unusual ways of getting a party together

[Altalazar]

Sometimes Fate lends a hand...

It happened twice to me, with regards to adding a character mid-stream.

First time, there was a druid-type (I can't remember if it was a druid or a ranger or some mix - it was 2nd ed) who was in the group. The group had reached a town at the end of the session. The druid-type decided to explore outside of town after meeting up with some actual druids. He had earlier talked about looking for trees or something, and he ended up finding someone wearing all black sitting and "meditating" in front of a big tree. They didn't talk, so he just sat down with them and began meditating too. I really just threw that in there, figuring that it was just an NPC druid, but didn't really elaborate or say who it was - we just ended the session there.

The next session, we had a new player join - a warlock - who happened to dress (coincidentally) in all black, just like the guy by the tree, and the way the character was described, him sitting in front of a tree would actually be something he'd do - kind of a nature-wizard, he was. So when the next session started, the guy in front of the tree got up and introduced himself... and it was the PC. Totally unplanned, yet it fit perfectly. Everyone actually found it rather funny that it worked out that way because it did fit so well with the characters and yet also was totally unplanned.

The other time was a bit more complicated, and involved a beach, an annoying artifact, and a dim-witted swashbuckling theif. Suffice to say that this also worked by total coincidence to bring someone in the most unlikely way - who happened to be the brother of the player who got in above by the tree.

As for starting a group off - this is probably a cliche too, but you could have the characters all in one place, either indoors or out, waking up with no memory and having to figure out together who they are and what happened - the conventional approach has them be a single party - unconventionally, you could have them really be from different groups - perhaps rival adventuring groups that never worked together before - though they do now. For really twisted, make them enemies, but then due to the memory loss, they end up working together and becoming friends (this can be delicate and requires good role-playing).

It helps if there is some sort of external threat to them. See 'Resident Evil' for possible scenarios...

 

[Tyris Harmon]

Our latest campaign had the PC's working as caravan guards. Two of us met at the job signing. The others took about a session and a half of roleplaying and one combat before everyone got to know each other.

It was fun. Had one guy say "He doesn't look trustworthy, so I stay away from him". So, you have one guy avoiding people he doesn't trust (which was everybody!!). It took the combat to get him to talk to the other guards.

 

[MarauderX]

Our current campaign originally started with the characters all being residents of the same geographic region, all called to the main town to perform their annual militia training. They all ended up assigned to the same squad under an experienced militia corporal. During a goblin raid, the squad leader was incapacitated, allowing the PCs to heroically save the day, starting their reputation as local defenders.

Incorporating new PCs since then has been harder; the newcomers were never as tightly integrated as the original group of PCs. There's something to be said for growing up with each other from 1st level.

This works well for me, and have used it to start up 3 different campaigns with great success. I have also done the lazy thing too, where you tell the players to give a background story with a few plot hooks then take the ones you like.

Also there is the 'missing link' theory: All of the PCs are after the same NPC - say, 1 because she was a lost sibling; 1-2 to stop a string of robberies in an upscale neighborhood; 1 to find out who to buy the valuable stolen jewelry for such a low price; 1 to recover an heirloom that was pickpocketed from them. The NPC is chased into a crowd, the crowd begins to clear and she runs first one way before it is blocked by the PCs who recognize her, then another and another until finally she tries cowering behind her sister/brother and hopes they can help her out. If the PC tries to defend the girl, the girl runs and leaves the PC to take the blame/sort things out with the others. Then they all have to band together to stop her antics before she gets into 'real' trouble.

 

[MarauderX]

Oh, I forgot to mention what I am currently working on (duh!)

The players are asked to make characters ~10th level, and they are giving a backstory by the DM about how they have been tracking their nemesis for some time and finally have the final clues to his whereabouts when we start at the 1st session. Two sessions of intense hunting & fighting later, they confront the BBEG (and should really hate him now, with all of the tricks I am throwing in) and he says something to the effect of "Don't you remember why you are here?"

At that point, DM will ask the players to recreate their characters at level ~3, and have them meet the BBEG for the first time - as an NPC friend that joins the party. DM should play the BBEG at their level, and make him completely trustworthy for about 3-4 sessions. Then he withdraws from battle a bit prematurely during an important fight, is found rifling through someone else's things on their horse, frequently disappearing during city adventures and otherwise acts suspicious. The players naturally begin to hate him again, and soon enough they are pushing the BBEG out of the party. He will beg to stay, but his behavior gets worse it seems, until finally the party ditches him. He confronts them about it, crying, saying he doesn't know what to do without them, etc, and if the party still goes to leave he will keep pestering them, becoming more bitter until the party lashes out. When that happens, he snaps, forms a gang of his own and takes it as his personal quest to murder the PCs and/or ruin their reputation. The trick is to get them on the quest to hunt him down again when they reach level ~10, to pick up where they left off.

 

[adwyn]

I recently started off a temp/filler game with mid level characters by starting them off in a remote monastary where the monks were restoring the victims of a long dead flock of cockatrices. They had all been petrified at different times but were the only statues sufficiently whole to restore. The party stuck together because they were all at least a century out of date.

 

[diaglo]

Our current campaign originally started with the characters all being residents of the same geographic region, all called to the main town to perform their annual militia training. They all ended up assigned to the same squad under an experienced militia corporal. During a goblin raid, the squad leader was incapacitated, allowing the PCs to heroically save the day, starting their reputation as local defenders.

and you can read about it in the story hour link in my sig.