( I think I posted this in the wrong section. New to the community here )
Alright! This might be a bit of a long winded post because there's things I need to explain.
So, my group of players consists of a couple of clashing personalities. To give them a reasonable reason to stick together, and not just break up because all they do is disagree, I've decided to let them start off the campaign as prisoners. Two of the characters are related and each of them are sharing their cell with one of the other two characters of the campaign, bringing it to 4 players.
So my plan is for them to have the story force them to work and stick together for enough time to get used to eachother and begin to depend on eachother. I've got two ideas but I'm unsure how to actually put them into practice, which is why I'm posting this!
The world is currently facing a civil war between three minor kings as the high king that ruled the three kingdoms was assassinated. The three kings are now fighting to claim the High throne. I want the civil war to be an important part of the backdrop to this campaign.
1st idea
The prison in the town/prison they are in have a custom where they let prisoners choose between facing a trial or to enter an ancient cavern where as soon as they're inside, they're absolved of any crime but they need to get out by navigating this cavern. Inside there's some sort of ancient horrors, traps and shiz. Pretty straight forward. But I'm having a hard time figuring out what trials they're going to face here.
2nd idea
The prisoners are taken to be executed but the execution is halted as the place is attacked. The goal of the attack is to save an important prisoner of war who was also about to face execution and the adventurers are sprung in the process. It could be that they're held in one kingdom and one of the opposing kingdoms is the one that's orchestrating the prison break. But with this idea, I'm unsure how to force the players into a situation where they have to stick together.
Hopefully some of you folks can offer some advice!
I have recently made some posts on this topic including transcripts of the discussion between my players about these issues. You can check them out here:
The "start off as prisoners" trope is a D&D staple. I doubt there's anybody who hasn't played that scenario before. And while it can work, it fails to address the underlying issue: Your players are going to want to have to work together and create characters that have a reason to do so. That's done with certainty by getting agreement before the game begins and working with the players to come up with those reasons. As players, we are in full control of our characters. We can decide why they'll stick together and then force them to stick together. We don't need "the DMs story" to do that for us.
It's a house rule at my table that all adventurers must:
1.) Be adventurers - that is, people predisposed to going out and doing stuff. No badass loners or mercenaries who must be convinced to play the game.
2.) Have a personal relationship with the other adventurers.
3.) Get approval from me prior to play.
Its a house rule at my table that all Players must:
1.) Show up to play.
2.) Treat all other players with respect.
3.) clean up the host-location.
These rules foster a kind of cohesion. I also have start of game and end of game rituals (they're not religious, just stuff I always do) that frame the play. But because the players come together regularly for the same activities and work together on the same activities and even share a meal together, it ties the group more closely.
I just asked my players in advance how their different characters ended up together, and their discussion will give me some adventure-hooks for the future because most of their choises and whatever they left behind before the entered the tale will oh so be coming back at them later on
Great advice so far. In most cases, it is best to have players establish bonds with each other through their history/backstories, but as long as something makes it clear to the players that they have to work together, the campaign can work.
I played an online game once with total strangers where the DM had each of us receive a magic scroll. We had no idea what it was nor could we figure it out. In fact, we didn't even know we all had one so as we got to know each other as adventurers, we eventually found out that we were magically bound in some strange way. Part of the campaign was to avoid forces of evil who were targeting us (some how as a result of the scrolls). The other part of the campaign was to investigate and try to find out what these scrolls meant. I was much more busy at the time (it was when my first child was only 2 or 3) so after about 12 sessions, I had to stop playing even though I really loved the game. (We played on Open RPG...all typing in character...which really immersed us in character too).
The key was that we become known as "The Scroll Bearers" so even though we had widely different motivations and world outlooks (and alignments), we knew that we had to work together to find out what was going on.
The last game I was in we were all at a fair where a charming, but foolish adventurer placed a bag of holding inside another bag of holding to prove they were safe - and after everyone was sucked into the portal (and ended up in Athas), the PCs were the only ones who survived the journey. And they have to stick together to make it back to their 'world'.
I mention this example because the more 'outsider-ish' you can make the PCs, the better. They aren't part of the power struggle, they don't have any allegiences due to birth; they don't have side in the fight - they don't have anything except each other. Don't make them a part of your story, let them make themselves a part. That, for me, has always worked best - make the PCs less dependent on the DM's story and more dependent on each other's stories. "Where did we come from?" "How did we all end up in jail?" will go a long way to answer some of the other questions "we stuck together after the jail break because we were already a party inside prison".
So first - Welcome!
Just curious, but do your players know one another or are they relative strangers outside of the game? When my group (now 4+ years - how time flies!) first met we were all perfect strangers and as such acutally agreed to meet in a neutral location for dinner and discussion (see Iserith's "session zero" references - I just didn't know it had a name at the time) about what we all wanted from the campaign, what type of characters we wanted to play, etc.
Now my next comment may seem a bit obnoxious, but bear with me for just a moment - you really should NOT have to force your players to have to work together in order to achieve a common goal within the context of the game. Based on your initial statement that they have clashing personalities (and absolutely no other information whatsoever) it's difficult to presume any type of insight as to what that may look like, ranging from bickering about rules interpretation to outright antagonizing behaviors.
Without going into psychiatry 101 (as this is a tabletop RPG forum rather than a DSM-IV diagnosis and analysis session) 
your players should have the desire to work together without you having to provide a "do or die" scenario that forces them to. Being that D&D is a naturally cohesive game in that a group of players will (if they are smart and their DM sadistic enough) have no choice but to work as a team in order to accomplish the overarching goal.
Individual contributors are great, but just as in the real world more tends to get accomplished when people play off of each other's strengths once they are recognized as such.
Enough life coaching I suppose - if you don't take anything else from my ramblings I'd say not to try to force it. At best you'll be accused of railroading. At worst, they may start blaming you for their in-fighting.
As far a the prisoner thing Skyrim has the perfect setup you are talking about. Why do they need to work together well they are escaped convicts and the kingdom they are in are looking for them and they are safer together than alone.
A good thing for this is have several NPCs with them that you develope and can kill off as the story progresses so the players see the loss.
The problem with just the prison idea, is that it doesn't give them a common cause to stick together after they escape. Especially with the idea of a War of Three Kings, the players would logically go their seperate ways after escaping if they belong to different kingdoms.
You can invent plenty of reasons why the group sticks together, but you should let the players themselves have a part in this. More people can come up with more ideas, and they'll buy into an idea quick if it's their own idea. Maybe you should give them a common enemy in one of the 3 kings, probably the one that locked them up. Ask them why they were locked up, and why they hate that king for it. They can come up with a large variety of reasons. Maybe one player was imprisoned after his village didn't pledge allegeance to this king, and he later heard the king burned the whole place. Maybe another was caught stealing only an apple, but the king wanted to show he's strict and lawful and punishes even petty crimes with high prison sentences. Maybe a third player is a sage (historian) that refused to make some changes to books about ancestry, that would give this king a better claim to the throne. Or maybe a player actually did commit a crime and was justly convicted, but he decides hanging around with the rest of the party would just be more fun than going about on his own.
Having an organisation that takes them in when they escape helps too. Maybe an underground resistance or the army of another king.
iserith wrote:
My first thought when reading your background scenario is that they are on trial for assassinating the high king. Hang together or ye shall assuredly hang apart.
The bang of a club on the jail cell startles you all awake. You are lying amongst a small heap of moldy straw while early morning light is filtering down through the small barred opening high up on the wall. Last night is hard to remember, as if in a haze. There was a rowdy tavern, a dark alley and then nothing.
The paunchy guard spits on the ground and then tosses in some stale bread.
"Last meal for the convicted, I hope you like it. You'll be a head shorter soon. Filthy scum. Thought we'd never catch ya, wot? Well you murdering lot will get their come uppance come highsun."
The guard raises his thumb to his neck and makes a slitting motion before laughing raucously and walking off. You all stare at each other in shock.
bawylie wrote: