Let's Start In A Tavern! | Running the Game
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- Episode 46. It's a perfectly cromulent place to start.
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I remember talking to my wife about the “starting in a Tavern” cliché. And she was a bit grumpy about this because she “has never started in a tavern” in any campaign, and wanted so bad to start there at least once. Precisely because of this "never start in a tavern" advice. So I promised her the next time we started one game I GM'ed, it would be in a tavern, definitely.
It's a classic for a reason! :D
Thats so sweet
@@mcolville
Hey Matthew great channel bro!
So when can we start a game? Because all I come across is D&D snobs that won't let anyone in their games. And I agree with you with the long drawn out backstories unnecessary dialogues of characters.. Definitely was not the goal back in 1974! 👍
@@tonymaurice4157 start your own game if you can't find anyone to run. That's what I did.
@Sol System Well let's join forces and start a game together!
How's your game going?
Let me guess you don't take on any new players..
Favorite story start:
You are in a tavern... it is on fire.
Plot twist: you are in the tavern, and YOU set it on fire.
You are a tavern and you set fire to the player.
so samurai champloo
*sipping coffee*
“Everything is fine”
Had that start once...Well, kind of.
We were in the tavern and, surprise, a fight broke out. The place was set on fire. One of the players failed several important roles getting out. Eventually, the PC left via the collapsing floor, not of his own free will, and into a stream beneath the tavern. Many failed roles and an occasional successful role later and the PC crawled out of a raging river several miles down river... nearing the mouth of the river and the ocean... several yards from a black dragon.
This was my first time experiencing “failing forward” in DND. And it was epic.
Hearing Colville say "I believe in you" makes me feel like I can run shadowrun.
How'd it go!?
We need an update
Did you run shadowrun?
I think it killed them!
Shadowrun has taken him.
google says "Just for the record: in some Shakespearian texts, the masculine version of a wench is a swain."
I was gonna suggest "wonch."
Michael Reese idk I kinda like weeny.... Ok that came out wrong...
Matthew Clements XD
I literally said "wonch" out loud watching this video
SERVING WEENIE! BRING ME ALE
One of the WotC people said they once had a campaign that started with everyone in a tavern, when suddenly a cow flew in through a high window and crashed to the ground.
That's an opener, right there.
Start your game as prisoners being carried in a cartwheel, accused of supporting the rebellion of some white blond strong warrior and being dragged on to be eecuted when suddenly a dragon, a creature thought to be a legend, not seen in centuries, attacks the village ou've dragged on to right when the players are about to be executed
Jokes aside starting as some kind of prisoners is one of the easiest ways to get the party working together early.
Dude, can I steal this for an open-world RPG I'm making? I think it will be a best-seller
quick, someone copyright this
This is just Skyrim
/woosh
My brother, who is into D&D in a *severe* way (I myself play and DM too, though), once designed this campaign setting after he had heard someone somewhere challenge someone else to have a campaign set wholly within a tavern. It's basically a big, Spirited Away-style bathhouse, founded by this epic-level cleric of some goddess of civilisation, meant to act as a sort of neutral ground for all kinds of people and creatures, where they could meet and essentially hang out, negotiate and generally wheel and deal in luxury. Could be just two nobles clearing up the issue of some land ownership, could be a group of ambassadors from two different empires negotiating a marriage contract. Could also be two emissaries from the plane of Earth and the plane of Air working on a peace treaty.
The party would be essentially employees of that cleric, working on the premises, and their adventures would all be about stuff like negotiating with the goblin tribe of coal shovelers who went on strike because there's something in their burrows, stealing their young. Or maybe evicting a party of adventures who made a mess of their rooms and refuse to pay for damages. Or maybe one day a freaking pit lord showing up, demanding to be served, while the celestial emissary and his posse just arrived.
Lukas Albrecht Stealing...
I hope you don't mind people stealing this. I know which campaign or one-shot I'm running next.
This is awesome!
I mean no disrespect in asking, but does your brother use the theme from 'Cheers' as mood music for this campaign?
Don't know for sure - we currently live in different countries - but now that you say it, he definitely should...
I often find it hard to get through an entire video of yours without getting distracted because something you said sparked an amazing idea and my mind just goes off to explore it as the video plays on in the background until you say something else equally inspiring and I start exploring that idea instead
This was my precise issue with this video. Too much inspiration!
When I started my first campaign in a tavern, I just had the NPC who was going to hand-hold my players on their way to their first quest just walk right in and say "HEY. ADVENTURERS. I HAVE MONEY IF YOU WANT TO KILL THINGS."
The only issue after that point was "How much?"
I've just started my first campaign as DM (and at all) and I think I put a decent twist on the Tavern start. The party didn't know each other and I couldn't see them getting along based on their worldviews, so instead of putting them in a tavern and having them rollplay smalltalk, I gave the tavern as backstory. On their individual journeys they all ended up in the same village, and had all got involved in a huge tavern brawl (possibly instigated by one of them) and had, in doing so, inadvertently saved the village from a goblin raid. Goblins came into the village just as the fight was heating up, and all got killed by stray spells and arrows. So the players were praised as heroes and got a summons to the castle to receive a reward from the Regent. The campaign began with them on the road, and they got to know each other from their actions and reactions along the way.
I'm stealing that.
Feel free! I'm glad people like my idea.
That is excellent.
I'm starting as a DM tomorrow. Neither my friends or I have played D&D before. I have this "starter area" which is an island that should keep us going for 2-3 sessions. The tavern alone, where they being, has 8 unique events. 3 of them end with the Tavern set on fire.
Shaubeny good luck!! let us know how it goes.you have put a lot of thought into it seems like.
Here's one interesting way I'd suggest "starting in a tavern": the players wake up with a headache in the middle of a tavern, and all other patrons are dead. BAM. Immediate intrigue plot plus your players have a reason to work together.
Main bad guy's a Mind Flayer? All the other patrons are dead but seem to be *physically* unharmed. Maybe one's missing his brain.
Medusa? Nothing but stone rubble in a mostly wooden tavern save for a couple stone hands or legs on the floor
Vampires? All are drained of blood. The players feel weak but were left for dead with marks on their necks.
Demons? Pentagrams. Corpses and pentagrams.
The players are special. They survived because they're tougher or stronger or the like than the civilians that just died.
Necromancer? Its empty but blood is everywhere
I am totally using this for my next campaign
Using this. Starting a campaign tomorrow haha and don’t have a way for them to know each other. This works. I can build the world around this.
or...The Hangover in Dnd...
I think the main antagonist is alcohol.
Add a more medieval twist to your campaign by starting in either a monastery or hospital, probably among a group of peasants that are staying the night during their pilgrimage.
My first D&D game: Started in a tavern. There was a drunkard that wanted to start a fight with our Wood Elf Warlock. My Dragonborn Death Cleric (hooded) broke it up before it could turn into a brawl. Even got 10gp from the tavern owner for saving his place from getting wrecked. Nice start to a campaign.
10/10, would start in a tavern again.
My first game started at a tavern when we returned with a bounty but the tavern owner couldn't pay up. He decided to trick us and throw us into a cave under the place. We fought giant spiders and used some webs to climb up through a hole in the floor in the tavern with some spider webs from a large spider we found. The bards lost his leg and decided to run the tavern after we killed the previous owner. The player decided to play a fighter because the bard sucked
My first time DMing, however, I had subbed in for the regular DM. They were walking through a market and were kidnapped by some bandits. They were brought to an run down castle in a cell. They found a key with a note that said find on the northern side of the castle walls. After sneaking around some guards, they learned that every one was under control from a racsosha and there is an army of wood woads that were summoned by the last leader to protect that castle. The guy that gave them the key had been saved by the wood woads. They used the wood woads to siege the castle, kill the racsosha, and free the people from their curse.
Only way I would change that is have the tavern keep give you 5 silver instead.
3:43 "But I believe in you" little things like this make me love this channel more and more
I love how these old medieval taverns just sound like the pub down the street in the uk
To be honest, odds are pretty high that random UK street might be hundreds years old, knowing half of UK's cities
@@theramendutchman Can confirm, my weekly gaming venue is a literal medieval inn. We didn't pick it for that, it's literally just my nearest pub.
"It's a perfectly cromulent place to start."
Love the use of a Simpson's word in there.
Sam was excellent. Proof that you can get the rules wrong and still have a great game.
There was a moment in one of my campaigns where someone lost a character and rolled up a new one. This Dwarf Wizard hadn't met her companions yet. We were also down a few people that night, so we had the player of the Dwarf Wizard and one player who chose a Half-Elf Bard to play along. They came across each other in the street during a festival and both noticed a quiet tavern in a laneway. A quiet tavern during a festival? They duly investigated and found themselves trapped for a time in Babi Yaga's Hut. In my setting, she's known as Jezibaba - thanks to Dvorak's opera, "Rusalka".
That game was a variation on the theme of beginning in a tavern.
"We'll get into [hot starts] in another video."
Three years later, makes a video about hot starts...
A Golem that deals cards is awesome to have in a tavern. I've no idea where I picked that up though.
willy from the unsleeping city?
Excellent ideas!
An additional interesting thing I discovered when I started my first campaign a couple years ago, in a tavern of course, was that my group (almost entirely new players) had a vague familiarity with the trope of starting in a tavern. So when I said, "You are all seated in this tavern [that I'd just described]," they all became thrilled and delighted that they were getting the full traditional D&D experience of starting in the most classic way. Based on that reaction alone, I was glad I hadn't chosen one of the other openings I had considered. So there's something to be said for following tradition precisely *because* it's traditional.
The US Navy started in a Tavern the US Marines started in a Tavern the US Constitution was first discussed in a Tavern , I often star in an outside block party for some celebration where something has happened in the city and the players are asked to help or do something in some way.
Brendan OGara Semper Intoxicus!
'Merica. Start in a bar, end up changing the world.
Actually that's a pretty good idea, I'mma steal that. I imagine it has it's drawbacks but it let's you setup a campaign in a setting where a conventional western tavern would feel out of place without losing the benefits of one.
Brendan OGara TUN TAVERN OOOO-RAH DEVIL DOG SEMPER FI KILL
Oh wow, that's fantastic!!!
Earlier this year I started a Pathfinder campaign with a couple of my friends. Their first adventure was to investigate a beast that had been terrorizing some local farms. Instead of them starting in the town directly I decided to make it so the characters had already been hired by the mayor and had already tracked the creature in fiction to this menacing cave in the woods near town. I had the players introduce their characters by describing what they looked like as if they were in a video game cut scene since they all had a lot of experience with video games. They described themselves walking into this clearing and seeing the cave and it gave us all a good sense of who they were. As soon as the "cut scene" was over, the players saw some goblin guards poke their heads out of the cave and look around, which prompted some Stealth checks and immediate planning, giving them an easy in to start rolling dice. I think it worked out pretty well for being my first real attempt at DMing in about a decade and the players seemed to really take to the idea of the cinematic. I saved the actual "You find yourselves in the tavern..." scene for the second adventure, once the players were more comfortable with each other and knew more about their characters to make that RP a bit less daunting.
A tavern-alike I am a fan of is a mess hall in a prison. Combines the tavern opening with the prison break opening, it's great stuff.
God bless the beard, God bless the hair, God bless Matthew Colville
Our lord and savior has spoken! Quickly children! Let us praise his might and wisdom for he is our savior!
Our thoughts light the Darkness that others may cross space.
We are one with Matt Colville, our souls are joined in his will.
Praise the Matt Colville whose sacrifice is life as ours is death.
Hail his name the Master of D&D.
He posted on reddit r/mattcolville specifically stating that we should not talk about his beard, his appearance, or anyone's appearance, and blacks and females are over oppressed. He stated he will block anyone who talks about his beard.... Just a heads up and fair warning.
Chill, we're not judging or trying to offend him. We merely started a joke from the "God bless Matt Colville" part not the beard or the hair. We love the guy.
Goldy I love his videos and advice. I was just sharing what he said on Reddit.
I'm nearly 50 years old and have been gaming for about 40 years. I find myself rewatching a lot of your older videos like this one for inspiration. Love the content Matt.
Realistically it makes sense for PCs to meet strangers who can then give them quests, and a tavern is a sensable place to do this
There's quite a few ways to start a campaign.
You can start in mid-action - the characters have already accepted a quest together and are about to start an important part of it when the players essentially take over. Maybe they're just outside the door of the abandoned mine that's been taken over by goblins, maybe they're escorting a caravan when they get ambushed. Whatever it is, you can pretty much roll initiative within the first 10 minutes.
The slower start is where the characters are just *about* to get a quest. This is where starting in a tavern tends to come in - it's an opportunity for the players to introduce themselves, get into their character roles, and explore the world in a very small scale before the blacksmith comes bursting into the door because his daughter's gone missing (or whichever other plot-hook you have in mind).
Whatever your start is, though, as a DM it's usually on you to prod the characters into action. In a hot start this is easier - the players already have a quest, tell them the quest and go. In a slow-start, you have to be a little more proactive as a DM, doing something to engage the players - otherwise it is just going to be them sitting around and not really being sure what to do with themselves.
Something I personally like to do is point out someone or something in the party that's being avoided. For example, in a town that's at an uneasy cease-fire with the fey of the nearby forest, there is usually an elf, gnome or outright fairy character who's being given the stink-eye.
In the first Tholl campaign, the players eventually introduced themselves to the walled town of Willowdale by way of the Black Eagle Inn. Within, they came to terms with the Cargynnian Empire's viewpoint on the regulation of magic, the treatment of unregistered Sorcerers, and the Black Road Smuggler's Guild (whose head is the "kindly" matron of the Inn, Moms Ulfa). In one brief session within these walls, they came to understand the Empire's tight fist on magic, religion, law enforcement, and how Human-centric this political region truly was. They learned that Adventurers required a writ to carry arms (like a Letter of Marque), otherwise they would be treated as brigands by the Empire's patrols. All of this information was through Mom's Ulfa, who took pity on the hooded Teifling Sorcerer, as Moms had a son who was "touched" by Wild Magic too, and used her connections to get him the forged papers he needed to pass as a registered Wizard of the Empire.
The (Hill) Dwarf Cleric (of Thor, because he asked) saw other Dwarves in the dining hall, and gathered information on how his people were viewed and treated.
The Half-Ogre in the group (a race I brought into 5E for my campaign, see the reference on the Nerdarchy TH-cam channel. Under "Goliath", I believe) was the only to think ahead and have a Letter of Adventure, and was treated with suspicion for his size and appearance, but was not interfered with by the constabulary (without cause).
Taverns can work, but it's not the building that makes them work. It's the people and the clues planted within that do.
My players returned to the Black Eagle over and over to set up plans, meet contacts, and further their connection to Moms Ulfa and her organization.
Mike Gould Is this campaign fully homebrewed? I gotta say, if it is then you've done a really good job with the world. It seems very intriguing and immersive.
The way I started my first campaign is they where refugees coming from the flooded north on carriage ride. After a while on the road they gets attacked by bandits, causing the players to want revenge and highlighting the problem of the area
I made sure they had valuables and family relics, I even let one of them have a magical weapon at level 1
So that when the items would get stolen they would want them back.
One should not aim to avoid clichés. One should aim to use clichés in interesting and fitting ways.
The only real bad way to use a cliché is to just shove it in there because it is easy to do, and everyone else is doing it.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Wenches and Wienies!" I like it, I like it a lot
Idea for the low level tavern start: the festivities of an annual celebration (end of harvest or an anniversary of some village event) of some small town or village has wound down for the day. The villagers, continuing the mood, have mostly all gathered at the local tavern for the evening. After a while some local (significant shop keep, blacksmith, etc) comes barging in raving about how "they" have taken him/her (son/daughter/spouse) and the sheriff declares that the militia assemble and go out to find them. "They" could be bandits, goblins or anything that is reletively high number but low level. As the militia's numbers drop moral breaks and the sheriff (3rd or 4th lvl ranger or fighter [perhaps retired military]) continues with volunteers (the PCs) onto the quest.
This video reminds me of my earliest DM experiences. The DM of my first ever Roleplaying game would run his adventure, and then retire early while all other players would want to continue playing. After a couple sessions he then gave me permission to play a "Tavern session" afterwards for the group, where they were just goning to the local tavern for a nice relaxed evening of drinking, and I would put the craziest situations causing Bar fights in front of them. We had a blast, and it gave me enough of an idea how DM'ing works so I started my own group not soon after.
Matt. Matt. This is you conscience speaking through this random TH-cam user. Don't you dare forget or procrastinate on the next undead video and leave all these poor fans hanging.
Joshua Fritz one of those comments I wish I could thumb more than once. please, Matt. please.
Spoilers from the future: he didn’t forget...
I intentionally started my first campaign in a tavern just for the tradition of it. When I knew I wanted to learn how to and start DMing it was the only thing I for sure knew I wanted. Now they didn't stay in the tavern very long, but I got to say the line "We start in a tavern" so I was happy and the game was starting so the players were happy.
It never fails to be entertaining to hear Matt vocalize his thought process during his monologues, like when he was trying to think of a male version of "wench". :)
I've only recently discovered this channel and have completely raced through the content. I can't say enough how invaluable these tips are! Thank you Matt!
I typically like starting in a tavern/guild hall, and embarking or disembarking a ship. The former is simple enough, and is a familiar concept for almost anyone who would be playing. The latter gives more context and/or purpose to the adventure, as your heroes are all boarding the vessel for a reason, and when you give them back story of the land, pretty much everyone comes up with a reason as to why they're on this boat.
One of the things I did in a one-shot I'm writing is introduce each character individually at a segment of their day before they make it to where they'll all come together. A good way to get new players used to some of the mechanics and get more comfortable with RP. A druid tends to their mountain, a thief chats up the locals for any good leads, the captain of a ship helps their first mate get a drunken plate-clad cleric out from the galley, the cleric wakes up later to figure out where they are.
With my players, I started our campaign as prisoners condemned to fight until death in the arena. They were allowed to get a handle on things before they arrived, getting transported over night and getting to know each other. Then they arrived, and had to fight a few animals and then a couple of orcs until things went south. A disaster allowed them to escape and become their own new group on the run. From there many things could happen, I had them run into couriers travelling west to ask for aid in fixing the disaster. They ended up killing the couriers, basically a way of getting the cursed red gold that you featured in a video.
My previous 'starting in a tavern' campaign began somewhat like this:
You wedge the last of the tables up against the tavern door as the first of the zombies smashes its way through the window. It tumbles onto the ale-soaked floor before you, bloody viscera melding into a rancid cocktail of booze of blood. Its head lurches back off the floor, and those sunken misty eyes stare an empty hatred towards you. Behind it, several more zombies clammer their way through the opening, lurching forward and sliding limply like eels over the serrated window sill. A wet guttural growl escapes its gaping mouth as the first of the zombies starts clawing its way towards you.
Roll initiative.
In my most recent campaign I had it start at the Hero's Journey Inn and Pub, where wannabe adventurers can go meet with employers over a drink and potentially be hired. I was planning on having a brawl ensue but this party was surprisingly good at diffusing tension (I'm so proud of them). I think it went well and helped drive the plot because most or all the PCs were there for the same reasons to begin with.
i started mine in a tavern called hope, it has a wall of "jobs" for adventurers and heroes. Each player has their backstory that ties into eventually taking odd jobs or at least meeting each other on a job. the tavern owner also happens to be a god, only he doesn't know it, little bit of amnesia from a fight many thousands of years ago, doesn't know why he's "immortal", but doesn't care, just wants to help the heroes.
I LOVE taverns!!! It's the warmest and most welcoming place in any D&D world. My current character is just a lazy wanderer with magical powers (yeah, he's a sorcerer) and he has to sleep in cheap taverns if he doesn't want to spend the night on the street. My DM introduced my character in a tavern at night far from the others characters's players, so that he could sleep and dream "a prophetic dream", or something like that, that had to do with the plot, and it was the BEST introduction of my life as a player of D&D.
Hey Matt, a great example of what you're talking about would be the inn at white orchard in the Witcher 3. I don't know if you've played it but essentially what happens is this. The inn was part of a kingdom that was defeated and the innkeeper keeps a standard of the old kingdom up. She's told to take it down and there's some strife about giving up on their old kingdom despite how there is no way they could ever make a come back. Later on before you leave the zone an event happens where the sister of a soldier who died in that war calls out the innkeeper for removing the symbol and attacks the innkeeper brutally. Your character and his mentor intervene and a fight breaks out due to the deep feelings of distrust and fear surrounding witchers. People get killed for attacking you and you're left with the innkeeper you saved screaming Get out and don't come back. It's a very interesting and complex encounter but it perfectly encapsulates the feelings of the world.
The 1st time I was in a party that started in a tavern, I had 54 gold left, & ale was 1 silver a pint. This was also the LAST time my college group was allowed to start in a tavern.
My first D&D game was when I was 13, and I was surrounded by 25-30 year olds (which I had known for ages, I had no issue with them), and I was playing a half-orc rogue. In a bid to get me to roleplay, the DM had this child follow me around, every day coming up behind me and saying with a hugely gleeful expression, "How many people have you killed today?" Really got me into character, I'm a better roleplayer after that.
I think if it's your first time playing, then starting in a tavern/inn is a good idea. It shows that the game isn't solely about combat and gives players a chance to naturally gear towards roleplaying.
If it's not anyone's first time playing, you should probably try to come up with a more interesting start besides "talk amongst yourselves." There are other locations where players could meet up, even as strangers, to meet and greet. A market. A ballroom as guests/guards of some noble. A jail cell / court. A gallows. A ship. A caravan. A wizard's study (waiting for the wizard to show up). Or on the trail gathered around a campfire. And many others.
A creative DM can make the tavern start interesting, but it really does need to be done sparingly because it gets old fast.
Everytime a new video comes out and an idea is displayed incredibly, all I can think is how I want to use it in my game. Never thought I'd be excited of the possibilites of starting in a Tavern.
Duck yes, just cooked dinner, sat down, and there's a colville notification waiting for me.
"Serving weenie" made me laugh embarrassingly loudly in public. Good work, Matt.
Every RPG tavern/cantina I've ran has a drunk Viking, Orc or Klingon somewhere ready to start a fight.
I start with shipwrecks, car crashes, or in the middle of some catastrophe. I love how Tyranny of Dragons starts!
I did a good start in a tavern - had a mini boss baddie get in a fight with the party. He was so far above them (level 7), it was over quick. I just had the final blow to each pc just knock them out at zero hp. One by one this evil ranger knocked around the party of 5. They awoke in jail [just overnight with a fine] with the baddie having escaped the guard ... Great motivator for revenge against him...
I love starting my campaigns in taverns.
With a nice demonic twist
To the ale. I make my party drink demons at the beginning of the game.
Comrade nothing more DnD than a drink that comes a fort AND a will save.
Sounds like an average day in _Kill Six Billion Demons_ .
I'm serious. In the webcomic _Kill Six Billion Demons_ , drinking liquor derived from blue devils is a common way to gain the ability to speak all languages. Of course a few hours later, the person then vomits up a baby blue devil, and has to eat it to retain the language mastery. Such is life, in -the Zone- the Spoke.
Bluecho4 that sounds both horrific and amazing.
Fine wine and spirits.
When Matt says the let's keep this video short, you know it's gonna be good.
I like starting in Taverns because it's a useful cliche, most people around the table have been to a pub and all the in characters in the world been to a tavern. Creating a though line from our world to the world I'm building, starting somewhere more familiar to both pc and characters.
I'd never really had a problem starting in a Tavern, beyond just not finding it very interesting, but this video gave me tons of ideas on how to do it well. Many thanks!
I usually start with an ambush. Most campaigns I run start with a low fantasy quest that limits the player's ability to travel. In my current campaign there was an organized bandit "army" attacking anyone who went by road in the region and any encounter would be devastating (They were ambushed in the first session and one player got killed and another dropped to 0 HP). Basically they had to level up doing quests that destroyed the bandit's fighting ability (Destroying convoys, warehouses, etc.) until they could kill the leaders, dissolving the bandit threat.
Starting with an ambush is great as it unites the party and gives a view on the world they're in.
Once ran a campaign where the adventurers started the session having to 'fight' a fire to save the village tavern, and ended with them trying to rescue the 'boss monster' from the evil princess!
You can start in a tavern and throw them into the middle of the action. A fight breaks out and the PC’s end up working together to survive
I will always love the tried and true tavern start. My very first home brew campaign, my players ended up scamming a dwarf who happened to be a member of the dwarvish mafia. Then he tried to get his gold back, and lo and behold my players now had to hide a body, and escape from this mafia before they killed them.
Definitely a great way to get the players hooked into the story, knowledge of the world notwithstanding
Just discovered these videos.Matt, I have been playing off and on since 1983 (9 yrs old).Love these videos as they bring back great memories.Just restarted playing again with friends.Thanks for making these!John
I like using the "orcs attack!" approach when making intros, the campaign I am currently running started in a carnival with sever games that I could use to explain to the player's different kinds of skill checks and such. Then when they started to lose interest the main villain of my campaign (a green dragon) attacked, forcing the characters to act. They saved people and stole horses from the stables and ran.
I've used the tavern twice:
I used your first adventure from the beginning of the series but changed it to the Blacksmith's son.
The other time I gave the player the exposition (brief) why they were just outside of town and told them they were to go meet a contact by in the Tavern by the person who hired them.
I’ve been DM-ing for 30+ years. Just started my most recent campaign in a tavern. Again! As the players were making their characters, I told them about the world, about the kingdom, about the big city, and about a particular tavern there. “You decide why your character is at that tavern that night.”
Then we worked together to contrive them into a party as I hooked the adventure, foreshadowed two villains, and launched my best campaign yet.
BTW, Dragonlance starts in a tavern. And has many of the elements you discuss.
My intention for a sandbox campaign that I really really honestly I promise I am going to run is to start in a tavern. A week ago you landed in this strange land seeking your fortune, a band of adventures full of piss and vinegar! In the past week you have each racked up 1d100 silver in outstanding bar debt, and the innkeep is going to hand you over to the guard if you don't settle that debt by tomorrow. Good luck!
New camera setup Matt? Lovely depth of field.
James Douglass that's why it looks so different. I was worried I was going crazy.
So nice camera!
IIRC, Matt said on the short lived live stream last weekend that he's playing around with settings on the camera to explore its capabilities.
I think the focus should be just the opposite
The audio is a bit off but the video is great
This came at a perfect time. We aren't starting a new campaign, but the group is starting a new leg of the journey and a new plot in a city they've come to and are planning to operate out of the popular tavern in the town.
Last 3 campaigns for me started:
With players coming back to life in a tomb where their general was buried with his army.
An underground goblin party where all players are goblins with random mental disorders. Getting ready to run outside in a storm to try to catch lightning with objects thinking that they too will be able to use magic.
Sinking ship where survivors swim to a water temple leading up to 2 water bound armies going to war with a leviathon fighting the kraken.
I have two experiences I'd like to share with the group:
-In one campaign I was in, the DM had the players - who were mostly playing D&D for the first time - sit down and play blackjack with each other in character. He had little fake silver coins and everything. The DM played the part of the dealer, who also turned out to be the "mysterious stranger" with the quest that would change their lives and set them on the path of adventure. It was a great way for new players to start feeling out their characters in a context that was more familiar - that of a real-world card game they'd all played before.
-In another, it began where none of the players knew each other, but they were all staying at the same inn. While they were on their way back from various errands, the inn erupted in a massive fireball. While investigating the wreckage they met one of two men targeted by this assassination - the other was a heap of ashes. They recovered the item meant to be exchanged at this inn and set off to help the living man with his quest. A great way to subvert expectations right away.
Those both sound really cool. I especially love the second one. There's something very affecting about a building blowing up just as you're coming back, or rescuing a survivor from a disaster and becoming part of their story.
@@NoriMori1992 Thanks. I thought they were pretty good ideas.
Yeah my first campaign started in a tavern and it wasn't that interesting.
But my actuall campaign I thought more about it and all my party members started on a ship. When they were asleep "Treanor-The great Necromancer" (the didn't know who he was he appeared as an hooded person) started a figth on the ship after a short fight which I planed all dropped to nearly 1hp he blasted the ship and sunk it and all players went unconsciously and awoke the next morning on the beach expect for them all ship members died only them were alive.
And this start was so epic.
Thank you for you're series for new DMs as me it's so helpful like the advise to introduce the big bad guy at the start.
Starting the campaign by having your players joining a caravan journeying to a nearby town or city is a good start too.
There are caravan runners, travelers, families, merchants to interact with as well as a potential pop up tavern to put them in.
You can start at the beginning, middle, and end of the journeyAnd if there's a lip you can just have bandits, orcs, goblins, etc raid the caravan and maybe kidnap people to be made slaves or other horrible fate.
And on top of that you can end the journey by describing an extravagant entrance into the city.
“Flight Captain Myriad of the Hawk Lords” is such a cool sounding person/title/group that I will live unsatisfied until I get to join them.
Our group started our very first D&D session a few months back. Even our DM was new to the game. We started in a tavern and it was great fun. Yes there was some awkwardness, but that gave it some tension. For me, as a player who already had worked out my backstory, I new a little bit of who my character was. We didn't really small talk in the tavern, we used it as a place to figure out what was going on in the town and all get thrown into an adventure together where we get to know one another along the way. And there was tension between the characters at first just because everyone doesn't always get along at first and we roll played that and it was awesome. It was also part of my wife's backstory to have fits of uncontrollable magical outbursts. Basically, she's the Phoenix off of X-Men. I loved it when she burned my friends dwarf's beard halfway off that first night. He shouldn't have cooked that rabbit that he caught! The tavern is what you make of it. It seems to be just as valid as any other way to start. I have really enjoyed your videos. Keep it up!
"You find yourself in the towns local tavern, The Hickery Dickery, guzzling down a strong elvish ale out of a tin mug. The bar keep looks at you, 'time for me to close up, and time for you to close your tab.' Suddenly, you realize you left all of your gold at home."
I love tavern starts. It's a great place where people of all kinds go, and while yes, adventures looking at the bounty board for adventure at the bar is trite and overdone, there's so many other things you can do with the bar. Just like your PCs go to taverns for information, so too do townsfolk. There's so much more to do there in terms of plot hooks than people think there is. People are so stuck with the typical "Tavern Start" that people don't branch out from inside the "tavern box" and instead just do something totally different. I love using something so adventure and d&d nostalgic, while still being SUPER creative. Best of both worlds.
A personal favorite minor touch of mine in taverns is pulque. Well, I use pulque. You can apply this to any local, non standard alcohol, but I got the idea from pulque. Make it traditional to the region. Most meals include a single drink of it in taverns. It's served in a very traditional way. (I stick with a serving gourd bowl). And instead of having the players ask for it, have the server, without prompt, ask them what glass size they'd like. Have the glasses already at tables. Range them from single shots to flagons. Or even larger. Let their choice of serving size for what amounts to wine-strength alcohol inform of their character.
I love that description of “communicating the traditions of D&D”. I’ve always described it as “not how one must play D&D or even how they should, but how they can.”
Also I’m taking your backstory for Dragon Knights but twisting it a little. They’re made using an unfertilized dragon egg (because dragons, like chickens, lay eggs regularly regardless of whether they will eventually hatch) manipulated by powerful magic and the soul of an unborn child being fused together. They have their own personalities but are incredibly loyal to their creator. In this instance, their creator Amara is a good person loyal to her Empress. There are Dragonborn from far away that are actually quite evil, but that’s not well known.
Best Way to Start a Campaign:Naked,drunk,bleeding,on the bathroom floor,with a pounding headache,a cold and the building is on fire. :B
More seriously I really like starting in a city after a disaster,in a battlefield during or after a battle,on a ship as it pulls into port or overlooking a major event (a parade,battle,speech,airship crash,ritual,etc).
I have started in taverns (or bars or cantinas etc.) in the past, but I typically work with players to concoct a particular reason they are going there (or staying there temporarily) and use those hooks to tie them all up together in advance. It requires quite a bit of planning, but it's a nice quiet place for shady dealings to happen in big cities and for players to get swept up in forces bigger than themselves as a result.
I had my players start in a tavern. I gave each one a little scene with NPC's, but they did not interact with each other. Then, a gang of bad guys barge in and start attacking. My players stand up and defend the bar. And this is how they all meet. One of the patrons of the bar admired how these characters reacted, and he hires them to perform a task. Thus, the players embark on their first mission together!
I love starting with the PC's in prison. Doesn't matter when, where or who has captured them but there is obviously a common goal: escape. They can each come up with good ways of how they got there. Maybe there can be a timer until someone checks on them or an execution timer. Also, they can then be on the run, or just needing a place to rest. They are gearless, penniless and so have to loot everything. I just love the choice and variations so much that I never start a homebrew encounter any other way.
I'm writing a campaign that's going to start with all the players teleported into the middle of a maze. Which itself is a magical weapon powered by the creatures wandering around in it. First things they come across are dead monsters and adventurers giving them a stock of potions, good armour and weapons. Inside out D&D, start in the dungeon and fight your way out : )
Souns like the awesome movie Cube.
Marcos Nogueira it's been a long time since I saw that film, but sort of. The maze itself is based on the Gorgon's maze from Destiny. When they find the machine at it's heart (I'm all about machines with living and magical components) and destroy it to escape, they find out the maze was powering a a barrier stopping an evil kingdom conquering and 'civilising' a huge swathe of wildlands and the creatures in it. I'm planning to make it harder and harder as the campaign progresses for them not to pick a side between the civilised but rapacious kingdom and the wildlands, which will never tax you, or try and conquer you, but might eat you in your sleep.
I like your idea...
Matthew Clements this sounds wonderful. Personally, if I were in this scenario (me, not a character of mine) I’d side with the wildlands instantly. People give me headaches.
One of my early Gamemaster experiences involved Rolemaster. It also involved 10 players because 6 directly joined and made up characters or asked me to make one up for them, and 4 others asked at the last minute if they could play. So, since I was an undergrad and we all had tons of time and a conference room we could use all night, I said "sure!". I'd chatted mechanics with the first 6, and while I was able to use some pregens for the last minute arrivals I wanted to give them a quick overview of the system and the setting. To give me time to get the new characters up to speed, I started everyone else in the tavern and told them to roleplay with each other. Most of them sat down somewhere with at least one other person and started talking. No one knew who or what anyone was. I get a note passed to me.. from a thief. He wants to steal something from the person opposite him. Ok. He succeeds. Then I get a note passed from the player sitting opposite him, also a thief, who wants to steal from the person opposite HIM (Thief #1). He gets an exploding roll (in Rolemaster there's no limit to the total die roll), and off the cuff I rule that Thief #2 steals back the item that Thief #1 stole. Accusations start flying, a brawl broke out.. Pretty sure we never got out of the tavern, and the size of the group after that was about 5 players when the casual players who wanted to see what the whole RPG experience was about decided it was all too intense...
I started my campaign in 3 taverns simultaneously. all characters had reasons to be there before the game started. then I gave them reasons to all merge in one. it worked out fine because i'd given some players info that another needed, so they were roleplaying while I took care of the other location.
Way back in the day, everyone started their campaigns in a tavern. We always had a fight. It got to the point that no one wanted to do that anymore. Excellent points here for mixing it up to be more interesting and "realistic!"
I love this, but...
I'm starting in the future of my setting. An old half orc sitting in front of the fire, eating soft meat, a blanket around his shoulders. He looks at the little ones surrounding him and says, "Let me tell you a story about the heroes I fought along side. The ones that did what they could to make this retched place better for you." Then I flash to the beginning, the tavern that brought the adventurers together.
Gotta have a tavern...
The story about the 7th level characters in the tavern made me think of the start of World War 1. Just people getting drawn in, "YOU HIT MY FRIEND, YOU JERK!" Fantastic mental image.
Late to the party, here, but fun stuff about food service in the pre-modern western world:
1: The idea of personal orders of pre-plated food is an incredibly modern one. before the 20th century, food was ordered for the table, and served on a communal platter.
2: an eating establishment having a "menu" in any sense is likewise fairly new. A lavish establishment in the renaissance might have had several things to serve its guests (and might even go so far as to make things by request) most places served whatever they cooked that day, or whatever they had butchered in back. Before refrigeration, one only had so much time to cook things like meat. Any "optional" food would likely be preserved, and depending on the time of year and poverty level, the place might *only* serve preserved or pickled food, and cereals (dried fish, pickle, and millet stew, anyone?)
3: In the more northern side of Europe, virtually every town or tavern (and even homestead) made it's own beer and served it's own local spirit (in cultures with widespread distilling.) This meant that there wasn't much of a culture of distinction in such drinks, and in most places there wasn't any choosing of "what to drink". A tavern would have it's one beer, and *maybe* it's one whisky. In wealthier places or in wine growing regions, it might also stock something from the next-door vineyard, (or import it as a show of luxury) likely still by the barrel.
In another video, in your opening, you voice a Dragonborn ordering "Ale. Mutton. And a place to sleep." this might be exactly how such an order might go in a medieval tavern. Although the specific of "mutton" might even just be "Food".
In short, everyone once served "shut up and eat it" and little else.
I started my last campaign with a horse chase. Because magic has been outlawed in the setting, and my players, being defiant, all decided to play magic wielders, I started the game with a cinematic opening of the players on horse back, tearing round the corner of a busy city street, followed by the city guard. I decided that there didn't need to be an actual prison break, as I thought that it would remove the effect of starting with such an epic start.
I started my first campaign in a campsite on the road. The party had all pre-emptively met late at night while traveling at a crossroads, with the addition of three npcs - some caravaneers carting rich silks and a messenger boy. They'd all agreed to camp together, safety in numbers and all that. They get to know the nps for a moment before going to bed, finding the boys name to be Willow, and the caravaneers to be delivering fine silks to the Empress herself.
However during the night they were set upon by a zombie wandering out of the bushes, the party fought the zombie - which was a pretty straight forward kill and more of an intro to combat for new players. However, as the zombie falls, more start to wander out of the bushes, a veratible horde coming at them, they are far out-numbered, and they see this! The npcs are cowering at the center of the party who are ready to fight to the death...
But wait... they have to succeed on an out-of-nowhere spell shot from beyond the horde, a sleep spell cast at high level, five of them immediately fail, however one succeeds, just barely, and watch as their new found companions fall where they stand and a figure comes out of the treeline pointing a finger at them, the last one standing hears the word "Sleep." before they too, drift off, failing their second saving throw.
Cut to several hours later. The party wake up feeling somewhat refreshed, and they're piled on top of one another in a cell, in a basement of some kind, their weapons nowhere to be found. And a voice rings out from out of nowhere to them, "Climb to the tallest tree and you'll find the key to leave this place...Good luck adventurers!"
And the cell door swings open.
Ok totally unrelated to the video and a bit long but it was still inspired by the vid and kinda fun to ask:
What do you think about asking player to fill in details of the world for you, and then rolling with it? For instance:
GM: "You start in the local watchman hall. . Why are you here?"
Player: "The bailiff called for us?"
GM: "The bailiff enters from a side door and now you manage to finally get a good look of him? What stands out to you the most?"
Player: "That he has a wooden leg."
GM: "The bailiff limps to you and with a tired voice says: I want you rat-catchers to find the basilisk that took my leg."
Is this lazy? Does it give too much space for the players to break the campaign? I still haven't used it in my games but am really considering it.
I usually do a hybrid approach. Start the characters right in some action scene illustrating a major conflict (a murder, an ambush, anything really) and once that is resolved I herd them into a tavern to throw more background at them. At that point they have already acted within the world and I can use that to prod them into taking even more of a stance towards one side of the conflict. I have found that a lot of things can happen in a tavern, but not everything. Think of it a prologue (or tutorial mission) before the main quest starts.
Taverns are awesome and Sam Riegel is a natural born DM.
Funny story, I strated a campaign (on my channel) where I described the small town's landmarks and more or less said, you just arrived in this town, each for your own reasons, where would you like to be? And halfof them chose the tavern.
Most folks don't understand that once upon a time Tavern/Inn/pub was the ONLY place to meet for the carrying out of business in many places. Salons come in during the 1700s in France, but are an invite only place inside a home. Restaurants and Hotels are also VERY late (1750s).
In many places shops were little more than stalls that people came to on market day, usually Saturday, in rural townships. Very few standalone businesses, and those were very specialized (Mill, Blacksmith, etc.) most other tradesmen outside of a real city were travelers with wagons and carts or pack animals.
But in the City you could have other options... the Coffeehouses of London was were community life move to in Elizabethan times, for example. You didn't start fights there though, as a fight meant you might be excluded from the place and not be able to make business connections (the first stock market started out of a coffeehouse, as did Loyd's of London).
My goblin adventure starts out with a HOT burn. They all come together and save the farmer's daughter (hopefully or it'll be a super short session), only to find out that when they get to the tavern, that the blacksmith's daughter has been kidnapped by other goblins... Mahaha!!! I'm thinking about stealing the dragonborn thing you do.
So I've been watching these for a few months since I started DMing and I just happened to finish this one today, which was great, because tonight I started a West Marches Campaign with a one shot for some level 1 players who were just getting started and it started.... in a tavern. They were kind of "hitting that wall," but one of them pronounced that he was a former politician, to which the tavern owner, immediately jumped the bar and proclaimed that "Westend is a place to get AWAY from political machinations!" and demanded 100GP for the meal (which cost next to nothing and the PCs didn't have) or threatened to call the guard to have them thrown out of town. Well over walks an NPC who asks them to complete a task just out of town and indicates they will pay them 300 GP for doing so and smooth things over with the Tavern owner. Make the characters be reactive and provide an outlet. They immediately took up the task and left. The adventure received good marks.
My all time favorite campaign I started the players in a Tavern... But then the Magistrate came in and pressed the characters into the service of the King Alleric the All Red. They were to scout out ahead of the main army. There were 2 companies of soldiers to help with enforcing this decision. The heroes made it to the top of hill when they heard quite a commotion from behind them and they watched the two companies of soldiers decimated by an Uurock (orkish) horde in a world where the Ork was considered extinct, ie: driven into the sea and those who were captured were executed almost 300 years earlier
Prison starts are my favorite, as a DM.
Do you write plots for Bethesda games?