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

[WayneLigon]

1. Caravan Guards. All trade caravans hire competant swordsmen and mages to help guard things. The trip will be long, and frought with danger; it gives PC's time to learn about each other and they have a common goal to help bind them.

2. Prison. I found this to be a wonderful idea. This was the main Imperial prison, where people were tossed in and /never/ came out. There were three or four generations of people down there, then the new Emperor decided to release a random group of people to prove that he was merciful. So they are prodded out into the sunlight for the first time in their lives, and have only each other to depend on.

3. All the PC's are related to each other in some way. This depends of course on what races people take.

4. My favorite was a group where all the PC's were secretly the children of a powerful noble family (with it's cadet branches) who sent their children into another dimension (Our normal Earth) when it looked like the kingdom was going to be overrun by rhe forces of evil. Now, years later as the children (who have lived out their lives separate from each other and never suspecting the truth) come of age, the old loyalists have managed to breach the barriers to Earth and come to collect the scions. Unfortunately, the Bad Guys have heard about this and are racing them to get there first.

PC's started out with no real 'class' and a mundane Earth identity. Then the rangers from the noble family show up, see if they remember their former life, then kill them. By destroying the Earth body, they snap back to their homeland and effectively reincarnate in a different form (so people could be elves, etc).

 

[jester47]

Its differnt every time. I don't do the put the party together thing. I start em at the beginning of the adventure with a little backgrounder. I call it launchpadding. Who knows why anyone goes anywhere. Do all things have to be explained? Too me its a moot point. You are at the opening of a dragons lair, ship wreaked, lost, but you are not alone. But I go by situation rather than point to point. I say heres how you got here, lets see what happens. Ok, these are the repercussions. My style is weird.

Aaron.

 

[LostSoul]

One word: orgy.

 

[Mark]

Nothing like a good old fashioned Barn Razing!

And I am serious. Using this idea as a figurative way to suggest that when the whole community turns out for a project, it should include the PCs. Lots of talk and gossip is involved and there's always a party afterwards. Plenty of ways to introduce plot hooks at these types of events.

 

[Mistopheles]

This is something I've picked up from running Legend of the Five Rings games but has carried over to 3E:

I like to start a new campaign off with a festival complete with tournaments of skill and of brawn. An event that would attract a wide variety of character types and give the PC's a chance to "break the ice" and establish their initial realationships to one another. This is, of course, helped along with my (not so) little book of hooks, a notebook of little scenarios done in the Challenge, Focus, Strike format that can be played on one or more PC's. An under handed deal here, a romance there, all to nudge the party together and ultimately on the road to adventure together.

It often turns out better than expected as well. When reminiscing about one such festival (almost a year later) to a player, he was floored when I let it slip that the NPC antagonist that he and the party had grown to hate was not responsible for the murder of a fellow PC. It was in fact, the skillfully crafted schemes of another player that led to the PC's demise. They had assumed it was the work of the NPC (not that he didn't do anything to deserve it) and voila, they had a purpose. In the case of one player at least, an overwhelming sense of justice consumed his character's thoughts and drove how I would play out the campaign for him and the party. As for the murdered PC, I let his player create a new character with some bonus points for being such a good catalyst for bonding the party together. Everybody came out a winner, except for my NPC antagonist, the poor sod.

 

[Glyfair]

I like cohesive groups. I don't want to have to deal with the "loner" player who decides he hates the group and has no reason to be there. I want them to have a strong reason to work together. This also allows for more in character friction, since you know it shouldn't get to the explosive stage if they have a reason to be together.

There are two methods I'd like to use. I've tried both, but have come up short everytime I've tried.

1) Story Weave: This only works if you have the basic characters done in advance. Work out a connection among the characters that are different, but keeps them together. For example, a cleric & a fighter are siblings. The cleric & paladin are members of the same order (not necessarily faith). The paladin and rogue met in the past and ended up friends with the paladin trying to reform the rogue and the rogue trying to loosen up the paladin. The fighter & the mage were setup as an arranged marriage and both are running from being forced to do so.

2) Players: Let the players sort it out. Tell them what you want to end up with and let them come up with the story.

Unfortunately, when I've tried the first there has always been a player or two who wasn't ready until the night of the adventure. When I've tried the second there is always a player who is uncooperative or just is having an unoriginal night.

I have had a successful campaign that did have a way to get the players together and give them a reason to be there. The players were a special side force of a mercenary company. They were formed because they were all half-siblings. Everyone had the same father & were banded together because the leader of the mercenary company was a close friend of their womanizing father.

Glyfair of Glamis

 

[brak1]

Recent and futute ideas in our games:

1) Someone has been murdering adventurers. When the assassin is caught (and conveniently killed in the process) he's found to have the likenesses of our heroes tattooed on his body. The Lord/Mayor/whathaveyou attempts to locate the heroes to solve the mystery. (Where you go from there is up to you.)

2) Along the "prisoner" lines... Sold into slavery. We started a game with the majority of the characters having been waylaid and sold into slavery, with one character (who knew one of the others who had been captured) following along. The slaves were being used to excavate ancient tombs in a vast desert and freeing themselves and the other slaves was only the beginning of a lot of excellent trouble.

3) The local government officially declares "adventuring" illegal - as it disrupts the economy and tends to stir up the local orc tribes. Characters meet in one of the "safehouses" that have sprung up to harbor adventurers on the run.

I love tournaments/fairs too, as far as getting the characters together. Mistopheles already pointed out some good points about those.

 

[Angelsboi]

an idea i want to try is having the players know each other for quite some time ... start them off at 6th level and then in a later adventure, farther down the road, reveal their past (levels 1 through 5) isnt what they thought it was ...

would that work?

 

[Buttercup]

It's an intriguing idea, Angelsboi. Would they misremember their pasts? Or did you have something else in mind?

 

[DrSkull]

1) In my current campaign, all of the human characters were automatically the children of the local Viking Chief (he had two wives who hated each other and were constantly trying to get their own sons advanced ahead of the other wife's sons). Anyone non-human was someone looking for work with the chief. I'm finding it very interesting having most of the game group being brothers or half-brothers. The chief is going to die soon, so we'll see who get's the big chair.

2) In my last campaign, I started the campaign in the middle of a fight. I told them all they were mercenaries working for Sir Malcolm and off we went.