So there are ongoing discussions everywhere about how to start a D&D campaign. The common trope is 'you meet in a tavern': the characters all randomly show up in the same tavern, meet, start drinking and telling tales, and decide to 'adventure together'. Or something like that.
Everyone complains about it. I've never worried about, because I think everyone just wants to get going on the adventures, they know they are going to be in a group, so who cares - let's get going. But I understand they complaints to some degree. The DM strives so hard to create a coherent world and setting, tying adventures together, trying to be immersive. But right at the beginning you have to ignore the hand wave.
As I was crafting my Greyhawk campaign (started in the Great Kingdom, but then moved to Nyrond, pre-war) I kept mulling the starting point over to try and solve the 'meet in a tavern' problem. I didn't want to railroad the party, either together or on adventure paths. I wanted there to be a common basis for their gathering and their adventuring. I also am trying to craft a more political campaign, something beyond just dungeon crawls.
What I came up with was the stealing the patron from Traveller. But how to get all characters to gather to the same Patron? Then it hit me, how does each character get to 1st level? They have to have some type of mentor. What if they all had the same mentor?
So I created Mo, the half elf fighter/magic user/thief. He is level 3-5 in each class, and is an ally of Crown Prince Lynwerd. Prince Lynwerd is loyal to his father King Archbold, but can see that his father is losing his touch and not up to the coming fight with the Great Kingdom. So he is working now to build allies in the various principalities of Nyrond and the surrounds, as well as building a network of capable folks to seek out magic and relics to assist them.
Mo job is to travel the lands and find promising adventuring types, train them up, and set them out onto the lands. Mo will wander into a village as retired adventurer, just seeking calmer waters. He will spend some time getting to know folks, and find the one or two that show promise in any of his classes. He will then start to train them. He ends up spending about a month in a village before moving on, slowly growing a cadre of 1st level characters that are nominally loyal to him.
He gives each character a magic necklace, and tells them when it activates to use it to guide them to a meeting place where he will meet them to give them more information. This is presented to each character separately in their home villages. He tells them they will recognize like minded friends by the necklace, that they can trust them, and his information will be for them all.
So this gets all the characters from various villages, backgrounds, and classes to one place, expecting to meet other. And they've also been 'indoctrinated' into Mo's plans, to some degree. He has sussed out their loyalty to the crown, and promotes they're missions just as 'service to the crown'. He doesn't want to broadcast that he is working for Prince Lynwerd, to keep his network underground to some degree.
I was debating whether to have Mo not make the meeting, and have the characters decide between going to look for him or go on the mission he was providing them with. His mission would actually be a general tasking, and they would have to find more information to determine a 'target', and they could come across information directing them to three different areas. One of which could be containing Mo! Lots of opportunities.
I'm proud of this setup, and having multiple starting missions available leaves it to the players. Which means they will probably pick number 4: None of the above.
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