D&D 5E Starting the campaign with the group split to two

[RoiC.]

I've been thinking of starting a new campaign for a while now. I've always wanted to run a campaign that is centered in Sigil (Planescape's City of Doors), and I've decided to maybe have two groups getting there from two different Material Plane worlds. I think one group will be a bunch of Faerûnian low level adventureres that got into planar shenanigans for some reason and ended up farted on Sigil, while the other group is a bunch of Eberronian scavangers that explored the Mournlands and got transported out of Eberron's pocket cosmos due to some weird anomaly (or maybe even by VRGtR's new Cyre 1313 train).

I really like the idea of two groups of people from comepletely different realities needing to bond together and getting past weird and bizzre differences to handle this new, bizzare soup of existence they were thrown into. I also think that playing a session or two seperately could help with some bonding within the smaller groups (I aim for 3 people in a group), that would create interesting intercations. However, I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of things I'm not taking account or even thinking about, so any kind of input, wether based on your own experience; stuff you've seen; books/articles/PDFs you've read or anything else really would be really helpful. Rules (official and homebrew), fluff, stylistic suggestions, actual examples of play... Everything goes.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

My advice would be seperate Session 0/0.5 with each group - as you said, to bond the smaller group a bit - and I'd definitely make them define why they want to stay with the two others, akin to Eberron's 'Why do you need 200gp?' as a prompt to adventure. Once both groups get together and interact some, you could do the same... or have them collectively be attacked by a third faction. Generally nothing should inspire co-operation like having someone try to kill the both of you.

 

[jgsugden]

You need player buy in for this to pay off for you. Otherwise, you may go through all this effort only to see the players ignore the differences of their origins.

Also, speaking from experience, relocating PCs at the start of their adventuring, especially off plane, obliviates the relevance of a lot of elements of their origin stories. If you want them to weave their PCs into your story and care, you should look for ways to keep the origin of each PC relevant.

 

[RoiC.]

My advice would be seperate Session 0/0.5 with each group - as you said, to bond the smaller group a bit - and I'd definitely make them define why they want to stay with the two others, akin to Eberron's 'Why do you need 200gp?' as a prompt to adventure. Once both groups get together and interact some, you could do the same... or have them collectively be attacked by a third faction. Generally nothing should inspire co-operation like having someone try to kill the both of you.

I really want to go through a seperate Session Zero for each group. I think I'll start with a general Session Zero (maybe even on Zoom) for all the players, divide them to the 2 subgroups randomly (but give them the option to change), and have them just declare which races and classes they want, to let them build their synergy. Then I'll do seperate 0.5 session, telling them where they start and have them make a charcter fitting that setting. Also, I really like the idea of a 3rd hostile faction involved. Thank you

You need player buy in for this to pay off for you. Otherwise, you may go through all this effort only to see the players ignore the differences of their origins.

Also, speaking from experience, relocating PCs at the start of their adventuring, especially off plane, obliviates the relevance of a lot of elements of their origin stories. If you want them to weave their PCs into your story and care, you should look for ways to keep the origin of each PC relevant.

Can you give me some example of what you'd consider "player buy-in", espesically in this situation?

The second advice is just the kind of advice I needed, I'll just need to find a way to figure it out. Thanks!