Just curios how fello GM's started thier campaign???

Was there some calamity that made them players unite, were they all freinds already ect..

I prefer when the players have some kind of history before the game start, even if ill-defined. It creates a reason for long-term cooperation.

I started, reluctantly, with the Beginner box and a table full of eager player. We walked through that adventure, Long Arm of the Hutt (eventually, as I run a sandbox game and these guys do whatever they want) and now we're on to Beyond The Rim.

It's funny how staring down the barrel of a dozen stormtroopers' blasters makes people fast friends.

i had my players start in the middle of a heist.

we opened with the FACE playing a high stakes game of sabacc. all the players knew was that he had to delay the host as long as possible.

next scene was the THIEF breaking into a safe in the hosts office, as he went to leave the room he glanced at a security camera feed showing the MUSCLE in a fast fight with security.

next scene was a few rounds of the fist fight for the MUSCLE

next scene was the PILOT speeding through difficult terrain as he was running late as the get away driver.

as the session gained momentum all the disparate pieces came together.

I usually either require each player character to have history with at least one other player character. It goes much more smoothly that way, whether or not my particular gamers know each other before starting the game.

I will also +1 the starting a game en media res . Excellent choice that gets players working together from the get-go, not questioning their character's motivations and seeing whether this offered job or current group is "really worth their time," or whether they'd rather just fly to Corellia and have a drink in a seedy cantina.

Started my characters off in Kessel. They were part of the same mining crew that day when the perfect distraction occurred that facilitated their escape. they ended up working together to escape and now they have to depend on each other to make sure they don't get thrown back in, or worse.

I prefer when the players have some kind of history before the game start, even if ill-defined. It creates a reason for long-term cooperation.

I decided to use this same principle, as well. I had seen GMs have us start off in a tavern or whatever, and be like "you guys are here to deal with this guy, who says he'll give you money for risking your lives." Immediately after, one of the PCs will be like "hmm... yeah, that doesn't interest me. I'm out."

To avoid that, I have the earliest member only knowing everyone else by about 3 months, and others going back as far as a year or so.

I'm opening up in a cantina post-mission, and giving the PCs a chance to talk and joke about the mission they just finished, and possibly bring up older missions, and create on-the-fly inside jokes. Sort of like the elevator scene in AotC. "Hey remember when you fell into that nest of gundarks? You idiot."

I'm opening up in a cantina post-mission, and giving the PCs a chance to talk and joke about the mission they just finished, and possibly bring up older missions, and create on-the-fly inside jokes. Sort of like the elevator scene in AotC. "Hey remember when you fell into that nest of gundarks? You idiot."

I did this for a one-shot I ran from a friend who was only in town for the weekend.

It was a noir style game in Saga edition. I decided to start it in a diner just after their latest mission. It was intended to be a nod to Reservoir Dogs. That happy moment right before the whole thing goes to hell. One of the players even refused to tip.

My Star Wars games have been all over the place. The three approaches that worked the best have been:

1) The Bar.

This is the typical "You are all in a bar and brought together by someone with a bunch of money who will pay you to do a job. Now that the job's done and you all seem to work well together, you join forces and go off into the wide, wide galaxy."

Great for newbies to everything that don't know any better, insane groups, college/school groups and/or when you need a game to get going NOW.

The best one with this approach was the party getting paid to "damage a ship." They learned later that mission that it was a prototype TIE Interceptor they were demolishing. . .

2) Tried and True Crew

This is the best one to work with, in my opinion, especially if the players are creative. Let them all already know each other, the majority of their secrets (i.e. they trust each other!), and how they function.

My current group did this. They said they had a habit of wrecking ships, either by crashing them, getting shot down, mechanical problems, or what have you. They started shipless, blaming each other, and landed a job that would help them get a new ship. They're having a blast.

3) Don't know each other, but on the same side.

Essentially, this is exactly what it say.

My previous group didn't know each other, but they were all recent recruits in the Rebel Alliance. They were given a skeleton crew and told to go steal a Marauder Corvette in dry dock.

The game didn't last long due to out of game situations, but the players liked that kind of connection!

I would ask players to come up with a reason that their characters might be friends. If they can't think of a reason, then they simply are.

My personal favorite idea to start a campaign involved crashing the group's (soon to be) starship into the Trader character's junk shop. That's starting things off with a bang!

Started my party as criminals on an imperial prisoner transport to Kessel. The transport came across an old derelict ship in space and the naval lieutenant saw an opportunity to ingratiate himself with the corrupt local sector moff by retrieving this ship. Party got "volunteered" to go explore the ship under the close watch of 3 naval troopers. A few fisti-cuffs later and they have a (mostly) broken ship, an orange jump suit, a captured Imperial Navy trooper sergeant and their freedom.

Earning the credits stuck on Formos to repair the ship enough to make it space-worthy has been quite the bonding experience for the characters. 3 sessions in so far and it seems to be working well.

We played our first session about 3 weeks ago. I had told my players beforehand that their characters were all working for a Bothan smuggler, who in turn does jobs for Reom on a regular basis (since I’m planning to include BtR in my campaign, I decided to incorporate IsoTech from the get go).

My first session was meant to be a simple introductory game before I really kick things off, so I came up with how Roson (he’s one of the NPCs from Scrapheap Point in BtR) had been doing some undercover espionage work at Sienar Design System’s Advanced Projects Laboratory on the planet Lianna (which is about 36 hours away from The Wheel with a Class 2 hyperdrive). Unfortunately for him, he was found out stealing tech designs and was captured by Sienar Security. However, he did manage to send one final message to Reom, asking for immediate extraction.

And this is where the players came in. Reom tasked them with going to Lianna and breaking out his man on the inside. I started the session with them surveying the Sienar building during a rainy night, planning on how they would get inside the building to free Roson. The mission was a success: they managed to break Roson free before Sienar Security was able to learn who Roson was working for. We ended the session with the crew and Roson leaving the planet, and they’re now headed back to The Wheel.

Now we're just waiting until we can all get together again to play the 2nd session.

Starting campaign this Saturday with 5 players. Have gamed with most of them for over two decades and I know their style by now. That is, they don't really invest much in preparation of a backstory. Even gave them weeks advance notice to come up with something. So anyway, I knew that was to be the case so I made preparations. Going to start them with a FLASHBACK.

Three of them are bounty hunters, one is a Politico and one a Marauder. I had them choose their obligations and let me know how much they bought up to determine how 'heavy' this flashback will be. Well most of them have bought high and as a group they are already over 100. So flashback starts not looking good.

Two bounty hunters start of in a prison cell of a psychotic Black Son local regional Despot. They were tasked with his murder and obviously failed. Then the third bounty hunter (gadgeteer) will be thrown into cell with them. He was there to steal information. Obviously failed. Will give them some interaction time to get to know one another.

Then the cell will explode as another captive from another cell used concealed plastic explosive. Realising he got it wrong the captive heads back and the others now need to follow cause the preverbial has hit the fan.

I will cut that scene out and then head to the Despots landing platform where a YT 1300 has landed with the Politico and the marauder. Politico has family obligation and is in the family business of arms trading. Marauder was hired for escort and has a debt obligation to the Despot. He had now arranged for this arms deal that should settle the debt. Well that wont happen, as you might see where this is going. His debt is about to increase and the Politico's family debt is about to increase as well when they get caught up in the escape and are taken for aiding and abetting the bounty hunters.

They will all fly off the fortified facility with the Black Son now tied to their combined obligation and being the thorn in their sides for some time to come. Then flashback is over and I take them to the start of BTR. Using BTR as adventure to get them used to all mechanics of game. Once that is done the galaxy beckons for on huge campaign.

Ran the adventure from the Edge of the Empire Beta, got complaints from one player because the Rodian Pilot got the most rewards since it involved reducing their obligation.

Had planned to run the Beginner box set game next since I was going to have the pre-generated characters steal the PCs ship and the PCs' are forced to find another ship to escape offworld after the Hutt discovered the bounties on a few of their heads...

Inbetween groups now, but still hasn't stopped me ordering BTR even if I'm more interested in what it says about the Wheel!

Started my characters off in Kessel. They were part of the same mining crew that day when the perfect distraction occurred that facilitated their escape. they ended up working together to escape and now they have to depend on each other to make sure they don't get thrown back in, or worse.

I'm starting my game in a similar fashion. Prior to when the game actually starts, the players have been working with an inmate NPC that's been organizing an escape. So the game will begin in the middle of their escape attempt. Aside from their freedom, the NPC is "paying" the players for their help in the escape with his knowledge of the location of a lost and crashed ship. Basically he came across the beacon/droid from Beyond the Rim and knows the location of it near the Wheel. He doesn't realize that Reom is now in possession of it however, so the players will have to deal with that when they arrive. I'm planning on using parts of the Formos adventure from the CRB as a pit-stop since the players will need to land there to re-supply after their Kessel escape.

I started them off with the caveat that they were a pre-existing crew of some nebulous time. I always find that the Dresden FATE system for character history and city creation goes a long way in helping to invest the players in the game setting. I like to use a modified version of that for almost every chronicle, unless there is a reason that distrust or a sudden gathering is important to the theme. For example, Awakening games where everyone suddenly realizes they have some sort of magic, super-power or other abilities.

Since everyone was just trying FFG's system for the first time I didn't want any complications to ruin their fun. That said, two of the four had dark secrets in their backgrounds that are just now starting to emerge.

I ran a Session 0 where in addition to chargen we did setting gen. I established an order and we went around the table, each player on their turn could present a new element (Person, Place or Problem) or add a modifying statement to an existing element. We went around repeatedly until each player had presented at least 3 elements and each element had at least one modifying statement minimum. I served to moderate to make sure none of the elements or modifiers were "god moding" and would occasionally throw in modifying statements of my own to tie some of the elements together into cohesive story catalysts.

One of the several things that resulted from my group's Session 0 was that they were in trouble with a Hutt and lying low at a hidden pirate space station run by a self-proclaimed pirate king whom they helped in the past. Their "membership dues" for continued station access was coming up so the pirate king had a job for them to stay in good standing there.

has anyone played 'microscope?' this would be a great way to develop a rich world/backstory before starting a campaign.

i recently started a collaborative storywriting exercise online. It is sort of a mix between creative writing and play by post RPG (influenced by 'microscope,' the book 'playing at the world' and some ideas i heard on a podcast called 'fear the boot') which i encouraged my players to participate in. everyone takes turns adding a short submission to a narrative. we all "control" all the NPCs - there is no GM. players can take "control" of a person(s) if they want, sort of like controlling a character in a more traditional RPG.

we are doing this so that we can all contribute to creating a rich, multi-faceted galaxy/backstory, so that when we do start our in person game, the players are all familiar with and invested in the universe.

it's been really fun so far.

anyone who wants to check it out, you can read what we have so far:

http://houseofmonk.wikispaces.com/

i would be honored if anyone wanted to jump in and participate, too - we need more creative minds!

I always have my players know eachother before the first adventure, give them a big, exciting, job, and see what plots come from that. For example:

One player, Valik Jekurra was a law enforcement officer before he forgot to set for stun, got in a bunch of legal trouble, only to have a Hutt help him get out of it. The Hutt then helped him start a new career as a bounty hunter, but will at some point call in the favor, and make Valik hunt a few people for him, for free.

The other player is Jarvis Tonor, a smuggler who is somewhat retired. He was once legendary, able to talk his way out of anything, and an expert pilot, but bounties started to stack up, and he now lays low, taking on small time jobs and staying anonymous.

How do I tie these stories together? Valik found Tonor and offered to help Tonor fake his death, so not to cause suspicion. Valik got the bounty, Tonor stopped having bounty hunters chase after him. Valik lets Tonor use his "Safe House" on Kashyyyk, and Tonor lets Valik use his ship.

But now, they decide to team up, as the bills are stacking up, and they need a large contract... The one offered by the Zann Consortium to hunt down this "Pirate Queen" seems perfect.

In the F&D game I’m currently running, I actually started out as a player. The GM got us together as recently discovered force-users all friendly to or reporting to Master Kalla, and Master Kalla was assisting Master Luke in starting to build the New Jedi Order.

After a few games, the GM had work conflicts, and so I took over as GM to keep the game going. We’ve gotten new players into the game, and the former GM has even come back as one of the players. But they’re all directly or indirectly working for Master Kalla and the NJO.

I’m running Chronicles of the Gatekeeper right now. The party has just left Arbooine, with an unconscious but still barely alive Gel Marcolf in tow. He is in the bacta tank and hasn’t woken up yet. But the tree-city of Quolas is no more, having been destroyed by orbital bombardment of Star Destroyers that arrived just as the players were trying to make their way out. They escaped … barely.

So far, the feedback that I’m getting from the players seems to indicate that I’m doing okay. We’ll see if I can keep up the good work.

In the online game I’m in as a player via Roll20, the game itself has been going for several sessions, so I don’t know how they all got together.

The new players (and characters) were all introduced recently, and we did online in-character and out-of-character explanations of why we were on the planet, how we might be connected to them, and what our common interests might be going forward.

We were required to come up with our own explanations of how we tied in, and with a bit of discussion with the GM, we each came to our own backstories of how we fit in.

4/5 groups are running on my main campaign. I'm new to GMing so I didn't require PCs to have prior knowledge of one another. The start was a bit rocky to some groups and others took to it just fine.

Recruited by a Hutt to do a job on Nar Shaddaa (when I say recruited, basically blacklisted into it), the group starts off on an investigation of a missing employee and shipment of cargo.

First scene was getting into the place, I had them describe their characters and how they walk into the Hutt's estate and from there we jumped into the conversation. It was basically "an offer they couldn't refuse" which makes them dislike and distrust the Hutt. I am fine with this... It is a Hutt Crime Lord after all.

The 5th group is small and I told them they all have a least some prior knowledge of each other and they are welcome to work out the details if they so choose. Ran it as they were part of a small team of Insurgents looking to strike at the Empire in any way that they can while making a profit from it. First session was a ship chase/combat escaping from Pirates with some stolen treasure, hyperspace jumping to a Hoth-like planet and helping the locals deal with a "wildlife" problem to pay for ship refuel and repairs. The wildlife was a Wampa that they had to help the local hunting parties take down. It was the most improvised session I've had and I enjoyed it a lot.

Having them meet in jail is still my favorite opener.

Lets see. The very first one we did, back in 87, was just Tatooine Manhunt - so we started all together, had no real introduction, and just kind of started playing. Mind you, we had no idea what the hell we were doing back then, so if I had it to do over again, I'd actually come up with a start.

We've had one character with a broken hyperdrive pick up the others when they were needing a job, pool their resources, get the ship back on it's feet again before winding up owning a bar.

Our Old Republic all Padawan game was easy - they and their masters were assigned to an outer rim hotspot by the order.

Most recently we've had our characters arrested by the Empire on suspicion of being Jedi (or at least Jedi potential) and taken to a secret Force Training facility to be molded into good little inquisitors. And then the transport crashed, and we've spent the last 4 or so weeks trying to extract ourselves from trouble and get our feet under us.

Started out as a series of one-shots with a group of mercenaries working for the same boss. Until my current campaign, I’d been very unlucky with games, both offline and online, ending prematurely due to scheduling conflicts. I made this one easy to join, without a lot of pre-existing connections necessary. When someone new would join, “oh, he’s just another agent of the organization, but has been working out of [insert planet],” sufficed. If they stuck around long enough, the connections formed in-game.

Just curios how fello GM's started thier campaign???

Was there some calamity that made them players unite, were they all freinds already ect..

The PCs were handed a bar to manage and had a reputation as local troubleshooters. How the PCs knew each other before session 1 didn't come up and wasn't particularly relevant other than "fellow co-owner."

Unless the campaign backstory touches on a shared experience, I don't worry about this. I'm more interested in player character motivation. If history colors that, great! If not, it doesn't matter.