How to Start Your D&D Games
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DM: you are in a tavern, feel free to roleplay.
Players: sit around the table awkwardly
DM: why is no one having fun? I specifically requested it.
Players are always so inconsiderate!
Both the campaigns I'm in started with us surviving a fight prior to knowing our names in game. 😂 We do roleplay when asked cause he has to do something. There is often a pause then we figure out what we are roleplaying till our DM is back.
I actually did this, and it was awkward (mind you this wasn't the start of the adventure, more on that a bit). Sometimes I feel like certain players are being washed away by the plot and presentation. So I'm like "okey, here you are in the tavern, what are you going to do?" to allow them to do whatever.
The campaign actually started by me telling them to create a character who for some reason travels by ship from point A to point B. The adventure started by all the adventurers being passengers on the same boat for weeks so I asked them to tell others what they would have seen their character do in the past few weeks. Then after they finished their introduction pirates attacked the ship. They fight, give the captain and bosun time to manouver the ship to deeper waters (so the pirates gonna have harder time diving for sunk treasure) and then escape (this way they kept their gear, if they had lost the fight the ship would have sunk and they wake up to monkeys pilfering their gear on the island shore).
They row to the shore and that's when the actual campaign started.
@@Limrasson this sounds like the beginning of Careful Cantrip.
I love these situations because then I get to crack my favorite joke
"...You all sit in awkward, eerie silence as a boisterous dwarf server approaches with a notepad."
"WHO ARE YOU?!"
"IM LITERALLY PLAYING SHREK"
ah yes dnd
Lol i have a player that is playing shrek
@@zellafae what class would that even be? Barbarian?
@@NStripleseven ya, barbarian
@@zellafae Shrek could also be a fighter.
@@NStripleseven I'd say a Monk. Remember when he absolutely decked Lord Farquuad's Soldiers with only his fists?
My favorite is
DM: “y’all meat at a tavern”
Veteran player: “ugh here we go again, another tavern intro”
DM: no you misunderstood you are meat at a tavern. You wake up hanging from meat hooks. You watch in horror as an ogre places a live dwarf tied to a spit over a fire with an apple shoved in the dwarf’s mouth. There are two other figures still knocked out hanging from hooks to your right.
Role initiative.
What are your actions?
I'm glad you brought that joke back to my memory LOL.
'Tis a good one.
The wizard would be already dead of 1d4 hanging damage
Do i have permission to use this in my new campaign because that is so cool!!
@@ZivNBee off topic but ayy fellow enby
Good joke and great beginning to an actual campaign omg
“Most DM’s like to start their games in an easy neutral environment” does the funeral for the mothers of a party of estranged siblings count as an easy, neutral environment?
That sounds fun
Sounds like Umbrella Academy lol
@@mariahartung7756 we have assigned umbrella academy characters to each of our characters lol. My character is Vanya
Oh god I love this lol
@@micahmayer9487 Ayo mine is five B)
Using calculus to get your friends together to play D&D. That one hit home.
Don't forget the time machine. A kiddo favorite.
You dont use calculus in your game?
Weird..
Oof
Just find the integral of the arcsecant of the rogues work schedule, multiplied by the derivative the class times of the dm
@@ethanlocke3604 My brain: White noise
"WHO ARE YOU!?!?!?!"
"I AM LITERALLY PLAYING SHREK!!!"
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Had me giggling like an idiot
I lost it XD
I died 😂☠️
I played Jackie Chan once, so I can believe it.
Well, Gnomie Chan.
"You start in a tavern. Around the room, you see four hooded figures, sitting in different shadowy corners."
You also sit in a shadowy corner. It is an oddly shaped room.
@@kahlzun you hear chanting from the four figures,You spot a figurewith a bird mask holding a artifact.
@@minddrake478 The masked figure jump on the table a harp in his hands. The gnome let his fingers run across the strings. You recognize the tune is a popular classic about a widow who wait for her lover who went to war to come back home. The tavern has become completely silent everyone attention is on the enigmatic bard. Suddenly you snap out, you had fallen asleep awoken by the nearby sound of struggle a mug falling on the floor, you look around still under the effect of lethargy. The hooded figure are moving around the tavern slitting the throat of people one by one. What do you do?
@@Barthenn okay this is actually kind of cool.
Ah, I see the part all rolled up the same class
3:24 I immediately got all the second-hand excitement from hearing a player's character being introduced and described by the GM. Nice
it was totally different for me. the DM is telling me what my character is doing and thinking? He already decides for me that I go in and sit down? What if I was going to describe a different behaviour that immediately tells sth of my character? And this '1st impression moment' is ruined for me?
Dude, its called necessary metagaming. If your character was going to fuck off and start a farm because adventuring is too risky, why did you join the table?
@@Yutah1981 For new players this method is great. Plus a DM who knows the general vibe of your character will do a good job putting them in the right place. Of course, for more veteran players this may not be necessary. This is meant for new players who might not even know how to describe entering. I run DND with high schoolers in a club setting and this video really feels like its aimed at more of my New DM's, not me.
Though, coming back to your point, I think how much you describe a players actions is a very personal thing too. Some people don't like having ANY agency taken away and others trust the DM to do things. Its just based on players comfort.
@@dytyzerpud well, I once had a DM like that as a new player, who was putting the words and actions in my character's mouth, so to say, and it was awful. I don't understand that at all. Imo, it's bossy and impolite.
And now, as an experienced player - it's not that is 'not necessary', it's just still awful.
@@Yutah1981 I have also had this same experience. I think having a DM say what your character feels or says is all wrong. That stated, having an entrance where you say how they enter a room and explain what you feel their general vibe is seems like it is right on the boundary and probably fine. I had a DM tell me my character was scared of something once and it bothered me since it wasn't like I DC checked a fear status or anything, He simply told me how my character felt. I had a good reason in my back story NOT to fear the situation, or at least to describe it differently. That seems like a different level to what is being stated in the video though. Nothing is worse than having the DM mind control and start roleplaying your character for you. I see a clear difference in what is being said though.
And I bring up the point again that everyone has a different threshold. Some people would love to have the DM give their character a bit of a spotlight before taking the reigns of the description. Especially those shy players who don't quite know where to start.
OK, so what you're supposed to do is toss them into a tavern, introduce one of the characters as a joke, then have them all fall down a void. Got it! Also, nice shirt. No idea how that handsome lad is wanted for arson though.
oh and also youre not supposed to read their bactkstories if you do thats dissrespectful
Oh, it is simple, they just want more arson!
It's simple; he casted fireball.
''You're dead. You are both dead.''
Wut???
''uhuhuu you have died''
"You are in a tavern in a void and I cast Fireball at the dork with the big ears, what do you do?"
I love how Jacob looks like any game reviewer from from the 2010s all he’s missing is a Zelda shirt
He has a much nicer shirt. :)
PeanutButterJacob
I have 3
@@XPtoLevel3 ya 3 levels we now this how many zelda shirts do you have
@@XPtoLevel3 One of these days, you’re going to quick-turn to set up a jump cut, and see yourself already in place to film the next part of the scene. 🤣😂🤣
I just had, by far, the best intro to a DnD game ever. I met these guys through a videogame we all played on, and when i proposed a game, they all joined. 4 members, a Human Paladin (His first time), a Cleric Kobold who is very young and alone, a Dragonborn paladin who has been aimlessly wandering in search of his kidnapped son, and a Tiefling Rogue who used to be apart of the largest crime syndicate in the world. They started at lvl. 5 since its easy to throw decent sized threats at them. The Dragonborn was sitting inside the Tavern, drinking Ale in preparation for a long hike through the mountains, when the Human walks in. Both being Paladins under similar oaths, they start drinking together. The Tiefling steps off a large merchant ship in search for quality wine. As he moseys over to the Tavern, he sees an unusual sight, a Kobold fishing a frozen fishing hole. He walks over and asks in (Brainfart dont remember what lang.) if he was hungry. The Kobold nods, and they both go off into the tavern. Players did that. All on their own. I felt like fat thor sticking his thumbs up in great anticipation.
I had a lot of success with the way I started one of my early home-brew campaigns:
Not in a tavern but an open-air festival (DM to choose reason for it). I spend just a few minutes describing the scene - the food available, the entertainment, the general mood, etc, while placing some unimportant NPCs in front of them and allowing them to interact if they choose to. I never ask for character descriptions (which is pretty boring for everyone and no-one ever remembers anything anyway). Any questions the PCs may ask of the NPCs gives me an opportunity to tell them a little about the campaign world and immediate surroundings (just in case of the highly unlikely possibility that someone didn't bother to read the world description and background that I gave them all beforehand).
As soon as the players get into the spirit of the game, a bloodied messenger staggers into their midst and blurts out his final message before dying (I allow the cleric to save his life if he/she acts quickly - and give out a small XP award for doing so - immediately rather than waiting for the end of the session). The reason for the immediate reward is to indicate that I reward players for role-playing their characters and interacting with the world in an appropriate manner.
The messenger is recognized by some of the NPCs present as being one of the guards on a trade caravan that left town the previous day. This hands the PCs their first quest - to find out what happened to the caravan - which leads to a one-session adventure during which I drop several seeds for other quests and see which ones spark an interest in the players. If they don't follow one of the other leads, they will be approached by another NPC (an important long-term ally this time) just as they return to the starting village. She has important information to fuel the start of the main campaign.
This sounds pretty cool!
"It doesn't say!!!", Is such a DM mood.
"It doesn't say" means "Make something up, you nerd"
@@MrKIPPETJEpokpok it means the DMG it's shit...
@@sabotagge9155 Well... incomplete. It could stand to include a quickstart and a crapton of examples of in-game socializing. As blasphemous as this sounds, I'd prefer that way over the list of magic items, which could be dedicated to their own Monster Manual per se.
@@commandercaptain4664 You need examples of how to socialize??? jesus christ, maybe play fewer games and try talking to people
@@mrosskne not every player will feel comfortable roleplaying at first. The DMG could talk about how to help them out of that shell.
I do feel it's incomplete, but only because hundreds of thousands of different groups do exist, and helping every dm to figure out the perfect combination to build a world that feels alive to their players is impossible.
However, it helps with building settings, and it's your job to make some of them cohesive. There's a reason certain DMs are praised as legendary, it's because they put time into their game, for their friends
You: "Don't toss them into a void."
Me, who takes that as a challenge: You find yourselves in a void.
you turn a light, and you find inside the stomach of a humongous creature
@@estebanrodriguez5409 yes
@@estebanrodriguez5409 I turn off the light and cast modify memory on myself.
@@nucleargandhi2709 you void yourself in a mind
They can feel objects and terrain around and beneath them, but can't see anything.
Eventually, after stumbling in the 'dark' they will find rings of 'sight' which grant them the ability to view/sense their surroundings as normal.
In reality, they are being projected into another world from a higher plane of existence in order to save that world, but as a limitation can only really 'see' in a small radius around them (an explanation for the small visible area the players have to work with.)
Session 0: everyone introduces a "at a glance" of their character, the basics of who they are
Session 0.5: idividual itty bitty one shots for each player, to get them hsed to the setting and lead them to the primary location
Session 1: everyone is at the primary location, and has been given a reason to follow it through 0.5, let the games begin
I like the idea of starting a campaign on an airship. In general, the characters are being ferried to a specific city, but it means they have a tiny sandbox with a specific number of NPCs to work with and just enough to establish the type of setting you're working with. The characters can be general passengers, or perhaps a playef with no money or possibly with a bounty on their head would be a stowaway.
Use the crew or NPC passengers to guide the situation to help the players stretch their feet a little, until- Oh no! The ship suddenly lurches as a smaller vessel rams the port side and a gang of brigands begin to board the airship!
With enough guidance, the Players SHOULD have a common rapport by the time they disembark. If they need more of a push then maybe, as thanks, the Captain is willing to put them up in a set of rooms at the tavern for a few days until they get their bearings.
Huh
Airpirates. Might wanna steal this
What’s the setting? Sounds nice to have airships as a luxury or mercenary transport
We all know there is only one true way to start every D&D game
With Ralof saying:
,,Hey you, you are finally awake"
Show some respect horse thief
"The Empire loves their damn lists."
It is a meme but its not a bad way to start. Your characters have something to talk about immediately, mainly why are they in jail? It also creates a point of commonality and gives your players a role play prompt. How would their character act in this stressful scenario? Arcadum's Broken Bonds is a fun mini campaign that uses that as the start point of the adventure.
THAT FUCKING GAME IS 10 YEARS OLD NOW!!! WTF!!!
I have it in VR and it's so much fun
Step 1: Arrange to meet up the one day of the year when everyone doesn’t have anything else to do.
Step 2: Watch in horror as everyone cancels 10 minutes before the session.
Step 3: Cry
Step 4: Find a new group and repeat steps 1-3
So true 😑
...the fact that...fhe session canceled yesterday worries me..
It's the 10 minutes prior (or post) that saddens me the most. I've drawn the maps. I've unbagged the chips. I've read, reread, and rereread my gameplan.
Poor Tom left his house 40 minutes early so he doesn't get caught on the freeway. Then the phone buzzes. Sarah forgot she promised to watch Cocomelon with her boyfriend. That's fine... Tom's still here. Jeff is usually late by a few minutes, but me n' Tom... We'll just roleplay in the tavern for a few. I'll use these new sidekicks to fix the power balance now that our cleric is gone.
10 minutes go by.
15 minutes.
"Hey Jeff... You stuck on the freeway?"
"Oh... Didn't Sarah mention it? We're watching Cocomelon."
Our gameday ruined, i regretfully inform Tom. I offer some chips. Then, as the rage within me builds, he suggests we load up netflix.
We watch Cocomelon.
Worst game day ever.
@@ParaisoFlower yes! The lasy second cancelation hirts the most
@@ParaisoFlower honestly, canceling a game because they're gonna watch a movie is the most disrespectful thing i've read. And being both of them your players is even worse.
I had my campaign start in a tavern by introducing each character based off what I knew about them, but I also described how there was an entire other adventuring party celebrating having returned from a quest. Gave them a little while to interact with the tavern for a bit before an assassin dropped down from the rafters, wiping out that entire npc adventuring party in a surprise round. The last member of that party literally threw the magical mcguffin to one of my players characters, and the other two had to defend him from the assassin. Giving them an instant purpose for working together and a motivation they could go after the fight was over.
My first homebrew game started with the whole party in line at a festival competition. The lady running the sign-ups noticed that everyone in the party was trying to compete alone and guilted them all into forming a group :) Then they were also forced to make up a name & choose an identifying animal for their team AND compete in the competition! Super fun for getting into action combined with meeting and giving them all a reason to do so
It's scary because one of my players is in fact literally playing Shrek.
In one of our campaigns, one of the characters died, and he made like a deal with the devil or whatever so he should have been sent to hell, but our DM rolled d100 and d10, started laughing his ass off, and started playing all start as loud as possible, saying that Shrek (cannon now as a fucking god) saved him from hell
Same
I feel so called out by the "one character you know super well, another character you don't know at all, and a character whose backstory you haven't read because it was twenty pages" (paraphrased), thanks.
Another good one is the character that has 10 pages of backstory, but the player only gives you one, and then while you play they randomly drop the fact that they have a sister, or a girlfriend, completely derailing the plans you had for them
Worse is “the GM’s wife, who doesn’t have a sheet in front of her”
I saw u on the everywhere at the end of time comment section
@@yeah2961 Hullo! :D
Jacob's D&D vids is the thing that keeps me encouraged at being a Dungeon Master, I ran my first campaign but had a rude and judgey experienced player who insulted my campaign and talked in a rude and disgusted way to me even tough I was speaking nicely with him, he called my campaign bullshit and said I wasted his time. After that I was ready to give up playing D&D and being a Dm because I was discouraged by the stuff that the player said, but Jacob's funny videos keep me entertained and really got me back into D&D, so be sure to subscribe to Jacob, he creates excellent content. 😁
I hope you don't have to deal with that person anymore.
No one needs that kind of negativity in their life.
Guy was in some shit projection. He must of known something around the circumstances he was getting into so why have an expectation like he did, and then to treat you like that is a reflection of his own weakness and self hate. That's my immediate thought. There's never a good reason to treat someone like he did
@@joshprice4855 thanks man
@@J.B.1982 thanks for the support, appreciate it
Instantly kicked out. Never invited again. Blocked on all media.
Shame finger infinitely to that person.
They can run their own crap if they don't like it.
May they always have nat 1
For anyone looking for a new starting area other than a tavern; using a social event can be a fun alternative as well.
Parties, festivals, carnivals, circuses, balls & royal dances, etc.
Anything that would be considered "entertainment", really
(cause you know, the commonfolk probably find executions & fights to the death in the coliseum as good entertainment as well)
"How to start an adventure" is one of my favorite discussion topics in DND.
start your campaign with your players tied to a tree and one dangling by his ankles from a branch
ZEDRIN!
@@_nines8270 start your campaign with your players hanging from a tree, the tree is in the mouth of a green dragon.
"You start in a tavern oh wait no you don't this world has no taverns KICKSTART A TAVERN."
@@commandercaptain4664 you could start with players repairing a tavern, and then ask them how it was destroyed... and jump to that point.
These Oblivion throwbacks are just *chef's kiss* perfection.
They are also a throwback to an episode of tomb of annilation on arcane arcade, at least I think
I prefer to give the players a basic prompt before they start creating characters ("you are traveling or working on this ship" "you have been hired to travel to this new city to be a gladiator" "a meteor crashed on an island outside of town and you want to go check it out" "you wake up in the basement of an asylum and don't remember anything" are all ones I've used). Then I give the players a little bit of time in an introductory space to interact and get a sense of who their characters are ("it's a nice day on the ship, what are you doing?" "your ship has arrived at the city and your boss gives you some time to look around" "the ship that is going to the meteor-struck island is running late and you're standing around on the docks"). Then stuff starts happening.
It's not cheating to tell the players what kind of thing you are expecting the early-game PCs to want to do. That helps make sure everyone is making something that fits with the upcoming adventure.
one of good ideas as how to start a game is to maybe give everyone one little connection (soldiers that fought in war, not knowing eachother and now they live normal lives after peace treaty for example)
That grants players a topic to talk about in roleplay and also a reason why they maybe gonna be together
Jesus christ, that "Howdy, how's it going?" came from the deepest depths of the earth.
It was an actual jumpscare
Timesstamp?
@@plutonash2545 2:46
Eldritch horror Chappy.
@@Rabbit-the-One
Therapist: Eldritch horror Chappy isn't real and can't hurt you.
Eldritch horror Chappy: HOWDY, HOW'S IT GOING?
Jacob's tone in this reminds me of the earlier days of the channel. Made me double take. I love those older videos
❤️
I had a dm that decided to start us on a boat to a larger town. That was also an amazing way to start. However to be fair some of us didn’t meet anyone until I asked where a tavern was and the rest either heard tavern and freaked out or my charisma was high enough to make it look like I knew where to go. So no we weren’t generic and met in a tavern, we met on the way to a tavern
I'm a novice player so my opinion may not mean very much, but I always pictured a caravan being a great way to start a campaign. All the players have focused point, a destination they are all getting to, that they have in common. A caravan is just slow traveling, like a car ride, so talking is easily encouragable because it's what most people do. And a caravan is a great way to suddenly spring action when needed, bandits, goblins, etc. I was inspired by old west movies and the beginning of Skyrim.
The Shrek part hits a little close to home. I just started DMing a new game for some new players who are friends of my youngest brother and one of them literally made their character Shrek.
I’m literally obsessed with the idea that my next character is going to be Kronk, from the emperor’s new groove. Literally a hulky human ranger with mashed peas for a brain, a lot of kindness to offer and a squirrel for a friend
@@FouEliane and featured enemy: the lever... one of the two at least.
Make sure he’s proficient with cook’s utensils
@@Castlattice YES
Did he enter a tavern and Smash Mouth All Star started playing?
"I am literally playing Shrek!"
I had to stop myself from spitting out a mouthful of water at that one
A player wanted to play that on my table, for real.
@@alvarolopez656 I did that once. Half-Orc Monk. It was really fun.
I started my campaign at the gates of Novigrad after the party had escaped the Nilfgaard attack on Cintra. They met on the road so no need to introduce themselves, and their goal was to get passes into the city. I started this way because nothing brings players together like having to solve a problem together. Battle is great and all but we were all new to The Witcher system which is complicated AF and I felt like spending our first moments in game figuring out mechanics would have killed the experience and make things awkward.
I'm partial to the "prison start." You're in prison, fix that.
Nice
“Hey you. You’re finally awake”
@@timothywillox8564 I actually did that in my last campaign. Previous game had ended with everyone jumping into a portal... Next game, two of them woke up in a 2011 meme.
@@CidGuerreiro1234 or in a bethesda game
I see you Todd Howard
What I do a lot when I say "describe your characters" is I give my players a little prompt of something to describe their characters with depending on the setting like "Can I have everyone describe their characters and what kind of winter attire they are wearing" or "what kind of festival treat (if any) they hold in their hand" it gives them a little jumping off point for RP
Clever.
"So what kind of drugs does your character sell behind the Ye Sevenne Elevenne?"
Borderlands 2?
My personal favorite start: a city festival. I tend to have a character or two in my parties who has a competitive side and I’ve seen the “booth of arm wrestling champions” go very well to getting everyone intrigued in action while getting to know each other
I recently started my own campaign and started it by literally having my players in debt and forced to work as debt slaves for a Merchant Guild. They were in a debtor's office lounge which worked as a neutral setting but were quickly forced into the office of the guy who was basically in charge of their futures and told to do jobs for their debt or go to jail forever. It worked as a good way to immediately give my players good and simple motivation and also gives a sense of action since their very freedoms hang in the balance.
I'd be interested in hearing how any other new DMs started their first campaigns.
"You are walking in a dark corridor, you cannot see anything in front of you"
"I cast magic missile!"
lol
I counterspell
Why are you casting magic missile? There's nothing to attack.
Wheres the Mountain Dew!!?
@@robertbartley2409 nice, but I was doing something like this:
th-cam.com/video/zng5kRle4FA/w-d-xo.html
@Manek Iridius Don't forget the Cheetos.
You ain't gonna sneak by the Hadvar and Ralof reference by this one, nope.
Since I'm uncultured, I'm going to have to have this reference explained to me.
Hadvar and Ralof are two of the characters you meet in the intro to the game Skyrim. Ralof is the first character you meet and Hadvar is the character who puts you into your create a character screen.
I'm onto you "Jacob" or should I say TODD HOWARD
You slowly gain consciousness and find yourself on the back of a cart, your hands are bound together and as you look around you see you are being taken down a forested mountain path, a man sitting across from you speaks "You're finally awake, you were trying to cross the border."
I seriously wish I had seen this video yesterday! I ran my first ever session last night in the Icewind Dale Module, and it was a VERY rough start- thankfully one player used his backstory (and his experience as a Forever DM) to stir the party together. That player sadly left the session partway in due to Life Things, and another had his wifi explode (but both had done decent Roleplay before this happened). The others were able to begin roleplay together really nicely, and even joined a quest hook nicely. They were forgiving of me making a mistake here and there since First Time DM, and the party will be finishing the quest next week (and I dropped some hints of the local situation with a random encounter that was supposed to be done later (but the rogue rolled a 22 Perception beating the Stealth of an Awakened Snowy Owl by 2)
"Mate sorry, I know you put a lot of effort into your sessions but can't play today, my wi-fi exploded." - when they run out of excuses.
I never start the players in a tavern. My favourite one was playing everyone's backstory separately as a tutorial (they were new to the game) and then they all ended their backstory in a line waiting to be recruited as guards to a 3 day festival. The captain of the guard came and bullied them a little to check their guts (and break the ice) and then assigned them to a team.
"Ok, so a cyborg, an abscent-minded mage and a shy sharpshooter are walking into the tavern..."
This. This is how you start a game.
And literally shrek
Is your party the Teen Titans or something?
@@CrizzyEyes Ha ha ha, might as well be.
absent or absinthe-minded?
"I AM LITERALLY PLAYING SHREK!"
I see someone found Tulok the Barbarian.
I've been toying with the idea introducing the players during a tavern brawl. Gives everyone a chance to kind of show off their character's personality, maybe the big, brash barbarian is laughing and engaging in casual niceties all while beating down other patrons, or the anxious tiefling warlock cowers under a table, the same table the Kenku bard is standing on top of, loudly reciting poetry to an audience more interested in pummeling each other.
Seems a lot better than "you're in a tavern, tell us about your character" by providing a fun prompt for the players to roleplay off of. I wouldn't even have them roll, just build the narrative of the fight off of their actions. Of course, this assumes your players aren't completely socially inept and/or uninterested in RP entirely.
Hello friend. Thank you for these videos. I got in DND in high school. My buddies dad was super into it and would DM so light going games to teach us and I loved it so. He sadly passed not to long after we hit a resting point on a long campaign. He was great at story telling and true to his nature, he left us on a cliffhanger. These videos have really helped me now that I would like to try and get back into. Thank you again
The skit at 6:20 was so uncomfortably accurate to Oblivion, I love it xD
Even the zoom in. Gloriously executed.
"I suppose introductions are in order!" and catapulting the party into conversations with an NPC who has gathered them here is my favourite way to start a game, having their character's introduce themselves to the rest of the party is fun
This is why I personally really like starting at a festival or celebration some sort. All the casual vibe where players can drink and talk, but also activities that go on for players to engage in mini-games and maybe break the ice or draw some out of their shells. Then maybe it’s attacked, or a local denizen mentions [plot hook], someone suddenly dies like a whodunnit, etc.
This is the most helpful thing I’ve found on DND so far. Me and partner have been really wanting to try playing but every description we’ve found were really confusing and not very “new player” friendly with how they described everything. Thank you!
"Most DM's like to start their games in an easy neutral enviroment"
Ah crap, I missed that memo. My first DnD game (I was DM. First ever time playing) started with my party waking up beaten and bruised as the only survivors of a large convoy that had been attacked. The village they were travelling too was a day away with only half a days rations each and the canyon they were in was known goblin territory, not a threat to a well-guarded convoy but highly dangerous to a small group of stragglers.
Honestly, I can recommend it. The immenent danger gave my PC's a reason to work together and grow a bond despite their different personalities and a shared grudge for them to follow up on later.
(Which never happened, for the record. They joined up with their attackers when they found out the reasons why lmao)
What was the reason?
While the tavern thing works, this is even better. You need to provide reasons for the party to stick together at the start and not just throw them into the world and expect them to group up and make adventure.
This is why I like "travel gone wrong beginnings". You are travelling, which is neutral, anyone can be travelling with you as every dnd character should have motivation to travel in their build and then you can immediately throw in some action, an attack while resting for example. The players, now already having no other choice than working together against the threat, bonding already. Then you can go: "As the events calm down a little bit, you have time to realize who the people around you actually are." for proper descriptions. Now everyone has had some combat turns and is in play, so even the shy one's know they are allowed to talk. Then they are stranded in the middle of the wild, having to work together even further to get back to closest civilization, which is ideally off the travelling path. In the wild they can pick up further plot, so when they finally reach their former destination they are in the middle of the thicket. You can even allign powder keg combinations of characters with this.
What was the REEEEEEAAAASSSONSSSSS?
@@lulolie The group were transporting artifacts from an archeological dig. The attackers (and party) saw it more along the lines of grave robbing.
The next twist comes when the party finds out one of those "artifacts" was a sarcophagus. And it's inhabitant isn't quite dead yet.
I was just singing “when the rouge hits level 4” in my car and now this drops. What an auspicious day
I’m glad someone else memorized the song and sings it randomly.
Wait, how do I not know of this song? I know Critical Hit on my Heart, and Never Split the Party, but not this.
I love Dragon Heists's opening. Everyone gets an NPC that they will want to talk to, but 5 minutes in an ogre bursts out from the underdark
one of my favorite hooks is having players spread across a town doing what they would be doing and someone steals from them and they run across the town pulling the other characters along with their own various reasons or by stealing from them as they bump into them then having the thief slink into the shadows leaving the group searching for the thief. adds a hook and a way of the characters naturally meeting. other things ive done are just the characters see unusual things in the corner of their eyes and they go to investigate and end up in the same place like an unnaturally colored animal with a note around its neck, or a person that looks familiar but you can't quite place it. idk its fun tho.
Honestly, I'm running a monstrous warband party with my parents, and it's extremely fun! I enjoy it greatly, my parents love playing their respective monstrous humanoids, and we all have fun exploring the wilderness of the game world together and seeing what the warband can get done.
Funnily enough, we did not start in a tavern.
I am kinda jelous, my parents still think that I am trying to summon demons and devils ...
@@MrKOLCOO Show them the Paladin, your literal job is to destroy demon simps and slay lich thots.
You cant just say that and not tell us the actual characters. Details, boy, details!!
I want a game with Hadvar, Rolof, Ulfric and Tullies all as bestest of friends
Lol I was thinking we ought to have a party of “Riverwood Gang” with Ralof, Hadvar, Sven, and Faendal.
It makes me a bit sad to think about that. Hadvar and Ralof obviously knew each other. They seem angry at each other on a personal level, which makes me wonder how close they were before the civil war tore them apart.
@@TheScyphozoa yeah, stuff like that makes the game seem a little more real. I love little moments like that, or when hadvar says he's scared of bleak falls barrow, helps to set the scene
I know this is forever old at this point, but typically speaking in most small villages, or even small enough towns in our real world, everyone knows everyone, and given Ralof's family runs the mill, and Hadvar's uncle runs the Blacksmith, they probably were friends growing up, and practically work friends whenever Alvor needed wood for something he was forging. I imagine the anger is Ralof feeling betrayed by the Empire over the White-Gold Concordat while Hadvar doesn't believe in the Stormcloak Rebellion, so they both feel betrayed by one another.
For one of my first games, I started everyone in a tavern. 4 of the 6 characters were Lawful Good, so the hook was an old wizard at the bar was accosted by some Cult members that had previously stolen a magic tome from him. 5 of the 6 players were quick to jumping in to help out the wizard. Plot twist though, after retrieving the tome from the cult's hideout and returning it to the wizard they soon discovered he was actually the BBEG and the tome they recovered for him was a necronomicon.
I've actually just started a campaign with some friends who are new to D&D, I started them on a ferry, amount 20 minutes before landfall, I described the smell of sea, taste of salt, sounds of waves crashing against creaking wood, set up the dimly lit lower decks of the ship and within 10 minutes the party had overtaken the boat and are now off on pirate adventures with a crew of 23 kobolds, D&D is so great.
"I'M LITERALLY SHREK" is a power move.
Easy. This how you do it. “You are all in a tavern. Suddenly, rocks fall and everyone dies”
From my perspective, starting with action FIRST often helps get players invested, and the roleplaying can come after they've "played" a bit with combat. For experienced players, combat is familiar. They know what combat is, even if they don't know their characters. For new players, combat is RULE based, not freeform. Both times, they are given the "what do you want to do" in a turn-based setting before they have to do that in freeform.
I typically like starting things right off the bat like that. Want to have them "take a quest"? tell them they already did that, and the first thing is an ambush. Starting in prison? Start with the prison break-out already organized by another character, and they have to decide if they're gonna join the escape, or try to do their own thing during the escape. In a village? It's already under attack by goblins and the group has to rescue people, and then they can figure out they'll work together during that combat.
Most video games do this already. Skyrim? Dragon attack. Oblivion? Assassination. Assassin's Creed? thrown in mid assassination. GTA? Mid bank robbery. RDR2? On the run from the cops, straight into a shoot out. Persona 5? Escape the Casino. Etc.
Hell, you can even flashback if you REALLY want to RP the group all meeting for the first time.
EDIT: I'm not saying the Tavern start is wrong, but from my experience, new players never know what to do and things derail WAY too quickly. The Tavern start I find is more for experienced players and experienced DMs who know how to flex their RP muscles, not new players who don't know what to do and new DMs who don't know what people will want to ask.
The first game i ran started with a festival where a scary necromancer tried to assassinate the king.
I know this is 2 years old. But there's always the trope that these characters have been pre-assigned to work together by a King/Queen for a specific task based on their previous deeds (backstory).
It's basically the easy environment like you said, but without the expectation of them meeting being natural and coincidental
Pre-adventures! I did little mini sessions with each of my players going through how they travelled from their home/previous occupation to the starting point of the first quest. Gave us a real opportunity to try out the characters, build individual motivation, and I peppered in a few future plot secrets for them all.
I might be the very few who love dnd that aren't anxious introverts. Big and loud, only way to go. But also remembering to make people comfortable
High volume extrovert gang! As a DM I can collect introverts from my surroundings to conscript as players, quite handy
Since day one I decided no matter the group's experience or the adventure in question that I would NEVER start them off in a tavern (no hat to those who do and enjoy it, it's just a me thing). It got so ridiculous that I've actually stumbled into fun workarounds, though they all do work with specific groups and character combos, not for everyone.
Now the first caveat is that as my way of getting them into the role play is I run small individual scenes before they encounter each other, that way they don't just pop out of a vacuum in a common place. With very simple prompts I give them a bit of control of their narrative to get them a bit hooked and let them fool around consequence free for a bit before I become the full narrator. It's worked out pretty well! ...with shy players, players than talk a lot suck at this because they take so much time. But just doing the "oh, you have this letter that brought you here" but actually playing a small inconsequential anything-goes scene of "where were you when you got this letter?" I've found is a pretty cool way to establish flavor and backstory for characters that aren't that prepared. It has resulted in a guy just saying "I had just finished killing a dragon" out of the blue and then having a lot of fun with how on earth a level one druid ended up killing a dragon, that way he now knew SOMETHING about his character when he found the other players. Things have gone well with this and I highly recommend it, everyone enjoys being the main character of a scene for a bit (problem is some enjoy it too much) and it gives players a lay of how that other player thinks and works which is table insight they might get way further down the line if they shy player ever came out of their shell.
Anyway, sorry. Here is what I've found to be nice initial settings.
- Funerals: I have started games with the funeral of a random person that has turned into a big event. A few players decide that they knew the dead character in some capacity and that's great a few are just enjoying the party or searching for ways to scam people sometimes. It is pretty risky to do an event because people can get lost in small rp stuff but I've always found that to be a good "okay, taking notes that you said that to that noc I just decided is important" moment. Just the general question of "did you come here for the funeral?" or having them just stumble into it on the ay to the tavern and hey there's those guys.
- A forest trap: It sounds counter productive but it is actually lead to some good things. So basically what happens is that on the way to somewhere, all characters end up falling into a big pit one after another. This is obviously very goofy but its actually been a good way for them to know one another, from screaming "No, no, no, wait!" To the one about to fall to the normal "oh, hi, um... I guess we both should look were we're going, eh?". Obviously no fall damage, but then you have them all locked in a technically harmless place and you already give them a task to complete as total strangers. This very easily bleeds into an encounter and/or believable reasons why they decide to team up.
- Already in a room at an inn: The basic gist is they wake up with a huge hangover in a room with the rest of the party after being black out drunk. They were already partying the previous night but forgot all about it. This isn't for shy players, better with friends because they can choose fun things to rp. The cleric decided that a major arc of hers was that she got matching tattoos with another guy in the party and that was a big nono in her order, so that was a fun hook.
- Separately through a dungeon: This one is admittedly weird. You tell everyone that separately their characters heard about this super hidden cave and each of them was told there was a different treasure there (helps for them to establish what kinda things move them). You narrate this epic moment of them finding the dungeon and stepping through it in their own ways (though the dungeon is eerily easy) and they all make it to the empty chest at the same time. It's an old dungeon, nothing there to recover (and importantly fight over) anymore, just these strangers. But aha! The real test is getting out! You sure weren't looking for buddies but now you kinda have them. Doesn't work on "lone wolves" or anyone who doesn't play along with the fact that they are supposed to be a team.
- Honestly? Childhood friends: This one you do have to bring up thoroughly before character creation and many may veto it, but the coolest campaign I've had started will all these PCs being from the same town and already being friends, setting out of there together. This one is very improv heavy and can go a little long but I was honestly smitten by what my players came up with for this one. I literally told them nothing other than they know each other in a small village and they "yes and"-ed their way into an old family feud two of the characters were ignoring by hanging out, a secret crush (completely agreed upon by the table), in-world private jokes and dynamics they made up whole cloth. Admittedly, that group fell apart against our will and they were all not that into combat or mechanics just the story telling part, but I think about how dope that party would've been in the future and get giddy.
Taverns work because it's usually the first thing your players will commonly seek out when they first arrive in a new location too, but any similar location will work. Got a bunch of divine type characters in the party? They might meet at a church (where the player that isn't a divine caster had to get healed of something). They could meet on a boat, a caravan, in a dungeon, in jail or otherwise.
There's nothing that scares me more than the Deep Davvy
hadvar and ralof... thought you'd casually drop a skyrim reference without us noticing??
And the music during that bit is literally from Skyrim too (I think A Chance Meeting? From the OST soundtrack)
I love the point made about starting the action immediately following the introductions. Seems like the games I play everyone just sits around aimlessly for awhile during / after the introductions waiting for something to happen, and usually it never really does until we start the first "quest".
An advice that i love:
On sessiom zero, besides building a social contract and the characters themself, try work with the party to merge backstories together a bit (not necessary between all of them thou)
Perhaps 2 of them knew each other, or someone made a promise to other player.
That way you can think of an introduction and they have at least something to talk about
"Who are you?!" "I'M LITERALLY PLAYING SHREK!!"
"Jakiko doesn't exist, it can't hurt you"
Jakiko: 2:20
You could also use the game setting to your advantage. My group's curse of Strahd game began with my character and another PC wandering through the woods only to end up in Barovia randomly after seeing some mist. We had no idea where we were and our first thought was "Let's get our baring's and figure out where we are." Note that at this time it was only myself and one other player which added to the creepy vibes as we are in a random forest on a random path with no allies or party for that matter. Next we see a shadow of a castle up ahead on the mountain and there is something very eerie about the place. We decided to stay in the closest village because we were level one and had nothing at the time. There was a werewolf attack that night and we stayed in the tavern trying to hide until we can get to a safer location the next morning. This intro gave us both suspense, mystery and action while also introducing both myself and my friend to how dangerous Barovia can be.
I started my players in a tavern where they ended up stalking each other in a stealth train until they got to the final "meet up" location. One of my npcs led the "train" and each player followed the next one in front of them. I was using Fate with a group more familiar with DnD so the stealth and deception checks through the start helped get them acclimated.
4:07 I literally need this as just its own clip. It's perfect.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I am a relatively new DM and i decided, for my party, to make session 0 solo games that would tie into their backstories and introduce them to eachother with a common goal. Also to learn the game in a less stressful environment as opposed to being thrown into it together. It worked quite nicely and everyone liked it!
I've started my recent game during character creation. Every character needed a relative reason to go on an expedition to a separate continent, paid for by one of the characters (though it could have been done with an npc if none of them wanted to). The first session involved them arriving on the boat and meeting the crew, as well as investigating the route they'd take to get where they needed to go, and how they were planning on going. I think this was a pretty good start since it's my first gave I've dm'ed!
My party is all comfortable with each other and playing D&D, so I've formed the habit of placing them in the starting location and asking them how they got there, just formulating a backstory of sorts for them to give each other. For example:
"You all are in the village of far far away fictional land, people stare at the group of strangers, the blacksmith looks up form his currently half-formed sword, the tavern keep stares at you through the large bay window on the front of his pub, and the local women at the brothel fawn over the unfamiliar brutish people who have stumbled upon their quaint township: how did you get here?"
They all fill in, and we all paint a picture of each other. I find it to work for my specific group and I've had no complaints so far.
“I start them off in a neutral area”- _ok_ -“and then once they've introduced their characters, I can thrust them right into the hook or the quest or the problem or the devil's anus or whatever you want to call it!” *_casually rewinds 10 seconds to watch that again_*
"I AM LITERALLY PLAYING SHREK!!" reminds me of the first one-shot i ran for my friends
6:39 I don't think there's ever been a more appropriate image for what DMing is.
This is actually the best video I've seen to introduce someone into being a DM, Coming from someone who will be hosting his first campaign in a few weeks.
That skyrim npc edit was on point.
This is exactly what I’m going to do next session
I began a Pirate adventure one shot with the hook that all the characters were sailors on a fishing ship that worked together and unionized the crew to stage a mutiny, kill the captain, and become pirates.
The players' first decision was to decide who would be the new Captain, First Mate and Quartermaster.
I think it helps to make an organic scenario that explains why all the characters already know each other starting out to take the awkwardness away as best as possible lol.
If the DM does kind of throw you into a void, you can remember that Adventuring Is A Thing in most D&D settings.
It doesn't fit all character backgrounds, but with the next character I want to play, I would say, "I go to the tavern's bounty board and check out what's posted. Then I look around at the other tavern patrons, sizing them up in hopes of putting a team together."
1:38
> "anxious introverted nerd"
> uses the bottom emojis
3:03 this is literally my first game.
My usual starting method is this: I start with all the characters having a simple goal to fufill, usually "You heard someone is hiring adventurers, and you figure it sounds like a good idea", or "There is this event taking place at this location, and you thought it sounds fun so you want to join" so they each arrive at the place where they are going to fufill this goal. I give them each an introducition of them arriving, one at a time, and i let them decide how they wish they want to find the thing they are looking for, such as asking for directions, trying to deduce it on there own, or any other option they can think off.
This results with them arriving at the goal roughly at the same time and kinda have the same goal, so could be worth while to help each other out (And if it is a quest for example, the empolyer would be gladly willing to hire them at the same time, ensuring they would all be paid fairly and equally)
Had my first ever dnd session a week or two ago and it was my DM’s first time DMing. He was nervous but he did really well (as far as I know) and I quite enjoyed it. He started us waking up in a strange place together. We had all been kidnapped and put into a puzzle dungeon of sorts. We had some enemies to fight and some puzzles to do and then we got out, getting to know each other in the process. We eventually got out with a comfort for combat and the confidence to take on the rest of the world, so I’m glad he started the session that way.
Our first game started in a tavern, the party wallowing in their awkwardness. Then a Shadow appeared and started assimilating people. The combat was hectic and then a mystery had to be solved! Fun times!
My start: All 4 of my characters had for one reason or another all passed into a town at roughly the same time, as a wayside stop on their ways to other locations, but couldn't remember anything past their arrival. Session started with them all waking up confused in cells across from each other stripped of their equipment and in a little makeshift lair that their first boss (A novice necromancer) runs. They got through, made the cultist who Doesn't Get Paid Enough For This Shit™ join them and help lead them out, but he died fighting a handful of undead. They managed to get out, get their bearings on what to do next, and forged a relationship in an escape and now gotta figure out wtf is going on.
My favorite D&D campaign to date started with the entire party waking up in a pit of charred, burned corpses, surrounded by the burnt-out husk of a wildfire-ravaged forest that turned out to be a Druid Circle's former home. That was an absolutely phenomenal campaign, and I miss my cleric from it greatly.
I started my current campaign with the party all rocking up to a tavern, each with the deeds and their names placed upon it, little did they know that in the fine print they all actually owned it and it was an enchanted teleporting tavern that drags them off on adventures, so far they've decided to make it the best dining establishment across the lands and find out the mystery of the taverns true owner
What I did for my first session DMing earlier this year was havingeach party member start off in any area of their choice and slowly bringing them all together via a chase to stop kidnappers for those in the city leading to the rest of the party in the woods, when that group was together they got knocked out into the dream plane and the rest of the party came together as the initial one woke up in a new area and started to explore it.
I'm building my first real campaign, and after watching this video I'm a lot more confident in my concept! I want to start them off not in a tavern, but at a grand festival in the main square of a wealthy trading city. After their characters decide which food to eat, which market stalls to visit, and which NPCs to chat with, they'll get to witness the performance of the region's Princess who is visiting on official business. In the middle of her performance she is killed by an arrow through the heart! At the same time, rodents of unusual size burst forth from the sewers and the players have to battle them before they can start tracking down the murderer. Where will this tale lead them? Even I don't know yet lmao.
It's nice to know that I intuitively did all these things on my first ever session (which happened a few days ago).
It was a sort of tourist trap town, so the tavern looked like a generic tavern for adventurers, but was actually way more polished with slightly overpriced coffee and business meals. There was a family of 6 desperately trying to control their children, rowdy rich teenagers drinking a lot and shouting and an impatient orc at the bar waiting for someone. My group is great so they naturally introduced themselves to each other and all the orc had to do was join in. Then the teenagers started threatening the orc waitress (the town is majority orc) and they basically started fighting each other with the party taking the waitress's side (who is a barbarian). Then the orc who revealed earlier that he fights in a WWE style fake gladiatorial ring gave them tickets to come see him there. At the ring they realized through an insight check that the rival of the orc was gonna attack him for real and kill him and they had to jump from the sidelines and save his life in front of the entire audience. When they brought the orc's rival to 0 hp a black cloud shot out of his mouth and he collapsed on the ground. They found out that the body was already cold. And that's how I introduced the BBEG on the first session.
Sorry for gushing I'm just really proud of this session!
I started my first game like an Elder Scrolls game. The party started out as strangers who have been captured and had to find a way to work together to get out of the situation. Great way to get the party to stick together and respect one another early on.
I started DMing before I found this channel and you've helped me become a better DM for sure, I made the mistake of pushing my players into the rp pool. I thought it funny and so did they, but they almost died immediately cause they had no idea what they were doing.