Coordinated char backgrounds vs save the world....again!

[DispelAkimbo]

So there we were, third....or was it fourth?....anyway another combat that evening, and we were only an hour into the game. The players all sighed resignedly as the call for initiative rolls went out.

"Is anyone actually enjoying this?" I (the dm) asked. The general consensus was no. We were simply playing for the sake of it. So after a quick vote we unanimously agreed to abandon the whole campaign book that shall remain nameless.

After an hour or so discussion as to where to proceed next, we had established a number of facts.

1) We all like combat in the game, but were sick to death of it currently
2) We were all yearning for some real 'role-playing', real character development (not just levelling up), real plot, real puzzles, real fun
3) We were all willing to put extra effort into our next characters creation and do some decent backgrounds for the dm to work with....

...at which point a thought occurred to me.

Traditionally when we've started a campaign in the past, our group usually write backgrounds for their characters (some briefer than others, but nearly every character has their own aims and goals). Eg.

1) The half-elf who desired to build a haven for half-elves that have no true home due to their mixed heritage.
2) The hunter of the dead who seeks to destroy undead at every turn
3) The thief who wishes to amass wealth and set up his own guild

So usually we write these backgrounds, and give them to the dm. The dm goes through the backgrounds and tries to integrate them into the campaign to make for a fluid game that works and doesn’t feel rail-roaded for forced etc.

Now, looking at the above three character examples, it’s easy to see that they are three different individuals that are sooner or later likely to go their separate ways and follow their own goals. So to create a believable plot that holds the group together the DM is forced to unite the players against a common enemy/threat, and what does that usually entail?

You've guessed it, lets save the world......AGAIN! And so to my point (yes, I do have one believe it or not).

Has anyone else run into this kind of problem?

Has anyone found a way around it? How do you unite the players and keep the group together over a long term without running a save the world campaign?

How about alternative methods of character creation? Has anyone tried co-ordinated character background creation so that players have a common goal to begin with? How did that go?

Be interested in hearing some thoughts on this. Cheers.

 

[Frostmarrow]

We had the same problem. We actually finished an unnamed module first but nevertheless. This is what we did:

We started a new campaign in AEG's Swashbuckling Adventures. This took care of our problem with too much magic in the game. We won't go raising anyone in Théah anytime soon.

We invited a few more players. In order to control this growing bunch of players we opted to have two DMs. So right now we have six players and two DMs. This means that we can play even if everyone don't show up. Moreover the extra DM means that we can have parallell story lines and that one can go solo-tripping once in a while.

We (or the DMs) set the action in a border town of Eisen (pretty much like the German border to Italy and France.) We, the players, try to make our way in this town but we don't see the need to cooperate. Well, we cooperate to an extent but we certainly can't trust eachother.

We are a couple of weeks into the campaign right now and the possibilities keep expanding. The DMs struggle to keep everything on the same page, so there are limitations in player freedom, but as a player I know I can get my ideas through if I concentrate my actions towards my goals.

Right now there is a tad too much role-playing for some of us but just right for others. We are having the best gaming days ever. Combats are resolved with panache and ease as we are all very familiar with the d20 combat rules by now.

Edit:

The DMs made some notable changes:

We ditched Alignment and introduced Allegiances (from d20M) instead. We don't miss alignment one bit but allegiances are a disappointment so far. We have not run into any situation yet that allegiances impacted.

The DMs made our characters up to 4th level and then they gave us two extra levels to distribute ourselves. This means that your background checks out and that the characters are balanced. The two extra levels can be used to munchinize or what ever.

We decided that healing wounds is a tedious chore. Therefore all hp heal automatically after each fight. (There are some exceptions per DM's discretion). This speeds up combat a lot since you don't have to spend fifteen minutes after each fight casting cure spells or quaffing potions. We don't have a cleric or field surgeon or anything in the party.

O yeah, we use the Arcana feats from SA too. These are basically merits and flaws that you, the DM or a player can activate. One guy is Cowardly for instance. He role-plays his character real yellow because he knows that if he doesn't, the rest of us will activate his cowardlyness at the worst possible time.

 

[Fenes 2]

Coordinating the PC backgrounds works, as does starting the PCs out with a unifying element, like a shared patron. It also helps if the goals are more or less compatible.

F.e., in one campaign the main storyline is centered around the church of Selune, with a PC a paladin. The rest of the PCs ahve varying goals and backgrounds, which have various tie-ins. Some are geographical, like the current story arc centered on liberating a city in the home country of one PC, which involves his old mentor and is spearheaded by the church of Selune, or that the group is based in Cormyr, where another PC was born and raised. Others are more circumstantial, like the bard writing epic songs around the deeds of the party, therfore following the paladin. So far the PCs have not have many far-reaching goals, but I am sure I can integrate them in the campaign without much trouble, f.e. by placing them locally.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

An interesting question - what keeps a party together?

Just because characters have a variety of aims does not mean that those long-term goals are going to remain static. Saving the world is actually quite a lot of fun and always feels very heroic. However, I can see your point in not wanting to always be in that position.

Perhaps a situation could happen a couple of levels down the track that truly brings the party together as one. For this you need motivation and the best motivation I've seen in-game is revenge. Righting a wrong inflicted upon the PC's will galvanize the group. Once they reach high enough levels, they might go back to their lofty 1st level aims but by then, they are most probably having too much fun getting even with their opponents.

As long as the DM looks after some of the smaller personal goals of the PC's, the longer term ones can normally get put on the back-burner.

However, the most basic thing you can do to help team harmony is maintaining that all characters must play characters inclined more towards good than evil. May seem childish but in reality it works. Party conflict is interesting and will happen anyway. If someone in the party's evil while the rest are good though, you'll find the conflict just goes too far.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Fenes 2]

In one campaign the PCs took almost a whole year real time in a weekly campaign to finally get even with the man who had enslaved them before.

 

[DispelAkimbo]

To respond to a couple of replies so far:

Frostmarrow: We certainly discussed ditching alignment, we all agreed it was something we want to try, but we didn’t think that it would solve the issue I described. Not sure about starting above level one, nearly all our players like to start at level one. Auto-healing after combat is again an option to try but not sure if that would help.

Fenes 2: Our group has been discussing the issue over email, and I think coordinated PC backgrounds (or coordinated PC creation) is the solution we're going to try.

Herremann: The revenge aspect is also a good idea, I may try this myself next time I dm. I think the main problem we have though is convincing the group to form in the first place. Hence why we're going to give the above suggestion a try.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.....am a little surprised that more people haven’t encountered this though.

 

[Psion]

1) The half-elf who desired to build a haven for half-elves that have no true home due to their mixed heritage.
2) The hunter of the dead who seeks to destroy undead at every turn
3) The thief who wishes to amass wealth and set up his own guild

So usually we write these backgrounds, and give them to the dm. The dm goes through the backgrounds and tries to integrate them into the campaign to make for a fluid game that works and doesn’t feel rail-roaded for forced etc.

Now, looking at the above three character examples, it’s easy to see that they are three different individuals that are sooner or later likely to go their separate ways and follow their own goals. So to create a believable plot that holds the group together the DM is forced to unite the players against a common enemy/threat, and what does that usually entail?

You've guessed it, lets save the world......AGAIN! And so to my point (yes, I do have one believe it or not).

It seems to me you are looking at it rather superficially. Their final goals may be along a different line, but that does not mean that along the path to their goals they find common cause. Or, in instances where their causes aren't common, they find that they need one-another's abilities and it comes down to trading favors.

A rather quick example, lets say that the ideal city for this haven of half-elves is a small city along the border between a human and elven kingdom that has a high population of half elves... but the local duke has a thing about racial purity and relegates all halfbreeds to slave status, and has also imprisoned members of the rogue's old gangs. The area is infested with undead, but along the way, the characters find out that the undead presence was manufactured by the duke as an excuse to get more money from the king to field his army of opporession, and the duke is in league with a necromancer or death cult.

Now the trick here is to make this carefully constructed plotline last. Later on, after the PCs have established their power bases and know each other well, it might make sense that they trade favors. But to make it seem less contrived, make this carefully contructed foe one that takes a long time to take down, with many intervening obstacles.

 

[ichabod]

I find coordinating player backgrounds works good. What I have the players do at the begining of the campaign is all get together and decide what sort of campaign they want to play. Then, while I work up the start of the campaign, they go and work up backgrounds that fit into it. So I have the players come up with the reason for group cohesion first, and then come up with the characters. This also helps me as the DM get a better sense of what the players want out of the campaign. How fast do they want to level, how much travelling around do they want, and so on.

For example, for my current campaign one of the players realized he always played with chaotic groups, and they always ran into trouble with the established (mostly lawful) governments. He wanted to play the law for once (at least for a while). The others were into it, so I explained the different law enforcement organizations in the world. They decided to go with the Inquisition. They all went out and made up characters with a backstory that got them into the Inquisition while I wrote up some adventures where they hunted down heretics.

 

[Mark]

...lets say that the ideal city for this haven of half-elves is a small city along the border between a human and elven kingdom that has a high population of half elves... but the local duke has a thing about racial purity and relegates all halfbreeds to slave status, and has also imprisoned members of the rogue's old gangs. The area is infested with undead, but along the way, the characters find out that the undead presence was manufactured by the duke as an excuse to get more money from the king to field his army of opporession, and the duke is in league with a necromancer or death cult.

Ideal?

[Inigo Montoya]You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.[/Inigo Montoya]

 

[Psion]

Ideal?

[Inigo Montoya]You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.[/Inigo Montoya]

Whatever, Mark. I think you are rather missing the point if you are being serious and not just heckling me again. If you want to start a community of half elves, you need a half elf population. But standing between you and your goal would be those other things... which is the whole impetus for the adventure. Get it?

Just because the population is ideal does not mean the situation is.