The Ultimate List of Ways To Start A DnD Campaign

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

26. Participating in a heist
27. Dance contest
28. Marching in the king’s parade
29. Every character shows up to return a faulty piece of equipment purchased earlier from a swindler’s shop
30. They have all been hired separately to kill the same target
31. A crossroads where one player is making a deal with a demon
32. Paths converge in a forest where the adventurers are all lost
33. An auction for rare adventuring items
34. A funeral for a common frenemy
35. Guests at a wedding
36. All arrive at the giant X which marks the spot of their treasure map
37. A group created by a king to find an ancient artifact
38. The town awakes to find themselves turned into pickles (wubba lubba dub dub)
39. Seated in the same row for some sort of DnD sporting event
40. They arrive at an Artificer’s shop at the same time to pick up their orders
41. The front lines of a war, making up one part of a ragtag regiment
42. Hiding from an angry orc that just learned the item he won at an auction is a fake
43. A late night raid on a merchant ship
44. 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
45. Running from a large explosion at the local fireworks factory
46. In the green room for a stand-up comedy special where all members are set to do a tight five
47. A portal opened in front of each member of the party and when they went through they were [here]
48. In a local university taking their final adventuring exam before being accepted into the guild
49. Each party member is afflicted with some strange, unique curse and they are in the queue at a Warlock’s Workshop
50. Each party member is afflicted with the same strange curse and they are in the queue at a Warlock’s Workshop

51. The adventurers are all honored in an adventurer retirement ceremony
52. 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
53. They all meet at the retirement of their mentor, or some Realm-renown hero/villain
54. 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
55. Arriving at a crossorads, the party find a talking undead head that begs for them to find his body
56. The last seats in a very small cafeteria on a riverboat in the Nine Hells
57. 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
58. …more on the way…

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