Starting a Campaign.

One of the first things to do in any campaign is to find a good way to start it, whether in a published adventure or a homebrew world. This guide will help you find an imaginative way to kick off your campaign.

Although it may seem a bit cliche, starting your adventure in tavern isn't necessarily dull or unimaginative. The way you actually portray it can be boring. For example, if you say that someone approaches the adventurers, you could add interesting detail to the person approaching. Maybe make them the villain in the end, or by making them a relative of one of the characters. Adding depth and detail through things like this help to immerse your players in your world.

Here are three ways to make starting in a tavern exciting and original:

1. Make the tavern the base for a secret cult:

This is a really fun thing to do, especially if someone tells the adventurers that a secret cult is nearby. Making subtle hints that people are all connected could be by using tattoos, or even symbols on clothing that all link back to the cult and the tavern.

2. Make the tavern the basis of an adventurer's guild.

I personally love this idea and think it is one of the most fun things to do in your world. By making the tavern the home of it makes the characters more involved with the guild, and it means they can keep coming back to the tavern. By making a board at the back of the tavern a place for people to put up quests and adventures, then the different adventures don't have to necessarily link.

3. Make the tavern owned by someone that the characters already know.

This makes the tavern more important to the adventurers, and it means that they can be more sociable and they can get to know more NPCs quicker, meaning less time spent describing everyone the adventurers meet.

There are three other ways to start your adventure that might or might not get used a lot, yet they are just as good as starting off in a tavern.

The first one is being either a group of mercenaries, or being put to a task by someone, like a king or powerful wizard. I love this approach, as it is similar to the adventurer's guild, in the way that the different adventures don't have to link, allowing the characters to roam the world that you have created. By making the structure of these quests similar to games like Witcher (one main quest with a big reward, then a few small/side quests with a small reward), then the adventurers can feel free to immerse themselves in the world and really feel like they have choices and a part to play in the world. On top of this, the characters can be creative by coming up with a name and banner for their mercenary company.

The second approach is to have the characters being on the run. This means that the adventurers have to work together as a team, and they can have encounters in the wilderness and out of it. This approach lets the characters make big decisions that could mean the difference between life and death. If you're not sure about how to start off this chase or how this would fit into the bigger picture of your world, then I would recommend watching the Netflix series 'The letter for the King'. It is an amazing series that has some amazing characters. Once you watch it, you will love it, and will understand when I say the Prince Viridian would make an epic Blood Hunter.

Following off from speaking about 'The letter for the King', the final way to begin a campaign is a bit similar to the first beginning. The adventurers are at their training to become knights, when something happens that mean they can't be knighted. To become knights, they must first stop the problem and defeat the villain. This is a fun approach that can be used well when you have a large war going on in your world, like that of Exandria.

Thank you for reading this, and I hope that this will set up your new campaign in style. See you soon, Wildemount Wanderer.