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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Inchoroi" data-source="post: 7293180" data-attributes="member: 6752135">I solve it by, as a DM, putting a series of "Character Hooks" available for them to choose from and build characters around. They're usually very open ended, but often tie into the big things happening in the setting, in one way or another. For example, my current campaign begins with the death of an NPC that all the PCs know through some mostly-good means. The PCs all connect to this NPC in some fashion, either as an employee, a relative, a pen pal or friend, an old adventuring buddy, or a student. Each of those options comes with a series of bits of information, little hints that lead to further things about this NPC and his plans and dreams and flaws, etc. In addition, after the game began, I provided secret hooks and hints to each PC, based on the Character Hook they chose; these secret hooks often have clues that allow another PC's hook to be furthered, but it's up to the character whether or not they share that secret information! The above won't work for all groups; my group is super RP oriented while still being min-maxing murderhoboes, so they go out of their way to stay in characters while being OP as crap (god, I love my players). They eat the setting detail I put in and all the little clues up, and I could not be happier about that. If your group doesn't have that same drive for mystery that mine does, you might have to readdress the Character Hook thing, but the idea behind it is sound: provide ways for the characters to work together in a party.A few things I do to further that, outside of Setting-Information stuff, is the following:1. No evil characters, of any kind.2. No lone-wolf types, nor dickhead characters.3. Do a Session Zero, for the love of god, do a Session Zero. Even do a couple one-shots in the same setting to get to know your players before beginning into your big huge campaign that you spend hours prepping. If the wizard's player has a few bucks to blow, get this <a href="https://koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/deep-magic-ring-magic-pdf-5th-edition/" target="_blank">PDF</a>. It's got a dwarf-only wizard tradition which is pretty bloody bad-ass! I really want to play one, someday, but I am, alas, a ForeverDM.</blockquote>

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