Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Ibbins 07-08-05, 11:03 PM	I'm about to start a campaign again, and as always, I'm having trouble on how the group comes together. I realize I could just have them work it out themselves, but for this particular campaign I want to start off with a strong "bonding experience" for the three of them. The party-to-be consists of: -a NG Kalashtar psychic warrior from Sharn- he bears a great deal of hatred for the war, and he helped those indirectly harmed by it while himself avoiding the direct conflict. -a CN Changeling Sorcerer from Aundair- He sold his services as a mercenary to various minor factions during the war, often fleeing the scene or double-crossing his employers if things turned against him. -a monk. That's all I know about him so far. The locations of the PCs are roughly in Breland, probably near Wroat, though quite flexible. Things I want to avoid for this particular adventure: -Large cities(though they'll likely go to Sharn some time soon) -The party getting captured & imprisoned in same/nearby cell(previous DM used that to start his campaign 3 months ago) -Patrons who hire the PCs without an apparent reason other than the (metagamed) "they're the PCs, so they're the ones who are doing the quest."(previous DM used it a few too many times and I'm sick of it) - edit: Bars and Inns. this ancient cliche gets some rather lousy results from these players. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
KP91 07-08-05, 11:14 PM	Once I used that the PC's get involved in a bar fight (which can be supstituted for interupting someone like the Boromir clan while doing buisness).
Ibbins 07-08-05, 11:22 PM	Oops I forgot to add that to the avoidance list: inns/bars. I tried it last time with this group and they didn't bite. I've had a different campaign(different group) start in a bar and it went really well, but I doubt it'll happen that way again. The problem is, over the past several months our group has been stumbling through a series of low-brow campaigns that choked and died horrible deaths, leaving behind a few sore spots that I'm not ready to revisit.
smalltown_hero 07-09-05, 12:08 AM	I know the feeling, I've had a few of my games die due to scheduling conflicts, people leaving, etc. Don't take it to heart though. What doesn't kill us... blah blah blah. Anywho... I am about to start my own Eberron campaign and am getting a group together as well... some thoughts on how to get the group to feel like a group: -Have the players come up with reasons why they would know one another, maybe they ran into each other sometime during the war, perhaps they are long time friends, relatives, and so on. This can help out a lot, if the characters already have some ties together before the actual game. -Bars and Inns are iconic in D&D, but I understand if you want to steer away from them. I see that you are searching for more of a "put together by cirumstance" scenario, while this is interesting, you need to give the PCs reason to stick together for the long haul, perhaps they are all tied together by prophecy (perhaps THE draconic prophecy), or they are all in with the bad crowd, like a gang or larger evil conglomerate, working towards the same goal: saving their asses. You can make it seem like the party came together by "circumstance" but in actuallity, it was carefully calculated by forces moving in the background, so there really is no deus ex machina. Those are just some thoughts. For example, my campaign will be starting in the launchpad of launchpads, Sharn, and I will have the group already pulled together by one common thread: they all belong to the Clifftop Adventurers guild, and have worked with each other before, sometimes briefly, but for some of them, on several occasions. It takes out the guess work of the "first meeting" but they still have that sense of getting to work together for real, for the first time, when they say to each other, "Hey, don't I know you..." Good Luck on you endeavors, hope I may have helped a little, if not, it was nice to chat!
chesirecat 07-11-05, 02:24 AM	I have not played eberron, but played d&d . If anyone is out there needing a player for an online ebberon game let me know.
talion09 07-11-05, 02:34 AM	Have them all be members of an Adventurer's Guild (Clifftop or Deathsgate in Sharn, etc) and hired by as guards for a Morgrave/Wayfinder expedition to X (Xendrik, Shadow Marches, Q'barra, Demon Wastes, etc) The PC's could either be natives of Sharn, new to Sharn but part of the Guild, or someone hired along the way, or a "native" guide from the destination. You could also sub in a different university or organization (Arcanix, Korranberg, etc) or have it be the Wayfinders, but from a different branch other than Sharn. Once at the destination, something happens and the PC's are stuck with an NPC or two, seperated from the main group. Maybe someone set off a trap and they have to find another way out of the tomb, maybe they were attacked by natives, etc... A couple of encounters like this and the PC's have a shared history to build upon, and hopefully some mutual trust after the life or death encounters. Take it wherever you wish after the expedition. PS: I know you said you didn't want to use Sharn, but its only part of the backstory, and a changable one at that.
Methos of Aundair 07-11-05, 06:38 AM	I had three players join an already existing campaign (I was running the published adventures SoL at this point). What I did was have Muroni (agent of the Chamber and an NPC in the 3rd adv) show up saying she was hired by Lady E and needed their services with an existing group. This worked out well as later when they discussed it with Lady E she obviously had no idea what they were talking about. Later when they met Muroni things were beginning to piece together. If you have a long-term idea for the campaign have someone who will be involved way in the future plots of your game bring the pc's together. Someone who knows the 'prophecy' or something. This way eventually the pc's begin to wonder at who their employer, benefactor, whatever really is. This can often be a lot of fun. I often enjoy tossing in things at different points in the game than not bringing them up again for several months in real time. They seem to like it too.
Cloud Divider 07-11-05, 11:12 AM	I'm about to start a campaign again, and as always, I'm having trouble on how the group comes together. I realize I could just have them work it out themselves, but for this particular campaign I want to start off with a strong "bonding experience" for the three of them. The party-to-be consists of: -a NG Kalashtar psychic warrior from Sharn- he bears a great deal of hatred for the war, and he helped those indirectly harmed by it while himself avoiding the direct conflict. -a CN Changeling Sorcerer from Aundair- He sold his services as a mercenary to various minor factions during the war, often fleeing the scene or double-crossing his employers if things turned against him. -a monk. That's all I know about him so far. The locations of the PCs are roughly in Breland, probably near Wroat, though quite flexible. Smalltown_hero's idea of having the players decide for themselves how they know each other, AND why they'd work together is a good one. One hurdle that needs to be specifically addressed is how a Brelish war vet and a former merc in the employ of Aundair are working together - as the two nations fought, and nationalism is a MAJOR issue. Not that it'd be hard to come up with an answer, but it still needs to be addressed. Something I did for my campaign, which had some pretty varied PC's (Thranish Paladin of the Silver Flame, a Cyran WF "green beret", a Cyran cleric, and a Brelish Artificer), was to have them hired by a "mysterious patron" that had some kind of experience with each of the PC's (the details of how is a subject of a whole new thread). This patron was building an organization from the ground up, and felt that each of the PC's would be good candidates). The PCs were hired into this organization (a detective agency). The game opened after each of the PC's had been working together for about 6 months or so. Maybe you could do something interesting by having all of the PC's start out riding the same lightning rail/airship/watercraft, when things go all Die Hard (Cyran extremists try to blow up the train; a Phiarlan or (whoever the power-through-finance organization is called, it's slipping my mind at the moment) were stealing a shipment of X in order to manipulate the market, and so on. The PCs, being the PCs, are the only ones who act. Afterwards, you can help further cement the intra-PC ties by having whoever planned the train job (or whatever) ASSUME the PCs are all together (because they had to work together to stop the Fiendish Plot), and try to hunt them down, forcing the PC's to band together for mutual protection. If necessary, use GM Fiat "Here's the campaign premise guys - if your character absolutely disagrees, we'll write them out and you'll have to come up with a character that will fit in. Alternately, a common enemy might work well, too. Each affected PC knows the villain, but only knows certain aspects. If the PCs band together, not only will they have better chances at survival, they'll have more clues to try and stop their enemy. In other words, you're bringing them together through adversity. Things I want to avoid for this particular adventure: -Large cities(though they'll likely go to Sharn some time soon) Too bad - I've had a hoot with Sharn... (That happens to be the city my PC's are working out of, though they've been all over Breland at this point). -The party getting captured & imprisoned in same/nearby cell(previous DM used that to start his campaign 3 months ago) Yeah, that's not one to use too often. -Patrons who hire the PCs without an apparent reason other than the (metagamed) "they're the PCs, so they're the ones who are doing the quest."(previous DM used it a few too many times and I'm sick of it) Don't totally discount the patron. If you put work into it to make it plausible, it works quite well. In my case, while it was a stretch as to why a single intelligence agent knew people from different factions, it plays VERY well into my overarching plot, as the patron used to be a (non-Changeling...we think) "man of 1000 faces," and part of a continent-spanning conspiracy. Now, once the PCs did get together, I wrote the patron out of the story, more-or-less (he was kidnapped...and the PC's discovered after the rescue that "he" was actually a Changeling that had been impersonating the patron since the end of the war...by request of the patron). It gets really convoluted after that, so I'll save you the confusion... :)
ccerose 07-12-05, 06:39 PM	One more vote for having the PCs come up the reasons they know one another. It's not like DMs don't have enough to do already. We're the ones who put life into the world. It's not too much to ask the players to put life into their characters. If the players can't come with backgrounds linking themselves to one another, limit character creation options. You could make it as simple as they are all from the same nation. Or you could be really limiting by telling them that they are all humans who were members of the Cyrian 65th infantry who were returning from a reconnoissance mission in Thrane on the Day of Mourning only to find their entire regiment wiped out.
Ibbins 07-12-05, 10:27 PM	Too bad - I've had a hoot with Sharn... (That happens to be the city my PC's are working out of, though they've been all over Breland at this point). Actually, I've worked out a great story arc that brings the party into Sharn for a while; I just don't want everything to start there. Note also that I wanted to avoid patrons if their role wasn't plausible enough. I just want to have really good reasons ready for using them once I actually do so. I think I will have them work out the get-together themselves, or at least have them give me some good, solid material to work with for doing so.
ralixgaudreau 07-13-05, 01:47 AM	You've got a soul knife, a sorcerer and a monk, three classes noted for being lightly armored and devoted to mastering an inner power (though in three different ways) in order to find their own strength and make their way in the world. Perhaps they have been brought together by someone who wants to make a careful study of how these three similar-but-different people develop their strengths? Maybe a pair of people want to settle a bet about which path is "best". Or perhaps someone chooses them because their combination of talents will be necessary to overcome a specific kind of enemy at some point down the line. Or perhaps someone who has mastered all three disciplines seeks to impart secret knowledge to three worthy successors (though such an NPC would be truly rare in Eberron, for obvious reasons). Or perhaps they're being groomed for a mission to a place where they'll have to enter without any weapons and armor, so characters capable of defending themselves and dishing out punishment with (pretty much) just their bare hands are perfect for the job. I don't know what kind of campaign you have in mind, but these are just a few possible (and hopefully at least fairly reasonable) justifications for a patron to hire this particular group of people. I have an episodic game that I run sporadically for some friends who live in another part of the country, on those occasions when I happen to be in their neck of the woods. They decided all to be part of a mercenary company that fought together in several countries during the Last War. They had a history together, so it made perfect sense that they hung around together and were friends when the game started. It has also turned out to be quite a convenient backstory for introducing new characters when a new player joins or a player decides to retire a character and start a new one -- we just say that the new character is another old friend from the mercenary company (called the Company of the Dusty Sword) who happened to show up in town where the characters hang out (which happens to be in Sharn). Hope these ideas were at least a little bit helpful.
anarco_rata 07-14-05, 12:58 AM	One more vote for having the PCs come up the reasons they know one another. It's not like DMs don't have enough to do already. We're the ones who put life into the world. It's not too much to ask the players to put life into their characters. If the players can't come with backgrounds linking themselves to one another, limit character creation options. You could make it as simple as they are all from the same nation. Or you could be really limiting by telling them that they are all humans who were members of the Cyrian 65th infantry who were returning from a reconnoissance mission in Thrane on the Day of Mourning only to find their entire regiment wiped out. DAMN TRUE!!! i am a reality seeker dm, and i hate when they come with characters backgrounds that are really goo, but could never, ever, work together... and they get mad at me when i limit something in their characters, AND they get mad when i make yet anohter generic start (patron or bar confrontation) ...i hate them so much :weep:
Ibbins 07-14-05, 01:26 PM	Or perhaps they're being groomed for a mission to a place where they'll have to enter without any weapons and armor, so characters capable of defending themselves and dishing out punishment with (pretty much) just their bare hands are perfect for the job. That's a really nifty idea. I hadn't made the connection of their focus on inner power etc. Note, however, that the guy is a psychic warrior, not a soulknife, but he still fits the mold, if to a slightly lesser extent.
smalltown_hero 07-15-05, 12:34 AM	It sounds like you may be getting the ball rolling better now. Good for you. I am glad that this thread has been genuinely informative, for myself included. I have never really thought about limiting character creation to that extent, but that is interesting. Also, related to the statement I said before about having the characters figure out how they know each other. Well, they don't ALL have to, as well... they can be tied together by one character or two characters, or if you have 4 PCs, 3 can be friends and the other is just friends, or a relative of one, but be wary of this if your PCs are sometimes cliqueish, it may alienate a group. Other than that... starting in the midst of an adventure, and letting the characters assume they have already been working together sometimes works as well. Anyway, thats my two crowns. :twocents:
Splendide 07-15-05, 12:43 AM	A good patron is a gnomish scholar that thinks he can influence a piece of the Draconic Prophecy that he's researched at length. As such, he may ask various people a series of seemingly unrelated questions, in order to profile them according to this. This gives a means for very different people to be working under one person's patronage, and the best part is that the patron is most probably on entirely the wrong track.