Do your pcs start out knowing each other

[Calico_Jack73]

There needs to be a "Sometimes... depending on the campaign". I've DM'd so many games that I get tired of the prologue. I generally just want to jump right into the game. Most of my players are in the same boat, it is something we did for a long time with previous games but most would get into the meat of the campaign. However, sometimes (especially in an open player-paced campaign) it can be fun to role-play the meeting.

 

[Whisper72]

Definately true CJ73. If the PLAYERS do not yet know eachother, then as a tool to learning eachothers playing styles completely playing out the PC's meeting eachother for the first time is a great exercise. With players who all know eachother and played before however, it is quickly a very contrived affair...

 

[mhacdebhandia]

In my next campaign, an Arcana Unearthed/D&D mix, the players have been asked to make sure that their characters are compatible, attitude-wise, and that they have some loose reason for knowing each other.

I don't know if this is still their plan, but originally the warmain was going to be the son of innkeepers by the city's docks. The apprentice shipmage lived in the nearby shipmage guild complex and drank there regularly, so they knew each other; the unfettered pirate had similar habits when her ship was in port, and her captain was one of those who had taught the warmain a thing or two about fighting. The sea witch was also going to be staying at the shipmages' guild complex as part of a loose "exchange program" idea, and know the apprentice because of that (and maybe she arrived in the city on the pirate ship).

 

[Raven Crowking]

It all depends. Usually, there are some characters who know each other, or know of each other as the campaign progresses. One player is running through characters -- he's on his fourth. The first one met the group, the second met the group, the third one was a friend of the first who sought out the group to get news of his friend, the fourth one hasn't started play yet.

Another player has made his second character the half-brother of his first character. A third player has also gone for this option, making his third character the brother of his first character.

I did start this game in a bar...The North Road Inn in Long Archer, where an Outside Power brought the characters together: a merchant whose son needed rescuing. (And for those of you following such things, religion was involved, as was the manifestation of a deity's "child" -- in this case a half-fiendish monstrous spider).

I once ran a game where the initial PCs were all 5th level (in 2nd Ed AD&D) and I let them load up on whatever gear they wanted. They then woke up in the first dungeon, pulled to this world by an artifact *that left their magic items behind*! heh heh heh

Daniel

 

[dren]

No standard way to handle this.

 

[Fenes]

It depends on the campaign, and the characters involved. Usually the characters do not know each other, but start united by some authority, cause or circumstance more pressing than "You are PCs and in the inn".

 

[Ibram]

Lets see, in my first campaign (started about a month after 3e came out) the 1st level characters started out in an Inn, and were highered as mercs to hunt goblins.

In other campaigns I've had the players start out in two parties smaller parties (with three players in each) competing for the same goal.

The next campaign I'm planning on runing starts out with the players as the survivors of a destroyed army fighting the ghouls who have come to feast on the remains of their comrads.

 

[Arnwyn]

My players always seem to choose the "No, my pc's always end up becoming good friends the first night in the bar" option.

 

[Shallown]

I ran my last game with the players being required to have at least known each other or for some reason the other characters was someone they saw/knew that stuck in their mind.

Most people ended up connecting with the youngest character who was a 14 year old boy who had been a scout/courrier during the recent war so everyone had particiapated in the war at some point so they all saw the young boy and was impressed with him even if they didn't talk to him. It worked out well getting everyone togthere with out constraining backgrounds much.

I think thatis the model I'll shoot for for most my campaigns now.

later

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I leave it up to the players to decide how or if they know each other. It's just easier that way.