D&D 5E How the party gets formed.

[ArtaSoral]

Alright so another advice request from an inconsistent DM. I'm starting a fresh campaign (lvl 3) with my players, some from my old camp and some new guys (8 players). One of the things i can predict is that the players are gonna want taken care of is how their characters meet. I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how to make this happen smoothly. I don't really want to play through an encounter with each one of them on how they got to a place, that would take way too long and bore everyone else and it feels a little contrived to just say "and you guys are all there." Is there a known way of dealing with this?

 

[mellored]

You can justify your contrivance.

i.e. you where all on a boat, which crashed. The other people who survived are the ones you see.
or
You where all captured, and are now in prison together. You need to escape before you are sacrificed.
or
You all answered a summons from the king. He want's you to go on this quest.
etc...

 

[ArtaSoral]

You can justify your contrivance.

i.e. you where all on a boat, which crashed. The other people who survived are the ones you see.
or
You where all captured, and are now in prison together. You need to escape before you are sacrificed.
or
You all answered a summons from the king. He want's you to go on this quest.
etc...

Appreciate the recommendations, the first one might work but with the other two I just know they're going to give me a hard time; "I wouldn't get caught" or "my character wouldn't be known to the king"

 

[Istbor]

Appreciate the recommendations, the first one might work but with the other two I just know they're going to give me a hard time; "I wouldn't get caught" or "my character wouldn't be known to the king"

Well what about "I don't like boats!"?

This could also be covered in a session 0. Which is something I do. I have a few options of how they characters may know each other, then see what my players think, sometimes taking those suggestions, and building onto them until we have something the party likes and fits with the setting.

 

[iserith]

I suggest establishing that the characters already know each other, trust each other enough to confront deadly perils together, and have some reason to engage with the events you plan to present in your campaign. In order to flesh out how they all know each other, you might have each player make a brief statement about a previous adventure they shared with two other PCs. After everyone establishes their part, you should have a pretty fun little web of relationships.

 

[ArtaSoral]

Sorry for noob question but what's a session 0?

 

[Sunseeker]

Appreciate the recommendations, the first one might work but with the other two I just know they're going to give me a hard time; "I wouldn't get caught" or "my character wouldn't be known to the king"

An easy one to control that I use is: You're all broke (since ultimately, the DM controls how much money you have).
Thusly, you all find yourselves at this moment, be it from desperation or luck or accident: in the job line. The Task Master has broken everyone in line up into groups, so your "group" just happens to be the players.

This gives the benefit of putting all the players together AND giving them a starter quest to get money AND setting up potential competitive adventuring teams (if that's a thing you are interested in running in your campaign).

 

[ccs]

"I wouldn't get caught"

Throughout history that's what they all thought....

"my character wouldn't be known to the king"

You'd be surprised what all the King (or at least his advisors) knows.

 

[mellored]

Appreciate the recommendations, the first one might work but with the other two I just know they're going to give me a hard time; "I wouldn't get caught" or "my character wouldn't be known to the king"

If their level 3, they could be forced by a high-level monster. A level 20 monk could catch a level 3 thief.
It can also set up the BBEG. The thief now wants revenge on that monk.

Also, you can simply ask. "How did you get here?"

 

[ArtaSoral]

[MENTION=93444]shidaku[/MENTION] o how I wish I could do that, but my players would go nuts as they really Max/min their stuff with the starting money according to PHB (I'm beginning to suspect I may be giving my players to much power)