Do your pcs start out knowing each other

[Iron Sheep]

I typically give minor character-creation rewards if the player comes up with some reason to be adventuring with at least some of the rest of the group. The reward is usually equal to a point or two in point-buy stat generation.

So this usually results in characters who are loosely affiliated with one another, but occasionally you get characters tied together closely by backstory, and occasionally you get players who can't be bothered and so you have to bring them in by other means.

I put this rule in to save me some effort by shunting work off onto the players, but it has the advantage of getting around some of the cheesy "you meet as a bunch of strangers in a tavern and immediately become lifelong best-friends and adventuring companions" introductory scenarios, and the "my paladin would never associate with your assassin" character vs. character problems.

Corran

 

[D+1]

"Characters have a loose affiliation" is the only answer closest to accurate. Truth is that it varies between campaigns. In some they've just been assumed to have met and decided to work together for reasons that the players are free to make up or not as they like. In others they've been thrown together by fate, hired individually to act as a group, or simply start in the same place and time and have to roleplay between themselves the reasons why they begin to work together in the initial adventures. In some of the latter cases it's meant that some PC's are relatives, or at least know each other, while others are absolute strangers but join in as the game progresses.

I've never really required backstories, but I have always encouraged them to one degree or another. These days, I generally just try to get the players to take half or more of the burden of getting the PC's together in some believable fashion either prior to commencement or shortly afterward.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

I didn't answer the poll because we change it with every game. We always leave it up to the DM to decide if we know each other or not. Typically, when I run the game, I choose to have them meet up in the first game session. However, sometimes I decide that they already know each other.

The other DMs in my group usually decide that the characters already know each other.

 

[Li Shenron]

In early year of gaming we usually started out with the characters not knowing each other. Some DM was very strict about this and specifically forbid PC's existing relatioships. After a few years we became quite bored of the silly tavern scene, when the PCs meet that they have never known of each other, and after a short introduction they are suddenly friends enough to risk life for the others.

As a DM I currently allow players to choose whether their characters have known each other or not, I really don't mind so I let them play as they like. In general, charaters with existing friendship and a common history has provided RP suggestions rather than restrictions.