New DM needs help getting new PCs together!

[ThirdWizard]

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

Oh oh! Do Mystara! And "Known - World" is cheating.

 

[Pbartender]

So, experienced DMs. How did you get your players to form a group in the first place?

Try this...

"Every one ready to begin? Roll Initiative, please."

Nothing brings a bunch of strangers together like a common danger.

Alternately, you could have them all contacted, hired and placed together as a team by a common patron.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

I agree that it is usually best to let the players decide that.

Of curse, you can do something else. One of the more interesting things I've seen done is all the PCs happened to be in the same place at the same time when something dramatic happened.

I've also run a game where the PCs only met each other periodlcally, and spent most of the game doing theri own things. Some were even working against each other.

It was actually a really cool game. It was about a city that was on the verge of throwing out the feudal government and setting up a more democratic governement controlled by the guilds. so there was a lot of tension on a lot of fronts. The PCs paths crossed a lot, but we never realy did any traditional "party" adventuring in that game. Sometimes a few of them happened to be in the same tavern when an encounter happened. Or they happened to be at a particular battle. Or at a party. But they never really teamed up and became a "group."

 

[Buttercup]

I've tried various methods, but by far the most consistently successful is to make the players tell me how they know each other. I usually make it part of character creation, which goes something like this:

Distribute X number of points among your six attributes. Then, for each item on the following list that you provide me, you get an additional point to place as you choose:

• Draw a picture of your character.
• Tell me about your character's childhood.
• What is your character afraid of?
• Tell me a secret about your character that no one must ever know.
• Your character just found 50 gold pieces lying in the street. What did they do with it?
• How do you know the other PCs?

I get truly excellent stuff from them, because what player wouldn't want higher ability scores? Then I use everything they tell me against them in the course of the campaign. Mwahahahaha! (Once, a player told me that he *didn't* know the other PCs, but was assigned to them by his monastery, for reasons no one has bothered to tell him. This turned out to be a wonderful plot hook.)

Have I mentioned lately that I love my players?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Some older threads on the subject...(mmmmm reading them I seem to repeat myself)

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=93908&highlight=judge

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=81122&highlight=judge

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=79249&highlight=judge

 

[Kae'Yoss]

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.

Nonono. Eber is German for boar. So wizards shiny new campaign setting is related to male adult pigs (Could it be self-criticism by the crators? I don't want to insult them here, and I don't know then, I'm only extrapolating from myself. You can call me a hog)

 

[painandgreed]

How do I bring characters together at 1st level? Culturally, IMC, many people are organized into 'parties'. At around seven years old, children are generally gathered into groups of friends that are expected to last for a lifetime. For the lower classes, who do this less often, it may just be the local kids who are together. For nobles, prospective children of other nobles and important people are looked over and then they come to an agreement and all the children typically go to live in one estate. These groups are expected to compiment eachother and form lasting freindships. Thus, the king's son may end up in a "party" with the high clerics son, the court wizard's daughter, and maybe even the son of a rich nobleman (who also happenes to be well placed in the theives guild). The theory being that they will grow up together and support eachother in later life. Although they go to separate career training at the age of 14 or so, when they are done, they are brought back together and expected to support eachother throughout their lives. "Adventuring" is a somewhat respectable career especially for the extra sons and daughters of nobles and rich persons who can't be expected to inherit their parant's postion or wealth. Instead, they are prepared for life by their parents by being provided with such a 'party'. Thus the 6th son of a nobleman can't expect to inherit any lands or even a decent marriage, so the father may go so far as to pick out gifted commoner's children to have raised with his son and then later train them in various classes with the expectation that they will allow his son a chance as a mercenary or adventurer in a group he can trust to support him. Although this is usually a tactic used by the noble or well to do, it is often mimiced by groups of lower class children who grow up together and gives a reason why they all know eachother.

Other than that, I let them come up with their own reasons for knowing eachother or come up with a way drawing upon details of their characters backgrounds. In the end, it is sort of handwaved and the odd character is enlisted to be part of the adventuring party and various role playing that allows them to be trusted over the rest of the unwashed masses has been assumed to already been played out.

 

[AelyaShade]

In the current campaign I am in, our DM had us all (PC's) wake up in a communal jail cell with no memory of how we got there. None of the PC's knew each other and within the first hour, we all had to prove we didn't steal some mystical scroll.

 

[deltadave]

The name will come during play, don't worry too much about it.

For getting the characters together, that will depend on the tone and theme of your game. I've done everything from starting them out in a dank dark cell, to having one half of the group rescue the other half who were hanging by their hands over a bonfire being whipped by orcs. The 'adventurers faire' is also a good one... Patrons with a problem come from far and wide as do the people who can help solve those problems. The faire travels the countryside, setting up outside cities and towns. The faire is run by an ex adventurer who figures it is easier to get gold from other adventurers than to go down into nasty holes in the ground himself.

 

[Rel]

The last two campaigns I've run have started with me making a simple declaration and letting the players work it out from there.

"You will all be townsfolk from a town called Glynden. You don't have to be native but it is where you currently reside."

Two players decided that they were childhood friends who grew up in the town. The third was a mysterious Druid who lurked around the edges of town keeping the townsfolk safe from the wild animals and vice versa.

"You all need a reason to seek out the fabled City of Endless Summer."

Two were searching for a lost friend who had journeyed to the same place. One was a Cleric looking to smite evil and had heard that the City harbored the Cult of Bane. One was a Royal Explorer seeking to chart this unknown place. One was asked by his Wizard's Guild to seek out possible lost magical secrets rumored to be there.

The campaign I'm starting on Monday (Eberron) I just told them that they would all need a reason to be in Sharn. I also said that any interpersonal linkages between PC's would make things a bit easier on me but were not required. The first words I utter for this campaign will be "Roll Initiative." I've decided that in media res is a great way to start any campaign or adventure.