New party: tavern or backstory?

[Holy Bovine]

What's your favourite way of putting the PCs together when starting a campaign (or after a TPK) and why?

Do you prefer to have the new PCs meet for the first time at the start of the adventure, e.g. in the proverbial tavern or another location?

Or do you prefer to ask the players a backstory on why their PCs know each other?

Or do you just totally ignore the issue and roll for initiative?

Personally my favourite way is asking the player to explain their PCs relationships prior to the campaign, but I wouldn't force them to add a lot of details. Just a simple explanation is enough, and more details can be retroactively created later on. Also I wouldn't force them to make it so that everybody knows everybody else.

I tend to do something similar - I leave it up to the players to determine why this group is working together. There should be shared goals/friends/whatever amoung a least a few of the party but the key for me as DM is that the players know that their PCs must work together. I'm sick to death of the annoying 'loner' PC who just has to do everything by himself. My attitude is that if that is what you want there are tons of CRPGs for you to go play...

 

[halfjack]

I generally like a system that neatly creates interconnections between characters without elaborate backstory. If there's a nifty mechanism for making those interconnections zing, well that's even more awesome.

I also like, "you are a team, you've worked together before, and here is your mission". Sometimes just laying the cards on the table is the right thing to do.

 

[Li Shenron]

I generally like a system that neatly creates interconnections between characters without elaborate backstory.

Do you mean some rules for that? Can you make some more specific examples?

 

[halfjack]

Do you mean some rules for that? Can you make some more specific examples?

Sure; most FATE games do this with a five phase character creation sequence in which at least one of the phases requires building a sentence or two connecting the player's character with a another player's character. The phase results in an attribute that reflects whatever was interesting in that little story.

For example, in Spirit of the Century (pulp) you write a quick blurb for the back of an adventure novel that featured your character. In another phase your write a blurb for how your character was the guest star in someone elses novel. From this you create two aspects which can be used for mechanical advantage in the game.

The generates a kind of backstory but it's light on text and heavy on interconnection and mechanical relevance.