In my longest running campaign, our first adventure was from an issue of Dragon. It set us up as all from the High Dale in FR. Researching the area enabled us to come up for reasons to have all four of the then core classes (Fighter, Mage, Cleric, & Thief). After that, we slowly added PCs that fit whatever our current location was when new players joined. As a DM, I always insisted on the PCs fitting into the campaign or at least having a logical reason for being there. As far as alignment goes, in real life people with many different alignments can be friends so why shouldn't the same go for PCs? Most people who know me would consider me NG, my wife would be CG, and my two best friends would be LN & CN respectively. We became friends as teenagers and grew into who we are now. We may disagree with each other at times and we've even got into fights with each other on occasion, but we stay friends. I see no reasons why the same couldn't be said for PCs.
Party creation instead of character creation?
Odysseus
Explorer
One of the things I've tried is have an advert ." Adventures required for assisting wizard with location of artifact, etc."
And then tell the players create a character that would apply for that job.
And it worked pretty well. I got three excellent characters . The fourth players wanted to play a blind cleric. And I just said the wizard isn't going to accept a blind character. So think of something else.
And then tell the players create a character that would apply for that job.
And it worked pretty well. I got three excellent characters . The fourth players wanted to play a blind cleric. And I just said the wizard isn't going to accept a blind character. So think of something else.
wayne62682 said:
I use action points in my game, and for each party member you start out knowing (and you don't have to like each other) you get an AP, to a maximum of 2.
Thus, in a party of 5 PCs, each generally starts knowing 2 others, although some of the relationships are antagonistic. It creats a '7 degrees of separation' thing that makes it easier to bring the party together yet allows for a decent amount of conflict.
Ealli
First Post
Another idea would be to have one character designated the leader and have him gather the rest to him. That one character would need to work out how he knew each other character and why he wants that character to come with him on this adventure. From thinking about literature, this is the method that I recall with the greatest frequency. There are concerns about what happens if the leader falls, but if the quest is great enough, it may be possible to carry on without him.
rycanada said:
I'm not criticizing, but I'm not sure of the answer to "why?" here. That is, what would the objective of such a system be?
If it is to resolve the supposed 'question' of why the PCs work together (and maybe that's not your purpose at all), I think that PC cooperation is best handled with a handwave. Why do these guys decide to work together? Because they do: they all want the riches and power to be gained in the ruins of Blarg, they all want to melt down the One Dingus and frustrate Boss Hogg, etc. The worst possible 'solution' is to have the PCs actually argue with each other to try to convince Maximus Intractibilus to "go along with the adventure". If you sit down to play and pop out your character sheet, that means you're bringing a character to the table who wants to go on the adventure. Why does he want to go? You tell me... but just make sure he wants to go. D&D isn't about the guys who didn't go on the adventure, it's about the ones who did. In other words, there should be no 'question' of why they work together: it is assumed that they just do.
Still, just for "background color" I can see the interest in having a system to work out character relationships. I'm not bothered by the whole: "We're an adventuring party because I can't go it alone and these guys seem like they'll be good enough in a fight, etc." But for certain games I can see the use in a more robust party background. It would have to be able to account for different PC races, though: the Elf and the Dwarf aren't going to be relatives, for example. Or is the point of having the system something other than background color?
Ed_Laprade
Adventurer
I would be leary of the 'make up a party for this first adventure' idea. That works fine for the said first adventure, but I've seen parties fall apart after that because then everyone has their own agenda. Making them all part of an organization, at least for the first few adventures, tends to work better IMHO. That way they have worked togeter long enough to know what the others are like. But it can be a bit constraining, although that may be needed if they don't all get along.
And don't forget that people change. I had a character that was part of a group until 8th-9th level, then left after a long and harrowing underdark adventure because it became obvious that her goals were too dissimilar to most of the others'. (But she ended up as the High Priestess at one of the local temples and still interacted with the PCs on occasion.)
And don't forget that people change. I had a character that was part of a group until 8th-9th level, then left after a long and harrowing underdark adventure because it became obvious that her goals were too dissimilar to most of the others'. (But she ended up as the High Priestess at one of the local temples and still interacted with the PCs on occasion.)
Korgoth said:
I would have agreed with this a while back. However, I once recruited a guy online to play in our game. I met him in person, explained the ongoing plot, helped him develop his character with a history in my homebrew campaign, and introduced him to the group. At his first session, he waited until the PCs contacted him at the tavern. Over drinks, they talked to him and offered to let him join them, and he turned them down. He thought their offer just wasn't "compelling enough."
I wasted hours trying to integrate him into the main plot, and he simply couldn't be bothered to join the group. He proceeded to watch the other PCs go on the adventure for the rest of the session, then never returned for another session. Simply amazing.
