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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Peni Griffin" data-source="post: 3636666" data-attributes="member: 50322">Yes.My campaign is primarily set in a frontier area where paladins trained at the Ecumenical Monastery of Benevolent Doctrines act as roving order-keepers.  Sometimes they patrol and sometimes they are called in by communities to deal with problems local resources can't solve.  Paladins both receive assignments and are responsible for stepping up to deal with threats they happen across, and they recruit volunteers with different skill sets to assist them.  When the PC paladin was asked to investigate the disappearance of the paladin sent to explore the Sunless Citadel and his team of volunteers, he was chosen because he actually came from Oakhurst, and the other PCs who volunteered to accompany him were a mix of old friends of his, friends of the missing people, and a couple of folks driven by curiosity/desire to get out of work.  Once this adventuring party established themselves as a team it was natural for them to call on one another for support in the situations that have arisen since and to travel together when they all had reasons to go in the same direction.  They are coping with the Red Hand of Doom by accident:  The dwarf was on a business errand for his aunt, the paladin was escorting the body of a fallen paladin to his home in Drellin's Ferry, the bard was heading for an Eisteddfodd in Dennovar, the rogue's mother was getting married in Brindol, etc.In a long-term campaign, it can be a major convenience for the party to be part of some larger structure which gives them assignments, but it doesn't preclude the PCs happening by a situation that they're more qualified to deal with than other people in the area.  I don't want to have a destiny, but I like having logical reasons for my party to be in harm's way so often.  When you don't have a formal purpose you spend a certain amount of time floundering around looking for trouble and it begins to feel contrived; also, you get too many situations in which you feel the legal vacuum around you.  Formal groups have rules and resources guiding things like dealing with prisoners, property destruction, catching murderers, etc., which otherwise bog down in party bickering over practical and alignment issues, which is boring.Structures that have worked for us include:Party has a patron (Archmage, senator, Monastery, etc.)Party is a troubleshooting corporation publicly soliciting for problems to solve.Party is an elite exploratory arm within a larger colonial organization.</blockquote>

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