Getting PCs together

Just curious on how you get your PCs together, it seems really hard to get 6 strangers all together and willing to risk their necks for each other. I was just wondering if anyone had a trick on doing this or things that they do to get them together.

Gariig

I had mine all teleported into the presence of their benefactor. Of course, they think of him more as a puppet master, since they don't particularly trust him. Why did he bring them all together? His subordinates had caught several foreign agents with a list of names of people they were supposed to dispose of. He doesn't know why the foreign power wants the people listed, but he figures that, if the Evil Empire (tm) wants them dead, he will do all he can to keep them alive until he can figure out what's so special about them.

My favorite time was when I started the game on-line for a week or so due to schedule conflicts before meeting for face to face play. I started the characters all in a similar region and they met one at a time, not sure they were meeting NPCs or other players. For instance, one player was a blacksmith who was jumped while delivering some mundane parts to a widow who lived a few miles out of the town and had a hard time picking up her orders. A ranger finds the unconcious blacksmith and thinks it is a trap to catch unsuspecting travelers and the blacksmith thought the ranger might be his attacker. Anyway a chain reaction of events get everyone together and then gives them a purpose as both individuals and as a group. It worked suprisingly well, but I have been unable to repeat this effect.

I like that idea...but I couldn't imagine the amount of time it would take us to RP every couple of people meeting. But it would be cool if it was possible in like pre-game e-mails and what not. Might do that for the next time

Gariig

I start with the backgrounds of the characters, asking questions and checking their answers. If one answers one way they become childhood friends, you then put everyone together in pairs or groups. Bob knows Jim but no one else knows Jim but one day they meet Nancy who introduces them to...

Also have the players do some of the work!

You can also ask the PLAYERS how their characters got together. This is sometimes a lot of fun as you can take information and use it later in your games. Someone will say Oh, Frank and I met when I kicked his butt in a tavern fights.

Well, there's nothing to force you to start the campaign with 6 strangers. If your players like, you could allow a few PCs to start out together as being from the same village / family / etc. The various sub-groups cn then meet in any way yo like, the classic being the "meeting in a tavern looking for a job" type of thing.

This means that there will be various levels of trust in the group and people will gradually work towards helping each other and taking risks for each other. You can even enhance that by having one or two group members join under dubious circumstances - the stranger slinking from the woods, the former member of a highway robber gang who surrenders / defects to jon the party - or does he really? Can be great fun if you and your players like that sort of thing.


If on the other hand you want everyone willing to risk their neck for everyone else in the group, use external pressure. One classic is to start out the entire group as slavers' captives who need to work together to excape and survive. Alternatively, use a common enemy (war, orc raids ...), natural disaster (volcano, earthquake, flood, shipwreck ...) or whatever strikes your fancy.

I had 5 players that I was pulling together for the first time. With each of them, I urged them to create a character they would enjoy playing and developing. There was no sense of "group" as far as who made what character, who would get along with whom, etc. They were each individually created.

Then on our first meeting, I pulled them each aside one by one. To each character I informed them of a short list of info:

1). What year they last remember it being.
2). Their last memory having to do with a veiled lady.
3). Feelings of coldness and dread.

The campaign setting was based on Faerun in 1372. The years the characters last remembered ranged from 1339 to as far back as 1223.

Then pulling them together as a group I then informed them that they each came to consciousness. The first sensation they felt in that dazed, half-awake state of coming to from unconsciousness was cold, aching pain. They then felt something pressed into their backs and paralysis overtook them.

As they lied there on the ground they could feel hands going through their clothes taking items off them and they could hear voices talking. In short.....they were being robbed.

What was happening was they had each been captured by a Medusa over a period of decades upon decades and they spent time in her 'house'. Adventurers came and killed her and found the statues. Then they turned each statue back to flesh, one at a time, paralyzed them with a wand and then took all their gear. Of all the statues in the Medusa's house, only these 5 made their Fort Save in turning from Stone back to Flesh. The ones that robbed them, then dragged them into the stables and left with all the loot from the house plus the players' gear.

In the stables, they ran into Gerbo...a gnome grounds-keeper who spoke about "the Lady" and how he kept her land clean and how she was nice to him. But he also informed them of how the Adventurers had come and killed her and how they took almost everything. But some things they left. There were also areas that were hidden that Gerbo showed them.

By this method they were able to re-equip with their gear plus a few extras.

So now they were 5 people......seperated by their own people by decades if not centuries.....and having no clue as to where they were. The Barbarian and Ranger in the party guessed somewhere North judging on the coldness and the time of year. But that was it. So they had to work together and see what kind of group they could form. And many adventures thus far they have had.....but that is for another thread.

Currently 4 of the 5 members are still alive. A new player and member has joined. And the player who lost his character has introduced a new member. They have pulled together as a group....calling themselves the Heralds of Stone, and are currently traveling to Cormyr in hopes of clearing out sections of the Stone Lands and gaining the title of Baron to rule over those lands. Whether they succeed or not has yet to be seen.

For my last campaign, the PCs were all survivors of the destruction of their home town, a military/scout type base. They all collapsed and slept in the same grove of trees. The next morning, they saw a large, nearby group of survivors get taken down because they were stupid enough to be gathered around a campfire (while being hunted by Wizards on Dragons). I figured this was a good warning on their situation. Wrong. That night the Players say their PCs are "telling tales around the campfire". Um, no, you're not, or you can roll up new characters. Which would you prefer?

For the next one, they'll be "minions", or students/servants/underlings of a group of mid-level NPC friends who put the group together to get some things taken care of. Once they're high enough level to be independent of their teachers, then we'll move to the next phase.

I find it's easiest for me to weave a wide web between each of the PCs by using their social connections. After giving the PCs a physical home location (whether a mountain clan, forest home, village, etc), I will try to co-create their background story to include parents, siblings, trainers, apprenticeships, at least a few extended family, close friends, and friends of friends whom they "know of," and who would know their name.

If the PCs themselves don't travel to meet the others on some kind of business trip, you can always bring in a major NPC who is a frequent traveller or trader between the different places.

Ex. The dwarven fighter whose father is a master smith trades crafted weapons to a small but bustling frontier city where he commands higher than usual prices. (the local smiths might not like that he is costing them business!).
An elven ranger provides safety and security for travellers on a particular road through the forest for a small price. One of his regulars might be a travelling merchant.
A human wizard in the town might have need of a rare component and has commissioned a merchant to purchase it from locations far away. After not hearing from the merchant, the wizard might send his apprentice (the PC) to inquire his whereabouts.

Now it isn't too difficult to start with the wizard, give him some funds and perhaps a few scrolls, and then send him in search of the merchant. On his way he discovers the merchant's most regular travel route and talks to some of the other local customers. Discovering that he often carries valuable shipments of dwarven weapons that are highly desireable, but doesn't travel the main roads, it leads the wizard to an encournter with the elven ranger, who upon hearing about his merchant friend decides to accompany the wizard to the dwarven stronghold and discuss further where the merchant travels. Meeting the dwarven smith, he permits his eager son (who has never left the mountain), to accompany the group in search of their merchant friend.

It's impossible to create a good cohesive PC group without digging at least a little into their individual histories and social networks. Think of how you might meet new friends and how people usually meet for the first time and just transfer that into the fantasy campaign.

If you like, try using a social gathering such as a funeral of a prominent figure related to one of the PCs. A person's will can include many things, even a quest. Perhaps the quest is a lifelong journey that the deceased never had a chance to complete; perhaps he left helpful signs along the way.

It can help make things easier if your PCs are all the same race as well. Or all from the same village. Or all know the same swindler/rogue type of PC who has finally duped you all into his idea for getting rich quick!

Greed is almost ALWAYS a good common motivation for PCs. Make them all poor to begin with. In fact make the whole entire city quite poor. Poor people make friends faster in order to survive as a group.

Still need more ideas?

Using social connections is great, and one of the best ways to get PCs together, but sometimes you want something to throw a group of strangers all into the same boat so to speak. I started my last campaign with the characters all being guards of a caravan, so I had an excuse for a couple level one characters of different races to be together. Then I had a pack of bandits with an adept shoot a fireball right between two wagons, with all the PCs just out of the blast area. With overwelming odds against teh caravan, the PCs, being right next to each other in the confusion all escaped together into the wilderness. I found this a nice way to get them all together in a slightly unique way.