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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cryptos" data-source="post: 4511513" data-attributes="member: 58439">I suppose that one of my bigger weaknesses when I run a game is that I always want in-story logic and consistency.  One of my biggest hurdles is "why is this group of characters together?"  The thing I would least want to do is run a game where a group of adventurers meet at a tavern, or a group of superheroes randomly passing by a crime scene or event wind up spending the next several years as a closely-knit superteam, or any of the other cliches.  I want to encourage players to create characters they want to play, but at the same time I want them to create characters that make sense together and have a reason for being together.  Any time that doesn't happen, I wind up trying to come up with a starting adventure that provides that reason.  I don't railroad often, but I will railroad early so that the overall context of the story makes sense to me.  I'd more often than not rather get players pidgeonholed into a story or concept where they have a reason for being together, and then let them explore the world and do what they want.I'll go to great lengths to do this, to the point where I'll make the first part of the campaign about why the characters are together.  I've had a concept for a Mage: the Awakening game is that the characters get caught up in some situation and Awaken to magic simultaneously, and that this is an auspicious (or for some, suspicious) event to the mage community.  Or one for a Vampire game where the player characters were sired as part of a plot by several elders to overthrow the current power structure, and after executing their sires for the planned insurrection, the Prince lets them live provided they jump through his hoops.  Or one where various adventurers become the living repositories of mystical energy that came from an ancient and dangerous artifact, and must quest together to find a way to remove that energy safely before evil cultists can rip the energy from them to reconstruct the evil artifact.  When the players don't decide to come together on their characters on their own, I tend to mash them together with a blunt instrument so that it makes sense in story terms for them to be together.  That can create limits on the kinds of stories you can open with in a campaign, and it can result in stepping on a character concept here and there in the beginning to make sure the group works overall.</blockquote>

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