At the Beginning: Getting the Party Together? [Archive] - Wizards Community

At the Beginning: Getting the Party Together? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
AoErat
12-19-03, 11:24 AM Hi all,

This is a subject I've been wondering about for awhile. When a DM starts a campaign with multiple players, their characters need to "meet" somehow to begin play. I've been able to think of very few methods to do this - and they often end up being cliched or restrictive.

One of the big issues I've had is the less restrictive I get, the more my players take advantage of the situation. (ie, instead of going to the bar I'm heading down the nearest road and hacking my way through the forest in search of adventure. While all the other players have met up already ...)

Anyway, these are the ones I have. I've love to see those of others also. I'm looking for non-specific ideas, for the most part.

1) DM prearrangement: Characters already know each other, written in backstory, etc. Characters enter play already as a party, essentially. This method seems forced and constrictive to me, and robs the players of certain RP elements.

2) Stereotypical bar: Characters start in a bar with an urge to adventure. Meet each other, decide to be a party. Obviously, this one also feels a bit forced, not to mention overdone. No quest is given at this point.

3) Bar variation 1: One character is given a quest pre-game, or immediately upon entering. Character must find others to aid. Logical place to look: bar. Other players looking for adventure, head to bar in hopes for a job. Here a quest immediately exists for the party.

4) Bar variation 2: NPC in bar hires characters also in bar to do a quest. Like the others, it feels forced and out of the player's control.

5) Uniting danger: Something potentially dangerous to themselves or others occurs in the vicinity of all the characters, all of whom just happen to be there. Being the good adventurers that they are, they team up to solve the problem.

Mike
Skrye
12-19-03, 12:21 PM I tend to make the players pull their own weight in my games. Tell them a bit about the campaign setting and general feel of the game I am going to run.

Then make them create characters that know one another or have backgrounds that interlink. Voila! Game starts as soon as we meet up.
rich2939
12-19-03, 04:05 PM I'm definitely a fan of number 5 - placing the pc's in a common danger and having them unite be the best way out of it.

Admitedly, I haven't gotten a chance to test it yet, new campaign starts up in around a month or so.
jasper
12-19-03, 04:58 PM none I dislike all versions of let select team members for this episode of mission impossible.
You either know each other or a drop in likes the cut of you hair. I have came across few people who can role play rounding up the posse and even care to. so me and my players skip that part and appear at the dungeon entrance.
Fixxxer
12-19-03, 10:07 PM Bar Variation 3: The PCs are in a bar when a full-scale bar fight from which escape is next to impossible breaks out (possibly due to one of the PCs being of a certain race). This is good for new players who don't know much about the system yet because it gives them the opportunity to use the combat mechanics, but since everyone is usually using subdual damage (it's just a bar fight, after all), there's very little risk of PC death.

Royal Summons: The King, Lord, Duke, etc summons a group of people (the PCs) together to perform a certain task for him (the first adventure). The reward is great. The only real drawback to this is that the PCs generally need to be higher than level 1, because in order for the authority figure to have heard of them, they would have to have done something at least semi-great.

Escape!: The PCs start as part of a large group of captured POWs or slaves. They are treated cruely, probably whipped a lot. Eventually, one or more of the NPC slaves stages an escape, which gives the PCs the opportunity to either kill their captors or make a break for it. Either way, you as the DM are going to have to plan ahead accordingly, either planning for the PCs to deal with a large group of ex-slaves or planning of rthe PCs to have no weapons, armor or equipment for a while.
ChaoticGood
12-19-03, 11:57 PM 1st level character idea: If all your party members are from the same general region, they could be assembled to undergo a traditional rite of passage... a rite which leads to their first quest.

Of course, this won't work if your party is of wildly different races/alignments/classes. There are several good reasons why the orphaned elf who grew up as an acolyte in the local temple would choose to undergo a traditional rite with the local human adepts and soldiers-in-training. There are fewer plausible reasons why a half-orc barbarian would be among a group of similar young elves and gnomes.

I used this idea for a party of dwarves that also included a single human cleric. I just talked the cleric player into being the child of missionaries sent to convert the dwarves to a human religion.
Oakspar77777
12-20-03, 12:13 AM Military service: Low level adventurers seeking money often sell themselves into the military. Attacked into groups of "irregulars", it is a great way for party members to meet. Even gives good reasons for the many classes to be in the same place at the same time: a cleric is issued to the unit for healing, a fighter/paladin might be the "officer" from the regular army who leads the unit. This also allows you to surround the party with NPCs (the other people in the Unit) adding to the survival ability of the party while still young (level 1). It will also allow them to get to see other classes that the party does not have shine. I usually have this group decimated pretty early, with the PCs as primary survivors, right when they are turning LV 2.

A general call: There is a general quest (think Hunt for the Horn from Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series). There will be lots of adventurers from all over to hear about this quest, crusade, whatever, and will quickly form bands (or be formed into bands by class or lottery). This works well, because it can explain odd groups (ie Dwarf, Half-Orc, Elf, and Goblin) and because the other "rival teams" become great reaccuring NPCs. Not evil foes to face, but similarly aligned characters ever competeing for the next big haul.

Plot development: This one requires the most work and preparations, usually requiring the campaign to start the second meeting, and the first just being character creation and back story. The DM creates an adventure where the characters meet during the course of the adventure. (IE, the Elf starts out on a quest, rescues the Goblin from a Big Spider Web, and the Goblin tells its story of exsplusion from Goblin society and sticks with the Elf. They later come on the Dwarf planning on attacking the Goblin's ex-tribe. Goblin endears self to Dwarf by telling all about the camp's layout. In camp, Half-Orc is chained to a post. Goblin frees Half-Orc in return for help. Big battle. Elf, Goblin, Dwarf, and Half-Orc all have a reason to adventure together in case of more Goblins. After awhile, they all just get used to traveling together dispite the racial differences.
Joseph Wolfgar
12-20-03, 10:56 AM I've had this one done to me, where you wake up, in a jail cell, adn you cant remember how you got there, or who those people in the cell with you are. It works for cooperation, but leaves a lot of plotholes.
Felonious Monk
12-20-03, 03:07 PM My favorite: Town On Fire.

Allow players to have more or less any backstory they wish (DM approved, of course) except they must also have a reason to be in town X on day Y. IMC, it was a harvest festival, with the cleric and paladin assigned by their temples to help keep the peace. The others were there to get rich/drunk/laid. Whatever they wanted, really.

Then bad guys come and set the town on fire. Now they are united against two common enemies (fire and orcs setting town on fire).

When it's all over, our heroes have fought as a group against common bad guys, worked together, and have a number of problems to solve (who has it in for the town, where the surviving bad guys went off to, why certain important people were running off just before this all happened, who let the marauding orcs into a walled town) which will lead them to a number of different ways to start adventuring as a party.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
AoErat 12-19-03, 11:24 AM	Hi all, This is a subject I've been wondering about for awhile. When a DM starts a campaign with multiple players, their characters need to "meet" somehow to begin play. I've been able to think of very few methods to do this - and they often end up being cliched or restrictive. One of the big issues I've had is the less restrictive I get, the more my players take advantage of the situation. (ie, instead of going to the bar I'm heading down the nearest road and hacking my way through the forest in search of adventure. While all the other players have met up already ...) Anyway, these are the ones I have. I've love to see those of others also. I'm looking for non-specific ideas, for the most part. 1) DM prearrangement: Characters already know each other, written in backstory, etc. Characters enter play already as a party, essentially. This method seems forced and constrictive to me, and robs the players of certain RP elements. 2) Stereotypical bar: Characters start in a bar with an urge to adventure. Meet each other, decide to be a party. Obviously, this one also feels a bit forced, not to mention overdone. No quest is given at this point. 3) Bar variation 1: One character is given a quest pre-game, or immediately upon entering. Character must find others to aid. Logical place to look: bar. Other players looking for adventure, head to bar in hopes for a job. Here a quest immediately exists for the party. 4) Bar variation 2: NPC in bar hires characters also in bar to do a quest. Like the others, it feels forced and out of the player's control. 5) Uniting danger: Something potentially dangerous to themselves or others occurs in the vicinity of all the characters, all of whom just happen to be there. Being the good adventurers that they are, they team up to solve the problem. Mike
Skrye 12-19-03, 12:21 PM	I tend to make the players pull their own weight in my games. Tell them a bit about the campaign setting and general feel of the game I am going to run. Then make them create characters that know one another or have backgrounds that interlink. Voila! Game starts as soon as we meet up.
rich2939 12-19-03, 04:05 PM	I'm definitely a fan of number 5 - placing the pc's in a common danger and having them unite be the best way out of it. Admitedly, I haven't gotten a chance to test it yet, new campaign starts up in around a month or so.
jasper 12-19-03, 04:58 PM	none I dislike all versions of let select team members for this episode of mission impossible. You either know each other or a drop in likes the cut of you hair. I have came across few people who can role play rounding up the posse and even care to. so me and my players skip that part and appear at the dungeon entrance.
Fixxxer 12-19-03, 10:07 PM	Bar Variation 3: The PCs are in a bar when a full-scale bar fight from which escape is next to impossible breaks out (possibly due to one of the PCs being of a certain race). This is good for new players who don't know much about the system yet because it gives them the opportunity to use the combat mechanics, but since everyone is usually using subdual damage (it's just a bar fight, after all), there's very little risk of PC death. Royal Summons: The King, Lord, Duke, etc summons a group of people (the PCs) together to perform a certain task for him (the first adventure). The reward is great. The only real drawback to this is that the PCs generally need to be higher than level 1, because in order for the authority figure to have heard of them, they would have to have done something at least semi-great. Escape!: The PCs start as part of a large group of captured POWs or slaves. They are treated cruely, probably whipped a lot. Eventually, one or more of the NPC slaves stages an escape, which gives the PCs the opportunity to either kill their captors or make a break for it. Either way, you as the DM are going to have to plan ahead accordingly, either planning for the PCs to deal with a large group of ex-slaves or planning of rthe PCs to have no weapons, armor or equipment for a while.
ChaoticGood 12-19-03, 11:57 PM	1st level character idea: If all your party members are from the same general region, they could be assembled to undergo a traditional rite of passage... a rite which leads to their first quest. Of course, this won't work if your party is of wildly different races/alignments/classes. There are several good reasons why the orphaned elf who grew up as an acolyte in the local temple would choose to undergo a traditional rite with the local human adepts and soldiers-in-training. There are fewer plausible reasons why a half-orc barbarian would be among a group of similar young elves and gnomes. I used this idea for a party of dwarves that also included a single human cleric. I just talked the cleric player into being the child of missionaries sent to convert the dwarves to a human religion.
Oakspar77777 12-20-03, 12:13 AM	Military service: Low level adventurers seeking money often sell themselves into the military. Attacked into groups of "irregulars", it is a great way for party members to meet. Even gives good reasons for the many classes to be in the same place at the same time: a cleric is issued to the unit for healing, a fighter/paladin might be the "officer" from the regular army who leads the unit. This also allows you to surround the party with NPCs (the other people in the Unit) adding to the survival ability of the party while still young (level 1). It will also allow them to get to see other classes that the party does not have shine. I usually have this group decimated pretty early, with the PCs as primary survivors, right when they are turning LV 2. A general call: There is a general quest (think Hunt for the Horn from Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series). There will be lots of adventurers from all over to hear about this quest, crusade, whatever, and will quickly form bands (or be formed into bands by class or lottery). This works well, because it can explain odd groups (ie Dwarf, Half-Orc, Elf, and Goblin) and because the other "rival teams" become great reaccuring NPCs. Not evil foes to face, but similarly aligned characters ever competeing for the next big haul. Plot development: This one requires the most work and preparations, usually requiring the campaign to start the second meeting, and the first just being character creation and back story. The DM creates an adventure where the characters meet during the course of the adventure. (IE, the Elf starts out on a quest, rescues the Goblin from a Big Spider Web, and the Goblin tells its story of exsplusion from Goblin society and sticks with the Elf. They later come on the Dwarf planning on attacking the Goblin's ex-tribe. Goblin endears self to Dwarf by telling all about the camp's layout. In camp, Half-Orc is chained to a post. Goblin frees Half-Orc in return for help. Big battle. Elf, Goblin, Dwarf, and Half-Orc all have a reason to adventure together in case of more Goblins. After awhile, they all just get used to traveling together dispite the racial differences.
Joseph Wolfgar 12-20-03, 10:56 AM	I've had this one done to me, where you wake up, in a jail cell, adn you cant remember how you got there, or who those people in the cell with you are. It works for cooperation, but leaves a lot of plotholes.
Felonious Monk 12-20-03, 03:07 PM	My favorite: Town On Fire. Allow players to have more or less any backstory they wish (DM approved, of course) except they must also have a reason to be in town X on day Y. IMC, it was a harvest festival, with the cleric and paladin assigned by their temples to help keep the peace. The others were there to get rich/drunk/laid. Whatever they wanted, really. Then bad guys come and set the town on fire. Now they are united against two common enemies (fire and orcs setting town on fire). When it's all over, our heroes have fought as a group against common bad guys, worked together, and have a number of problems to solve (who has it in for the town, where the surviving bad guys went off to, why certain important people were running off just before this all happened, who let the marauding orcs into a walled town) which will lead them to a number of different ways to start adventuring as a party.