Starting with a Bang

You are in the Morning Glory Inn, a large gathering spot on the edge of Andel for adventurers. We see a particularly odd party, [insert each player describing their character]. A mysterious figure walks in the room, and spots the party. He approaches throws a bag of coins on the table and says "I have need of escort over the mountains. The journey is perilous but there is another bag of coin waiting for you on the other side."

Sizing up the occupants of the table he says "What say you?"

For many people who have played a fantasy RPG before, you may have had a similar experience when starting a campaign. While this is a perfectly fine start it can get old, rehashing the same beginning experience.

Well I would like to challenge everyone to try and start their next campaign with a bang! This may be some of your players first time make it memorable! You may be playing with seasoned gamers, but why not give them a reason to remember why they love playing. Here are a couple examples of what I like to do to kick things off with more than just a pint.

Roll Initiative

These words typically are good at getting your players attention. Why not start your campaign off in the middle of some action! This will get your tactical and combat focused players paying attention from the beginning, and gives your players a quick chance to test drive their new characters.

The flickering light of your make shift fire illuminates part of the derelict temple. This former house of worship is your parties chosen place of rest for the night. Though in disrepair it provides a feeling of safety ... until you hear the cracking. Bones pulling themselves together. Grabbing up their old discarded weapons and armor, brought back from death by the curse that plagues this land. Their hollow eyes turn to look at you gathered around your fire as they approach with cruel intent...

Roll For Initiative!

I did a intro similar to this for a gothic horror themed campaign. Not only do I get to start the campaign with a fight, but get to give some cinematic setting information. This will help give the players a feel of what to expect on this first adventure. After this fight we flashed back to the city they came from, and they found out what their mission was. This derelict temple became a rest stop on their travel, and where we caught back up to "real time".

You can leave it like that as a place on the road to anywhere so it can fit in no matter what first adventure your players choose to go on. Or if you want you could maybe play out the first room of the first dungeon if you have the first adventure in mind already. Maybe the players could get a glimpse of a challenge they will have to deal with there, and when you flash back they could buy items in town like ropes or pitons to help deal with it.

You definitely don't have to use this as a flashback though, you could just continue on the adventure from their letting the players figure out what quest they are on as they go. Maybe the players could even tell you!

Cinematic Open

These are great they give you a chance to introduce your players to elements in world that they may not get to directly interact with until later in the campaign. However make sure that whatever it is affects the players in some way or why bother talking about it. Maybe you could show the event that sets up the central tension of your world.

As Arioc struck the Dusk Emperor with Sunfall, his celestial maul, a thunder crack rang out shattering the fabric of the world. Decimating the bastions of evil the Emperor had built over the past century. An for the first time in just as long a ray of sunshine shone through the clouds. Though the world was still broken, hope that existed once again.

10 years later...

Short and sweet you could explain the battle a bit more, but it gives a little background on the world an what the players can expect. There is a world that was under the thumb of tyranny but now its being rebuilt. How will the players shape that new world! Maybe you could then start in a tavern but the tavern is in one of the Dusk Emperor's old forts. This takes a trope that many players know but uses it to illustrate how the central tension of the world will effect what the players encounter.

Then again maybe something more direct is in order. You can find lots of these on the internet one of my personal favorites....

Its dark, you feel a great weight pressing upon you. You begin to push the debris off of you, it's heavy and awkward but movable. You start to crawl out of this pile when you finally see some light and a pair of still eyes staring at you. Staring from all around you, panicked you push through the rest of the bodies as quickly as you can. Finally you get yourself free to see a few others standing their traumatized from a similar experience. Were you mistakenly tossed in this mass grave, or were you supposed to be there. If so why are you back now, what do you do?

Another cinematic opening that immediately raises a ton of questions for the players. Why them? Why are they there? Where is there? You can see the difference as well. Both events effect the characters. The first in an indirect way in how it affects the whole world, the other in a much more personal way for the players.


I hope reading these will jump start your creativity and get your gears moving on how to start your next campaign with a bang. Also pull from your favorite movies, comics, books,and video games. If there is a beginning that really grabbed you see if it could translate to the kind of story you want to experience with your players.