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    Home»Resources»The Ultimate List of Ways To Start A DnD Campaign
    Resources

    The Ultimate List of Ways To Start A DnD Campaign

    JohnBy JohnOctober 8, 2023No Comments6 Mins Read
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    There are many ways to start a campaign or one shot, but it can be difficult to choose. Below we’ve compiled many different ways to start your next DnD campaign, from the simple to the complex. We will attempt to get this list to 100 so that you can roll for it if you’re stuck.

    Example: The current number is 40, so you could roll a 1d4 (with 4 as 0) and then a d10, so 1d4 (4) + 1d10 (3) = 03 -> The Tavern but you are waking up from being knocked out in a fight.

    The Start of a DnD Campaign

    The easiest way to start a DnD campaign is to think of how the party might know each other. Hopefully the players have given the DM some backstory about their character either prior to the first session or in a Session Zero. If you don’t have that, or even if you do, the below list can be used for inspiration. The ideas are either a location or a situation, the rest is up to you, the wonderful DM!

    A key thing to remember is the start of a campaign is a chance for all of the party to understand how they know each other, what common goal forces them to meet, or even what random reason they have come to be in the same spot at the same time.

    DnD Campaign Starter Ideas

    1. The Tavern. Standard opening, bad also a nod to those who blazed the trail before us in the real world, typically playing DnD in a tavern.
    2. The Tavern but it’s on fire
    3. The Tavern but you are waking up from being knocked out in a fight
    4. The bathroom at the tavern because they hear someone crying in there
    5. A jail, each member was brought in for a separate reason
    6. A jail, but it’s on fire
    7. Pure darkness, solitary confinement of a jail, they can hear each others voices, but can’t see anything
    8. Individually arriving at one part of a prison mid-prison break.
    9. A speed-dating event, each party member can either be looking for love, a mark, or they were simply bored
    10. A conference on being a better adventurer
    11. An intervention on being a less destructive adventurer, put on by friends, family, or members of the home town of the party
    12. Battle Royale-esque tournament as a competitor
    13. Battle Royale-esque tournament as team of creators, each member of the party owns a facet of the battle that fits their skillset
    14. Arriving in fancy clothes to a ball put on by a wealthy aristocrat
    15. Hangover-inspired “What did we do last night?”
    16. Scaling a mountain to get the first McGuffin of the quest
    17. Spelunking in a cave to rescue the common friend you all know
    18. Shipwrecked on an island together
    19. A tattoo parlor (each character getting tatted with something important to them)
    20. A carnival, showing off skills in various games
    21. A camping trip
    22. The ribbon-cutting of some new fancy building
    23. The bottle-breaking at a ceremonial ship launch
    24. Attending a play
    25. Performing in a play
    Are they writing the next stage play that will change the Realm? Or planning on heisting the Golden Teeth right out of the mouth of Greorg Walshingdon.
    1. Participating in a heist
    2. Dance contest
    3. Marching in the king’s parade
    4. Every character shows up to return a faulty piece of equipment purchased earlier from a swindler’s shop
    5. They have all been hired separately to kill the same target
    6. A crossroads where one player is making a deal with a demon
    7. Paths converge in a forest where the adventurers are all lost
    8. An auction for rare adventuring items
    9. A funeral for a common frenemy
    10. Guests at a wedding
    11. All arrive at the giant X which marks the spot of their treasure map
    12. A group created by a king to find an ancient artifact
    13. The town awakes to find themselves turned into pickles (wubba lubba dub dub)
    14. Seated in the same row for some sort of DnD sporting event
    15. They arrive at an Artificer’s shop at the same time to pick up their orders
    16. The front lines of a war, making up one part of a ragtag regiment
    17. Hiding from an angry orc that just learned the item he won at an auction is a fake
    18. A late night raid on a merchant ship
    19. At the face of a giant rockface with nothing but ropes hanging in front of them and a group of bandits charging from the distance
    20. Running from a large explosion at the local fireworks factory
    21. In the green room for a stand-up comedy special where all members are set to do a tight five
    22. A portal opened in front of each member of the party and when they went through they were [here]
    23. In a local university taking their final adventuring exam before being accepted into the guild
    24. Each party member is afflicted with some strange, unique curse and they are in the queue at a Warlock’s Workshop
    25. Each party member is afflicted with the same strange curse and they are in the queue at a Warlock’s Workshop
    1. The adventurers are all honored in an adventurer retirement ceremony
    2. The party receive a strange invite to someone’s one-man show, turns out it’s the BBEG and how the party reacts is how intense the campaign begins
    3. They all meet at the retirement of their mentor, or some Realm-renown hero/villain
    4. If you’re running an “Oops, All Bards” campaign, they all meet at the first meeting for ghostwriting Girth Drooks next album, the most popular singer in the Realm
    5. Arriving at a crossorads, the party find a talking undead head that begs for them to find his body
    6. The last seats in a very small cafeteria on a riverboat in the Nine Hells
    7. Each member of the party is a cleaning specialist and is hired by the future BBEG to clean their castle from the previous adventuring party that came through
    8. …more on the way…

    Comment below with other fun ways to start a DnD campaign and we’ll add to the list!

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    John

    Forever DM, site developer, and enjoyer of the ridiculous, John is convinced he is the only person to ever create a Halfling farmer that herds Intellect Devourers.

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