulling people out of the rubble. We ended up in the street saving people. One of our players showed up 1.5 hours late (night shift that overslept), and his character was introduced by him running down the street past us to a collapsed building yelling "nooooooooooooo!"

My favourite twist to the Tavern Opener was that the tavern itself, located on steep hillside, the final rest stop into a long mountain pass, was caught in a landslide and tumbled part-way down the hill... Open with perception checks to see what order the PC's wake up, then there's other patrons and tavern folk caught in the rubble. Some might be trapped, some in shock. The rugged little town still clings to the hillside above but the alarm hasn't sounded yet. It's a kind of disaster-relief / first-responder opening... But you can broaden it into a mystery, or an attack of some kind, or a much wider natural disaster. (Edit: The joy for me was in describing it, at first, like just the most bog-standard tavern opener ever. Then just at the point where it seemed like I was about to hand it over to the players to introduce themselves, that's when the avalanche happened.)

For me "Start in the action" doesn't mean start in combat, it means start in a scenario where action with consequences is afoot. I might throw a singular roll at a party member or two, but the main meat of the scenario would be; you've come to this dungeon, you've slain the goblin king in this area, and you have his treasure, but the bridge to took to get here has collapsed. Now the only way out is to go even deeper into the caves.

Shout-out to one of the most classic ways of forming a party, the The Breakfast Club method.

I'd love to see a video on how to END a campaign well.

Players not willing to work with a DM on starting a campaign (w/e the scenario) says a lot more about the player than the campaign or DM. But that’s just like my opinion man. Edit: also, Jesus! 175k subs. I think you have like 100-200 when I joined. Grats on your much earned success!

I once started an adventure, all Bard party (they were a band,) right after they had dealt with a dragon. They had a real challenge ahead of them back in town ... a battle of the bands! The band leader, Edward von Halen, was putting his new band up against his old band, which had been stolen from him by his mortal nemesis, Samaiel of Hagar! So the adventure started with them trying to get out of the dragon's lair, with treasure and few hp, past the traps that they had not set off on the way in. The meat of the adventure was at a big tavern, as opposed to starting there and then leaving for the adventure. The battle of the bands took place at that wonderful establishment, the Smurven Hammer. There were on-stage fatalities, but it was okay; no band could compete without signing waivers. This adventure was run for a friend of mine's bachelor party. All players were musicians. One of the best games I have ever taken part in.

A common start I use is what I call "the shipwreck" all the players were passengers on a ship(or airship) when it was wrecked then I have one of the PCs wake up and find the other PCs one by one and perhaps a macguffin this encourages the PCs to work together to survive and find civilization then when they are safe they find out more about the macguffin which leads them to the next adventure.

I love the idea of asking players for a wish list. Definitely going to do this with my next campaign, whatever system/style it ends up being.

THE BEARD HAS RETURNED

Talking about a wake at a tavern. "How do you know the deceased? Who's in the casket." I'm dead.

The group missed/ was late for the adventure hook... Like how Ash ocer slept and missed Prof. Oak handing out pokemon in episode 1

One morning my players woke up in the middle of a big city and they were literally the only ones in the world. That happened in the middle of a campaign, but it might be a neat way to start out.

My most memorable start to a campaign was when I had a one on one session with each of the players. This was done so that each if them would have their own unique reasons for joining together in a party. It was played out in their own perspective instead of just saying you have your own reasons. Not to mention it really adds more to the background of the characters because when you play the scinario of how they joined, many new things will be added. The reason for joining the party will be fleshed out and more unique then just "we all know each other." Not to mention there is this aspect of assembling a team slowly as the party find each other one by one.

I'm realizing I've been planning campaigns with the assumption that I have to start off with some sort of momentous and intense event, because that's how I'd want a first session to go as a player. I really haven't been able to wrap my head around what it's like to not come to the first session with an extremely fleshed-out character, but this video has given me more perspective and ideas for what that's like and how to plan around a player group with such players.

My last game started with a ship wreck in a foggy island with people just a little too fish-like. Yes, I do like Lovecraft haha.

I would love if they had a look at the compendium of forgotten secrets. it would fall perfectly into what Jim wants in a book.

My partner and I are starting a 5e Eberron Homebrew soon and it's literally going to just the two of us. Who else has done successfully fun campaigns with only 2 people? Great video - so many useful insights! Thanks again for really dynamic content!

My current game started like a scooby doo episode lol we were all invited to a creepy old mansion and (obviously) there be some monster killing people. Hijinkies insue and turns out the grounds keeper is summoning low level demons to kill the family in order to take over the estate. Was awesome lol

Just started Saltmarsh with a crew splitting up after their ship was attacked. 3 stuck together, which are the PCs.

the list of things that they feel like they would miss out on is a really good idea

I'm planning a new game and whenever I think of the beginning I can't help but think that Jim would be proud. The players are a party of third-level adventurers hired by a tier-three party to help with the post-adventure looting of a dungeon (Tenser's Floating Disk, torchbearing, sorting, etc.) but when they get to the dungeon, things, of course, go wrong. For the party's backstory, I'm going to ask each of the four or five players to write a *short* description of an adventure the party might've had, and part of session zero will be talking through the adventures and the characters' perspectives on it.

Now I know what the drums in the WebDM intro remind me of! It's the negotiation screen in Civ2

Starting level is something I've spent plenty of time pondering, and I've started having players start at level 2, it gives a session or two for players to explore their characters and set up some world building before hitting level 3 and really opening the world.

I had a campaign start with the players on a prison island, a couple players knew each other from the outside, 2 pc’s were cell mates, and a couple pc’s became friends for protection. Session zero would be talk of the “purge” where teams were made so winning team gets to leave the island on the supply ship, the losers became dead. They were given very basic equipment and dropped off on the main continent. Once there they had the chance to find “sponsors” who are former inmates on the island to get options to pad out their characters. The group ended up playing those characters for 3 years.

Getting an MCC reference and a Tekumel reference in the same video is a great example of why I trust this channel's advice.

I started my first ever campaign with 3 out of 4 PCs in a tavern and it went awesomely. I think because they assumed they would slowly have to talk to each other and interact but then this weird-ass creature came in begging to speak to one of them. When the player agrees to go with them the creature is shot through the tavern window. Suddenly they're chasing the assassin across the town's rooftops and they pin this little goblin with a smoking gun- our fourth PC. The remaining sessions were investigating the origin of the creature, the mysterious man the goblin was hired by and the meaning behind an unusual hourglass symbol. Been playing for over a year and are almost finished, with those first threads still connected to the story we're telling.

Imagine if Skyrim had started with you fighting with the storm cloaks and that random horse thief lol

Campaign my brother and I were writing together starts with the players in a tavern, knowing one another or not, getting involved in a bar fight started by some low level bandits trying to rip off the establishment owner... Win or lose, the constable shows up with a couple men to either bail them out or give them a back-handed compliment. If the party does well, they're told the town watch is spread thin, and are offered a side job to go after the bandits held up in a cave, leading into more and more side jobs. If they can't handle the bandits, they're asked to go clear a basement of rats or whatever, because the watch sees it as below them to do rodent control jobs. They then gain a little experience, and are asked to go handle bandits in a cave, etc.. It's a great "Zero to Hero" campaign starter, and sets the standard from the first session that players are expected to grab onto hooks, or just stay at home. The idea is that you're not on a railroad, you're on as street faced one way. You gotta move things forward until you get to intersections where choices can be made. They keep working for the guard, the guard mentions them to the armorer, and the army or noble house takes note of them, and they start getting a bunch of requests from different powers all at once. Think Elder Scrolls. The longer you play, the more side quests you have, until you forget just what it is you were going to do next.

one week after starting my first home game. lol........Thanks for the great content as always!

I started one where the group suddenly came to in a mob. Took them longer than I expected to figure out they're undead, and the mob they are in was the town being raised.

Almost at the end of our waterdeep campaign, been writting heavily to start with my first homebrew campaign this time around. This is quite interesting take on it. I had a session 0, 1 on 1 with every player so far and we played for like half an hour for their introduction and background story. At the end i had a mysterious portal open op and they were put to sleep. All 6 of them. Session one will be all of them waking up in a metal cage on a cart riding through the mountains with 1 NPC added. This is a chance for the characters to get to know each other and to figure out why the hell all of them were captured in the first place. And then an earthquake will happen and they all will tumble down the mountain and be freed from their bounds.

There is one thing I've learned from watching this channel as well as the interviews with Jim on dndbeyond's channel. Jim's beard defies all concepts of continuity.

I'm glad Pruitt and I arrived at a similar conclusion about the whole Wake idea for a campaign start. It would be a great way to have all the characters know each other (As Davis points out: "How do you know the deceased?") and regardless of what level you begin at, not only could the reading of the will include an Adventure Hook, but also be a great way to handout some cool starting items via way of inheritance! :D

I love the confusion that he thought it was specifically starting at first level, and the fact that those questions lead to actually really great advice

I had my players attempt to escape a city under siege, all meeting up on an airship that they stole to escape, as they flew away they watched as their home was destroyed. A scout ship from the attacking settlement tried to disable their ship, we had a combat and set off to warn he rest of the empire about the attacking army. Really fun and exciting session 1, had a chance for an exciting chase, combat, established the greater story at hand and a bit of roleplay to boot. If you want to steal this, go for it! (Inspired by the Mortal engines novels)

Huh a competitor for Hero Forge. Probably a good thing for us customers.

I remember my first campaign where I DMed. It started after a previous 1 shot. I was hoping to spend some time building up the world and letting them meander about doing side adventures in the meantime. My end goals were to establish the setting and the way the law works (you can pretty much do anything short of theft and assault), introduce the syndicate and a few key players like a silver dragon in disguise and a lvl 20 rouge bounty hunter, and have all of this be done while hunting down a morgue which is basically an undead serial killer. My friend messed up and invited 8 people who all started at lvl 5 to the first session of my first campaign. At the end of it all, they collectively managed to A. Pick a fight with the lvl 20 rogue B. Get caught stealing from the syndicate C. Assault the silver dragon's kid D. Kill the morgue. E. I forget how but somewhere in the midst of this 1 of them managed to get the guards after them. All of this happened before they even learned the bbeg's name. So much for starting slow.

If you're going to run with the "you all meet in a inn" put a spin on it, give the players a scenario for something to happen. You can be very creative with the inn starter scenario, give them a good reason to be there. The inn is the players favorite place to drink, so they know each other that way, and now a local crime gang shows up to rob the place, or shake down the owner for protection money. Or the inn keeper wakes up the players in the morning (with a bucket of cold water) after a night of heavy drinking that resulted in a bar brawl, since the players are the only one left, the inn keeper now tells them in order to repay for the broken furniture, they have to do him a favor (insert plot hook)

Oh my jim what is this glorious muzzle you've cultivated here lol

In my current campaign, the kingdom has an official adventuring guild called the "Irregulars" The players started at lev 1, taking their final. Their grouping was effectively assigned by the trainers for the test. The test was a sample, non-lethal, combat that allowed them to feel out their roles. They succeeded, and were told they worked well together and should consider staying together after leaving the training program.

The carriage/village threat thing works really well. We started a campaign by having the party members just be travelers who were all going on an expedition through a place that was sort of a Moria-like dwarven mine/city (i.e. exited on both sides of a mountain range). The dwarves had largely shifted from the mining business to the "escorting pioneers through this place" business. We got attacked along the way by a force that overwhelmed our dwarven escorts, fought our way out to the wildlands out west, and bonded in the process.

Just about to start a new campaign- handy stuff.

I like to start campaigns on ships. Its well-defined location, that gives reason for different kinds of individuals to be in the same location and time for player characters to meet in a more natural way. And depending on what the destination of that ship is, it can set the tone and themes of the campaign very well. Is the ship supply ship traveling to a war zone, mercantile ship for coastal metropolis or passenger ship headed for a new frontier town? The ship as a starting location is a place between the worlds, it's not the beginning and it's not the end, but it can take the characters anywhere.

That bit at the end. I totally took it (for the the whole show) as any level to start a new campaign. Not just first. All campaigns have starts right, no matter what level. Its not until later that the party starts their own story. So the start is DM framework.

The next game I was planing to start characters off with just their background, equipment and 4hp. No level 1 classes but can list the class they want to get ie training to become. So the players would start in the same area or city. Have the characters interact as their class in training. So a sage could be sent to a nearby village to get information on a folk hero to add to the library and may need an outlander to help with travel to this village. When they arrive they find the village is under attack again by the same or similar creature of people that the folk hero drove off the first time and have to work together to survive the encounter. Then return to tell the tale. The point wouldn't be to fight to defeat the enemy but to survive and perhaps gain information as to why this is happening and if it could lead to a bigger problem on the horizon.

I know Hank from Runehammer also has some great ideas for campaign intro's that are worth checking out if you're thinking of starting a new campaign.

Thanks for posting this RIGHT AFTER I started my first self-built campaign, and being super-duper stressed about it. I naturally, started them off in a tavern, bidding on an ancient artifact, and the seller (agent of ancient bronze dragon giving away all his stuff) sent them off on a random adventure to 'test them.' Feels so absolutely trite, but I really could have used this video a week ago, y'all. But thanks, looking forward to this series!

Just started a campaign; worked things out in a session zero and began them as already met and walking to a new town then almost immediately met NPCs including a random man who tells them the plot hook is at the inn. But it was easy to have the rando NPC do this because they just met an adventuring NPC and were loudly talking about their shared goal to travel to the big city of the coast and join the adventuring guild (established just before).

Love to see a session zero as well as an experienced DM building his game from start to finish to see how it's done and all the thought put into it.

I dropped a literal battleship (think ironside) on a town where several of them were. One PC was a warforged so they were on the ship to begin with. A distant war had resulted in powerful magics teleporting this battleship from the ocean to about 100 feet above this town. Then it landed and in the ensuing chaos the players were obliged to help the town and group up together. They loved it.

My first homebrew campaign. 5 minutes after I ended the season - "fuck, I forgot to give them this really important choice that was going to determine the next session." Session two was a filler session just to have something to do so I could then give them that choice at the end of the second session.

16:31 Question / potential video topic: With romance in D&D, or any TTRPG for that matter, how do you reconcile the awkwardnes when a PC wants to romance an NPC when in practice it kind of becomes the player "romancing" the GM?

My cu rent campaign, 6 players only one with experience with RPGs, was started with the players each having a goal (unknown to each other. These goals were different for each character but brought them to the same caravan as guards to traverse the steeps (think Mongolia), in the end the goals cam together against the same end. they had no reason to stay together beyond that end but came together as a group and freely entered into the larger campaign.

The thing that impressed me about the start of cr season 2 is that it starts in a tavern. I didnt even realize it until you pointed it out i was just so enthralled by everything happening

3:05 Gary Gygax started his games at third level because back then first-level magic-users only got one measly first-level spell.

I have started with the Adventurers going to a town as part of a caravan each with their own reasons to go to this town, when they arrive, the city is at the starting point of a siege, with the city ahead, and back up enemy forces coming from behind.

I like the "Baptism of Gasoline" approach to starting campaigns.

They're so excited, so full of hope pre pandemic. It has taken its toll on us all.

Great topic, I always look forward to your videos every week

Shipwreck: Old school module "Treasure Hunt" from 1e is always a go-to with a new group. Level 0 funnel, survive together from the marauders on the island and find a ship before the Island is obliterated by an angry goddess who's temple they desecrated.

Started a Star Wars d20 game with the characters as passengers on a liner ship from the mid rim heading coreward. The ship dropped out of hyperspace violently due to a gravity well created by a planet blanked from the star charts. The ship happened to drop out in the middle of a minefield and they had to abandon ship by boarding one of the escape pods together.

My best first session did not start in the middle of the action, but it came pretty quick. They were hunting down a pig thief to get the reward so they could actually start adventuring. In session 0 we worked out how they knew each other and their desire to leave their sleepy town and adventure. It ended with the villain (who was named piggy because of his love of stealing pigs) drunk...riding the pig away from the party in a long chase scene. He eventually jumped in a river....was lassoed around the neck, and almost drowned...had his nose broke by a thrown apple and shot in the butt by an over zealous ranger. Needless to say it was hilarious.

The best way (imho) is: A high level NPC in The Town has sponsored a tournament to find a group of adventurers to go on a quest. The winners will given horses and provisions and weapons from the NPCs treasure. In turn each player fights a 1st level NPC opponent (so they win). Hooray the characters win, get their provisions and begin their quest. This start allows you to give a few rounds to learn the game. Also with this basic set up a DM can begint o weave all sorts of intrigue and plot.

I actually had them all start at a fair as a cross roads trading post was being recognized and now joining Neverwinter, they all play games that show them how to use game mechanics and then have to fight goblins at the end, meet an NPC that (a healer cause they didn't have one) and take the supplies to phandelver, as thats why they met up there in the first place.

I find, for your first ever DM session, especially with new players: have them be a part of some formal organization. Maybe something like a civil militia. They could be from a village who had a bad crop, and they volunteered to alleviate the tax burden, or maybe they're serving as punishment for some small crime, or maybe they just want a chance to escape their corner of the world, and it's a chance to do that. Then the first 3-5 levels, they are given quests by a senior officer, and then they have a choice: do we continue to follow that regimented path, or do they go their own way. And you lay out plot threads for them to follow, maybe give them a contact who has some authority, and who can help them follow the plot threads without sitting in that power structure. And, for first timers all around, box things in a little. give them the scenario they're in at the beginning, and then ask them to define a character who fits into that. Have a character creation session zero, where they're allowed to talk about what they're thinking, and encourage them to maybe build common threads to explain why they're around each other. And be willing to say "hey, listen, this is my first game, and so, I'll need a little help, and that means that, honestly, I don't know how to deal with a character who is avaricious and greedy, and stealing all the time." and set those boundaries. Even say "hey, if you're this class, you probably have this kind of background, you're likely to be this race" and things like that. Simplify the game for that early part. And then let the game bloom later.

I've actually never started a campaign in a tavern

I swear to Mephistopheles that you guys are psychic, whatever I need help with you guys cover that subject soon after. Loving the work you guys!

One of the best things you can do in my opinion is take a leaf from the Fate RPGs book and make explaining how each character knows 2 other player characters as part of the character creation process, how that character helped or hindered them in the past. This opens up a lot of possibilities for the opening session as the players already have motivation to seek each other out. It also gives the players more of a chance to spell out what they want the setting to be. The other piece of advice is if you have a player is likely to only occasionally make a session, allow them to make a linch pin character who can be responsible for getting the story started, give that character means of transportation and reason to be away from the group and have that character be doing other important stuff while the player can't make sessions.

I'm running a medieval techno fantasy campaign. Initially, I had all my players start out in different corners of the world, but it was my first campaign, and that was just way too much to keep track of. So after a few sessions, I skipped ahead. I said, "The last three weeks (and maybe more) are a mystery you don't remember. You have to unlock your memories over the course of the campaign." I had them all teleport to one area and fight a strange threat none of them were familiar with. And that fight was how I started the campaign. The world is vast, and most of them have no idea how this new tech works (or how it affects the world) because it's not all public knowledge. So it's kind of an unfolding worldbuilding mystery.

Hello there. Another way to start a campaign is to have the party meet in a Marketplace. All are buying needed or desired gear, and each collects some 'rumors' about events that lead to the Adventure area.

Jim referencing Lonely Island is something I didn't expect, but I love it

*Fade In From Black* "So you're finally awake!"

Yesterday, I made my first attempt at DMing what was supposed to be a Christmas one shot. I built the whole thing based on a real-world map and decided that the characters were randomly transported to an Inn in 1920s Ipswich, MA. I went with a 5e base though because I found the most premade Christmas themed characters there. The Inn was well maintained, but there was no staff, or anything like that, just the PCs (and a bunch of mimics along with gingerbread cookies that were constructs). The Inn was just supposed to be a starting point. The mimics were only intended to react if they were messed with (Which did end up happening). The group spent the entire session searching around the inside of the Inn for booze (prohibition sucks lol) and a reason why they were there. They lit torches in the house as a light source which one of the other PCs laughed about. He is a little more familiar with human structures than everyone else, but still not from Earth. He's an elf. One of the players was an hour late. He arrived right in the middle of everyone else fighting a Christmas Tree. He's a human who was a security guard working at an IRS building, He was walking to his car when he was transported to this world. He assumes that he must be dreaming because a bird person (Aarakocra), a giant lizard man (Dragonborn), and a midget (Dwarf) are getting attacked by a Christmas Tree with a huge gaping mouth. Then he shoots lightning out of his fingers at the Christmas Tree which he feels further confirms he must be dreaming. Finally, after almost 4 hours, one of the PCs decides to go outside, and fly to the roof to see if he can see anything. This turned into about 10 mins of everyone googling how far an aarakocra can see, but only getting results that say Aarakocra have excellent vision and that they have darkvision letting them see 60ft in the dark... I decided that he could probably see about a mile and sent him an image of a one-mile radius around the Inn so that he could try to describe what he saw up there. He said that it looked like there was a town to the north and they finally decided to leave the Inn. I didn't think they were ever going to leave the Inn... Apparently, we will pick back up next week... So much for "One Shot." lol I don't know if it was my lack of experience or what, but I could not figure out how to get them to leave the inn. At one point I considered turning everything into a mimic until they got overwhelmed and left but decided against it.

Another way to start is to prepare one encounter that is an entrance to a "dungeon". Then prepare 6 encounters... at least 1 based on each character's background from session zero... then base the remaining encounters on a villain. As soon as the players finish the entrance encounter roll a d6 to determine what comes next.

What a great topic!! There are so many great ways to start a campaign, both classic and new!

I find starting easier than maintaining a campaign. Would love a WebDM video on preserving momentum in mid-level campaigns, inspiration for DMs to keep things rolling and building without repetition, that sort of thing.

My game starts in a city setting and I decided to prepare a bunch of npcs in advance. After our session 0 I learned enough about them to design 3 npcs for each of them that their characters already know. I gave them a sheet of paper with what they know of their npcs. Some of these npc know eachother so as the cataclysms happen in the city and they turn to their friends for answers they become tied to the same friend group. I think it's clever, that's just me.

I'm starting my campaign this Saturday :P This is perfectly timed - Thanks guys!

29:42 starting at a festival is a great idea. The heroes are going to hear news and rumors there (hook!), maybe see an execution of an outlaw or hear adventurers being declared outlaws (warning!), see a play about a dragon that should be slain or noblemen who are feuding (foreshadowing!), etc. They could make a little money doing whatever useless talent they chose. The festival could be attacked by foreign raiders, pirate slavers, orcs, etc. A fire could break out, a thief could get chased, an assassination could occur-the possibilities are endless! I’m a big fan of getting players to decide how their characters know each other & decided to form a company. Overland venture trade, shipping, mercenaries, champions of a lord, etc.

Wanted to leave a comment to personally thank you. With help from your videos (as well as videos from Dungeon Dudes) I have finally built a campaign that I feel wasn't exceedingly "mind-mushing", yet has enough information that it wouldn't matter where I start the campaign, or what style of campaign is played (including full on sandbox/player driven). I hope to eventually leave a campaign guide on DM's Guild, but at the same time, I feel empowered to leave it as is and just start running adventures in it, building it as those adventures and sessions come. Due to certain players I had years ago (literally not caring about anything, and just wanting to rob shops and kill whoever got in their way), along with a seriously failed attempt at a campaign about a year or two back, I felt like I fell into a total slump with my DM ability and felt like I needed to make a campaign that forced me to obtain "My Precious Setting Syndrome" and constantly keep it on rails the entire time to make sure these things never happened again. Thanks to all your videos, I feel ready and confident to run this new campaign, and I don't feel like I have the symptoms of "My Precious Setting Syndrome", even at the thought of a meteor being slammed into it.

So this came up in a session zero. We had a dragonborn, a tortle, a lizardman... and something else. And we're like let's start this party with our shared saurian heritage. Great idea. And it started as a survival/Devil's Island situation. In fact, I chose to write that into my background. "Last thing I remember was standing before the village elders. "

Great video! I think one of the best things you mentioned was about not setting huge expectations from the beginning and really just focus on enjoying it as you go. B/c from my early years playing I can't count the number of "campaigns" that i was player in that lasted 2 sessions.. B/c of the dreaded "scheduling conflicts." Particularly the younger the players are the less control you have over your schedules b/c of maybe school or parents etc etc. And so there were times when I was in groups back in high school or before where we planned to be getting together once a week or once every two weeks to play for a long campaign and then, like I said, 2 sessions later the DM makes it on the baseball team (or some other type of extended scheduling conflict) unexpectedly and that's ends up being it. Or any number of other things. So, its great to have big ideas about what you want to accomplish as a DM, but make each session something memorable of a sort. Try to have a small story arc that completes in one session. It can certainly be part of a bigger arc, but that way you don't spend a session just building up to something and then it turn out that there's no following session. So early in a campaign it can almost be a good idea to think of each early session as a one-shot, but roughly connected and with the same PCs. That way each session can be satisfying for the players and for you, and then if there's no next session then at least people had fun playing through the story for the sessions you were able to have. And the longer a group plays together the more stable it tends to get and then you can gradually start incorporating more threads that extend from session to session to have some cliff-hanger type situations. But you don't want to have some huge cliff-hanger in session 2 or 3, only to have there not be a follow-up - that can be discouraging to players and might prevent some of them from trying again if you try to get together a new group later down the road. So great ideas as always guys. Look forward to the next.

One of the better campaign starts I've seen is the Dungeon Magazine adventure "Keep for Sale" Nice mix of NPC's a possible base of operations for the characters with money drain potential forcing the party to adventure work with NPC's to rebuild and maintain with a seaport available

I started a campaign with asking the players to come up with a reason to be in jail ..even the person playing a lawful good...I cut out their equipment and it began with them all in separate cells..but able to see each other..giving them time to introduce themselves..before everything kicked off ...also leaving them to build their own inventory from nothing as they went along... it worked well with new players.. and they was all hooked into the story immediately

14:35. DINDINGDIN! CORRECT ANSWER. This is THE best way to get engageent, prevent murderhoboism, and have players taking the lead in advancing the story.

I started my campaign with my characters having no abilities. They were at a county fair at level 0. They played a few games. Rather quickly, there was a huge flash of blue lightning and they all had powers. That was two years ago and this campaign is going strong.

This was extremely helpful. I am going to start developing the ship-wreck campaign immediately. Thank you so much.

Been running a homebrew for my group in the Ravnica setting. I have them as a multiguild task force created to solve crimes that affect multiple guilds.

Easily the best podcast. Covers a wide body of the hobby.

My favourite opening: The entire party are killed and acquisition Inc revives you, at the price of indenturement

I like the conversation about not always reaching level 20. I'm pretty new to DND, and I love my current (first ever) character, but it would've been nice to know going in that leveling is a much longer process than you see in games like MMOs. As a new player you start at lvl 1 thinking "man, I can't wait to hit lvl 7 for Aura of Warding", only to realize several games in that you won't be seeing that ability for a loooong time! I definitely look much more closely at the early level abilities now than I ever did when I first started.

I typically start a campaign with... 1. Preparing Four Corner Opposition... 4 different factions that oppose each of the other factions for their own reasons. That creates 12 plot hooks. These plot hooks also offer setting information. For example the Goblinoids and Bullywugs fight for control of the swamp. Thanks to the Great Wizard Zoryya's defeat of the Ancient Black Dragon Vordalleth. 2. Then I set an in medias res scene. After the first round of action I pause for flashbacks saying something like, "As you find yourself surrounded by argry Bullywugs the last few days flash through your brain. How the hell did you end up waist deep in this swamp?" I jot down these answers and use them to seed the next adventure. 3. After the opening battle I steer the action towards a "show don't tell" world building scene. Like a carven of actors who present satirical plays about the egotistical wizard Zoryya who destabilized the region by having an affair with the duke's son and interrupting the betrothal to the Count Viscardi's daughter. 4. Then I present 3 roleplay scenarios that introduce at least 3 of those 12 plot hooks. 5. After that I ask the players what questions or thoughts are important to their character and what do they want to investigate next session.

I enjoy the ocean's eleven team assembling. The party kind of heard of each other or have worked with one another before. Giving them their little cut scenes of recruitment.

Ok, so the best campaign I ever ran started like this: Five adventurers are tied up together with magical rope that cannot be cut, broken, or untied, and with their memories wiped. Oh, and they are falling from the sky. They have 10 rounds to figure out how to survive the fall (they survive anyways, but it's the difference of them getting to land with 1 hp or unconscious but stable) and the story revolves around the mystery that has been created. Why are they tied up, why were they falling, why dont the remember anything, and so on. Great way to kick off any campaign if you ask me.