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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scotley" data-source="post: 1198429" data-attributes="member: 11520">My main question is this ... what's a good idea for 'glue' for keeping the party together?  Initially it could be 'band on the run' from the Zhentarim, or being accused of the Red Wizard's murder, but that's not a great overall reason to keep the party together.  Ideas?Blair / Archade</blockquote> <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /> Well, are they likely to win someone's favor or gratitude for the first adventure? How about a reward that ties them all together for a while until natural bonds form from being comrades in arms. The most obvious, albeit cliché, choice is to reward them with another adventure. This has been done many times--deed to a distant fort or castle that’s a bit of a fixer upper, a treasure map etc. The next most obvious choice is to have someone they've just helped out ask them to solve some other little problem for a reward of course. I'm dying to find the right setting to use the tactic from the Usual Suspects--the party members are all arrested together. I've seen some success in a city game with giving the players a house as a group. Also in an early adventure the group saved the daughter of a wealthy innkeeper. He let them stay in the penthouse suite for an extended period at no cost. Poor low level adventurers even a small run down place can be enough to keep them together if the alternative is to go back to living on the streets. Of course if they are all living together then when any one of them comes across a new plot hook he/she naturally invites his roomies to come along. I've heard of adventuring bands ending up with taverns and theaters as well, which should similarly tie their fates together. For an island based game I'm working on I'm planning on the characters ending up with joint ownership of a boat. One of my personal favs was to have the party mistakenly aid a bad guy and delay the legitimate authorities from catching him. They were then Geased to track down said bad guy and bring him to justice. This was a bit more heavy handed than my usual tactics, but I thought it necessary since several players were new to the group and I couldn't count on them being willing to jump at the chance to work together the way my regulars usually do. Another one I’m working on involves membership in a gentleman’s club in the big city.  I have worked into the back story of each player a reason to have inherited or been given a membership in this club in the big city. They players are all low level yokels coming to the big city to seek their fortunes. The club offers enough resources to keep them dropping by and thus running into each other regularly—workout/training facilities, bathes, mundane library, cheap lodging, a free fancy dinner once a week, lots of knowledgeable old gents to consult, etc. I think this one will work out well of course the kindly old gents at the club might be something more…but that’s for my player to discover later. Scotley[/QUOTE]

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