How do you guys normally start your campaigns? Classic tavern, or something unique each time?
I’ve been thinking of starting my next one with a surprise DMPC.
He’ll be mid-high level and over the top, inducting the players into his party because despite his power, the contract he has specifies it must be accepted by a party. He’ll want them to do nothing but stay out of his way. I’m thinking the contract will either be a bounty or goblin clearing task. The target either way will be in a small fort with only a rope bridge for access. He’ll tell them to stay with the horses, go off on his own and promptly have the bridge cut out from under him, dieing to the fall.
If the party want the payout, they’ll have to both get the contract from his corpse and then complete it on their own.
I could see a party abandoning the quest to try and go after the DMPC’s stuff, if it’s cooler/more valuable than the quest reward.
Maybe have it be an old soldier that lives in the town, and the townspeople are trying to get him to stop trying to handle all the problems nearby alone because he’s getting old. So his gear would just be his old military stuff. Good, but not worth diving into a river for. He’s grumbly about having to sheperd some runt adventurers so everyone will stop pestering him, and insists on scouting ahead so the youngins don’t just stumble into an ambush and get their heads cleaved off.
Cue rope bridge.
That also gets you potential hooks with the town not trusting the party since the guy didn’t make it back, or being understanding and throwing a wake/funeral.
Or hell, if the party succeeds some checks and keeps him off the rickety bridge, you don’t need to worry about him hanging around past the first “quest” messing with balance. Him missing the signs of the rickety bridge gets through to him and he decides to retire.