What innovative ways have you come up with for PCs to get together

[kenjib]

There is a rebellion in a vassal state of the empire. The players may create a reason to resent the empire if they wish. If not, one will be created for them. The game begins with the Empire attacking and razing the town where the PCs begin to ferret out the rebel leadership which is headquartered there. The players may encounter several objectives during the chaos, depending on what they do, including storming the prison and freeing political prisoners (other PC's could be among the prisoners, political or just plain criminal), helping refugees to escape, skirmishing with imperial soldiers in the streets, fighting in the naval battle, etc. Afterward they must help cover the retreat and rebuild the rebel forces.

By the end the party has a strong common interest and goal. They have also probably bumped into several long term enemies and flunkies through the course of the day that will show up later, the cruel Ambassador, his brutal bodyguard, the captain of the imperial guard, the naval commander. They now have a personal grudge against these people that they can bear with them later when this opening scene becomes a significant catalyst for the ensuing war and is remembered as one of the great tragedies sung of in songs for years to come.

Another idea that just struck me, what if you had each character write up their background, did the amnesia thing, but then secretly switched their backgrounds all around. Eventually they discover that somehow their identities have all been scrambled. Could be interesting for a short campaign.

 

[Shiv]

Several previous campaigns have begun as the characters:

1. Are shipwrecked together.
2. Share the same ultra-realistic dream and go to investigate the real-world site of the dream.
3. Attend the funeral of a mutual friend.
4. Are all orphans who grew up together, just now striking out on their own.
5. Are thrust together in the town square as an invading force rampages through the town.

 

[GrayIguana]

Here goes my first post for the message boards, and some things how I approach bringing the party together.

I typically try to have a common reason why the group is working together, rather than having "adventureing parties" who are waiting for things to happen. For example, each PC may be a representative from an organization investigating a similar incident. The PCs band together for their mutual survival.

In my next campaign, the PCs will be characters who have died and are now in the debt of a certain temple in return for their return from the underworld. They must serve the temple and the community for one year before their debt is paid.

 

[Xarlen]

Welcome to the boards!

 

[alsih2o]

first of all, a hearty "welcome in" to gray iguana, but on with the ideas...


i had a party gathering idea where they were all being taken across a river on a ferry. the lines snapps (possibly because of an evil attempt?) and they have to get back to the road after dealing with the line snaping baddies and drifting several miles on the ferry.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

All the descendants of an old adventuring party

The characters in the current campaign I am running were descendants of the adventurering party in a previous campaign I ran under 2E rules ending with Die Vecna Die! Since the character's predecessors had saved the world and established a city together, the current characters knew each other from childhood.

 

[Samothdm]

ALSO- When you start a new game, make each person make a story on how they know the characters sitting on there left. Player 1 knows Player 2 but not Player 3. You would be suprised at some of the complicated stories they create.

Very true. For my group:

They had picked their characters:
*Three Rogues (all three of whom were "agnostic")
*One paladin from a faraway land and foreign religion
*One orc fighter (aetheist)
*One Cleric of the main campaign intolerant monotheistic religion
*One Ranger (woodland spirit worshipper)

Then I surprised them with "You're starting out in one of the most religiously intolerant cities in the western world. They persecute and imprison non-believers, which is everybody except the cleric. How do you all know each other, why are you adventuring together, and what are you doing in this city?"

Half the group were first-time players and they sent e-mails back and forth for about a week and developed this really complex, rich background to tie all of their characters together. It included one of the rogues not trusting the cleric, one of the rogues "cross-dressing" to hide her real identity, the paladin and the orc having to wear hooded cloaks to mask their noticeably different appearance from the religious zealots, and more. They even came up with a really cool plot device (the theft of a sacred object that the cleric was supposed to deliver to one of his church superiors in the city) that I'm still building off of over a year later.

I was really happy how it worked out.

 

[Oracular Vision]

My party were simply traveling the same road when a group of bandits attacked, and they had to defend themselves and then they got mad and wanted to "take care" of the bandit problem. Players since then are considered hirelings, so they get whatever share of treasure, etc., they negotiate with the group for. This makes it easier to get rid of excess characters, if there are too many wizards and no medics, you can fire the junior one and put out a "help wanted" sign for a medic, then the player makes one and he shows up next time.

 

[Khorod]

Better for players to work it out.
Since drawn out meetings might be boring, perhaps meet as a group, discuss the story, DM writes it out for next time. But...

-The party members are all residents of the same town, and out of civic mindeness, they hunt down the bandits because the guard is busy with something. As the most competent guys, they end up some of the last folks in the hills. The town mayor gives them the keys or something, and then as a group they start getting job offers. Any npc's that were with them are those folks which drift away from the froupe.

-Characters are all in a competition run by the Empire to determine who shall be hired as potential agents of the throne. The PC's happened to be put together as a group for one set of exercises. Probably, they lost, but came to the attention of a lot of the empire's great, including maybe the emperor, as some folks to look out for in the future.

Edit: And that's my centennial.

 

[ungorcomeworld]

First post and possibly a good idea.

I have yet to try it out but I so desperately want to.

The players are prisoners, and not only are they prisoners they're prisoners on a sinking ship. How is that for incentive to work together? Although I suppose this would be the way to start out a no evil PC's campaign.