Getting PCs together

[Warrior Poet]

There's always the cinematic way, which I've used from time to time. Look to a favorite movie that gathers together a group of strangers to accomplish a task.

For example, Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven. Before the first game, talk to one of the players and find out if they'd be willing to undertake a task, perhaps for coin, perhaps for personal glory, perhaps for charity. Then simply make the task something more than one character can tackle. Time to find some other samurai to defend the village ... time to find someone to help bury that body on Boot Hill that no one is willing to transport. Then challenge them with something that forces them to work together and come to appreciate each other in a fight, in solving a riddle, whatever.

Another possibility: gather them all (as strangers) in a tavern, i.e. they just happen to all be at the same place. A group of bounty hunters burst through the door and point each of them out, calling them by names that aren't theirs, and saying they are wanted. Clearly, there's been a case of mistaken identity, but the bounty hunters don't know that, and it's hard to reason with someone who's trying to gut you with a short sword. As mundane bar patrons scatter for the exits, the fight is joined, and suddenly the party of strangers is united in common plight. If they survive the struggle, well, there's already a mystery waiting for them: who set the bounty hunters after us, and why? And who the heck are you guys?

Warrior Poet

 

[Painfully]

Well, if you must "throw people together," on short notice, it's still best to define their connections to each other by finding some common social thread.

Basically, you'll find that you need at least one common underlying social thread, a reason that the PCs find themselves in the same place at the same time. Whether they are all in the army together, they are all slaves together, they are all working in service to the same king, they all worship the same church, they all have a particular friend, such as the travelling merchant I mentioned earlier, or they otherwise have some common desire.

When putting together a character's background story, it's important to make sure your characters have a reason for wanting what they do, and a justification for being where they are right now.

If you lack motivations and reasons, then your characters will mimic video games where everything is just another power-up to kill the next big boss. You need a social fabric to bring people to life, because without it your characters have no life, they're just another video game icon.

Then again, if your games end with "killing the boss," instead of, "look at how I've changed my world," I suppose video game icons are what you want. It's the sort of difference you can begin to see between games like Diablo, and Baldur's Gate.

 

[Cloudgatherer]

I "threw" my players together at the start of my campaign. I had to continue an existing campaign, which had become confused through DM changes, so when I took over I said "new campaign world, new plotline."

So those who wanted to keep their characters did, and new characters were also allowed. The trick is this: they come from different prime material worlds. A powerful wizard cast a gate spell, which was scrambled by a cleric, bringing the players together in the same place: in the middle of combat!

They witness the wizard become imprisoned, powerful magic laid around his imprisonment spot, and they have to figure out the circumstances surrounding their misfortune. Their over-arching goal is to free the wizard who summoned them so he can send them home. As they are discovering, they've been throw into the middle of something rather large and dangerous!

 

[Aeris Winterood]

What I do....

I find it easy to bring characters in a game. When starting out I pick a starting point...For example in my last campaign, the city of Rel Astra in Greyhawk.

I then ask the players to come up with a background history of thier pc's. And I do help them out with that.

I had 4 pc's, an Elven Ranger, a halfling Druid, a human female fighter and a human mage.

The mage is a suel minor noble from the house Garasteth, whose master was killed in an ambush down south seeking a magical tome. He hoked up with the female fighter who was a guard in the employ of the family and were to journey to a nearby town to deliver a message to the family of his dead master.

The elf is from the Grandwood forest and while out wandering alone came upon a halfling doing battle with a couple of orcs. The pc's won, and the halfling introduced himself as a druid in the employ on the edge of the forest.

Later the mage and fighter were ambushed by more orcs, the elf and halfling happened to be in the area nad came to thier aid also. and then the adventure began...

No roleplaying was done until the "end" of the battle of the orcs. That is how they all came together.

 

[Maldur]

We once started (as characters ) all part of a family. Complete with family tree and a bucket load of NPCs (the rest of the family) .
It took us several session (about 20) to get underway adventuring. It gave great roleplaying (ever tried to explain your mother you want to go out and serve as levies in the kings army)

It was a great start.

 

[morrolan]

Think about where your PC's are at the start of the game. In a small town/village chances are they know each other or at least of each other. In a larger city perhaps there is a location where people gather to find work. In the real world many people found work at hiring fairs and the like. And remember that the call to adventure is not always something sought out. It is often events beyond the control of the individual that draws them away from everyday life...

 

[RigaMortus]

Well you can do all the traditionals...

"Everyone meets at a bar"

"The mayor is looking for several brave adventurers to stop a local menace."

Some of the people could have started out knowing each other through past adventurers...

In a campaign I am running, I started all my players searching for the same item. Each one had a certain goal or reason for obtaining this item. When the campaign started, they all walked into a dungeon from seperate entrances (it was a big dungeon). They all came to the center point of the dungeon at the same time. This is basically how they met. In the center of the dungeon was the item they were all after, so at first it was a mad rush to get to the item. Some wanted it for a quest, some wanted for more personal reasons, others didn't want it at all but just to protect it and make sure it wasn't removed from it's resting place. So while they started out at each other's throats, they quickly had to rely on one another because as the Rogue tried to grab the item and run, they were tossed farther down into the dungeon via a pit trap.

 

[Oogar]

Work with the backround you have the players create. If they all have a reason to be out adventuring (I should hope so) then it is not much of a stretch to create a situation they can meet in. I prefer the party to know each other before starting, even if it had just been for a short time. My recent group started in a small town, at which they had all arrived by serving to guard a caravan. So they all knew each other, and had at least a short history.

The more involved methods can be great, but sometimes ease and speed can be more important.

 

[LostSoul]

If you're pressed for time, use action to bring the characters together.

I remember a game in which our characters ended up in a city under siege. The city fell, and our characters all ended up running the same way. We were brought together because of necessity. When the orc army is coming this way, burning everything in its path, everyone is your friend.

The other way is to have characters know each other before the game starts. That usually works well.

 

[Darklone]

Simple

I usually had the players prepare the characters before playing. Checked some motivations. Got short descriptions. Then I started with one player, let him walk through a city or whatever ... casually he met some of the others and/or NPCs. Since common goals existed usually (fame, glory and gold) the group found together.

Other methods: Start an arena game. Everyone is slave. Making friends is dangerous since you could be forced to fight each other... But perhaps that fence can get you some poison or other stuff if you just manage to trade your earring against something he likes... or whatever.