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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brimshack" data-source="post: 3164081" data-attributes="member: 34694">I tend actually to favor some quasi-military premise for a campaign, myself. The characters are selected from ranks of an army or hired as mercenaries and put together with a task in mind. The main reason I like this is it gives a very solid premise behind the grouping itself and tends to discourage selfish players (you know the guy whose off picking pockets, getting caught, and getting the sherrif angry while the other characters are tying to save the kingdom). Once everyone has a clear reason for joining the core  group and adhering to a common purpose, I think it cuts down on squirrelly interactions on down the road. Variants - The unit commander (an NPC) is a bad guy, an idiot, corrupt, perhaps a coward, etc. They have to deal with him (most likely politically) while dealing with the opening enemy.- The opening mission is interrupted by somethign far more serious.- Someone tipped off the enemy, so there is a spy behind the lines. As the characters deal with the first mission and learn more about the people behind them they have to try and deal with questions about who to trust and who not to.- The unit commander (an NPC) is truley evil. He expects the PCs to do something inconsistent with their alignment (though it may be useful in winning a war) ...e.g. exterminate every orc, woman, and child in a village. This only works if the characters are good, and  if you reject the social manicheancism approach to alignment.- The enemy has redeeming virtues, and sues for peace.- Turns out there is a common enemy and the PCs will have to work with the conventional enemy to deal with the bigger meaner threat to us all type foe.- While off on their own mission, the entire army behind them is wiped out. Now the group is formed, but the original purpose behind their existence is gone.I've used the tavern bit a couple of times. My favorite variant is to make it a rest stop along a reasonably well used highway. So, the initial gathering is rather random, but then the countryside is swamped by monsters. Most of the neighbors are killed for miles around and the characters hole up in the bar to defend themselves until the local city can put together an army and retake the territory. (Perhaps the character may need to help warn the city.) Maybe, the characters can even help save a neighboring farmer and his family from the Ogres headed down the way. This way you still get the random gathering effect, but you also get an instant bonding. Why are they together? At first it's because that is the only way they will survive. Afterwards it's because they all worked together and survived something they shouldn't have (and wouldn't have had each acted alone).</blockquote>

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