D&D first adventure inspiration

Dead enders and poorly paid soldiers looking for a way up, that's how I've always started.

>>48266745
>How did your D&D or pathfinder game start out with its first adventure?
In a tavern.

>>48266745
Just think the campaign in L-M-S scales
>Large
Think about the setting and things that are actually going on in the world at the moment, about your gods, magic, etc
>Medium
Think about the situation at nationwide scale, here's where you think about your BBEG plot.
>Small
This is where the PCs affect the plot, try to think how their own decisions present the world and get related to the BBEG. This is also where you design the dungeon and immediate plot.

Try to keep preparations to a minimum and don't fear improvising the plot: You don't always know what to expect from your players, so you should be ready to come up with ideas and keep the narrative flowing.
Try doing some exercises with tarot cards: Take 5 cards, read their meaning, and build a story with that in less than 10 minutes.

I've run a fair few, in order it was
>in an adventuring tavern with 4 quests posted to go to either dwarven mountains, elven forest, human farmland, or kobold-infested desert
>everyone picked kobold, and they found overpowered magical amulets there that led to a kobold/dragonborn/dragon plan to start a war against the western continent

>As reincarnated unfulfilled adventurer spirits
>basically would-be adventurers who never answered the call and died unsatisfied
>involved a series of visions and actions that determined what stats you got and classes you could choose from
>all reincarnated in a church made for that purpose, given gear, and sent on a quest

>Forced to take shelter during a deadly storm, meet each other in the cave, fight some gnolls and undead
>One player makes a contract with the others to serve as his bodyguards

>Players are part of an adventuring group
>several half-orcs join
>trouble.jpg
>half-orcs murder captain and several others in their sleep, take everyone's reward from last mission, go off to become the campaign's villains

>>48266745
> How did your D&D or pathfinder game start out with its first adventure?
Last successful DnD / Pathfinder game started with me DMing an Ultimate Campaign scenario where the PC (which was to become the DM of the campaign) played what would become the leader of his nation. The game was heavily stacked (his sheriff turning to be a mass-murderer and the likes).

Long story short, humans were losing a war with dragons, fled to the underworld, founded a city that later fell to riots following the drows / duergars slavers attacks and plagues.

As the city fell, a Pit Fiend offered the nation's leader to fix this and provide enough resources for the outpost to thrive in exchange for the souls of those that were under his nation, as they entrusted him with their destiny.

There were still a lot of people coming from the surface and finding their way to this kingdom, and while the original habitants changed, it wasn't so obvious for traumatized war survivors. We were descendants of those who still had a soul. Our rulers were (disguised) thieflings.

> Not gonna copy anybody
Keep in mind, your first objective is to be entertaining. Creativity and Originality should SERVE that objective, but not be objectives by themselves.

>>48270180
Btw, Ultimate Campaign uses hexes that are a pain in the neck to go over voice-chat. First quest was to accompany, along with guards, a caravan to the surface to gather resources. Our "leader", a PC, was chaotic good, and big on "liberating human slaves".

So we were sticking it up to the lizard races and dodging / baiting away their dragon masters. Game was good.

>>48266745
>how did you guys start your first adventures
I ran N1.

>>48270180
>Creativity and Originality should SERVE that objective, but not be objectives by themselves.
Agreed. My first two campaigns, I ripped several ideas, plots, and straight up ripped maps from a couple video games. I just adapted them enough to be medieval fantasy instead of whatever they were originally. The players loved it, as long as I didn't tell them it was based off of something, they had no clue. The only thing they ever guessed was when I shamelessly dropped the deku tree in as a starter dungeon.

>>48270253
The campaign I ran which ran for the longest (apart from the one I run right now), had players be level 0 (warriors, experts and adepts without equipments).

It started in a Skyrim-type environment, had snow devils (kobolds following a white wyrmling) burning down a house while most men were fighting elsewhere. PCs were volunteers, were given a few potions and broken/weak items. Anything bigger than a leather armor or dagger was broken. They ended up surrounded by the kobolds close to the entrance of their lair, a burial ground.

The ground gave way, some of them were hurt, and dozens of kobolds were coming quickly. They entered the mounds of a group of heroes where they discussed with Ghosts of heroes past. Each ghost unlocked the first heroic level of a PC and gave a few gifts. All in the same ballpark as a +1 mithril chain shirt. On top of that, they were given an almost half-charged wand of CLW.

After a fight using under-equipped level 0s, shit turned glorious. Since a lot of their gear was still of very low quality, finding a masterwork weapon / medium armor was something big.

>>48266745
Soooooo... tricks.
> Start small.
E.G.: If PCs are lvl 1, don't send orcs. Send vermins, goblins that do act a bit stupid like by attempting to grapple, attacking guard dogs / horses. Underwhelmed heroes survive.

> Start in the middle of the action.
E.G.: You storytell up to the FIRST dungeon's entrance, then PC gain full control.

> Don't focus on originality.
Copy fucking Skyrim with Jarls and everything, or go full arabics, or have the lord of the place be called King Arthur. Doesn't matter even nearly like what you seem to think.

> Don't prepare too much.
Get the stats of a few monsters that you can use in a pinch. It doesn't take much to transform goblins stat blocks into hobbit muggers.

> Don't prepare too little.
Make yourself tools. Have an idea of what could drive the game, what major NPCs would do, what hook will present themselves. This is the main advantage of copying something you do know: The NPCs behaviors will come naturally.

>>48266745
>You're in the forest
>There's orcs
>Roll initiative