"You all meet in a tavern..."

[Jürgen Hubert]

The first game session of a campaign is always important. It not only sets the tone for the rest of the campaign, but also is a vital step in defining the personalities of the player characters. While the players have usually given some thought to the personalities of their PCs before the campaign begins, in actual play they will often change unexpectedly or focus on aspects that the player hadn't even thought of.

Because of this, I usually prefer it if the player characters don't actually know each other before the campaign begins - because if they did know each other, this would also know that they know the personality of each other well (in addition to background stories, personal secrets and other such traits). But how can they do that if these personalities have not yet been fully developed in the first place? Sure, it's possible to overcome that - but I find it more natural if the familiarity between the PCs grows together with the personality of the PCs.

Of course, this brings its own set of problems: How to ensure that a group of strangers not only manages to struggle through the first crisis together, but also that they all have good reasons for sticking together after this first crisis has passed.


So I'd like to hear your stories: If you started the PCs in your campaign out as mutual strangers, then under what circumstances did they meet, and what were the reasons they stayed together after the first adventure?

 

[Chimera]

For my current game;

The Republic of Freetown, facing threats from Kobolds to the West and unable to exploit it's southern reaches due to large numbers of Ankhegs, put out a call (through a semi-secret organization) to various Masters of the land. 'Send us the best of your apprentices'. The deal was that the Republic paid off their training debts in exchange for four (or more) months of hazardous service.

Over forty young men and women arrived over the next several months. In a few cases, they arrived as a group and were kept that way. In other cases, they were "pre-packaged" in small groups that were then sent out together. At least one such group broke up over personality issues and was absorbed into other groups.

This left it open-ended for the PCs to come from anyplace, from any background, and to be rolled into one team that would need to remain together for four game months of service. They literally "met in a bar" on a certain date, where they were contacted, given their mission, some equipment and supplies, and sent out.

As it stands, the group is now just over a month and a half into their service, performing their second mission (the first being little more than "Let's get together, bash some kobolds and get used to playing together. Oh, and let me shake off my GM rust").

It also opened the door for 'retiring' PCs if, at some point along these initial sessions, the player decided that they wanted to try something different. The Republic is facing a serious manpower shortage, so has repeatedly asked if any of these adventurers would care to join their small army. (If the players take them up on it, the PC retires to 'friendly NPC' status and they get to start another character at the same level and XP.)

 

[Quickleaf]

My most recent on-line game had 3 strangers seeking shelter at a caravanserai during the "mother of all sandstorms." They were trapped together until the storm passed, true, but one of the conceit of the Arabian Adventure genre is that heroes recognize each other and joine together. All the players understood this, and thus created relationships between each other quickly; for example one looked up to the other two as mentors, another saw the other two as boon companions, and another saw the other two as his charges to protect (I think).

They stayed together after the first adventure in order to bring the wicked sorcerer they'd imprisoned to justice before a qadi in the capital city. Moreover, each had individual reasons for going to the capital: One was presenting a gift of calligraphy to the Caliph, another was curious and had never seen the capital before, and the third was searching for his father's killer.

Because of this, I usually prefer it if the player characters don't actually know each other before the campaign begins - because if they did know each other, this would also know that they know the personality of each other well (in addition to background stories, personal secrets and other such traits). But how can they do that if these personalities have not yet been fully developed in the first place? Sure, it's possible to overcome that - but I find it more natural if the familiarity between the PCs grows together with the personality of the PCs.

One great way to build characters is to use the concept of the prelude/lifepath/group character generation in which the entire group has a good feel (and has contributed to) each character before chargen finishes. They'll not be "fully developed" but everyone will have a good grasp of each character and their relations to each other. For an example of this, check out the pre-generated characters for the Frog Princess adventure.

Do PCs have to be "fully developed" in order for each player to have a sense about the other PCs? Think about it. In order to portray a convincing setting the GM doesn't need it to be fully developed; many GMs just know the basics and ad-lib the rest. Likewise, a player can ad-lib about their PC's background when another player's PC asks a question to which there is no answer yet. For example...

Jon, playing Athinel: "I see your brow is weary from the road, stranger. Join me beneath this tree and share its shade. What brings you to Watership Vale?"
Sandeep, playing Kiyris: uh...Oh! "My sister is heavy with child and I come to regal their house of good fortune with song and gifts from distant lands."
Narrator: Ok, note to self. Kiyris was in foreign lands.

 

[Turanil]

So I'd like to hear your stories: If you started the PCs in your campaign out as mutual strangers, then under what circumstances did they meet, and what were the reasons they stayed together after the first adventure?

One campaign I was a player in, began with every PC (who were but 1st level) having been captured by (the same) slavers, and being brought to be sold somewhere. Then, the caravan was attacked, and our PCs had to jump on the opportunity to escape, what we did. Thereafter, our PCs, who were so different and didn't know each other, had to cooperate to survive in this wilderness far from their respective homelands. So later we stumbled into a ruin where we hoped to find shelter, which happened to be our first dungeon, etc. The PCs naturally became an adventuring party forced by the circumstances.

 

[Galethorn]

For my current game...

Aeldmann is a wizard living in a tower in the wilderness.

Guerrand is a druid, who happens to be an old acquaintance of the wizard (they're both part of the same 'banned' pagan-ish religion).

Durant is a wandering thief who poses as a merchant.

The first session began with Durant being attacked by a troll while on his way from one town to the next. He escaped wounded and tired, and spotted a tower.

Meanwhile, Guerrand was fleeing four Magi that had been following him (Magi are, more or less, heretic-hunting anti-mages in this setting). He was headed for Aeldmann's tower for safety.

And, of course, all three of them end up at the tower around the same time. Distrusting the thief, they make him sleep in the stables, but then 'hire' him to scout for the Magi, as they wouldn't recognize him.

Basically, in the ensuing adventure, Durant proved himself somewhat trustworthy, and it also became apparent that the Church knew where Aeldmann's tower was, so the three PCs decided to go off into the mountains together for refuge.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

The best railroa... I mean group introduction I ever pulled off was the start of the Deserts of Desolation campaign.

Essentially the group met in a tavern located at a minor cross-roads. I had each character tied to at least one other due to various reasons. One was carrying an important message of peace to the southern land, another was spying on the first, etc.. etc..
Not all of the ties were 'freindly'. I left lots of room for distrust and mis-givings, and started the game with an OOC talk about the lack of neon PC signs.

That night, the group gathered about the table for dinner being served by the tavern and talk turned to the pending war between the northern and southern kingdoms. After enough time for the group to figure out who was who, there was a loud rumbling sound from outside....
The group opened the door of the tavern to see that the crossroad valley was now surrounded, West was ocean, East was mountains.. North and South were Armies. The Innkeeper fled East into the mountains...

The PC's followed, ducked into a short cave and started watching the battle. Eventually skirmishers started searching the mountain ranges, driving the PC's further back into the cavern where they found a mirror that did not reflect thier images...

Being the cowardly 1st level characters in a game declared to be 'lethal'.. they chose to step through instead of facing battle hardened skirmishers.

This kept the group together throughout the campaign in search for a portal to get back home.
Worked like a charm, altho the players seem to have forgotten most of the way through as only 1 original character survived the whole campaign...for some odd reason all the replacement characters wanted to return 'home' too
I never bothered to remind them...

 

[shilsen]

Because of this, I usually prefer it if the player characters don't actually know each other before the campaign begins - because if they did know each other, this would also know that they know the personality of each other well (in addition to background stories, personal secrets and other such traits). But how can they do that if these personalities have not yet been fully developed in the first place? Sure, it's possible to overcome that - but I find it more natural if the familiarity between the PCs grows together with the personality of the PCs.

I have no problem with the PCs knowing each other's personalities even if the players don't. And I definitely prefer to have PCs who know each other at least somewhat beforehand.

My two most recent and most successful campaigns (both set in Eberron and over a year old, one recently on hiatus due to scheduling issues, and the other one still running and covered in my sig) both started with PCs knowing each other. One had the PCs having known each other for years, having worked together in the army and having decided to go the adventuring route now that the Last War was over. The other had some of the PCs having known each other for a years, having spent time in a prison camp before the end of the War, and the other PC being someone they met and helped against muggers, only to dicover that they were all on their way to Sharn.

 

[Harmon]

Writing up a back story and sharing it with those that know or rather should know is how I usually do it.

Riders of the Axe started in Sunless- three Half Elves see an old friend (Gnome bard) who sees a group of friends- Dwarves come in. He introduces and we all sit and have a meal, then somebody comes in and offers this great big band of adventures a job at recovering two siblings and a paladin who went off to the Sunless.

Fury, Mel and Lelenia all knew each other, so we talked about back stories, I wrote both of theirs to get them down on paper.

Jack and Crom- one player was new, brought in by the other, they were buddies and talked about their characters.

Bromsby (the gnome) was just a means to connect, but has sense become a vital part of the group.

The Players and the GM working together made the connection happen.

 

[Cadfan]

My most recent, and most successful, campaign startup began by telling the players during character creation that the game was a war campaign using rules from Heroes of Battle, that they were part of a special ops squad that was expected to be relatively self sufficient, and that character classes that didn't make any sense in such a setting were banned. I didn't tell them which those were, I left it to them to not be dicks. I then began the first mission in the heat of battle, with about 2 minutes (real time) of conversation between the players and the other npcs on a troop transport boat poised to drop them behind enemy lines. I left an NPC with them to provide light backup and to give me a way to converse with the players about where they were, what was going on, etc. The rest of the session was largely combat as the players attacked a guardtower, held it against a retaliatory attack, and travelled back to their own lines.

This worked extremely well. The players bonded better when they actually had something in common to bond over. I've never had good luck with expecting the characters to all get along when they don't really know each other. Remember, when you have that initial "you all meet in a tavern" session, not only do the other players not know your character's personality, in a way, you don't either. I think its better to develop the character a bit, then start the interparty roleplaying, and one way to develop the character is through some interesting and objective based combat.