How do you assemble your party in your Game?

[poppin_fresh]

As a player or DM. How do you assemble your party in the your game?

Does everyone get together and talk about what they want to be, and what role they would fill in the party?

Does everyone go off on their own and make their own character and bring it on game day?

Does the DM/GM involve himself in the character creation process?

Does the GM give an idea of what the game world is like before you design your character?

Have you had any particularly good or bad memories of assembling the party that you wish to share?

I've done games where everyone makes their characters on their own. I've done games where the DM/GM doesn't tell anyone anything about the world, only knowing what system you're using.

I'm thinking of trying the following. The GM/DM gets the group together with some pizza and soda, and makes a night of party creation. The DM gives the people his/her general Idea for the campaign/world. Then talks to the people about there character and makes changes to the campaign/world to work their characters in. They would also bounce ideas off of each other about character motivations, and goals. Maybe talk about how the characters all met and why they're adventuring/exploring/investigating together. That's all I got for now, I hoping the great people here can help me figure out the best(for me) way to assemble a party maybe even the best(for me) way start a campaign.

 

[Mort]

Over the years, I've done and seen it done in several ways.

Some that I thought worked well:

Characters were employees (or relatives of employees) of Morgrave University in Sharn (2 were professors, 1 was the daughter of the Chancellor etc.) who all knew eachother already and were brought together by a murder mystery. Players knew it was going to be an Eberron city game. (character generation was done in a joint session together)

Characters were either priests or other associates of the Silver Flame in Thrane - assembled together for a mission. Players knew this was going to be a game in Thrane (Church controlled) with quite a bit of Church intrigue thrown in. (character generation was done separately but each player had a rough idea of what they wanted and made sure to have some diversity).

Characters were bar patrons who met each other durring an orc assault on the bar an surrounding area (started this one in medias res as the fight got going). Players knew it was going to be a Scales of War adventure path.(character generation done separately but with enough communication that no toes were stepped on).

Players were escaped Splugorth slaves - started with on the run. Players knew it was going to be a traveling RIFTS campaign. Don't remember Char Gen.

Players were sales reps for Chipwell Industries (on RIFTS Earth) - only saw this one played - but what a fun concept!

Some that did not work well (or rather badly actually):

GM informed me over e-mail that it was a low magic, low power deadlands campaign. I generated a tracker who was competent with a gun and e-mailed the character. Was told - great fit! Arrive at the session, mine is the only character without a magical or other major background (some characters had 2 !?!), now this was not enough to get me to walk, but when I found that the rest of the campaign was just as misrepresented (huge magic, massive power etc.) I bailed after the 3rd session. Moral of the story: be honest and up front about the campaign you are running!

Evil campaign, where everyone generated their character individually and the DM was going to have everyone meet and interact durring the first session. First problem, everyone (7 players) had very different ideas of what "evil" meant ranging from political plotter to psychopathic unthinking killer. Second problem, after 6 hours of playe only 2 of the characters had actually met each other - essentially the DM kept switching between character while the others just twiddled their thumbs. Fell apart after the first session. Moral: Make sure everyone is on the same page when running an evil group. 2nd moral: It's very, very hard to start players in different locations when each has their own separate agenda and no reason to meet the other characters.

 

[Crothian]

We do the make characters together precampaign session. In it the DM talks about the campaign and what we can expect. The players discuss character ideas and how to fit everyone together. Some campaigns allow for more wide ranging characters and backgrounds so I feel it is important to make sure everyone understands what the campaign is about first.

 

[Quickleaf]

As a player or DM. How do you assemble your party in the your game?

For me it's always been an organic mix of all those things you described. We agree on the general game/setting, and I provide a brief idea of the game I'm running. Players ping pin ideas back and forth, generally couples or co-workers design their characters in tandem. Inevitably D&D comes up every now qnd then and we'll swap character / campaign ideas. The players self regulate to balance party roles, and I "sign off" on each character before our first game. As DM I'm hands-off during character creation, with the caveat that I'll provide limits (no monstrous PCs like dragonborn or minotaurs) and suggestions (small dungeons, lots of overland/wilderness adventure, and plenty of intrigue).

Have you had any particularly good or bad memories of assembling the party that you wish to share?

Began in secret meeting place plotting treason against crown prince. Right away everyone knew they had a common enemy, but weren't sure what each others' specific motives were. And there was the risk of being found out.

I'm thinking of trying the following. The GM/DM gets the group together with some pizza and soda, and makes a night of party creation...<snip>

Sounds about right, with one change - the rest of the group boosts for the DM's pizza. The true secret behind the start of all great campaigns.

 

[Gilladian]

When I dm, it pretty much works this way:

I explain roughly what I envision the campaign as consisting of; for example the most recent start they were told what area of the campaign world, and that the campaign would probably be mostly a dungeoneering and overland/ruins exploration, with a small amount of in-town roleplay/adventure. I told them what ruleset (E6), and showed them the campaign character creation materials (in print and online).

During our "character creation session" they called dibs on various roles in the party - ie when our teenager heard that I allowed grippli, he opted to be a grippli rogue right away. His dad chose the cleric role because he hadn't played one before, and he had a fun idea for it. My husband took the wizard role that he loves, and my best friend took the fighter since she'd been sorcerer in the last game.

I am hands-off on creation unless asked; I helped the rogue pick his feats, and I'll do a roll-off on HP if asked. As far as backgrounds go - they get to tell me what sort of character he/she is, and I offer suggestions on origin and how they "got here". The player is free to reject my offers, but we do have to agree on something eventually!

In the last game I played in, we did just about the same thing, but the DM really worked our backgrounds into the local scene. I dibbed the cleric role, and chose to be a half-orc. He suggested that I had been abandoned on the steps of Pelor's temple as an infant. I ran with that, and we agreed that I had been raised to believe I was Pelor's "saved" soul. I'm now on a quest to save other poor unclaimed souls, particularly other halfbreeds.

I'm a firm believer that campaigns where pcs are created together are more fun and work better.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Hello poppin_fresh,

It sounds like you have a good handle on what you're doing in terms of PC creation. What campaign and game system are you planning on using?

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[SSquirrel]

Some that did not work well (or rather badly actually):

GM informed me over e-mail that it was a low magic, low power deadlands campaign. I generated a tracker who was competent with a gun and e-mailed the character. Was told - great fit! Arrive at the session, mine is the only character without a magical or other major background (some characters had 2 !?!), now this was not enough to get me to walk, but when I found that the rest of the campaign was just as misrepresented (huge magic, massive power etc.) I bailed after the 3rd session. Morale of the story: be honest and up front about the campaign you are running!

I've seen this story from you before. Very crappy situation.

I've been putting together a game, altho a friend offered to run it instead b/c he prefers to DM and I was just going to DM so my wife would get a chance to game too, and I told people it was going to be Revenge of the Giants. Make something 12th level, we could have 6 characters total so we should be able to make anything work. Found out a couple really wanted DPS, one was psyched to heal, one was happy w/defender or controller and 2 of us were willing to play whatever, altho the other guy was interested in trying a Wizard. Our party idea came together pretty smoothly and should be pretty balanced.

 

[Lanefan]

For my answers below, I'm assuming we're talking about the very start of the campaign...

Does everyone get together and talk about what they want to be, and what role they would fill in the party?

Everyone gets together for roll-up night but it's entirely up to them whether they discuss what each other is going to play or just roll up in isolation.

Does everyone go off on their own and make their own character and bring it on game day?

Characters are all rolled up together - it's easier that way, and way less time-consuming for me.

Does the DM/GM involve himself in the character creation process?

Only if I have to, to answer questions or if someone has gone down some strange paths on the roll-up tables.

Does the GM give an idea of what the game world is like before you design your character?

Yes. For my current campaign I told 'em "you all have to start with Humans (other races can come in later) and you'll be in the equivalent of classical Greece". They already knew what system I'd be running.

Have you had any particularly good or bad memories of assembling the party that you wish to share?

Best one I've pulled off so far is this: a famous adventuring Company, not heard from in ages, is holding a mass recruitment meeting. It's up to each characters why s/he goes to said meeting, but the campaign begins at its start with all hands on deck. There's many more proto-adventurers there than just the PCs - the Company divides them all up into parties (with all the PCs being in the same one, obviously) and gives each one a mission. So, instant party and instant first adventure all in one. (and instant subsequent adventures too, when the PC party is later sent out to find out what happened to the other parties...)

Lan-"problem is, this only works once with the same group of players"-efan

 

[Mort]

Best one I've pulled off so far is this: a famous adventuring Company, not heard from in ages, is holding a mass recruitment meeting. It's up to each characters why s/he goes to said meeting, but the campaign begins at its start with all hands on deck. There's many more proto-adventurers there than just the PCs - the Company divides them all up into parties (with all the PCs being in the same one, obviously) and gives each one a mission. So, instant party and instant first adventure all in one. (and instant subsequent adventures too, when the PC party is later sent out to find out what happened to the other parties...)

Lan-"problem is, this only works once with the same group of players"-efan

I like this idea. You could also shift to other groups, either in a quick cut scene, or allow the players to control different characters for a short time - to give them an idea of what else is going on in the world and to allow players to experience different types of characters.

One that I've always wanted to do, but 1) you'd need the right group - very mature that you've DM'd for a while for helps (my current group would likely fit, maybe next campaign) and 2) It actually violates my general "no misrepresentations/switcheroo’s when establishing a game rule." That said:

Tell the players that for a change of pace you'd like to try epic level gaming for a while - so Epic 4e, 3e, 500-1000 point GURPS characters - whatever the group feels like.

Each makes an epic character that they want for the party.

Then - session 1 very quickly the group is attacked and completely wiped out - hopefuly before they even know what hit them - just bam dead.

You then announce to the group: Ok everyone make a 1st level character somehow connected to the one that just died - that is investigating the prior characters death.

 

[Lanefan]

I like this idea. You could also shift to other groups, either in a quick cut scene, or allow the players to control different characters for a short time - to give them an idea of what else is going on in the world and to allow players to experience different types of characters.

What actually happened was that the brother of one of the PCs was in one of the other parties - they'd all been sent out on suicide missions in disguise (the PC party survived as did one other out of 7) and the brother's party had been wiped out. So the PC party goes to investigate and nearly gets wiped out as well...

Tell the players that for a change of pace you'd like to try epic level gaming for a while - so Epic 4e, 3e, 500-1000 point GURPS characters - whatever the group feels like.

Each makes an epic character that they want for the party.

Then - session 1 very quickly the group is attacked and completely wiped out - hopefuly before they even know what hit them - just bam dead.

You then announce to the group: Ok everyone make a 1st level character somehow connected to the one that just died - that is investigating the prior characters death.

Neat idea but if I tried it my players would be quite justified in stringing me up. I know as a player that if I'd just spent the time it takes to roll up an epic-level type (takes *way* longer than a 1st-level in any system) only to have it wiped out, and *then* have to turn around and roll up all over again - yeah, I'd be pretty annoyed.

That said, if it was known going in that the high-level types were just a prelude to the main story that's different. Given that angle, I'll keep this one in mind.

Lan-"and one scroll of resurrection can make your whole day"-efan