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Ive been thinking of having the players start as prisoners, convicts, criminals. Either real criminals or unjustly convicted. Then forced to go on the mission/adventure in exchange for freedom. Its better than life of hard labor, a death sentence, or even prolonged imprisonment.
Like the "Suicide Squad" if you are familiar with the comic, Escape from New York, Dirty Dozen. Even the Ghost Tower of Inverness used this.
Something different than "You meet at the Inn/Tavern".
They don't all have to be hardened criminals. (but some might)

Other than the start of the party & their background(possibly some personality traits also) not much would change about the adventure.

That's one of those slippery slope things. If you know your players, and they're OK with that premise, its cool. If it's a con game or a tournament, it's cool. If it's something like a published adventure designed to be dropped into an existing campaign, that's a tough sell.

I've done it several times and never had an issue, but I've got a great group of players who don't mind a few rails now and then.

Of course, some classic modules are major railroads.

A4? "You are prisoners with no equipment in a cave."
White Plume Mountain? "Take one of these three paths and then return here to take the next."
Dragonlance? All of it.

Back to the topic at hand. I DMed an adventure where the PCs started in a tavern ('natch) but were immediately arrested. They were then tried and convicted, sprung from prison by a "secret friend," and had to defeat the baddie to prove their innocence. Similar to Blood Axe's plot hook. I'm not sure I believe it worked well but it was novel.

And I agree with Pete. Get player buy in and you can start them as prisoners, pirates, townsfolk, refugees, or whatever.

Yeah, I get what you guys are saying. It would probably just be a one-off adventure or PBP game. It doesn't have to be a railroad. They can choose to not go on the mission and flee instead.

The "Escape from Prison" premise is a lot of fun, too. The PCs need to be resourceful to get out, it's less linear overall, and leads to a whole "The Fugitive"/"Hunt for the one-armed man" thing if you like.

As the man said, it all depends on your players. The guys I used to play with would have either A) been discouraged by such a bleak start to the adventure, or B) been encouraged to unseemly player-character behavior by such a premise ("But we're criminals, after all."). Of course, Conan the Barbarian (Conan), Philippe the Mouse (Ladyhawke), Robin Hood (Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves), Thundarr the Barbarian (Thundarr the Barbarian), and the recent movie version of the Guardians of the Galaxy all began their careers in prison. But they chose to go on to better things. I'm not sure the members of my old gaming group would have.