Massive List of Thread Starters

[Twilight Sparkle]

I have mentioned this in the cbox before, but I possess a list of over 150 various thread starting ideas. This list was put together by a group of experienced RPers on the website RPG-d, including yours truly and a handful of others that some people might recognize. I present it to you here to help people when they're looking for ways of starting a thread. These all work quite well. (You'll also find I use this list quite often; I set a personal challenge for myself to use each and every starter).

• Character goes to a gay (straight, if they're gay) bar by mistake
• Character has recently been on the wrong end of a fight, probably with bullies
  
• Character is just getting out of the shower and is only wearing a towel
• Character is crossing the street and falls
• Character is buying something really embarrassing at the store (e.i. man is buying tampons for his girlfriend)
• Pick up the wrong bag/cellphone/set of keys/drink/whatever by mistake
• Haunted by overly affectionate cat/dog/pet gator/llama that won't leave them alone.
• Returning wrongly delivered mail to the neighbor when the wind catches it.
• Out without an umbrella when it starts to pour down with rain.
• Mistakes a character for someone else entirely
• Character locks themselves out of their apartment while in a towel/bathrobe.
• Character locks their keys inside of their car in a parking lot.
• Character buys coffee/drink/whatever for the person behind them in line.
• While at a bus stop, character begins to sing iPod song to self.
• Character mistakes someone for an employee wherever they're shopping.
• Character picks a very loud and/or physical fight with an NPC in a public place.
• Character is at a restaurant/bar and a commotion (NPC or another character? Next poster decides!) causes someone to spill sauce/beer/food/etc on character.
• Character finds that they had sleepwalked and they are in their pajamas in public
• Character is fighting the urge to dance and/or sing in public when they hear a song they like
• Character is think what is the meaning behind the crazy dream they had
• Character is trying to get an item from a crane machine
• Character is confronted by a mascot
• Character is at mall during a crazy sale
• Character is hitch hiking
• Character runs up to someone (NPC or character? Next poster decides!) and yells "YOU! YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE!"
• Characters are stuck in an elevator each but right next to one another 
• Character overhears a shady deal (potentially from a played third party for extra plot juices).
• Character fell asleep on the train/bus/mode of transportation and wakes up in the wrong place with no means of getting to where he was supposed to be going.
• Character gets an awkward *beverage of choice* spill in their lap.
• Character was told it was a costume party... it isn't.
• Character is trying out a new super power that they don't really have (x-ray vision, mind reading, telepathy, blowing things up with their mind, etc.).
• Character is doing something potentially embarrassing on a dare (like pretending for the entire day that they are a ninja cat. Or singing everything they say for the entire day.
• Character has just discovered memes for the first time.
  
• Character is being followed by a small child pretending to be a velociraptor
• Character is covered in chocolate. Or generally any delicious substance.
  
• Megashark attacks
• Character meets someone who talks in song
• Character has to climb a tree to rescue a cat or bird and gets stuck
• Character is asked to dog/cat/bird sit for someone and the animal is being as difficult as possible
• Character gets attacked by a skunk
•  Your character is trying something on in a fitting room. Zipper is now stuck.
• Your character is being followed by someone else's pet (or child, if you want to make it REALLY awkward) in the park.
• Someone is following your character.
• Character accidentally sets fire to themselves. Or the curtains in a restaurant. Or something noticeable like that.
• Character has lost (rental/borrowed) car in parking lot and upon trying one finds it opens with the key, but it's not the right car.
• Character goes swimming and upon return finds towel/clothes missing.
• Character goes swimming and upon return finds that his/her towel/clothes are being guarded.
  
• Character finds the winning lottery ticket/scratch cards on the street.
• The last cab, now you have to share it
• Character is taking a leak in the bathroom. Things get awkward
• Character thinks life is a musical. It isn't.
• Character 1 thinks that Character 2 is the person they hooked up with last night
• Character 1 gets handed a note for character 2 with an ominous message on it. (Bonus points if there's a played third party, double bonus points if 1 and 2 are strangers).
• A classic: Character 1 needs to hide from trouble and uses character 2 for cover.
• Character 1 pins the blame for something on character 2 who has no idea what's going on (good for three-way threads).
• Character 1's phone number was given as a 'ditch' number to character 2 (Bonus point for third part involvement again).
• Character is chased by a swarm of bees (or one angry bee) and bangs in to someone. Any setting. If it's outer space, make it moon dust or some science fiction creature.
• Someone finding another character with a picture of them on their phone, laptop, etc. whatever other technological devices exist. It would be hilarious.
• Character is mooned.
• (Manly) Character is caught knitting.
• Character one catches character two watching the same tv program at the gym.
• Related to an idea I read earlier, character one is avoiding someone they cannot tolerate and thus throws themselves deeply into conversation with character two.
• Character misinterprets a wave from someone else and says hello.
• Character is doing laundry at a laundromat and, alas, runs out of quarters.
• Character is running a basket full of laundry upstairs, unmentionables on top, as you do, and of course runs into the person they least want to see right then and there. (Good for love interests)
• what about being chased by a seagull? It happened at sea a lot...
• The water seemed to explode as he burst upwards, arms flailing, gasping for air.
• It was three days before they found the body.
• ‘Character name’ grimaced, vowing revenge, and handed over the twenty dollar note. (Can be changed for whichever kind of money you use)
• “I can do this, I can do this, I can f***ing do this!”
• Jumping down the last three steps of the staircase, ‘character name’ grabbed the post at the end of the banister and swung himself around it, sprinting for the back door.
• It’d been five days, fifteen hours, twelve minutes and twenty-seven seconds since the last time, and he/she was just about read to give up. Make that thirty-nine seconds.
• ‘Character name’ ’s eyes narrowed, a murderous scowl pursing their lips as the margarita dripped off their nose and slipped down under the collar of their shirt.
• Squeezing the small tube, ‘character name’ stuck their tongue out just barely as they held the two pieces together and carefully applied the superglue.
• Lying in the damp grass staring at the clear night sky, ‘character name’ could already feel the water soaking through the ass of their jeans
• She/He was going to kill him/her. That’s right, the next time she/he saw him/her, they were dead. Not just dead, dead meat
• Hide from someone. Who and why is open.
• Get Lost! - Literally. The better you know the place you're lost in, the better.
• Start your post handcuffed to a radiator
• Have your character be mistaken as someone much more important than your character is.
• Give your character a near death experience.
• Have your character waiting at the airport for a long parted friend who is arriving, but their flight has been delayed three times.
• Be Sick - Why is up to you.
• Have your character tell a really bad joke.
• Your character has been putting off writing this letter for days. What does it say, and why have they been putting it off?
• Get your character arrested – the more ridiculous the apparent crime, the better.
• You should know who the other character in the thread is, but you can't remember. Spend the entire thread trying to make like you know them, while simultaneously trying to make them reveal who they are.
• Set your thread in a traffic jam.
• Have a broken fridge involved
• Make up a rumour
• Put your character face to face with their greatest fear.
• Have your character remember that they have forgotten the other person’s birthday. The more they’ve seen each other since the birthday, the better.
• Start your post in the middle of a fight, have the fight take place in an odd place.
• Have your post start in a phone booth.
• Have NO memory of the night before.
• Your character is trying out the whole superhero thing. Just this one time.
  
• Start your thread with your character being unable to get money from the bank. (Whether they’ve not got their card, have no money, or the bank’s being robbed… up to you.)
•  Lock your character out of their house. How do they get in?List item 99
• Have your character plan out the perfect murder, even if they don’t commit it.
• Your character is ridiculously, speech slurring, can't stand up straight let alone walk in a straight line drunk.
• Use the phrase "that could have gone better" in your first post.
  
• Use the phrase ‘Did you know this was here?’ in your first post.
• Have your character forget who they are.
• Start your post covered in paint
• Miss your train
• Set your thread in a graveyard.
• Have your character get disappointing news.
• Have your character pretend to be foreign (for whatever reason.)
• Start your thread in the waiting room of a hospital.
• Play Hooky (From work or from school.)
• Late, I'm Late, for a very important date!
• Your character is wearing nothing but a towel when someone knocks on the door.
  
• Have your character turned down for a job/promotion.
• Your character finds a phone number on a bathroom door. Do they phone it?
• Your character finds their favourite childhood toy.
• Your character is experiencing the joy of energy drinks for the first time. Or perhaps experimenting to see how many energy drinks you can imbibe before the visions start to set in.
  
• Your character has not slept in four days.
• Have your character have run into their first crush just before the start of the post.
• Be somewhere you're not supposed to be.
• Start the thread with your character suffering that day from Murphy’s law – anything that can go wrong will!
• If your character had a genie and three wishes, what would they wish for
• Have your character discover evidence of a scandal that happened years ago in their family.
• Your character wakes up from a dream so vivid they don’t know if it really happened.
• Have your character try to pick out a gift for a loved one.
• Have your character listening to a radio helpline show
•  Have your character imagine their life if they had the occupation they wanted as a child.
• Start your post with your character positive they have just run into their doppelganger.
• Animals (preferably monkeys in mine eyes) escaping the zoo and running about town like wild, or animals having left their cages - due to a zookeepers lack of paying attention - and is causing a ruckus in the zoo. I mean wouldn't that be cool to RP? I know I would love to RP that. It would be a bit like Jurassic Park except with wild animals.
• Your character sees an old high school crush/someone they admired nearby. They immediately leap into conversation with the person closest by to look impressive.
• Your character is cooking dinner. Something catches fire in the oven. The building's alarm goes off and everyone has to evacuate. (great for an apartment living character)
• A poor stranger is trying to assemble an IKEA product, you decide to go help him out with your HAMMER expertise.
• You're walking through the woods when some animal, be it a squirrel (or, perhaps, given the setting of your roleplay, a goat) falls from the tree to the path in front of you and whoever else you might be walking with.
• your character is walking through a building/dorms/ somewhere and sees someone pull the fire alarm at a story/building even though there is no fire.
• Character gets stabbed in a drunken brawl
• Character gets chased by a swarm of angry bees and jumps into a river for cover
• Character falls into a pool of mud
• Character gets caught in a trap
• Character falls into a hole in the ground
• Character is being chased by city guards
• Character is being harassed by a poltergeist
• Character is bored, finds a list of "100 things to do when bored" on the internet, and is trying them out one by one
• Character's pet rat escapes into the school dorm
• Character's cat sneaks off and returns with a stolen lace handkerchief
• Character proposes marriage to a stranger.
• Character wakes up and discovers that someone cut their hair during the night.
• Character follows joggers around in a car (or on a bike of horseback) blasting Eye of the Tiger for encouragement. Thank you Facebook memes...
• Character goes on a passionate anti-hipster movement. Or an anti-anti-hipster movement.