What's your favorite way to kick off a campaign, and why?

My favorite one-shot I ever played in began with

"You wake up. It is a dark and stormy night. You realize you are dead."

The group had all been raised from the dead by a mediocre necromancer, and the plot went from following his commands, to breaking free from his command and earning our freedom.

Somewhere on the Sword Coast there is still a little pub between towns that's staffed by two skeletons, a ghost, and a ghoul.

I like having a goal already set. The party has been hired to do X, so they have an established relationship and at least one shared objective.

I try to have each character know at least 2 other characters in the game, this creates some overlap.

I ran a game (and after almost 11 months) finished a campaign with a bunch of teens who had never played any RPG of any kind prior to this, and while making characters they created a traveling circus or carnival kind of thing and every character had some ties to it. So even when they did not know one another they would see the troupe's emblem and become instant friends.

The other method I enjoy is trial by fire, starting the game with an intense situation and they have to work together to survive. I used this to start the other d&d game I am running. It also inadvertently happened when I was introducing two new characters to my Werewolf The Apocalypse game.

I enjoy the classics. Tavern meet, or prison escape.

But one I really like is as part of character creation everyone tells GM (secretly) about something their character would be blackmailed for. Makes for a fun campaign as these secrets are revealed.

I did one where everyone started in the same town during the resurgence of dragons -who were more like a dangerous pests than an unstoppable force.

Half the PCs were from a previous campaign, so I had everyone tell me according to their back story what that person would be doing independently in a medium sized town.

(1 was working at an orphanage, 2 were staying in the local tavern, 1 was out all night partying)

The town was attacked at night forcing all of them to respond. Some of them ended up fighting together. The rest were folded in when the city guard thanked everyone who helped.

Unfortunately this was an impromptu one shot, so we didn't get very far.

...

As DM I don't enjoy trying to corral PCs into a storyline. I prefer to give people an open world that responds to their actions accordingly.

The BBEG is always on the horizon, never in the middle of the road. Random Encounters are not forced or used to move the plot forward. I try to directly attach as much of my world building as possible to actions taken by PCs.

I'm all about rule of cool. I want my PCs to believe they're going to die without killing them off. I fudge every number except d20s because I want people to focus on the narrative and the role playing over the numbers.

Generally will have everyone going to a location for their own characters reasons when plot occurs and forces them to work together.

Wouldn't say that I have a favourite, but one DM I had started the campaign mid-adventure in an old but recently rediscovered ruin. Our characters, who were adventurers, explorers or treasure hunters, just randomly bumped into each other, and after some negotiation decided that there were safety in numbers and joined forces.

I've only done it once. But I like putting them in a jail cell together. Let them each come up with a reason that fits their character.

Tried a bunch of things, played a bunch of things.

Best scenario was a number of 1:1 sessions (one player, one DM). They led to situations where characters met in quite realistic situations. Takes a bit of flexibility, though. At one point, my character arrived somewhere, and my DM told me to wait, he had to make a call. After that, I had what I thought was an NPC interaction, when a friend arrived, and took this "NPC" over. It was his character.

I have done a few different ideas depending on how long the campaign is. For one shots and short ones I have the players describe what they look like or what adventures they did before getting to the location. Or in a similar vein explain to whatever powers brought them there why they are worth. They then are dropped in a location with a clear objective or specific clues and riddles to solve.

For longer more open campaigns I introduce important NPCs. One they were a recruiting session for the first sailing excursion and met their captain when monsters attacked. The other it was their first big job for their company and we're betrayed by the person who hired them to introduce them to the rivals. For both I want to set tone, location and important NPCs.

I read this great opening that I want to try. A twist on a classic:

"You all meet on a tavern. This is all your first time here but you didn't expect to be on a burning building being chased by the town guards and an angry ogre. You aren't all sure what happens but you know that drinking was involved. What do you do next?"

Depends on the characters, but my favorite was a prison break. Some party members were visitors, others were hired as support guards due to a dangerous inmate being transferred (BBEG) and one was a prisoner. Large boom and suddenly the prisoners are escaping and as the characters are all fighting to get out they get funneled together.

The adventurers wake up together in the Nine Hells after being killed. First quest gives them a chance to get out of hell by Satan.

Also serves the other way. If you ever tpk the party, they can wake up in hell instead of ending the campaign.

A round of ookie cookie.