Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Silver_Fox 04-03-06, 10:41 AM	Hi, I was pondering how to bring my PCs together at the start of a new campaing I'm starting sometime this weekend, and I just thought I'd check with you guys to see how you go about bringing your PCs together. I like to bring them together by necessity, and force them to cooperate, thus forming a bond stronger than, say, money. And I really don't like the "You all sit in a bar...", "You all sign up the caravan..." or "You all respondet to a call for adventurers", since I want my PCs to a reason to work together, not just with eachother. How do you guys do it?
celtredleg 04-03-06, 11:09 AM	As quickly as possible. My favorite is either you all grew up togather in the village you start in , or you are all in the army/navy and have been given a mission. I want the game to get started. A mission they all believe in will help keep them togather. But that does not need to be part of the start up. I have seen game disintegrate at the beginning because the DM gave to much time for them to try to come togather on thier own. I also like a fight very soon after the start, it definately helps them bond togather. Also alignment helps you decide how to do it. Lawfuls dont need as much as chaotics, and good gets along better than evil. I dont allow evil, and unless I know you well, no CN. That helps a lot.
edwardsobel 04-03-06, 11:18 AM	A game i did long time ago had each PC make a background and in that background they come into possession of a key. to get them together the PC learns that the key is actually a bond that ties them to an inheritance but it must be claimed. The inheritance is locked away in a vault and is locked with several locks and guess who has the keys... goal is to open the vault and claim the treasure but soon discover that the vault is actually an underground labyrinth filled with undead. they discover another heir to the inheritance is still alive and needs to be found to claim thier final reward.
Chipper173 04-03-06, 11:43 AM	Circumstance can work for you. Once, our characters were all attending a festival when someone was murdured. Our characters were suspected, and we all teamed up to prove our innocence.
Frugal 04-03-06, 12:07 PM	I agree, it's better to have something that works off the different characters' back stories rather than just throwing them all together. It requires more work but it's worth it. Barring that, at least give something that involves some flavour from the world you're playing in. That way you can establish some of the feel for the world you're using and also give the players some info on how this world is unique.
BW0222 04-03-06, 12:39 PM	Silver Fox, I'll agree with many of the others... backgrounds are key. You can work with pairs or groups of PCs to get them having common family, village, clan, etc. between them. This doesn't mean that everyone needs to be related for from the same place. You can have them working for each other's families, close friends, or folks they need to deal with. For example: Sornao, you belong to a minor noble family. Your father recently found a note taking about an ancient sword belonging to your family. However, it is in some language now one in town knows. So... he is sending you to get help from your cousin's family in Terrance. Although elderly, they run an alchemy shop which deals with the wizard's guild. Bronklin, your family is living in Terrance and are pretty poor. They have been trying to get you into the wizards guild, but don't have the money of political contacts. However, they have arranged a job for you as a minor apprentice for an alchemists shop in town. The owner is a minor wizard and has some contacts with the guild there. Gord, your half-orc isn't too welcome in area. Having fought on the lossing side of the last wizard's war, you father is dead and family scattered. However, you have gotten a job working as a guard for a minor noble family in the country-side. They belong to a church and are busy trying to mend poltical divisions created since the war. They are looking for someone to escort their son to Terrance where he has some family business. etc. Now, Sornao the paladin and Gord the half-orc travel to Terrance to meet with Sornao's cousin. He asks for aid, the cousin says that things haven't been going that well since the wizard's war, but that he can spare his apprentice for a few weeks to help track down some of the references in the scroll and research the language in the library. So... you have three folks with otherwise no relationship to each other, but with various reasons for working together. Sornao is trying to impress his father, Gord is trying to impress Sornao's father (for gold), and Bronklin is trying to impress Sornao's cousins by helping Sornao out. However, pretty soon the adventure should take on a life of their own. Some DMs actually run one-on-one's prior to the adventure. Basically, taking things back a step or two and several weeks in time. For example, ropleplay some rogues trying to sell Sornao the note they found, Gord having a hard time getting work but meeting some clerics which direct him to Sornao's father for work, and/or Bronklin's family sending him for an interview with Sornao's elderly cousins.
Sereno 04-03-06, 01:31 PM	When I need my PCs to be part of a close-knit band, I just ask them to do the work. I ask, "Please come up with a reason why you are all adventuring together, and come up with a name for your group." Being a DM is more than enough work without having to think for the players, too! :) I find that *anything* used to bring a party of unusual people together sounds and "feels" contrived until the party dynamics really start to work themselves out.
revnk 04-03-06, 01:38 PM	Current campaign: did the whole "you find yourselves in a cell together" bit. Next campaign: will most likely have the players decide during character generation how they know each other and why they work together. The change won't be because the current idea didn't work--it's worked beautifully--but to keep from getting in a rut. Another idea I considered for a Traveller game that never materialized would have been a (space) shipwreck, with the PCs as passengers on a vessel that suffers a catastrophe midvoyage. There are many methods--again, the main thing is not to get too attached to one particular approach.
cambric 04-03-06, 01:50 PM	I agree on the backgrounds...I've done several different meetings: There was a festival going on and all the PC's were there, enjoying the games and such, when it was attacked...many of the participates were killed. Of the few that did survive: The PC's...they banded up together to hunt down who done this horrible deed. The current one: Huge dwarven vs. orc/goblin war going on and using their backgrounds, I got them all together by meeting in a cave, during a severe windstorm. The cave was filled with rats, which they worked together to kill...then they fought some goblins and it 'bonded' them together to keep working together. It did help that some of them were 'related' so they were already together. Next campaign (I run 2 seperate ones, every other week-end) starts in a few weeks and it 'appears' they will meet up in a small village, as it is being raided by orcs. I'm waiting for 2 more backgrounds to work them together. NOW: My 'next' campaign are with veteren players (10+ years minimum) of playing and they all said, "Railroad us at the beginning, we know we want to be together". What it means: They know they want to get playing, nobody wants to sit out for 3-4 hours 'waiting' for the group to find them. Get them in the story line ASAP!! Within 15 minutes of starting, they are in the same area, maybe a few of them have met...by 30 minutes, they are ready to go!! Worst thing a DM can do, at the beginning, is not have the group meeting up and ready to go quickly. If one or more players are still 'waiting' after 30+ minutes, there is a problem. *I had it done to me: 3 of us were to meet up with this new group, the DM expected them to go one way, they went another...4 HOURS later, we finally got into the game. 10 minutes longer, and all 3 of us had decided to leave for good...needless to say, that campaign did not get off to a good start for us. PLEASE don't do that to your players.* Good luck! Cam
Frugal 04-03-06, 01:56 PM	Just adding to what I had posted before (had typed this up before but lost it, grrr). In the current campaign I'm playing in the world has a lot of extremely violent storms. While travelling it's fairly common to have to take shelter from a storm and end up sharing that shelter with other travellers or even monstrous humanoids. Because of the need for everyone to stay out of the storm, the concept of "storm peace" was developed. It's basically an agreement that no one will break the peace while taking shelter from the storm. If someone greets you by saying, "storm peace," then it's understood that they're expecting you to honour this. Should you break the peace then anyone else honouring the storm peace will try to stop you (ie, side against you). So the DM simply had us all travelling in the same general area when a storm broke out, we all took shelter in a bugbear tomb, which we explored as our first adventure. It's still a bit of a variation on the usual "you all meet in a bar" theme but at least there's a little more of an explanation as to what we were all doing there and it helped to establish some of the flavour of the world we were gaming in.
ashcat_lt 04-03-06, 02:05 PM	This is not to chastise you for starting "yet another thread", just a link to another resource where you might find something thinking outside the tavern (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=588891)