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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dykstrav" data-source="post: 5888952" data-attributes="member: 40522">As many others have already stated... I prefer to put the ball in the player's court and make them carry some of the narrative onus. I don't do this just with how the party got together either, I also make them describe their cool actions (such as critical hits) and I occasionally ask open-ended questions about the immediate environment too ("This tavern is known for excellent food--what do you order? Yeah, that's their specialty!").If your players don't want to take any of the responsibility for the narrative, you might look to other sources for ideas. A few twists can make them interesting, even if we've seen them in other situations before.Maybe they know each other in small groups. In Star Wars: a New Hope, Han Solo and Chewbacca have been together for years, although "the party" doesn't form until the story starts. (And even then, Luke and Obi-Wan know each other when they join up with the Millennium Falcon.) The same thing happens in the Lord of the Rings. Aragorn and Frodo know Gandalf, but they don't know each other until things get rolling.Let's re-skin those basic concepts for a Pathfinder game in an archetypical medieval society. If you want to rip off Star Wars... The characters are all foreigners on a small island kingdom. The authorities are looking for foreign spies, and the characters manage to charter passage off the island with a smuggler. They meet each other for the first time while they are fighting their way down the dock to the ship. They manage to escape the island in the end of the first session, but there are gobs of unanswered questions there. What's happening on the island? What other nation would have spies there? Plenty of opportunity for adventure.Now let's look at ripping off the Lord of the Rings. The characters have all been summoned to a distant location by their mentor/old friend/someone they owe a favor to. When they get there, their contact isn't there, but the other PCs are. They join forces to go search for the missing person. They must not only investigate the disappearance, but also fend off cutthroats and trackers hoping that the PCs will lead them to their contact.</blockquote>

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