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

[DragonLancer]

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?

Sometimes I prefer the idea that they know one another before the campaign starts, and other times I like them to be brought together for a scenario at the behest of an NPC and it leads from there. Different campaigns, different starts.

 

[Allegro]

All the PCs inherited a low level magic item of mystical origins. The PC was directed to seek out a mage living in a hut out in the swamp to find out more about the item. All of the PCs just happened to show up at the swamp at the same time and are told about some shared destiny of those who possess magic items like they inherited.

 

[boerngrim]

Hi
Many years ago, I ran a campaign where the PC's were second generation adventurers. They were the children of a retired group of adventuers who had pretty much grown up together. The first adventure started at an inn owned by two of the parents. We came up with this background together during the first session as they rolled characters. I believe it helped bring them together as a team. It set aside the "Why would I trust these people with my life?" question that some role players want answered.
Thanks

 

[Gez]

Now I'm lazy. I don't write an introduction scene out of the characters' backgrounds, I write an introduction scene and let the players create their characters accordingly afterwards.

Example:

"You're in the Army. You recently engaged in the Brelish Army and have been incorporated in the Fourth Company of Argonth Rangers, who are specialized in long-range infiltration missions. You are expected to be able to be dropped at some point, and then operate autonomously during long periods, surviving behind enemy lines if needs be. Your initial training has just ended, and you are now on your first day on the flying fortress itself. As you form a complete squad, you will share the same quarters, a 6-person room in the dormitories, with six bunks and six chests."

Available character races include all the ones from the Player's Handbook, plus Warforged, Shifter, and Changeling. Available character classes include all the ones from the Player's Handbook, but if you make a good case for it you can play an Artificer or a class from one of the Complete books. Characters can be male or female, it won't change your dormitory affectation however: one room per squad, period. No evil character unless you have in the past demonstrated strong loyalty toward Breland and its institutions, the captain of Argonth is a Paladin and you'd need glowing recommendation letters if you wanted to be accepted there with a glowing evil aura. And obviously, no character that just wouldn't want a military life. You can be noble or dragonmarked but remember your character joined the army as a rank-and-file soldier -- in an elite battalion, sure, but still just a trooper. So this show that you have chosen where your loyalty goes, and that's not to a noble or dragonmarked House. Otherwise, no restriction. Go wild.​

 

[sniffles]

While I generally really like the idea of having the players come up with a reason for their characters to work together before/during character creation, this can be frustrating sometimes.

For example, say you've had a character concept in mind that you've really been looking forward to playing, but it doesn't fit at all with the concept that's bringing the rest of the PCs together. It's not much fun to have to drop that cool concept you've been itching to play, but neither is it fun to play the fifth wheel in the party.

If the reason for bringing the characters together is left open, it gives the players the freedom to try new things, and it also challenges them to come up with interesting roleplaying reasons for their characters to be there.

Sometimes it's fun to just gloss over how they got together and go with the flow. One game I'm involved with currently just skipped right over explaining how the PCs met - which works well because we've got two LG characters, one heading for paladin levels, hooked up with two CN characters who both have rogue levels.

 

[Slapzilla]

Thanks for all the replies! This is helping a lot.

 

[Johnny Angel]

I've made it part of campaign lore that any inn where adventurers are liable to congregate has a job board where calls for adventurers are posted. Parties tend to meet there, or at the site of the job when applicants are being hired. I've even staged waiting room scenes and handed out paperwork for the players to fill out, which included not-too-subtly encoded alignment-related questions.

For my next campaign I'm going to start the players out as a bunch of children from the same town who are acting in the same school play when the plot hook comes down. They'll have adventures as children, and eventually they'll be sent off to adventuring school, though they'll have their actual adventures during summer breaks until they graduate.

 

[dvvega]

To be honest, no matter how creative I've been or experienced from other DMs, the party always meets in some convenient location.

For example: the local RSPCA run by the kindly Monk patron, the service station en-route to a holiday destination, etc.

No matter how convoluted we make the ties between characters pre-game they will always meet up somewhere.

I once ran a game where all the adventurers were 1st level and they had grown up together in a small village and that village was attacked by kobolds and they went off to save their village. Sound different? Not really ... instead of an inn they all met in a village.

Another campaign had me write a complete script for a "movie intro" to the game. Every player had parts to play and read them at the table. It explained each character background, how they got to where they were and why they were visiting the city and more specifically the RSPCA location. But they still met in the RSPCA.

No matter how clever the players are and how they work out their reasons for working together, there still has to be that starting place where they will conveniently gather as a whole to start their adventure off.

That's what I think anyway.

D

 

[JRR_Talking]

it is a bit cliched to meet in an Inn, but historically its one of the few places 'real world' adventurers meet. They provide food, shelter, entertainment and beer....its all wot folk liked!

im thinking

Pirates of a caribbean 'nature'
smugglers in 18th century england
highwaymen
sailors
mercaneries of to fight crusades, 100 years war etc
cowboys of the wild west
others??

so unless before hand the 'party' are:
family
all work for the same employer anyway
work for the same education establishment

Being hired in an Inn is spot on