New DM needs help getting new PCs together!

[Craer]

I've been a player in my group's campaigns for a very long time. Since I began playing, I started to put together my own campaign setting, adding bits of this and writing bits of that in for about four years now. The time is drawing close when I will actually start to run my own game, and quite honestly, I'm terrified. 500 MB of text files compiled in a folder marked "My Campaign Setting", and I don't even have a name for my setting.

My more pressing worry is that I have no idea how to get the group together at low levels. I don't want to just handwave the entire thing with the extrememly tired and cliched "You all meet in a tavern", nor do I want to just tell my players that they already know each other.

So, experienced DMs. How did you get your players to form a group in the first place? Players, how did your characters get together? And can anyone drop a few names for my campaign setting? I just need a solid title for my world.

 

[Geoff Watson]

Ask the players to work out how their characters know each other.

Geoff.

 

[ThirdWizard]

This might seem like a cop-out, but in my experience one of the best ways to do it is to make the players figure that out. It gives them input into the campaign, establishes inter-character relations that they will be happy with, and relieves a large headache for the DM.

Having said that, the best campaign I've ever run started with all the PCs doing solo adventures and I slowly worked one or two together, until after about four adventures they were finally a whole. But, that was a whooole lot of effort, and it really worked because it was an intrigue based campaign and my players were really good. I actually spent about a month working on how it was going to be set up, and I probably wouldn't want to do that again any time soon.

Actually me and a friend of mine were talking about an interesting set up. The PCs don't really know each other and all happen upon a high level battle. The good guys (well known) are all killed and one enemy remains, almost dead. The PCs see this as an opportunity (hopefully, you know how it goes) and kill the bad guy. Before he dies he curses them with something, so now they have to do something to lift the curse, since at low levels they don't have much access to spellery that can solve it. Thus, they have to work together at least for a time, then after that they'll probably stay together.

But, I still say that, generally, its good to let the players decide. Especially if they're imaginative and can give you ideas about plots that might spring up from it. My last campaign, they met up traveling to a particular place each being added along the way, all from different places. We started after they had all met, and on the road they fought side by side. By the time they got to their destination, they decided to stick together since they didn't know many people in the new city. It worked very well for us. Give 'em a chance, I'm sure they'll think up something.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I guess you're right. 'You all meet in a tavern' is kind of cliched.

How about 'You all meet in a bathhouse'?

 

[Crothian]

Ask the players to work out how their characters know each other.

Geoff.

Exactly, as you stated the DM has enough to do. Let the players work this part out. I usually require for them to all be in the same city or town but let them talk out and figure out the details.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I tell my players up-front that the game will work a lot better if they work that out amongst themselves, but that I can work them in if necessary.

They've never let me down.

 

[Doug McCrae]

And can anyone drop a few names for my campaign setting? I just need a solid title for my world.

All campaign settings are named by combining two words. Except for Midnight. And Eberron.

Grey + hawk
Forgotten + realms
Dark + sun
Plane + scape
Spell + jammer
Birth + right
Raven + loft
Iron + kingdoms
Scarred + lands
Dawn + forge


My suggestions:

Hermetic Empires
World of Silverflame
Falcon Clans
Daggermoon

 

[Acid_crash]

I vote for Daggermoon....sounds pretty cool for a world.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In the past, I've informed the players that characters of the same race are related to at least one other player's character. They work out to whom and how. It creates more plausible ties between characters than usual, I find, especially in a world without the pill, where larger families (at least among humans) would be the norm.

 

[RigaMortus]

All campaign settings are named by combining two words. Except for Midnight. And Eberron.

Mid + Night

mid: referring to the middle
night: The period between sunset and sunrise, especially the hours of darkness

Eber + Ron

eber: The third post-duluvian patriach after Shem (Gen. 10:24; 11:14).
He is regarded as the founder of the Hebrew race (10:21; Num. 24:24). In Luke
3:35 he is called Heber.

ron: (noun) a Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria