7 Ways To Start A Campaign That Are NOT In A Tavern

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The Adventurers. So picture this,
You're all sitting in a tavern and a

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D and D campaign starts. I've
been there, Yeah, we've all been

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there. Gym has already born.
So today's episode, I want to break

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you guys out of the habit of
having your characters meet in a tavern.

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Fun fact, you meet in a
tavern was one of the working titles for

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this podcast. Long ar We're going
with you, And the only reason we

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didn't go for it is I actually
really liked the idea. Someone else use

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it before I did it, So
that just shows how common this trope is,

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the trope of, like, you
know, you don't know where to

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start your campaign, You're just gonna
starting to tavern, and it makes sense.

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You know, this is where the
people of that town meet. If

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you're going to start your campaign with
the characters not knowing each other, they

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might as well bump into each other
at a place where everybody already goes.

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So it's not without merit. It's
just it's too common not to say that's

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bad. Yeah, I know,
Jim groaned, but it's only bad for

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Jim. As long as your campaign
goes somewhere, it doesn't really matter.

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Where it starts, but it might
as well start somewhere cool if you have

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the chance. So on today's episode, we came up with seven ways to

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start your campaign that are not in
a tavern. Yeah yeah, yeah,

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I hate starting in tavern. I
don't mind starting in taver like ending like

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taverns in the middle that kind of
covers all our bases there. The air

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crackles with tension as our adventurers find
themselves in the midst of a chaotic battle.

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Iro's whizzing by and spells casting colorful
lights against the night sky. They

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are already a team, pushed together
by the urgent need to escape, pursuing

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enemies as fight for their lives,
a mysterious figure of yours revealing that their

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fates are intertwined, setting the stage
for a quest of epic proportions. The

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first method we have is called in
medias rests, which is Latin for in

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the middle of stuff. The middle's
in there somewhere, I don't really know

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Latin in it. Yeah, yeah, we're in this now, but it's

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when you start, like when in
the middle of something huge happening. Combat

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is a great place to start this, but it doesn't have to combat could

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just be a kerfuffle of some sort. I think it's what in medius rest

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means. It's a in the middle
of a kerfuffle. What's Latin for kerfuffle?

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Follow that's plural. Oh, that's
actually a pasta, I think a

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kerfuff. It's it's perfuffle, k
yes, right, yeah, that's the

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yeah Latin. Yeah, that's pigline
is into the midst of things, into

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the middle of a narrative without preamble. Yeah, so, Joe, actually

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a campaign that I think is still
the campaign that we are in. I

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believe you kind of started us close
to, if not approaching something like this

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somewhat. Yeah, we kind of
did. We introduced you in groups.

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So I think one or two people
were walking down the road having just met

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towards a certain city. Was a
crossroads. We were coming from different yesh,

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yeah, exactly. You're all coming
from different directions. And before we

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met each other, we met a
bunch of bandits right kind of at that

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crossroom righth so, and it was
using that skirmish to bring us together and

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step being like, hello, I'm
an adventurer. Hello, I am also

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an adventurer. It's like, what
crazy band is stuff going down? Right?

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Yeah, yeah, I think so. Somebody a long time ago,

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I think when I first did as
a DM for Anything, told me don't

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start in a tavern or do but
you want to get to action right away.

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So the best thing you can do
is the very first thing your characters

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should do together is a fight.
Is fight something or someone. Well,

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you can do it in any sort
of place where there's action going on.

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It can be in the middle of
a fight, it can be a chase,

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and I mean you can even do
it in a chase. It's one

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of those things where you know you're
not entirely sure why you're being chased.

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You can sort of establish that as
you go. But you can have it

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happen during like a dance, a
formal ball or something like that. If

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you've got a campaign that's more like
intrigue based or something, but kind of

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anything where rather than like you say, having a conversation between the characters,

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you take that conversation as red and
you can either have them thrown together into

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this situation or you can just say, you know, you guys have been

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adventuring together for months already, and
we're just going to start with a fight.

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You know that you're in the middle
of And one of the cool things

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about doing that that in medias res
thing however you're doing it, is that

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rather than being the DM kind of
monologuing at them, well the Prince is

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this guy, and you're here,
and this is what's going on with the

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country, you can have it unfold
as part of the action. The villains,

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you know, the bad guys saying
stuff that you know, clues the

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characters in, you know, and
by cluing the characters incluing and the players

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into what's going on as the action
proceives. We call that bonus action expose.

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Yeah, yeah, a cast exposition
at level three. Now, and

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you said, like starting with the
chase, Like, the first thing I

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thought of was that movie Memento.
One of the times when he wakes up

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and kind of funny because because that's
the one I had in mind myself as

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well. One of my favorite parts
of that movie. It's it's it's just

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it's a little almost a throwaway line. But he you know, if you're

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familiar with the movie, he his
memories kind of work backwards. It's a

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it's a very strange movie, harder
to describe. Just go watch it.

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It's I think it still holds up. Am I still yeah, I think

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it's Nolan. It still holds up. It's a great Christian christ I haven't

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seen in a while. I'm just
gonna assume it holds up because it was

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great. But there's a part where
he where his memories kind of like click

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in again and he's like I was
like, Okay, I'm chasing this guy,

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and then the guy shoots at him
and goes, nope, he's chasing

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me. Yep, exactly. That's
the first thing I thought of when you

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thought when you're going to do a
medius rests chase scene. Yeah, I've

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definitely seen I don't know movies,
TV shows start this way too. And

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the funny the thing I thought of
was like you see your main character and

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they duck down and something smashes on
the wall behind them. They're getting kicked

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out of their apartment, their house, a home, a bedroom by you

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know, a partner that would I
could do it too. Yeah, it

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can be a jail break where you
and a bunch of other people are you

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know, idea we're going to get
their jail or whatever. But yes,

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yeah, yeah, that's a which
which I think shades into one of the

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other one of the other ones on
the list. But that's a way to

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do that, and you can kind
of come one of the things about the

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Immedius resk, you can kind of
combine it with many of the other things

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on this which is one of the
things that's so cool. So that's a

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that's that's im Medius rest Just start
kind of like in the middle of action,

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not necessarily combat action, and it's
a great way to like force your

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players to get the real chummy REALI. A series of haunting dreams plague each

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character, providing glimpses into a shared
destiny. As they awaken, they find

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themselves drawn to a small village where
a seer reveals that their dreams are a

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cosmic link between their fates. The
dreams are prophetic, guiding them to uncover

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ancient secrets and find a rising darkness
that threatens the very fabric of reality.

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Method number two is the dream sequence. Starting off the campaign with characters not

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even conscious is a bold move.
But if they're having like vivid dreams and

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like now instead of just being like, oh, I want to be a

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great adventurer, it's like, no, I have to go here, and

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it brings the characters to a central
location with a tied goal. Could be

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different goals, but tied somehow.
And all they know is that they have

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to end up where the dreams tell
them to go. It takes all the

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boxes. Yeah, we have a
plot point. We have a shared plot

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point that gives every character a motivation. Is what I was actually looking for.

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We have a character motivation and a
shared purpose right off the bat that

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you didn't have to go to a
tavern for. You also have a way

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to introduce them to each other before
they've actually met, you know what I

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mean. They can show up in
each other's dreams. And so when you

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appear at this place and like you
show up there and you're you know,

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dragon born, palette and gear,
and there's a half elf sorcerer standing there,

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like that half elf sorcer is not
necessarily a stranger because you saw them

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in your dream either helping you out
or you know, having information you needed

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or something like that. And so
you're kind of lowering the barrier to the

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characters trusting each other have a reason
to hang out together. I mean,

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not that you know ideally they should
be doing that anyway, because we all

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understand that this is a you know, like a team sport that we're engaged

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in rooting rogue in the corner of
the of the tavern to play along with

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this dragon Born. Now that we're
not doing that today, why would I

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join fIF question? Well, because
because of these nightmares you've had the last

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seven days that indicate the dragon boards
the only thing that can help. So

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that also helps kind of bridge the
gap between characters that, like on all

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accounts, probably would not be friends
with each other. You know, they're

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the classic you know, l's versus
Dwarves. It could be a reason why

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their friends were off the bat or
dragon Born versus everybody, change lanes versus

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everybody. These are races in the
game that are just generally not always welcome

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everywhere. So it explains the Motley
Crew. Yes, yeah, so that's

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the Yes. The dream sequence,
a bustling city is a buzz with excitement

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as our characters gather at the departure
point of a grand expedition into unexplored lands

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their mission to unveil the mysteries of
a newly discovered continent rumored to hold ancient

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relics and untold treasures. As they
venture into the unknown, they'll encounter challenges

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that test their metal and reveal a
greater overarching question. Guests, this is

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the expedition departure. So we're starting
off kind of with the quest already given,

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and they've already been briefed, and
now they're just going I kind of

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this could be very cool for one
shots, yeah, where you have a

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limited amount of time, and sometimes
all that exposition in the beginning is just

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fluff. M Yeah, I got
a bunch of teenagers that paid twenty bucks

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to play with me in the store. Let's skip all the skip all the

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lord dump that they're I'm just gonna
hand them those that I already took if

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we need to. Here's what you
know. Yeah, here's what you here's

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where you know, and and I
have a separate list of things they don't

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know, and we can kind of
just like get right into the actual quest.

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And I feel like this is something
that is probably not uncommon, just

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without really putting a label on it. Sure. Yeah, and I think

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that's where what's it called like a
one sheet, one sheet, one page,

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one sheet, one sheeter you're talking
about it? No, so so

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you can it seemed my very confused
look yeah on the podcast, but it's

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it's there, it's there, it's
you know, like a gazeteer. Oh

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oh oh okay, right, well
that's Those are usually a little bit more

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in depth. But like a one
sheet, one page, I have to

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look up the actual technical term for
it. It just gives you all of

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the the main information that you need
about your story or the story that you're

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taking part in, on one sheet. So yeah, I've never heard it

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being given a proper name. So
the last thing about this expedition trope is

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that you don't have to have a
lot of lore associated with it. You

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know, you can just say this
island rose up out of the ocean mysteriously,

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you know, and it looks like
it's dry, and there's an ancient

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castle on it, and we got
to send somebody out there to go figure

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out what the heck is going on
with it, and like that is literally

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all the characters know. So it's
all the players need to know. This

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is a great starter if, like
you said, for one shot, because

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you a couple of sentences, you
know, why are you going to do

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this? You know, you can
figure out why, but it's obviously because

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that things wasn't there before and now
it is and we've got to figure out

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what's going on with it. That
is sufficient motivation, you know, to

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get people off their asses and moving, and the players are going to learn

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about it as the characters learn about
it. You don't need a big info

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dump about what's going on, you
know, with the competing merchant guilds and

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which one of them put up the
money to send you on this expert right

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right now, that matters really,
because the whole point of it is this,

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you know, we're all you know, we've been assembled. We're going

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to go do this cool thing into
the unknown, and the point is that

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it's the unknown, and that's one
of the things that lets you you know,

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get away without doing a big,
big more dump and just get people

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right into the action. How I've
handled this in and I'm even just thinking

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of what I just said before,
like this is way more common but just

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maybe doesn't have a name associated to
it. This is almost exclusively what I

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do with my store one shots.
What I've done for those is I kind

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of just you know, went to
name generator and found some helf girl name

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and made it so that this is
always going to be their quest giver and

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because I get the same players showing
up, even as different characters, but

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the same players keep showing up.
And I say, okay, well you

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find And I don't have the notes
on what her name was, but you

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know, lady Questgiver, you find. We open in her office and she

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says, okay, well today I
received the distress call from my friend over

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at the museum and there's some disappearances
and he wants to go check it out.

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The characters receive letters bearing the wax
seal of a distant relative or mentor

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that they never knew they had.
Gathering at a mysterious estate, they learn

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of their shared ancestry and the responsibilities
that come with it. A hidden legacy

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propels them into a journey of self
discovery as they navigate through political intrigue,

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family secrets, and a world on
the brink of chaos. Method number four

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is the inheritance or the legacy?
It's the Star Wars approach. Is this

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a Star Wars approach? It might
be, this is kind of a Star

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Wars approach. This is definitely the
Baseball's approach. It without like less the

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Star Wars approach than almost like the
I want to call it like the knives

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out approach or or something like that, like like where you all got Dickens

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is yes, exact expectations. Yeah, yeah, you have the letters and

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you have this like serious benefactor.
I pretended to read that in high school.

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Yeah, oh, you only pretended
to. You should read that book.

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It's a great book. I'm not
going to do that, all right.

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Watch the movie with fair Yeah,
sure, that guy later the other

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guy Ethan Hawk god. But yeah, this is uh, this has a

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lot of like wiggle room too,
because and even in this example, like

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it doesn't have to be all the
same family. This could be you know,

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the the the mentor they don't that
they never knew about, or you

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know, the the the watchful Protector
or something like that, but we or

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the or it could be the mentor
they did know about. I don't know

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whether you guys have any of you
watched the the Godzilla show on Apple,

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the one that's told Monarch on our
Legacy the whole driving behind that show.

220
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Sorry spoiled, so so mild spoilers
for anybody that hasn't seen Monarch yet.

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This is a thing that they get
out of the way pretty quickly. Early

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in the show. But one of
the driving things in that show is a

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woman whose dad has disappeared, and
she goes looking for him and finds out

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he has a whole second family and
she's got a half brother the same age,

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and you know, and that brings
them together, and then together they're

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looking for the dad, and that's
kind of what drives the whole narrative.

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And it's that kind of a thing
where you know, maybe you know this,

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maybe you know this benefactor or whoever
it is that's tying you together.

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Maybe you know about your relationship,
maybe you don't, but that tie is

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what is going to keep the group
together, even if they've never met each

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other before. You know, that's
going to drive this story forward. Yeah.

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I actually really like that too.
And you're kind of right right along

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that monarch line. You're kind of
uncovering new things like they may have been

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a mentor to you, maybe advisor
to your father, mother or whoever to

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you, But does somebody else tell
you everything right? Right? And to

236
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somebody else? Well, No,
that was actually that was my that was

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my history teacher. What are you
talking about? Yeah, you know,

238
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and right you're finding out new aspects
of this person's personality. I love that.

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Yeah, I really like that.
Hello Adventurers. Just stepping in here

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00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:27.840
to remind you guys that we're actively
looking for submissions for our Hello DMS episode

241
00:16:27.879 --> 00:16:32.240
that gets reported every month. Send
us your burning D and D questions to

242
00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:37.440
Helloadventurers podcast at gmail dot com,
or send us a voicemail by visiting helloadventurers

243
00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:42.919
podcast dot com slash voice. Don't
forget to begin your message with Hello DMS.

244
00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:45.679
You can't wait to get your questions
and talk about them on the show.

245
00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:51.679
Send us your questions today. That's
Helloadventurers podcast at gmail dot com.

246
00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:56.480
Poorly the voice going at helloadventurers podcast
dot com slash voice. Now, let's

247
00:16:56.519 --> 00:17:03.799
get back to the show. Hailing
from a renowned guild, each character is

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assigned a unique mission that intertwines with
the others. Whether it's solving a citywide

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mystery, retrieving a powerful artifact,
or eliminating a growing threat, the characters

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quickly realize that their individual tasks are
thread woven into a larger tapestry of destiny.

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Me the number five is the guild
assignments. So this is kind of

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what you were getting at before with
some acquisitions and go Yeah, yes,

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as this is and this is similar
to what I said about the benefactor from

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my one shots and actually another DM
of friends with, actually DM Tony from

255
00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:41.000
D and D four H four,
who also runs games at the same game

256
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stores me. He does this too, and his are even more connected than

257
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mine are. He does this as
like you actually run the same character through

258
00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:53.160
all his one shots so they can
like bring their items into the next one.

259
00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:56.920
It's really well done, and he
has it as like a central office.

260
00:17:57.119 --> 00:18:00.079
He kind of runs it like yeah, yeah, like the the Grizzled

261
00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:03.119
Cop on the day before retirement,
it's like, all right, oh,

262
00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:06.720
here's what we got three things for
you today. Any Less, the players

263
00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:08.480
pick which one shot they're going to
run. These two are kind of easy

264
00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:11.920
and have decent gear, decent payoffs, and this one is the Red Guard

265
00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:15.079
and you're probably gonna lose half your
players. Wanted poster. Yeah, I

266
00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:19.160
love that. Yeah, I love
that idea. Yeah, it's he's taking

267
00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:22.279
the wanted poster and just kind of
you know, immersifying it more. Yeah,

268
00:18:22.359 --> 00:18:25.960
or what was the the Mandalorian.
I think it was like, well,

269
00:18:26.119 --> 00:18:29.359
here's here it is. This one
pays this. It's you know,

270
00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:32.559
at least the first episodes. Yeah, and then it became it's like,

271
00:18:32.640 --> 00:18:34.599
oh, what's this new planet?
Oh, I can't leave until I do

272
00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:40.559
my question? Man, alright,
p and piece Carl weathers Man. But

273
00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:42.240
yeah, this is this is another
really cool one too, and not only

274
00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:47.359
for for one shot DMS, but
even just as the campaign starter and having

275
00:18:47.480 --> 00:18:53.119
those tasks seem independent of each other
and then finding ways to tie them all

276
00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:59.720
together down the road. That's your
campaign arc, that's that's your that's that's

277
00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:03.160
that's late game stuff. Yeah,
and it's kind of cool because this is

278
00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:07.319
like a campaign starter that is,
you know, that you can use through

279
00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:11.200
the entire campaign. And I'm like, one of the things that I love

280
00:19:11.240 --> 00:19:15.160
about this that makes this ideal is
if you've got any kind of what I

281
00:19:15.240 --> 00:19:19.799
would think of as like an open
table situation where maybe you've got eight ten

282
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players that join you when they can, and at any given time, you've

283
00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:27.920
got like, you know, five
at the table, six at the table,

284
00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:30.680
something like that, You've got people
that rotate in and out. You

285
00:19:30.759 --> 00:19:33.920
know, maybe somebody works every other
weekend and they can only make every other

286
00:19:34.039 --> 00:19:40.160
session or something like that. This
is the ideal setup for that because you

287
00:19:40.279 --> 00:19:44.079
can have stuff that you know the
characters, the players that are there all

288
00:19:44.119 --> 00:19:47.440
the time. You can have a
little overarching thing that ties them in together.

289
00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:52.920
But it doesn't exclude people that can
only show up occasionally, or if

290
00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:56.359
you miss a session, it's not
gonna you know, You're not like in

291
00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:59.839
the middle of the under dark somewhere
where it makes no sense that you don't

292
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:03.240
show up for a little while,
especially if you can do these if you're

293
00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:04.039
good enough so that you can set
it up so that you can do some

294
00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:10.160
version of done in one with every
session. And this is great for being

295
00:20:10.200 --> 00:20:12.440
able to rotate people in and out
that I love it for that reason.

296
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Yeah, and then we know that
one of the worst things, one of

297
00:20:15.480 --> 00:20:21.079
the hardest parts about playing a tabletop
role playing game as you get into your

298
00:20:21.160 --> 00:20:26.680
thirties and beyond is getting any number
of adults on we know just from this

299
00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:30.039
podcast, right, getting a schedule
where it's like, hey, when are

300
00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:32.720
we all available for a couple of
hours to do something that we like,

301
00:20:32.920 --> 00:20:36.640
you're just getting us three to not
even play a game, right exactly,

302
00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:40.839
Yes, just so that is to
your point, right, that's great,

303
00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:44.160
Like this person can't make it this
week, like that, that's fine.

304
00:20:44.519 --> 00:20:47.599
Like they just they didn't want to
take this this quest on. While we're

305
00:20:47.599 --> 00:20:52.640
on topic, thank you guys for
recording today. Thank you, thank you

306
00:20:52.839 --> 00:20:55.079
for listening. But you can get
whenever you want, so, you know,

307
00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:57.240
thanks. Anyway, this is actually
very cool for you for the exact

308
00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:00.559
reason you just said. This is
not only the campaign starter, but it's

309
00:21:00.599 --> 00:21:04.440
also your your your bullet points in
the middle and your endpoint is gained all

310
00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:08.559
these to high together and then what
happens when all those are are completed.

311
00:21:10.359 --> 00:21:15.519
Also it also it also solves the
problem of a particular kind of pain in

312
00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:18.720
the ass player. Sorry I shouldn't. I shouldn't say that, a particular

313
00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:22.359
kind of player that enjoys playing in
a certain way, which is every three

314
00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:26.759
games they want to switch classes,
right, They want to switch characters.

315
00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:30.039
They don't want to keep playing the
same character through the whole campaign. And

316
00:21:30.279 --> 00:21:34.200
like, if you have a whole
story that's built up around their backstory that

317
00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:37.519
includes them as part of the group
and whatever, that can be vexing,

318
00:21:38.200 --> 00:21:41.799
right, But if it's just mission
of the week every time, you know

319
00:21:42.119 --> 00:21:45.880
they can be you know, they
can be their helf sourcer this week.

320
00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:48.519
They can play that till they get
bored with it, and they can switch

321
00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:52.519
over to be in the you know
whatever, the Goliath Barbarian, and it

322
00:21:52.680 --> 00:21:55.559
lets you know, if you've got
a player or two like that, they

323
00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:59.759
can rotate through characters and it's not
going to mess with the cohesion of the

324
00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:02.839
game because because of the way that
you're running a mission based So you're saying

325
00:22:02.839 --> 00:22:06.559
this, this will help you run
your campaign more episodic and a little less

326
00:22:06.599 --> 00:22:10.960
serial. Yeah, yeah, which
is a candle keep mysteries and what's the

327
00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:14.319
other one? Tales from the Yawning
Portal. Right, it's like supposed to

328
00:22:14.359 --> 00:22:18.720
be one shots and that's essentially that's
what this is again, acquisitions incorporated.

329
00:22:18.759 --> 00:22:21.400
Right, It's like, yeah,
it'll feel more like a TV show than

330
00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:25.839
like an epic fantasy novel, which
I'm totally fine. Which is the Holy

331
00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:30.799
Room way to run a game.
I'm watching Never Winter five zero, sure,

332
00:22:32.319 --> 00:22:40.279
oh god, I Never Winter Yes
to be Forgotten Realms five, I

333
00:22:40.359 --> 00:22:41.480
mean, oh no, I haven't
heard about that shows who's on it?

334
00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:48.920
That's is the guilt assignments that this
is one of my favorites. Amid the

335
00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:55.599
vibrant festivities of a grand city celebration, a sudden disturbance disrupts the joyous atmosphere.

336
00:22:56.119 --> 00:23:00.880
The characters, initially strangers, find
themselves thrust into a situation that demands

337
00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:04.359
their intervention. As they work together
to restore order, they uncover a sinister

338
00:23:04.519 --> 00:23:10.400
plot that extends beyond the festivities,
launching them into an epic adventure. This

339
00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:15.319
is the festival or celebration. I
love starting games or even just like this

340
00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:18.000
is good good for midgame stuff too, but like, but for today,

341
00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:22.480
we're talking about starting games at a
town festival. This has a lot of

342
00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:32.480
built in lore and info dump disguised
as just describing a particular festival and why

343
00:23:32.559 --> 00:23:36.079
the town is doing this. And
this is a little less character lord dump

344
00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:40.440
and more world lord dump. And
it's a fantastic way to just kind of

345
00:23:40.559 --> 00:23:44.759
like I like the analogy of hiding
the pills and the cheese, where like

346
00:23:45.079 --> 00:23:47.640
you give your players want the cheese, but they gotta take their pills.

347
00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:52.720
So this is like kind of just
disguising your your lord dump fantasy hospital that

348
00:23:52.839 --> 00:23:56.759
is such a dog owner. I
was gonna say that with children, it's

349
00:23:56.839 --> 00:24:02.920
like putting in the medicine in the
apple sauce. Or my my music teacher

350
00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:06.799
always told me was it's putting cheese
on the broccoli. Yeah, there you

351
00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:08.359
go where like it's like I'm gonna
teach you this cool song you want to

352
00:24:08.440 --> 00:24:11.559
learn. But this song really kind
of highlights the next lesson that we're gonna

353
00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:15.440
heart viol for a couple of months. And it's exactly why I do it,

354
00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:17.880
my students do. I just never
called it something fun. You also

355
00:24:17.880 --> 00:24:21.759
have cheese on broccoli, cheese on
literally anything? Yeah? Do you have

356
00:24:21.880 --> 00:24:27.359
cheese on different cheese? Hm?
Greatly? Yeah to the festival, Jim,

357
00:24:27.400 --> 00:24:30.839
Have you had any fun festivals in
your in your games? So I

358
00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:36.920
ran a campaign online a few years
ago where we had we were running what

359
00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:38.960
we call a West Marches campaign,
right, which is one of these kind

360
00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:45.160
of campaigns that takes place in an
area that various d ms share running the

361
00:24:45.240 --> 00:24:48.359
games and players can move their characters
back and forth between the different games and

362
00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:52.599
stuff like that. And it was
in this It was in this village that

363
00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:56.839
was like on the edge of like
a like like a big marsh, and

364
00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:03.480
their whole thing was eels. So
they had the annual Eel Extravaganza. So

365
00:25:04.039 --> 00:25:07.640
it was this annual festival where like
the Harvest of all the eels comes in,

366
00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:12.039
and so there were you know,
there were games and like eel eating

367
00:25:12.200 --> 00:25:17.599
contests and cooking contests and stuff like
that. One of the things I love

368
00:25:17.640 --> 00:25:22.279
about this as a starter is that
it is absolutely of the ones we have

369
00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:27.279
talked about the best way to bring
new players in because you can you can

370
00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:33.680
introduce the rules in a kind of
low stakes way. You know, if

371
00:25:33.720 --> 00:25:38.319
you have somebody's first strength check be
you know, they have to bang the

372
00:25:38.400 --> 00:25:42.039
hammer into the thing that tries to
ring the bell, right, you can

373
00:25:42.119 --> 00:25:45.920
have their first des check b running
up, you know, a sack race

374
00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:52.079
with somebody else, and so you
can kind of slowly introduce new players to

375
00:25:52.640 --> 00:25:55.559
how the game works, how the
rules work, how initiative works, all

376
00:25:55.599 --> 00:25:59.200
that kind of stuff without your throwing
them into a combat and they're worried that

377
00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:03.039
they're going to get sh just because
they don't know the game, and it

378
00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:06.680
helps them find it helps love about
this and it helps them find that that

379
00:26:06.839 --> 00:26:08.359
information. Right, So not only
like oh, they get to do this

380
00:26:08.400 --> 00:26:11.480
stuff and learn kind of how it
works, but they now they know where

381
00:26:11.519 --> 00:26:17.359
to find it on the character sheet, which Jason and I just played a

382
00:26:17.400 --> 00:26:21.559
one shot a week or two ago
with a group of players that were all

383
00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:26.000
different, very mixed yeah, mixed
table, all different experience levels. And

384
00:26:26.119 --> 00:26:30.079
that was the newer players. We're
definitely like what where is this? Like

385
00:26:30.279 --> 00:26:32.799
Yeah, And they had a little
bit of trouble because they, in their

386
00:26:32.880 --> 00:26:37.680
defense, I used non standard character
sheets and and we were at a brewery,

387
00:26:37.079 --> 00:26:40.519
and we're at a brewery and we're
drinking a lot. One of the

388
00:26:40.559 --> 00:26:42.640
other things I love about this approach, though, that's that is a little

389
00:26:42.680 --> 00:26:47.960
different from the others, is that
very explicitly it sets you up to have

390
00:26:48.119 --> 00:26:52.880
the first thing that the players are
doing be too. As part of all

391
00:26:52.880 --> 00:26:57.559
of this, make friends right,
find allies, helpful NPCs that aren't just

392
00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:02.720
quest givers. But this is where
like you can you know, where you

393
00:27:02.839 --> 00:27:06.720
can meet a friendly fisherman who has
a boat that can take you over to

394
00:27:06.839 --> 00:27:10.599
the island. Right, that can
then be calm and ongoing NPC and stuff

395
00:27:10.599 --> 00:27:14.079
like that. This is a town
wide festival. The whole town's gonna be

396
00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:17.480
there, And especially if you know
you've got players that are a little more

397
00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:21.400
interested in story and narrative and kind
of having fun, it's it's a great

398
00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:26.119
start to kind of show those players
that you're going to engage with that stuff

399
00:27:26.160 --> 00:27:29.880
that they're interested in as well as
just you know, having throwdowns with you

400
00:27:29.960 --> 00:27:32.839
know, with goblins and stuff.
Yeah, and as GM, I think

401
00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:36.039
it probably gives you some insight into
who those players are too, right,

402
00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:37.720
Like, it's fun for them,
but it's also going to give you an

403
00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:44.119
insight to what your players find interest. So if they're sign ups for these

404
00:27:44.240 --> 00:27:48.640
things, and one signs up for
you know, the sack races or the

405
00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:52.920
arm wrestling competition, and one signs
up for the maybe there's a tournament,

406
00:27:52.279 --> 00:27:56.839
right, the fighting tournament yep,
then with blunted weapons, of course,

407
00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:00.640
at least one of them will line
up for the drinking on test, how

408
00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:04.880
constitution roles, and you know,
maybe levels of exhaustion. So I ran

409
00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:10.400
a couple of one shots using exactly
this. One was of my own making.

410
00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:14.759
One was from a book, and
the book one did have side games,

411
00:28:15.279 --> 00:28:18.920
and it had a couple of examples
for mechanics on those side games.

412
00:28:18.920 --> 00:28:22.680
I think one was a like an
ax storm competition. I think the other

413
00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:25.920
one was like like a strength based
thing. I can't remember sop my head,

414
00:28:26.279 --> 00:28:30.240
but some players were like all about
doing all of them. Some players

415
00:28:30.359 --> 00:28:32.799
only want to do things that their
characters were probably going to be good at.

416
00:28:32.839 --> 00:28:34.599
Even before they knew what the mechanics
were, they kind of guessed and

417
00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:38.119
at least two of the players just
stood back and watched. And I try

418
00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:41.480
to make it quick so that those
players can get can get back into it,

419
00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:45.319
or I let them have their little
like shopping excursion while the other ones

420
00:28:45.359 --> 00:28:48.119
were doing that, and like in
between rounds that would cut back to them

421
00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:49.240
and like say, hey, you're
at this merchant. What do you say?

422
00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:53.559
Uh? Yeah, For some inexplicable
reason, there are players that enjoy

423
00:28:53.720 --> 00:28:57.200
shopping in these games. And you
know, yeah, those are psychopaths and

424
00:28:57.240 --> 00:29:02.039
we don't make friends of sense to
me, but we try to accommodate everybody.

425
00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:04.000
So now the other one that this
this was the game that I created,

426
00:29:04.200 --> 00:29:11.519
and this was a game designed specifically
to teach brand new players how to

427
00:29:11.599 --> 00:29:15.880
play. And that's what. Yeah, And so I I made the whole

428
00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:19.720
thing a day camp for it was
it was it was adventurer camp. And

429
00:29:19.799 --> 00:29:22.960
they're being dropped off by their parents
and putting into the put into the care

430
00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:27.880
of the the halfling scout master,
and I made him super annoying, and

431
00:29:29.039 --> 00:29:30.720
I was like okay, campers and
just said everything was like I mean,

432
00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:34.119
but he was he was awful.
I loved him in front of Wisconsin.

433
00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:40.079
Yeah, pretty much. So I
I threw together these like the starting strength

434
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:42.079
challenges, and I threw like a
random puzzle in there. And then on

435
00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:45.440
their way back to the lodge to
get their juice boxes and their lunch snacks,

436
00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:51.279
the camp counselor finds himself in a
net trap and then a bunch of

437
00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:55.880
goblins attacked them as they did so
that this this did a couple of things.

438
00:29:55.960 --> 00:29:59.319
One, it took the camp counselor
out of the equation for combat because

439
00:29:59.400 --> 00:30:02.240
he could not himself out of the
trap, and I rolled to see if

440
00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:03.000
he can get out of it,
but it was behind the screen. He

441
00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:08.119
was kidding up. It fudged.
It let them have actual stakes because these

442
00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:14.799
gobblins were after their their juice boxes. And it let the camp counselors stay

443
00:30:14.920 --> 00:30:18.559
in the combat so he can yell
suggestions if I needed to. But like

444
00:30:18.640 --> 00:30:22.359
you said before, the having their
first couple of roles be very like,

445
00:30:22.839 --> 00:30:26.119
you know, not not life threatening
roles, and your your strength check can

446
00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:29.680
just be you know, whether or
not you're knocking the other player off of

447
00:30:29.720 --> 00:30:33.559
the ortho logue and like a little
fun games and now they understand how checks

448
00:30:33.640 --> 00:30:37.319
work, and we roll initiative for
for the sack I think there was a

449
00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:41.000
literal sack race that we roll initiative
for that. Now they understand how it

450
00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:42.319
turns work. And then they say, hey, cool, now you understand.

451
00:30:42.359 --> 00:30:45.640
Also, now I'm gonna try to
kill you. It's for real.

452
00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:52.799
Yes, that's the festival. Each
character receives a cryptic invitation to a remote

453
00:30:52.839 --> 00:30:59.200
location where they encounter a gathering of
individuals with extraordinary abilities. A mysterious benefactor

454
00:30:59.319 --> 00:31:03.400
reveals that are chosen to undertake a
quest that transcends the boundaries of reality.

455
00:31:04.200 --> 00:31:11.279
The characters linked by fate embark on
a journey through realms unknown, facing challenges

456
00:31:11.319 --> 00:31:15.160
that will test their strengths and unravel
the mysteries of their existence. My last

457
00:31:15.200 --> 00:31:19.400
one on the list is the Mysterious
Invitation. I would call this the House

458
00:31:19.480 --> 00:31:23.559
Unhaunted Hill approach. This is the
start of a lot of movies, a

459
00:31:23.640 --> 00:31:26.799
lot of mystery books. Yeah,
this is the This is basically clue.

460
00:31:27.720 --> 00:31:30.960
That is all we know is that
the way we were brought here for something,

461
00:31:32.279 --> 00:31:34.000
and this is this is cool for
a mystery campaign, And Jim,

462
00:31:34.039 --> 00:31:37.880
I know you want to you want
to lead us on the mysteries episode,

463
00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:40.720
so we'll do that on a different
episode. Yes, Yeah, we're definitely

464
00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:45.079
gonna talk about mysteries and mysteries fun
to pull off, and it's kind of

465
00:31:45.079 --> 00:31:48.160
difficult to pull off in this game, but I've seen some excellent ones.

466
00:31:48.759 --> 00:31:55.920
Very difficult. I actually want to
hear an excellent mystery actual play. Nat

467
00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:00.480
Pod did a four or five episode
arc that we is hysterical might be one

468
00:32:00.480 --> 00:32:04.799
of their funniest ones yet and and
actually really good mysteries. Check that one

469
00:32:04.839 --> 00:32:07.599
out too. Bia. Have you
guys ever tried the mysterious Invitation? No,

470
00:32:07.839 --> 00:32:13.279
it's a little good, Like there's
not enough going on to be interesting

471
00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:17.119
to me. Like, if it's
going to be the mysterious Invitation, I'm

472
00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:20.839
either going to do that as a
one shot or it's got to kind of

473
00:32:21.160 --> 00:32:27.039
expand into something more compelling pretty quickly. Because it's there. You know,

474
00:32:27.279 --> 00:32:30.400
there's not a lot of there's not
a lot of meat on that particular bone.

475
00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:32.680
It's a it's a contrivance, right, It's it's a way to throw

476
00:32:32.759 --> 00:32:37.440
people into the same space, which
can work if you're you know, if

477
00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:40.839
you're in a hurry or something like
that. But it's it's probably my least

478
00:32:40.920 --> 00:32:45.920
favorite of these starters, I think
in a vacuum, I absolutely agree it

479
00:32:46.039 --> 00:32:50.759
needs something to tie it together,
which is why I'm said specifically for mysteries,

480
00:32:51.480 --> 00:32:52.559
this is a great reason to have
them all there, and have them

481
00:32:52.599 --> 00:32:57.640
all there for different reasons that they
may not discuss with each other. And

482
00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:00.039
bonus points if you get all your
player's addresses and actually send them invitations.

483
00:33:01.119 --> 00:33:07.599
Absolutely I love that. But yeah, it's it. It creates a point

484
00:33:07.880 --> 00:33:10.359
for you to tie all the backstories
together. I think that's really really important

485
00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:15.160
throughout all these. Yeah, right, I think planning and getting your players

486
00:33:15.640 --> 00:33:22.000
buy in from the beginning on backstory
is really important because you're gonna, i

487
00:33:22.079 --> 00:33:23.480
think on most of these, at
least six out of the seven, you're

488
00:33:23.519 --> 00:33:29.880
going to need that that work done
beforehand. Yeah, and if you if

489
00:33:29.920 --> 00:33:31.440
you know that you're going to start
the game with one of these, you

490
00:33:31.519 --> 00:33:35.920
know, have that in mind.
You don't have to tell them, but

491
00:33:36.079 --> 00:33:38.400
you have that in mind when you're
when you are around for your portion of

492
00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:43.240
helping with character creation, Like if
they come they can have their character ideas.

493
00:33:43.279 --> 00:33:46.559
Then when you're helping put together backstory, which should be a collaborative effort.

494
00:33:46.640 --> 00:33:51.440
Yeah, that's where session zero comes
in. Yes, and this is

495
00:33:51.480 --> 00:33:53.880
the kind of thing we're like,
Okay, well your character knows this,

496
00:33:54.039 --> 00:33:57.960
this, this and has done this
in the past. The invitation that you

497
00:33:58.119 --> 00:34:00.440
got says this, right know,
and you kind of like imply it's like

498
00:34:00.599 --> 00:34:05.240
this is yours. Whether you share
this or not, it's up to you.

499
00:34:05.680 --> 00:34:08.320
But we talked about we talked about
the knives out approach, Jim.

500
00:34:08.519 --> 00:34:14.599
This is the glass onion approaches.
I haven't seen either one. Oh you

501
00:34:14.639 --> 00:34:16.440
should. I heard it. I
heard It's great. They're mysteries. But

502
00:34:16.559 --> 00:34:22.159
yeah, so that is seven ways
to start your campaign that is not in

503
00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:25.559
a tavern. Taverns are cool for
getting people together. They're going to be

504
00:34:25.559 --> 00:34:29.840
there together anyway. And I'm not
saying don't start your game in a tavern.

505
00:34:29.880 --> 00:34:31.960
I'm saying, you know, maybe
think outside, think outside. The

506
00:34:32.039 --> 00:34:37.880
tavern certainly gave me some ideas,
and I'd just like to add too,

507
00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:42.519
You're gonna get to a tavern in
your campaign at some point. It's always

508
00:34:42.679 --> 00:34:47.519
there. You're gonna be, you
know, lousy on taverns, I mean,

509
00:34:47.760 --> 00:34:52.119
and and you can combine many of
these with a tavern. You can

510
00:34:52.199 --> 00:34:57.119
set them in a tavern. You
can start in medias res in the middle

511
00:34:57.159 --> 00:35:01.360
of a bar brawl, right,
which I have played that was awesome exactly.

512
00:35:01.480 --> 00:35:06.320
You can you can have a mysterious
dream that has everybody going to this

513
00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:12.360
you know, remote mountain tavern.
You know, like like that that squats

514
00:35:12.480 --> 00:35:16.159
over the you know, the top
of you know, the top of some

515
00:35:16.400 --> 00:35:19.480
caves or something like that. Isn't
that The whole point of Tails of the

516
00:35:19.559 --> 00:35:22.559
Yawning Portal is that that's a bar
that sits on top of it, like

517
00:35:22.639 --> 00:35:25.639
sits on top of Yeah, yeah, exactly. And there's all different kinds

518
00:35:25.679 --> 00:35:29.199
of adventures you can go in.
We had a thing in a game I

519
00:35:29.320 --> 00:35:32.920
played where there was this region of
the city that had been like taken over

520
00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:37.559
by this evil druid. So it
was this just like nasty, mystical,

521
00:35:37.679 --> 00:35:42.800
overgrown forest that they just kind of
walled off, and there was a bar

522
00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:46.599
called the Horned Gate, and you
know, there was a gate that like

523
00:35:46.920 --> 00:35:51.079
you walked out of the back of
the bar and essentially you kind of sort

524
00:35:51.119 --> 00:35:55.519
of crossed into the fay and there
was a great big odds board, so

525
00:35:55.679 --> 00:36:00.719
that like whenever people were peering up
to go on an adventure, the bets

526
00:36:00.760 --> 00:36:04.000
would start and you could bet on
yourself whether you came back and stuff like

527
00:36:04.079 --> 00:36:06.800
that. That's great and that was
really fun, you know, and that

528
00:36:06.920 --> 00:36:08.599
that's a way you could do like
a you know, kind of something more

529
00:36:08.679 --> 00:36:13.519
like a mission based game that proceeds
from a portal where everybody, you know.

530
00:36:13.559 --> 00:36:15.840
The whole point is, you start
the day in the portal, you

531
00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:16.840
go out, you do your thing, and when you come back, it's

532
00:36:17.159 --> 00:36:21.760
staggering back into the portal, all
beaten and bloodied and you know, ready

533
00:36:21.800 --> 00:36:23.800
to spend whatever it is that you
got on your adventure. Yeah, and

534
00:36:24.119 --> 00:36:27.519
so this whole thing is not to
say that taverns are bad. It's just

535
00:36:27.599 --> 00:36:30.639
a trope. Tropes don't become tropes
because they're bad. They're usually very good.

536
00:36:31.000 --> 00:36:34.880
It's just just think outside the box. There's a couple of different ways

537
00:36:34.880 --> 00:36:37.840
you can start your game. Otherwise
we'll just recap those seven ways to not

538
00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:40.719
start in a tavern. It's one
Inmediate's Rests two, dream Sequence three is

539
00:36:40.760 --> 00:36:46.360
the expedition Departure four, Inheritance or
Legacy five gild assignments, six festival or

540
00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:52.679
celebration or seven the mist serious invitation. So go start your game somewhere fun

541
00:36:52.320 --> 00:36:57.000
and if it happens to be a
tavern, I won't stop yet. I

542
00:36:57.039 --> 00:36:59.559
think it's gonna do it. For
today. I'm Jason Botizo here with Joe

543
00:36:59.639 --> 00:37:04.639
McCall and Jim Crocker. This has
been Hello adventurers. Our music is by

544
00:37:04.679 --> 00:37:07.199
an experier, artwork is by Kristen
Broderick, and our listener is by you.

545
00:37:07.679 --> 00:37:12.639
Thanks so much for that. Until
next time, goodbye adventurers.