How do your PC's meet (in campaign)?

[Malakor]

Personally, I've used a variety of methods.

I had one campaign where I let everyone create a character from wherever in the game world they so desired, and then did a short pre-game that put each of them in a situation (usually dangerous) and left it hanging with them suddenly vanishing. . .

we then picked up the first session with all of them appearing on a hilltop (in front of a handful of very confused goblin guards). All of this was the result of a botched summoning spell cast by the goblin shaman. By the time they got to civilization, they had acquired reasons to stay together.

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My d20 modern campaign, which was in a pulp setting, I had each of the characters sent a telegram and a train ticket to meet their prospective employer.

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I had one campaign that started in a bar. . .
The characters were all traveling to the same city for a variety of reasons, and while they spent the night in an inn outside the city gates, the floor collapsed, and they worked together to save the patrons from undead which had tunneled beneath the city, and discovered the clues leading to the first part of the campaign.

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My current campaign, which is set in Harn, I had the characters all be from the same village and they were serving their mandatory time as watch for the local Earl.
(edited, I forgot the rest to include the rest of this )
The first couple of adventures were missions they were sent on by the chief of the watch, they wind up eventually saving the Earl and currently are based out of their own manor and village.
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[Herpes Cineplex]

By the time they got to civilization, they had acquired reasons to stay together.

Just out of curiosity, how'd you manage to pull that off? You make it sound like it wasn't any big deal, but most of the worst group-cohesion failures I've seen (thankfully, nearly all of them are far, far behind me) were because the GM assumed that it wouldn't be difficult for the PCs to find reasons to stay together, while the players of said PCs clearly felt very differently. And even when it does work, it seems there's at least one person grumbling that they're only doing it because the game will fall apart if they don't, because otherwise "my character would never do this."

...which reminds me of the only really recent catastrophic party-cohesion failure in my current group, which hit us even though the players had sat down and collaborated during character creation. Unfortunately, the GM pulled a bait-and-switch on the whole campaign; he'd told us the premise of the game and in the first session yanked that premise out from under us, leaving us with a group of characters who were no longer well-suited to working together at all.

We weren't very happy with him for that, and that game only lasted two more sessions. To this day, most of us will speak fondly of the character we made for that game but none of us actually liked the game itself. If that GM posted here, he would definitely have to add that campaign to the "worst mistakes I ever made" thread.

--
though it did make us start asking more probing questions of the gm during character creation

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I used the "you've all been called for militia duty" to begin the last campaign, and that worked quite well.

 

[Crothian]

Mine didn't mean in the local bar...they meet over breakfast in a crowded Tavern/Inn they were all staying at.

 

[Tonguez]

I tend to say this is how we begin - eg you all come from the same village, you are all members of the Church organisation (not necessarily Clergy), you are all hired on as body guards for a Merchant caravan, you are all members of a travelling Circus Troupe - how the PCs know each other and how they met is then up to them...

 

[random user]

Though I'm sure it wouldn't work for all campaigns, I asked my players if they would mind all being students at a school together at the start of the campaign. None of them minded.

So in the first session, I had a dean ask them to do a favor for her.

 

[Feathercircle]

In the campaign I'm currently running, the initial four characters met in a shared dream... At first, they thought nothing of it; it was a weird dream and nothing more. Until they started going about their daily business around the city, and they recognized each other from their dream...

They still haven't quite figured out what was going on with that, but it was a powerful motivator for all of them- something big is going on, and for reasons they don't understand, they're part of it.

 

[CalicoDave]

I usually let the players decide how their characters know each other. This lets the players do as much or as little background work as they'd like; it's supposed to be a fun game so I have no desire as a DM to force writting assignments onto people that don't want to write!

 

[reddist]

In one of my "mini" campaigns, the PCs were the last survivors from a shipwreck, waking up naked and lost on a deserted beach. In my most long-running game the PCs were all visiting a village to restock for their own personal travels. They heard a call for help from a distraught woman in the streets, and being heroes, they all responded. That lead to a number of clues that needed following up on, and before they knew it they were an adventuring party.

One of the best ways I used to introduce a new player to a game though, my players are still talking about. The druid had a habit of summoning nature allies, and was currently on a "wolf" kick, since he liked their trip attacks. The new player has a halfling barbarian who rode a wolf. So... play opened with combat, the druid summoned a wolf, and he got a very confused barbarian along with it!

-Reddist

 

[Hand of Evil]

I build it into my background questions, letting the players work it out. They sometimes say something that you can later use as a plot hook.

I once used: The fight was a good one, rip roaring fun you were heading for the door when things went dark. Now you face the judge, a hard man by his looks and you wonder what the sentence for public brawling is, maybe the chain gangs, surely not the salt mines...

The judges voice load and commanding: I was once young, had more energy than I knew what to do with, luck was with me I found something to keep me focus and do some good, adventuring! I am placing you into the hands of Pladin Paul (could be the cleric or wizard) for one year. He will be telling you where you will be going...Oh, if you do not accept these terms the salt mines always needs new hands.