Best Places To Start A Campaign That Aren’t A Tavern In DND

Summary

• Start the campaign with a shipwreck, forcing the players to work together to escape an island.
• Have the party meet in a prison during a jailbreak, bonding over the need to escape and survive.
• Introduce the players at a masquerade before revealing their true identities during a party disturbance.

We’re all familiar with the classic Dungeons & Dragons expression, ‘You meet in a tavern.’ Almost everybody’s played or DM-ed a campaign where the players all meet each other in a tavern before setting off on the first grand adventure. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, meeting in a tavern campaign after campaign can prove a bit stale.

So, where should you have your players meet the next time you start a new D&D campaign? This list has you covered. Here are some of the most fun and unique locations you can use to start your next Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

10

Shipwreck

Where Are We?

Explain to players during their session zeros that they’ve been preparing to travel to a far-off land via ship for some time now. They’ve got their tickets and will begin the first game on board the ship, excited to discover their destination.

However, when the game starts, inform the party that, instead of reaching a luxury vacation destination, the ship seems to have run aground and is shipwrecked. The players are the only remaining survivors and must work together to find a way off the island they find themselves on.

9

Prison

Get Your Stories Straight

For chaotic or more neutrally aligned parties, have the group start out all incarcerated for various crimes or misdeeds. One day, a jailbreak occurs, and the prisoners take control of the facilities. In the chaos, the party all happens to run into each other for the first time.

In the tumult, the party must work together to find a way to escape prison and make it back to civilization in one piece. This is a great way to bond the party together quickly, as they’ll all have a secret they share.

8

Masquerade

Who’s Behind The Mask?

Individually, the players have all been invited to an extravagant gala and masquerade at the end of the current tenday. You can use players’ session zeros to come up with costumes, theme ideas, and more.

Then, during the first session, introduce the players to one another via their masquerade costume masks. Only later, when trouble breaks out at the party, do the masks come off and the party can finally meet one another face to face.

7

Planar Rift

Where Could That Go?

Let players start wherever they want to in the campaign setting. They can start at home, in a far-off city, or anywhere their heart desires. From there, in the first game, explain to all of them that they each individually see a planar portal open before them.

The portal sucks each member of the party inside, placing them altogether in a mysterious new demi-plane, home to alien-like creatures. The party must thwart these creatures and find a way to reopen the rift to return home to the Material Plane.

6

The Open Road

Heading North?

Simple, but classic, nothing is saying you can’t have your party meet while traveling at a nearby crossroads. For an added incentive, have the party meet on the open road while camping or sheltering from an oncoming storm.

This lighthearted, pastoral setting can prove to be a great way to get players talking to one another while the storm passes. Then, the party can determine that they’d like to stay together and may all be perhaps venturing in the same direction.

5

Casino

Big Money, No Whammies

Why not start a campaign at a high-stakes table? Whether the party is working the casino or attending as guests, introducing the player-characters to one another via the exquisite backdrop of a high-end casino is sure to be a memorable setpiece.

For added fun, have a heist occur while the party is in the casino. As a group, they can either decide to intervene or assist with the heist, thus confirming their alignment and allegiance. An Ocean’s 11-style caper is a surefire way to bond a party quickly.

4

The Siege

On The Run

For this introduction, have the party all start in the same large settlement or metropolis. One evening, as all seems quiet in town, a siege begins in which a rival nation begins to lay waste to the city walls. Citizens emerge from their households, terrified, and players can get a good look at one another for the first time.

Players will have to meet quickly and help each other out to escape from the city before it falls to the rival nation. This introduction is great as it gives the party an immediate quest: do they want to help their home nation out and try to reclaim the city in the name of their sovereign?

3

In Their Dreams

You Seem Familiar

At the top of your table’s first session, have each player have a shared dream in which they meet each other for the first time. Mysteriously, their minds seem bonded together by a benevolent (or perhaps malevolent) force.

Players can meet one another, share their locations, and more. Once the dream ends, it’s up to the party to find a way to one another and determine once and for all who or what is telepathically linking them and for what purpose.

2

The Villain’s Lair

Schemes And Plots

A great early adventure for the party can include being kidnapped by their primary antagonist. This is similar to the introduction of the core party in Baldur’s Gates 3. Why not start a campaign all captured by your big bad?

Wherever the villain’s lair may be, have players wake up constrained and trapped inside, with no obvious way to get out. The table will have to work together to escape and figure out what the machinations of this antagonist are.

1

The Carnival

Come One, Come All

A classic, yet fun backdrop for tables of all ages, setting a character intro at a local carnival that’s come to town can prove immensely fun. You can even have players gamble or play minigames of your own design as they meet one another.

For an extra bonus, have the carnival’s wild animals get accidentally released, giving the party their first mission. They must herd and return all escaped animals to the ringmaster, and prevent any civilian injuries.