"...you all meet at an inn.."

[Slapzilla]

How do you bring your PCs together for the first time? Do you gloss over it or do you try to work some sort of similar motivation thing for them? Why?

Glossing over, I guess, is for simplicity's sake to get into the action right away.

If you do try to incorporate a back story or two, do you have any tricks for making it not so dang clunky? I've done a few smooth integrations and I can't figure out what made them work. I've glossed over often enough and I just hate it.

The particular group makes a big difference, certainly, but beyond that... what works for you.

 

[howandwhy99]

It depends on the players involved.

If they are new players or players I don't think will take initiative for themselves, I start them in a situation where they have to start taking initiative for themselves. That could be a dangerous location, an attack, maybe being responsibility for others. It all depends on what I've made up beforehand. I prefer situation you need to think your way out of (explore), if not also battle out of.

The other way is to simply drop the PCs in the world and watch 'em go. That's essentially what the game turns into anyways, but I've learned an interesting world can sometimes be enough. What I focus on in that case is in-game communication. For most D&D worlds this means rumors or sages or folks you basically meet on the street. It could even be contacts from a backstory. With an adventurous enough world to learn information about (create rumors for), they should have no problem either finding something they want to do. And if they don't, they're backstories should at least have something in them the players care about.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I usually say during character creation "...and make sure you have a reason ready for why you adventure together"

It's generated everything from the obvious ("We are mercenaries whose unit just went belly up") to the, well, less obvious ("Targo is a Arcane celebrity chef, Darius and Kronos are his bodyguards and Dierra is his sister...we are coming to cook for the Duke").

Most anything is fine with me as long as we can get into what I have planned without too much "Meeting each other"

 

[Slapzilla]

I've found that experienced players just fall in line but I've always wondered why characters do what they do without the knowledge of who is a PC and who is not. Inexperienced players need a nudge sometimes to take action so I tend towards the heavy handed with that. Maybe I worry overmuch but first impressions are important.

 

[Rechan]

Once I tried to get a group together and the first session, after I basically tried to throw the PCs in the same box and shake, one of the PCs said, "I really have no business working with you guys. I want to go see the city." I basically had to hit the Reset button on that session, and handle a new campaign.

I always stress "Your character needs a reason to stick with the team. So, no lone wolves wanting to strike out on their own."

In my two current campaigns, the PCs have reasons to work together: In the first, they're all hired by a government to go on a very specific mission. In the second, one of the PCs owns an Investigation agency, another PC is his assistant that's been with him for a while, and the other PCs basically walked in and said "I'd like a job".

In the future, if I ever run a game, I will have a character creation session where I basically point at everyone and say "You guys, make your characters to somehow be familiar with one another."

 

[Slapzilla]

In the future, if I ever run a game, I will have a character creation session where I basically point at everyone and say "You guys, make your characters to somehow be familiar with one another."

I've done that sort of thing too. Samurai from the same clan, rogues in the same gang, Paladins, Monks and Clerics from the same deity/order, etc. They've worked out generally. I like the character creation session idea. Helps create context too. Hmm.

 

[The Green Adam]

I would say it depends on numerous factors, particularly the players, the style of play and the theme of the campaign. I like to start most of my campaigns In Media Res, in the middle of the action, and then continue on from there. Beginning things this way often gets the players involved really quickly and lends itself toward giving you, the GM, some great ideas on how to connect the various PCs background stories.

For example, in one of my D&D campaigns, the players all had reasons to fight evil but they were all very different and very personal reasons. This dynamic reminded me of comic book superheroes so I began thinking of a suitable epic. I began describing each character in the middle of their own personal quests, followed by their being summoned by a powerful outsider to save the world. During the adventure, each PC learned about the others' stories and they decided to stick together and help each other out afterwards.

Another campaign involved describing 1 PC waking up in his room with water covering the floor. Very quickly, the PC discovered he was on a sinking ship escaping a dangerous homeland. As the character tried to escape his fate, he ran across the other PCs and eventually a group developed.

Occasionally, I begin the campaign with the players already knowing each other, though I do imply there was some sort of 'origin story' in the background. Often I visit that story as a break from the regular adventures, with the players playing younger and less experienced versions of their characters and finding out how they met. Sort of like a 'Flashback Episode'.

Just a few ideas,
AD

 

[The Green Adam]

"You guys, make your characters to somehow be familiar with one another."

I've never explicitly done this except in those campaigns designed to feature a team from the get go. Even then, I prefer each player to have a unique motivation for their particular character. For example in Star Wars a group may all want to free the galaxy from the Empire but that leaves a massive amount of leaway in the development of a PC's driving force.

AD

 

[IamTheTest]

2 words...Roll Initiative!
If they survive at least theyll have something to talk about.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Depends on how much set up I need.

Sometimes it's simple enough to make them part of an adventuring band.

Other times one PC will know two others and those two others will each know two other different folks. Friends of friends.

Other times the players are all brought together for an unknown purpose like in the Silver Key (great adventure btw.)