Getting Characters Together

[Chiaroscuro23]

There are a couple ways to play it, as people have said above. I'm quite fond of asking the players to decide how the PCs meet and know each other. I think a DM is well within her rights to demand that they start out a team that already knows each other. (If I go this route, I like to have a "getting to know you" part of the joint chargen session wherein players can ask other players anything they like about their PCs, to simulate the knowledge an old campaigner has about his companions. As DM, I prepare some questions to get people started. This also has the pleasant bonus that it causes people who like to roleplay but are shy to have attention focused on them so they can do some character development stuff. It can be the only time you learn about another PC's kid brother, for example.)

You can also have their superiors in their various organizations bring them together, and have events snowball from there. This can cause more infighting and politicking if their respective orgs don't get along.

Finally, if suspension of disbelief isn't a problem for you, you can just allow them to hang out and trust each other for no particular reason. "I see your party has no mage." "You seem trustworthy." In low-story games that's perfectly legitimate, because the emphasis is on smiting evil, anyway.

Best of luck, and let us know what you choose, and how it goes!

Cheers,
C.

 

[The_Universe]

Hi all. My girlfriend is looking to start a new campaign, and she's looking for advice on bringing characters together at the start. Anyone have any good resources to share, or perhaps a cool use of the Search feature? Thanks in advance!

Start the campaign in the middle of action - make them *assume* that they can and have been working together by making them do so from the first second. Have them start out in the midst of a jail break, or casting off the chains of slavery, or in the middle of a battle - nothing gets them working together more quickly than that.

 

[Andre]

Andre, that is by far the best opening for an adventure/campaign I have ever heard or read in my life. Consider it stolen, and try writing an adventure book if you got more like that one .

Thanks for the nice words, but I stole the idea from someone else quite a while back. Every time I mention the idea to others, I kick myself that I didn't save the original poster's name - he/she came up with a great campaign opening and deserves to be credited.

 

[PK]

One I just did had 2 of the characters (brother and sister, figured out during char gen) escorting a third to a town to do work for their House (Eberron campaign). Once they got there they were having dinner in an inn when they got dragged into a standard bar fight. Their opponent ends up dead with a dagger in his back and the party is accused of murder. They end up running from the law and trying to clear their names. It worked fairly well, I thought.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

First,

If you want the charaters to know each other before the game begins, it's best to have the first gaming (or a pre-game) session be all about charater creation. This serves 2 important purposes.

1. You can work out how everybody knows each other before hand, including backgrounds.

2. Players won't step on each other's toes (i.e. 3 rogues and 1 cleric).

3. (Ok, 3 reasons). Stop people from creating complelty incompatable characters (i.e ranger with favored enemy elf in party of elves or a paladin in a CN party).

Second,

The 'your all together because you wake up imprisoned, drugged, etc' should be used sparingly. Do it every once in while, but try to keep it from happening every time. Players will get tired of it (plus, unless your really watching what you're doing, you can turn into the DM railroad express real quick).

A inn's fine, just make it a small inn, where the PC's are the only 'class level' people about. Thus, they'll naturally look to each other for aid in whatever quest presents itself.

Summoned before the local lord to perform some quest works well.

Mysterious past realatives/parents/etc reveal a mystery & guess who all's involved.

If you tell us what people are playing, it is much easier to figure out possible meetings.

 

[orsal]

2. Players won't step on each other's toes (i.e. 3 rogues and 1 cleric).

What's wrong with that? It's nice to have an arcanist in a party, but not necessary. If the 3 rogues all have different specialties (say, one sneak rogue, one combat rogue and one silver-tongued rogue) that could be a pretty good party.

3. (Ok, 3 reasons). Stop people from creating complelty incompatable characters (i.e ranger with favored enemy elf in party of elves or a paladin in a CN party).

While a paladin in an otherwise CN party is likely to cause some friction, what's the matter with a party of elves one of whom is a ranger with elves as favoured enemy? Put them in a setting in which many of their adversaries will also be elves, and it sounds like the ranger has a lot to contribute.