Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Krakenspire Dec 04, 2014 19:45:06	So what are some the best ideas as a DM to get the party together that you have tried and worked on your gaming table?   I've got a few from the campaigns I've been in over the years   -all party members are individualy involved in a short fight where they are taken as slaves and must escape the slave pens together -each respond to a "help wanted ad" individually and are railroaded into working together -each respond to a amazing race type ad, and are "randomly" put into teams to accomplish the mission (similar to above), and must compete agains rival adventuring groups (who are really irritating and naturally drive the characters to hate them and want to win) -go to tavern, get into bar fight, drink too much, go on adventures - characters are made together at the table and as they are created the players naturaly make connections with each other when they are writting up their backstory - no DM input required   The best one I ever had was one pair of PCs was hired by the main villians lackey to capture the other pair of PCs.  This was because the target characters knew the villan from backstory and he was worried they would recognize him and blow his plans, and revenge himself for some sort of slight.  As it turned out the two pairs of PCs got into a huge fight, made a tonne of noise and were all arrested by the Sharn watch.  After being thrown in jail the main villans lackey shows up and throws a bag of snakes into the cell where characters are being held.  "Sorry collateral damage" he says.  After the PC's strangle, kill and stomp the snakes to death they are so pissed they decide to work together to track down the lacky, who leads them to the villian etc.....
#2 iserith Dec 04, 2014 22:02:36	How I do it:   "Your characters don't have to be best friends, but they do have to know each other, and they are trustworthy allies, at least on adventures. You've adventured together as a group before. You have history, a relationship, bonds which we will explore. You didn't just meet up at the tavern."
(Reply to #2) Macv12	iserith wrote:
#4 Lashan Dec 05, 2014 11:00:56	I'm starting a campaign this very night for my son and his friends.  They have never played DnD before and I'll run them through B2 - Keep on the Borderlands.  I'm also putting in a lot of back story.  The campaign is set in World of Greyhawk before the Greyhawk Wars.  Iuz has recently escaped his prison of 70 years, but no one knows it yet.  The King of Furondy is trying to start another offensive against the Horned Society, but the nobles keep thwarting his plans by refusing to raise the taxes.  I'm having the players all have back story that sets them to want to join the offensive against the Horned Society.  They travel from different places and all join a caravan with supplies for the troops.  The rally point is the Keep....because it's on the Borderlands.  The next day, the commander of the forces gets a message saying the offensive has been called off and troops are to rally at the capital for new instructions.  With the troops gone, the caravan the players just left gets raided by the Caves of Chaos.  They will be asked to investigate.
#5 THEMNGMNT Dec 06, 2014 11:58:26	Krakenspire wrote:
#6 LongTimeLurker Dec 08, 2014 13:33:15	iserith wrote:
#7 Glimjack Dec 09, 2014 0:44:52	One of my best ideas had the characters attending a festival as individuals to celebrate the bicentennary of the City Gardens of Sharn in Eberron. There were bands and magic shows etc. During the magic show, the gnome illusionist on stage called for volunteers from the audience and placed giant illusory floating arrows over the heads of the PCs pointing down at them, even if they never truly volunteered. The PCs were pressured into going up on stage. After a moment whilst the gnome asked the PCs their name and introduced them to the crowd all whilst the giant arrows pointed to the PCs (i.e. they introduced themselves to each other), there was a commotion. Suddenly vermin of all types, rats, spiders, bugs, etc, poured out of the gardens, and streamed through the crowd, seemingly intent on attacking the PCs on stage (and any in the crowd that refused to go on stage, still with the giant purple arrows over their head. After dispatching the swarms, the PCs asked the gnome to remove the illusionary arrows, but he seemed he couldn't. After shaking him down, they discovered that a druid had bribed the gnome to pick individuals matching the specific descriptions of the PCs and mark them with purple arrows, which it seemed the vermin were trained to attack.   Thus began the PCs epic quest to get the purple arrows of their heads and discover who this druid was and why he'd singled them out. In time the PCs started their own detective/mercenary company in sharn "Purple Arrow Investigations".   It turns out the druid had a misguided vision given to him buy a possessing entity, that wanted them eliminated before they could prevent an incursion from the nightmare realm.   In a constant theme of the game about visions being unreliable, I turned this on it's head again, making the PCs responsible for causing the start of the incursion and the death of the Oalan, the Great Tree Druid through the efforts to prevent it.
#8 eventhorizon1 Dec 09, 2014 0:42:56	I’ve used a group background. The one I use the most is I have a solo adventure with each party member first and it always ends were the character’s start to meet one another and I leave it there and by the time the party adventure comes along they all know each other
#9 Imaculata Dec 09, 2014 1:27:34	I often have the players all take part in an important event right at the start of the campaign, that requires them to work together to overcome it. This builds trusts, and gives them a common goal. The most simple example of this, would be that the players are on their way to a town, when they are all set upon by bandits or monsters.   Another way is to have all of the players start imprisoned, in adjacent cells (or in the same cell). Or maybe they are all shipwracked on the same beach? Cliche perhaps, but it works.
#10 Emanuele_Galletto Dec 09, 2014 8:08:14	Strong motivations, even primal ones (hunger, survival, hatred) always work best when you have to get the dice rolling. Money works too, but it's bleak and gets boring quickly. Another way to do it is have a "shared friend" of the PCs call on them for the quest, such as a retired adventurer, a mentor, or a guard captain. However, I usually avoid this because, while the NPC is a dear friend of the characters, the players often don't care about him/her.
#11 baronspam Dec 09, 2014 8:58:14	Have you ever played or read the Fate system? In Fate your first session is devoted to character generation.  There are three "phases', one where you describe the character's first (or just an early) adventures.  The next phase you "cross paths" with one other member of the party.  You might complete a goal, have a conflict, escape from prison together, etc, whatever.  There is then another phase where you do the same thing with another member of the party.  These are not played out with dice and combat, but they are just discussed, and you might write one or two paragraphs about what happened.  In fate these are used to generate things called Aspects, which describe the character and can have a mechanical impact at times.  I recently listened to a actual play podcast for a Mutants and Masterminds group that did the same thing, and they used the phases to come up with the character's complications.  For DnD this might be used to create the Ideal/Bonds/Flaw discussed in the new PHB, and you then have a backstory that involves the other characters.
#12 Imaculata Dec 09, 2014 9:37:03	That sounds really cool. A fellow DM did something similar, but we actually played out all these phases, like actual adventures. And why not? It's pretty exciting to play out how the characters first met. Maybe they grew up together?