I can't even count the number of times that groups have formed in campaigns I've been a part of in mundane horrible ways.
Examples of horrible:
"You're adventurer. I'm adventurer. We're in an inn. Wanna form a group and be best comrades for life?"
The DM says, "You all grew up in this small town and dreamed of being an adventurer. Now is your chance."
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I'd like to start assembling a good list of unusual or more creative reasons/stories/ideas for groups to form in the first place.
It could be a short scene designed to bring the group together, or it could just be a situation that is assumed when characters are created that is different.
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Here's a try, however, I'm not feeling extremely creative this early in the morning:
Scene: The PCs are all attending a mandantory probation meeting with the judge and the chief constable after being released from a week in jail. The judge is being difficult, preaching at the group. The chief tells a story about how he turned his life around by turning his natural tendency to want to pick fights and bully into law enforcement. This bridges for the party to start a similar discussion and form an adventuring group.
Situation: Conscription--a recruiter for the King's army blitzes into town, carrying off every able bodied man to defend against the yearly orc raids. The army is shredded with the party being survivors all running in the same direction.
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See, not real happy with these yet. I'd be grateful for others to add their wisdom to this.
Of the horrible introductions, there have been some not-so-horrible variations...
Like a rich patron collecting an odd-job group of young adventurers to deal with all kinds of pesky problems, mostly based on recommendations from her old adventuring buddies. There were couple of nice scenes in beginning, like the old Mother Superior (think Prof. McGonagall from Harry Potter movies) calling a young cleric for a little discussion about the future, where all kinds of offhand mentions about major undead-bashing in the past was mentioned...the interesting variation was indeed that the characters as a rule didn't know each other beforehand, and they were played like that...
There was also a circus troupe whose leader had just died and they were a bit bereft (the character creation recommended obscure races to make characters feel more like oddball freakshow...I think there was a gnome in the group, as the only core race), meeting a paladin who had just received a vision from her god to take this group and form them into valiant Force For Good (when in doubt, divine messages work as fine motivation patches). Also here there were interesting group dynamics, the paladin was not that happy about the odd group her god had decided to impose on her, and the group's motivation to stick together and follow the paladin, varying from total "I feel so lonely if nobody tells me what to do" co-dependency to sarcastic "well, I don't have anything better to do...for now" attitude, also brought nice friction...
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Cool thread. Your example sounds a little like the background of the old module C2 (Ghost Tower of Inverness). Some preliminary thoughts:
1) The party is family. Siblings, cousins. (This works better if the party is mostly the same race. It'd still be posible to explain the single dwarf in the party -- adoption, reincarnation, something nobody talks about-- but that weakens the concept.)
2) The party comprises the children of an old, legendary adventuring party that vanished a couple years ago exploring a tomb out in the Bright Desert.
3) The party begins as young friends in the mundane world, and after a strange roller coaster ride...
4) Several villages send a representative --the best candidate drawn from each year's apprentices-- to form an adventuring party. In previous years, each member of the party would wear a cloissone pin of the arms of the town he or she would represent. (In a city-based adventure, different boroughs or political factions could take the place of towns.)
5) The PC's were the cohorts recruited by a powerful, charismatic ranger, who'd had many successful adventures. An equally powerful vampire dominated the party members turned them on their mentor, who managed to escape. The ranger is still out there, thinking that they betrayed her. The vampire is still out there, too.
I once had a party form when they all found themselves in jail in the beginning. One major jailbreak later by one of the other inmates led to a major jailbreak that included the PCs-who didn't know why they'd been arrested-skipping out of the place. They stopped to compare notes and decided to try to figure out why they'd been arrested and concluded that there was strength in numbers. Fun stuff.
On another occasion, I brought all of the PCs through town on the same day for different reasons. But they all wanted to visit a particular wizard. Said wizard's tower blew up before any arrived and they all wanted to know why. Not as much fun as the jailbreak, but interesting nonetheless as they compared notes on why they were there and investigated who would have blown up the tower. Never got to go too far with that one, though.
In my current campaign, everyone was seeking information from a "fortuneteller". She called them all together and demanded a service for them all for their respective bits of background stuff. From there, they just kind of became colleagues, if not friends.
How about starting the players off as slaves who have to trick their way into freedom? Their master dies suddenly and when the relatives come to settle the estate the PCs pose as free servants just long enough to grab some gear and make an escape.
Our group started off as slaves once. We were being moved to a new mine to work when our slave drive's caravan got attacked by thieves/bandits. I the fight we banded together to free ourselves, snatch some dead people's weapons, and run like hell. Which led to us all bonding having to depend on one another etc. etc.
Fizz
These are some great ideas so far. Definitely bookmarking this thread.
Here's mine, and maybe I can get some input on how to improve it (or if it needs improving).
The PCs in my current game were involved in taking out one of the vampires in an undead army. This freed several civilians and non-evil warriors from the vampire's domination.
My next campaign (with the same players) is going to start with "Roll initiative!" and they will be playing some of the warriors who just became undominated. We'll be starting mid battle: they'll have hit points taken off already and spells used. Their memories of the time (years) dominated is blurry and will be played through flashbacks later on. But right now, they're injured and their finally free, and the other NPCs that just got undominated make a run for it, encouraging the PCs to do the same. We're starting at 4th level, so the flashbacks will be at about 2nd level or something. Good thing about starting at 4th is that they can actually take on some of the undead that they'll be fleeing from, and it implies they've had previous experience. My explanation for why they're only 4th after adventuring for years, is that they don't gain experience very well when being dominated, and they've forgotten most of their memories from that time anyway.
They'll all have good reason to want to find the head vampire (the one that controlled/created their dominating vampire) and kill him and/or negotiate with him, but that's the only bond I've really got for them. It's good, and I think that if anyone went through a situation like this, they'd probably want to stick together, but I'd like to add a bit of a stronger bond, seeing as all/most of the party will be neutral, several chaotic neutral. I thought of vampire having bound them with a curse, so if they move too far away from each other, they get sick and die (geas/quest) so that the vampire's minions/information wouldn't fall into the wrong hands, but I don't know if I like that too much.
Any ideas on how to make this concept a stronger one, and how to make them want to stay together, other than "we're all after the same guy"? My main problem with this is that not all of the game will be directed towards hunting down the head vampire, so I've gotta have a reason for them to stick together during those times.
Party-forming methods usually break down into three variants:
1) Chance Met--the party members meet by chance, either because of a single event (all PCs meet each other at the same time) or a series of events (the PCs meet each other one on one separately or slowly gather as the events play out). This allows a wide range of characters as the backgrounds are only restricted by the need to be in a certain location at a certain time. The drawback is that party cohesiveness and trust are harder to build.
2) Family/Friends--the party members are related and/or grew up together. This puts the relationships between characters as backstory and can limit the amount of distrust that can occur. The downside is that the players and DM have to work out the relationships before playing and the range of characters is limited by the community/social background.
3) Patron--a patron (church, noble, wizard, etc.) gathers the party members together to accomplish specific tasks. This allows a wider selection of characters than Family/Friends and provides a simple motive to work together (which can be an issue with Chance Met). The drawbacks are that the PCs must be willing to work for the patron and this method can feel heavy-handed.
There's nothing preventing a DM from combining the variants: Two of the PCs could be related, one recruited by a patron, and one met by chance. Using multiple variants can make a more "organic" feeling plot.
Family is indeed a bit limiting but can be useful too...that's how we justified the "evil gnomes" PC group (which lasted only for couple of sessions, but anyway...all the characters were evil gnomes). Especially useful in those all-evil campaigns where matters of trust are a problem.
We also did a variation of that "representatives of each village" in Vampire WoD campaign, where representatives of different clans were put together to perform a mission...of course it was bit odd to notice that all the other clans had sent expendable freaks and oddballs, what does it say about my status in my clan?
"Charmed by a vampire" sounds like an interesting idea, maybe I'll use it in some form later...
Mostly we still rely on "I have a friend who has a friend" style, chance meeting or combinations of the two.
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I started a campaign with each PC at 3rd level stepping onto a set of magical tiles some dusty homeland dungeon and re-appearing dressed from head to foot in white in a Ravenloft pocket.
One by one they appeared and had to deal with the horrors they found. As they descended the areas got bigger and someone worked out it was a pyramid belonging to a demilich. He was away temporarily.
The party freed a mad person who spouted all kind of poetry as he fled.
He went all the back to the top and escaped via the tiles chased by the PC's. Unfortunately they lost him and were attacked.
Finally the demilich re-appeared saved the party and told him that the mad person was destined to fill their world with chaos and it was now up to them to stop him. He had trapped the mad one and they had set him free.
Back to the tiles, back to their world with just a mad poem to help.
That was the start for a campaign spanning the world.
An Order of Knights
Squireship in the Order requires the following:
A) Lawful alignment preferred, Chaotics are banned.
B) Ultimately, proficiency in Heavy armor is required by all, although at 1st level being proficient in only light armor would be acceptable (they can learn about *real* armor later).
C) Strict adherence to a code of honor!
Benefits of being part of the Knighthood include:
A) Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Kn: Nobility & Royal and Ride become class skills at 1st level.
B) Gain Mounted Combat at 1st level as a bonus feat.
C) Gain Skill Focus: Ride at 5th level as a bonus feat.
D) Gain an Animal Companion (Warhorse - no other option allowed) at 4th lvl for free, which progresses as a Ranger's AC (if a PC had 4 lvls of Ranger, then he'd either get a different animal in addition to his warhorse, or his warhorse'd get to progress at the Druid's rate).
The Goal is play a "Knights of the Round Table" campaign wherein *everyone* is a knight, wears full plate, can fight with sword & lance, and rides a powerful steed.
FAQ
"But whatta 'bout that don't wanna participate in *any* concept?"
Answer 1 (preferred): Tell 'em to go screw up some other GM's games.
Answer 2 (sometime's necessary): They get nothing. Participants are rewarded, all others simply aren't penalized.
;^)
In the last campaign I had quite a few characters die and I wanted to quickly plug my new characters in so the party could move on. So twice in one campaign my characters died and then the party found two more replacements at the nearest inn.
After the TPK we are still keeping the quest (destroy an evil minor atifact) but with new characters and different reasons for wanting it destroyed.
The party meets by one team (two members) of the party hunting down the other two, beating the crap out of them, and taking the book. Then my characters show up just in time to stop them from handing over the book to the disguised forces of evil and we end up working together to defeat the shapechanged teiflings. After the fight neither team was willing to give up their quest to destroy the book. So the only choice is to work together, lots of friction and hatred flowing around.
A variant on the knightly order or worthy patron ideas--special military unit. In my game my pcs are just that--a special sort of squad assigned to a military headquarters during a war. At first they were just assembled as part of the militia (with the patrician one as the appointed leader) but gradually formed the elite group most adventurers end up being and so have a special status.
I started a campaign with the PCs being dragged out of the Styx while on Pandemonium, surrounded by corpses and with the howling wind leaving them effectively deafened and disoriented.
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- Each character inherits a share in a defunct mercantile company. The company is merely a storehouse and some rickety wagons, but it possesses a hidden collection of amazing maps and bizarre items that promise riches and adventure.
- Each character is the champion/servant/child of powerful lords bound by a "curse of cooperation". They are loathe to be in each others' presence, but a mutual threat causes them to send the pcs as representatives.
- The characters, among some npcs, are the survivors of a shipwreck. They are rescued and nursed by a friendly township, but things go awry when the survivors are marked for murder by an ancient cult. Were they supposed to die in the shipwreck?
- The characters are all participants in a gambling tournament at an inn famous for its games. They each make it to the high table, where a unique deck of cards binds their fates together. The goddess of luck has chosen her champions.
- Each character has at one time received healing and surgery at a temple that is revealed to be a den of infamous necromancers. The necromancers are put to death by the crown, but it’s discovered that the characters were all recipients of organs that came from the same man: the master necromancer.
An Order of Knights
Squireship in the Order requires the following:
A) Lawful alignment preferred, Chaotics are banned.
B) Ultimately, proficiency in Heavy armor is required by all, although at 1st level being proficient in only light armor would be acceptable (they can learn about *real* armor later).
C) Strict adherence to a code of honor!Benefits of being part of the Knighthood include:
A) Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Kn: Nobility & Royal and Ride become class skills at 1st level.
B) Gain Mounted Combat at 1st level as a bonus feat.
C) Gain Skill Focus: Ride at 5th level as a bonus feat.
D) Gain an Animal Companion (Warhorse - no other option allowed) at 4th lvl for free, which progresses as a Ranger's AC (if a PC had 4 lvls of Ranger, then he'd either get a different animal in addition to his warhorse, or his warhorse'd get to progress at the Druid's rate).The Goal is play a "Knights of the Round Table" campaign wherein *everyone* is a knight, wears full plate, can fight with sword & lance, and rides a powerful steed.
FAQ
"But whatta 'bout that don't wanna participate in *any* concept?"
Answer 1 (preferred): Tell 'em to go screw up some other GM's games.
Answer 2 (sometime's necessary): They get nothing. Participants are rewarded, all others simply aren't penalized.
;^)
So after months of badgering me (the DM) and the rest of the group, Forever Man has his wish. I'm going to be running a group of knights through Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords. Merry Christmas Dude, and stay out of any spoiler marked pathfinder threads! >:0
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1) The party is family. Siblings, cousins.
This makes it easy to introduce new characters if someone dies ... another family member. And now this one is look for revenge, or maybe wants to show she can succeed where big brother failed.
Any ideas on how to make this concept a stronger one, and how to make them want to stay together, other than "we're all after the same guy"? My main problem with this is that not all of the game will be directed towards hunting down the head vampire, so I've gotta have a reason for them to stick together during those times.
I'm not sure if this works for 4th level, but you could have them wake from domination to find a higher level character who just killed the head vampire. He/she and the PCs still have to fight minions on the way out. NPC leads but then dies, leaving the PCs to fend for themselves. Once they get out, they find themselves in unknown country, far from home. Might as well stick togehter.
Each character inherits a share in a defunct mercantile company. The company is merely a storehouse and some rickety wagons, but it possesses a hidden collection of amazing maps and bizarre items that promise riches and adventure.
Kinda like this plus the patron ideas, I once had character all working for the same shipping company. The company sometimes needed security, sometime investigations of lost shipments or strange discoveries, sometimes a little espionage. Gave me an excuse to send PCs on missions. And again, it made replacement characters or flipping between two characters for different adventures easy.
Finally, has anyone ever pulled of amnesia, or is that just too cliché? I vaguely remember a short lived Robert Urich show where he woke up in an open coffin in an unmarked grave the day before burial.. The rest of the show was about his trying to figure out who he was. PCs could wake up in a room or a lab or something and find a bunch of equipment in a locker but not know what is whose. Maybe they wouldn't even know what class they were. Players might give the DM a bunch of preferences and let the DM surprise them ("I either want to be a cleric or a rogue"). Would certainly allow the DM to weave their backstories into the plot, but players would have to be willing to trust the DM.
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All of the PC's are in a quiet little town, each with their own personal reason for being there. A festival of sorts is happening the other day...perhaps the dedication of a new temple or something.
During this festival, there is some sort of organized attack of some sort...maybe by goblins. Crazy goblins. Most townsfolk are fleeing the attack, but the heroes are likely gutting goblins along the way. It is only natural they begin to gravitate towards each other.
When the attack is done, they'll likely be viewed as heroes, and asked as a group by the townsfolk to do something else. Groupage forced upon them by circumstance.
;P
A DM in my group has used "Everyone has amnesia!" three times for three different campaigns. (worked every time). Same DM began a campaign by telling us we were part of an army at the final battle of Good v. Evil, and Good lost. We were wounded and underequipped on the battlefield the morning after.
I recently began a campaign by having a town meeting to discuss the kidnapping of four girls and the murder of two town guardsmen. One PC was part of the guard. Another was already tracking slavers. The others were family of each of the missing girls.
I really liked the old West End d6 Star Wars method of making each player decide how he/she knew another PC. DMs got a circle of friends, who could be family, army buddies, coworkers, or former prison cellmates.
I have never run a group who "met in a tavern", bit I have played in those groups. The quality of roleplaying is lessened, and I felt less "invested" in those characters.
Along these lines I once started as a player on the basis that our base was under attack, we were good aligned, I didn't have any information other than the boss was away. We pretty quickly worked out that we were fighting for the bad guys - game was fun but died the usual death of people leaving. It was interesting after we escaped the base being hunted by good and bad, if you have no friends you gotta stick together.
I like to start my characters not knowing anything about the others and in an action scene. For example...
There is an underground pit fight taking place. One PC is a fighter in the pit, one is a spectator betting on the fight, one is a bodyguard of the guys running the fight (who happens to be the leader of the local church, heh), one PC is a hired "deputy" who is about to raid the illegal pit fight. Then once the raid takes place I divulge some other element into the scenerio that allows the PCs to act together without it being too contrived, since they started as unrelated individuals.
Goo
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I've never enjoyed coming up with reasons forthe party to be together, so I generally run groups with a couple of levels under their belts.
I tell them "You've been together for a while now. You've done X, killed the Y of Z and even made some gold doing AA."
I make them write character backgrounds, and encourage them to link their characters.
In other words, I justavoid the whole thing, or make the group come up with their own reason for being together. It works better in groups that like to get into their characters' backgrounds than it does with players who just want to "hit stuff."
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How about putting the PCs in jail on trumped up charges and sentence them to death. Then stage a fake execution, so that to the rest of the world the PCs are dead. Then offer the PCs the choice of either: serving the government or whatever patron; or having the sentence carried out for real this time.
The quality of roleplaying is lessened, and I felt less "invested" in those characters.
Truth.
One of my favorite party forming schticks is to have one of the PCs himself be the patron.
I saw this once in Necro's "The Wizard's Amulet" and I was inspired. While it still has the reek of 'you meet in a tavern', it's very self-determining and pretty engaging.
In effect, you give one of the PCs the hook for the adventure and let him hire on the others.
Another opening scene I've been waiting for a chance to use is based on the "everyone's in jail" scenario. In this case, though, everyone's waking up in jail after a wedding got particularly rowdy. The PCs can be from either side of the family; the young, disgraced priest; even the bride or groom. This, I think, would guarantee some inter-party roleplay.
The adventure hook would be a cross between Aladin, Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Mad, Mad World where the PCs are sharing a jail cell with an old crank with a map or clues or something to an old treasure and the group agrees to work together to get it.
I'd like to start assembling a good list of unusual or more creative reasons/stories/ideas for groups to form in the first place.
It could be a short scene designed to bring the group together, or it could just be a situation that is assumed when characters are created that is different.
One Desert of Desolation campaign was exactly like this the dm ignored the fact that not only was one player running a Zhentarim assassin but I in particular was running a Dervish Paladin needless to say when the assassin coerced my character to touch the gem of law things hit the proverbial fan...
Ideas for the start of a campaign;
1) You're survivors of an airship/ship/lightning rail crash shortly after the destruction of Cyre, forced to trek to the nearest point of safety you have forged as a group to survive your predicament however once you've reached safety you find your only means of survival require that you continue as a group until you've earned enough to retire from adventuring and rebuild your lives in your new homeland/city/town, etc...
Sorry will add more later
My group (consisting of an elf paladin, an elf wizard, a tibbit rogue, and a kobold necromancer)met when we were all driven into a crypt on a stormy night. We named our group, 'The Company of the Crypt'. We're still playing in it.
I just avoid the whole thing, or make the group come up with their own reason for being together. It works better in groups that like to get into their characters' backgrounds than it does with players who just want to "hit stuff."
Players who just want to "hit stuff" rarely need creative ideas for forming a party (or their characters' backgrounds), so Chance Met works fine.
How about putting the PCs in jail on trumped up charges and sentence them to death. Then stage a fake execution, so that to the rest of the world the PCs are dead. Then offer the PCs the choice of either: serving the government or whatever patron; or having the sentence carried out for real this time.
Yeah! One of them can be the illegitimate son of recently deceased noble, too. And they're secretly being formed into a unit of "mercenaries" to infiltrate a distant land. While there, they uncover a plot to invade their homeland as a ploy to gain access to a powerful magic item hidden long ago for the safety of the world.
I've seen this plot somewhere, before...
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I had an idea that answers two questions, 1.) how the party gets together and 2.) why there would be such a thing as a 20th level commoner.
The characters are all orphans, raised on a farm not far from a large port town. They are all cast-offs, the children of sailors lost at sea, prostitutes, or the indigent who sold them off in order to afford food.
They were all collected as infants and taken to Flotsam Vale, where a very old elf (commoner 20) cared for them and raised them.
The elf is very well known throughout the region and is connected with many powerful and important individuals. Such persons have often stopped in and visited for extended periods of time, oftentime leaving one or more of the youngsters wide-eyed with tales of magic and adventure.
The party members have all come of age, relative to their respective races. They all have the same idea - time to leave the nest and find adventure for themselves.
Survival
Force the party together. They all start with a chance meeting on a trip carriage or boat. Then calamity strikes. The boat crashes and they are on a strange and hostile coast. The caravan is attacked they are the lone survivors. A great storm, monsters, accident, etc all good ways to abandon them together.
Shared goal (greed, mercy, revenge, etc)
"Well holy smokes your dad was killed by Blackbeard too?"
"Yes the disease has affected my village as well."
"I know I can't carry all that gold alone."
Friendship/bond
"I'm in this to the end."
"I swore to your parents that I'd keep you safe."
Orders
"My goddess has told me to do this so I must."
"Pa said ta help you city folk get rid of dem weer-wolves."
Breaks down to:
Because I must do it.
Because I want to do it.
Because I need to do it.
Because I was told to do it.
Just my brief thoughts on the subject.
An interesting hook that one DM started us off with, but ultimately never got to play due to real-life issues was a Suicide Squad idea, with a party of criminals and I think one or two monstrous humanoids being coerced into a do-or-die mission. I don't know what kind of coersion he was planning...but I for one was really jazzed about unleashing my paladin of tyranny upon the world.
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Here's a try, however, I'm not feeling extremely creative this early in the morning:
Scene: The PCs are all attending a mandantory probation meeting with the judge and the chief constable after being released from a week in jail. The judge is being difficult, preaching at the group. The chief tells a story about how he turned his life around by turning his natural tendency to want to pick fights and bully into law enforcement. This bridges for the party to start a similar discussion and form an adventuring group.
Situation: Conscription--a recruiter for the King's army blitzes into town, carrying off every able bodied man to defend against the yearly orc raids. The army is shredded with the party being survivors all running in the same direction.
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I used this more or less exact scenario to put together one of my ealriest 3.0 campaigns, with a secret tie-in to one of my 2E campaigns (the Wolf was actually a 2E PC reprised by the original player). I wrote a little vingette to dramatize it:
It actually seemed to work pretty well as a reason to give a group of strangers a reason to work together.
Another scenario came from the old 2E Under Illefarn module where the party starts out as members of the Daggerford militia. This turned into one of the best and most fun campaigns I ever ran and contributed to a fair amount of background campaign material in my world. When the old players get together we still talk about it. Some of the best moments came about about through errors and mistaken assumptions the PCs made during the course of their duties. And then there was the incident involving the weasel familiar and the dragon's hoard. One the best sessions revolved around the case of mistaken identity when the players assumed that a bit of wallpaper/fluff I threw out about a rash of pick-pocketings was the actual adventure I had planned and led the PCs to accuse and extremely honest an honorable man of another's crime. Come to think of it, the weasel was responsible for that fiasco as well. The wizard screaming "'Oops'? What do you mean 'oops'!" while preparing to throttle her familiar was something we'll always remember fondly. Under Illefarn came with a number of small-scoped little mini-adventures which eventually led to the main adventure. But the best material came from the "efforts" of the players and the PCs themselves. You just can't script that stuff.
Another scenario somewhat related to the mistaken identity and jail-break mentioned above: the group managed to get themselves banished by the government of the region they were working in. Here's the warrant put out for them:
W A N T E D
The Peacemakers
for High Crimes and Low
Be it knowne . . .
By Command of Gilfhaan VIII, Prince of Lhendhowar, Lord Protector of Povero, the Adventuring Company known as the Peacemakers is hereby abolished and its rolls dissolved. Let no one claim membership nor affiliation with the Peacemakers upon pain of Death. All properties, chattel, and titles heretofore accrued or granted unto the Peacmakers, singly or collectively, hereby revert to the Crown and Lawful Prince of Lhendhowar, to be dispensed with, disposed of, or confered by Our Will. Let no one give them shield, nor solace, nor sacrament, nor aid them in any fashion, lest Our Mercy so forsake the benefactor, be he Highborn or Low.
It is clearly known unto Us that Thian Ashiant, Kallyn Arris Renmoor, Arrinia Findarion, Dareth Vhol'qui-aar, and Kimimilaos, sometime recognized by Us as the Adventuring Company The Peacemakers, and so reputed and accounted for as rightful and dutiful members of Our Fellowship, have fearfully fallen from Our Grace by commission of cruel and willful murder, kidnapping, and heinous crimes of magic, which crimes by the law of Lhendhowar deserve death.
And therefore, in the name and authority of the eternal Aldarine, and of Gilfhaan, Prince of Lhendhowar, Lord Protector of Povero, We pronounce the said Peacemakers to be excommunicate and accursed and outlawed in this their wicked fact; and charge all that favour Justice so to repute and hold them singly or together until such time as that either Our magistrate has punished the offender as the Prince's Law commands, or that the same offender is reconciled to Us again by public Repentance and due Punishment.
And in the meantime, We earnestly desire all the faithful vassals to call upon the Gods to move the hearts of the upper powers so to punish such horrible crimes, that malefactors may fear to offend, even for fear of punishment; and also so to touch the heart of the offenders, that they may deeply consider how fearful it is to fall into the hands of eternal Justice, that by unfeigned repentance they may apprehend mercy, and so avoid eternal damnation.
By Our hand, in this the year 462 of the Tenth Age, being the Year of the Chalice,
Gilfhaan VIII, Lord of Hasstin, Prince of Lhendhowar, Lord Protector of Povero
Something like this will either get a group to work together or fall on each other, depending on personalities.
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I played in a starting as slaves game... it was pretty awesome.
I once had the PC's start out as getting notices to appear at a baron's keep for a notice of inheritance. They were all bastard children of the baron and got to meet that way. There was some drama at the keep and they got involved in on form or another and ended up working together in the end.
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I have used three starters that I like so far, and I rally like a lot of these... keep them coming.
1) The PCs are former military, released from duty. They were recruited from the same region, and thus entered service at the same time, therefore released together. They start with the bond that they have travelled a short time together on their way back home.
2) The PCs were hired to guard a caravan. They don't know each other until game starts and the relationships build from there.
3) A military game, had surrounding nations and races contribute elite soldiers (the PCs) for a special combined force to deal with a special problem. In my game, the orc nation had managed to obtain enough dwarven and elven arms and armor to outfit their army. WIth superior gear they presented a problem. There were obstacles built into the scenario, such that the races did not trust each other fully in the beginning, each ultimately worked for a different military power, etc. relationships had to build and trust had to be earned.
Not great or brilliant, I know, but they worked well enough.
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My group (consisting of an elf paladin, an elf wizard, a tibbit rogue, and a kobold necromancer)met when we were all driven into a crypt on a stormy night. We named our group, 'The Company of the Crypt'. We're still playing in it.
That's from one of those free adventures on the WotC website - that's WotC's best resource...
I like the posse option a lot. It's a positive reason for strangers adventuring together.
My group (consisting of an elf paladin, an elf wizard, a tibbit rogue, and a kobold necromancer)met when we were all driven into a crypt on a stormy night. We named our group, 'The Company of the Crypt'. We're still playing in it.That's from one of those free adventures on the WotC website - that's WotC's best resource...
I like the posse option a lot. It's a positive reason for strangers adventuring together.
"A Dark and stormy Knight".
I just started off a new party with that adventure a few days ago, its awesome for pushing them forward and getting them to bond. A noble Knight(human), kleptomaniac Rogue(halfling), silent Druid(half-elf) and a overenthusiastic Ranger(elf). The players are all highly experienced roleplayers(larp) and they all concluded that they wanted to stick together because of what happened that night.
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Wow! There are some really neat ideas here! I'll probably steal one or two of these. *Yoink!*
The campaigns we've started from level 1 had different ways of getting the party together. They seem to revolve around a shared danger=comerades theme. Here's how they've started, to the best of my addled memory:
1) The party members are in a small town. Some are residents, Others (like my half orc BBN) are in town to trade. Enter attack from Murghom raiders. Party has to band together to repel the attack. My half-orc killed a guy with a keg of beer! :)
2) We are all invited to the same fancy party. Some people are guests, others hired help (like the bard). Somebody has drugged the wine and baddies come in to rob the joint and steal some fancy gewgaw on display.
3) Party members are passengers on a ship. The slave crew rebels and the ship runs aground. We have to cooperate to investigate why they rebelled and scrounge supplies from the wild.
4) Party are all in the same tavern (yes, we finally used the cliche), when a crazed ogre bursts in and starts killing people. We take him down are are "deputised" by the local constabulary (who are sponsored by the church of Bane). We're ordered to investigate why he did this and why his head was full of spiders. As if Ogres don't naturally have heads full of spiders and frequently go on madness-fueled killing sprees in downtown Escalant. Silly watchmen!
5) The party members are coming into town to participate in a major religious festival (like Christmas, only with a total eclipse and blood sacrifices). They arrive in two like-minded groups and meet up over dinner at a really bad restaurant. They decide to raid tombs in the Cairn Hills for some quick cash.
There ya go!
The last campaign had a very ...erm... mercenary group of characters, so altruistic adventure hooks did not seem likely to succeed. I used greed instead. Guess what: it worked! :)
At one point we were faced with a dilemma. There was a large group of us who wanted to play, but not everyone was always readily available on game nights. We formed so many parties to suit each possible combination of players present that we started to lose track (and therefore interest).
My solution? What we came to call Random Party. A near-godlike (as far as the PCs could tell) entity from the Far Realms "kidnapped" each character from their home dimension, right as disaster was about to befall them. Basically each PC came from a separate world, and the Far Realms Entity teleported them to its own location.
What resulted was a planes-hopping series of "missions" that the Entity forced the PCs into, recovering a strange series of artifacts to apparently free this THING from its extradimensional prison. Each PC was supposedly selected for his or her unique abilities, so not every PC would be required for every mission. Viola! Players could come and go at will!
Another good thing was that each mission could have a different theme, and if any player came up with a cool idea, they could DM a particular session. And with no alignments or classes restricted, there was some PRETTY interesting character interaction going on!
We all had a great time, and it kept the game fresh because we got to experience so many DM styles: the psychological horror DM, the combat-heavy DM, the roleplaying DM, etc. One day I hope to start it up again with a new group of players.
Contrived? Very. Heavy-handed? Sure, especially considering some of the PCs didn't even like each other, but were forced to work together to have any chance of going home.
But crazy fun? You betcha!
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Prophecy pulls them together.
A) A wise woman foresees a group of unrelated people within a days journey of her village-in-peril who will have disparate skills needed to confront the unseen menace that threatens them all. Volunteers from the community scatter to locate these people, having only crude sketches and hazy descriptions. They must convince the soon-to-be PCs to come save their village!
"But please, Mr. Stoutbeard, everyone says your the bestest axe-thrower that ever throwed an axe, and my mother is sick and my dad says he'll beat me if I don't return with you, and did I mention that our village makes the best curried fire-apple honey-mead in six counties, and that you'd get free drinks for life?"
"Yes, Mr. Ranger-whose-Favored-Enemy-is-Orcs, it's Orcs who done for my pa. Dozens of 'em! All, uh, big, and, uh, orc-like, with orc-weapons and orc-armor and uh, other orc-stuff. Orcs! I seen 'em myself, all black skin..." "Orcs have green skin." "Yeah, it was dark, maybe they was dark green, and, in black armor! And we had dogs, like your dog there, and they killed them all! Mean dog-killin' orcs!"
B) An evil priest, in the midst of an evil plot, gets an evil warning from his evil god that 'only those pesky adventurers and their dumb animal companion can stop you now!' He sends out his minions to locate these pesky adventurers, only to find that they have not yet met, allowing him the chance to pick them off one by one! In the process, his henchmen end up driving them right into each others arms, and the assassination attempt fails, his minions having done the unthinkable, and united these once seperate potential threats into a very real and very angry (since their attacks stole stuff that the adventurers wanted, burned down their favorite inn, killed aunt Millicent, did 1 hp of damage to their familiar / special mount / animal companion, etc.) adventuring party, gunning for their master...
I'm going to be running the Expedition to Undermountain adventure soon, and I had what I thought was a neat idea. My roommate is going to be playing the rogue of the party. Since he is by far the most experienced of all the people who will be playing, his character is going to be....interesting....
His rogue has already BEEN in undermountain, once, and he was the only survivor. He blindly and accidentally found his way out! He knows how lucky he is to still be breathing, and he has horror stories about what happened to his former party. The experience kind of drove him a little crazy.
Crazy enough to go back IN.
He is actually recruiting experienced adventurers to go back to undermountain. His character will be meeting at a tavern to conduct interviews with the other PCs, and we will roleplay each interview. His character is extremely paranoid and frightened, and he has some very funny questions to ask! Should start things off with a nice bit of flavor.
My latest online campaign began with the "friends and family" theme, with the tragedy twist thrown in. In the first module, while they were away visiting another prominent winemaking/vineyards family, I had the entire family of the players wiped out.
The game then becomes a set of mysteries and conspiracies as the players find out that their family was not just involved in the wine-making business, but something much more sinister. Combining conspiracy ideas/hidden family purpose from DaVinci Code, plot tactics from TV shows such as Heroes and Lost, and high level intrigue from books such as Dune and Grass (by Tepper), the adventurers move from one discovery to the next.
When I'd asked them what type game they wanted this time around, conspiracy/mystery/secret societies was the answer they gave me. I'd never done that type game on the long term before.
So far, they seem to like it.
I like the prophesy and fortune-teller starter ideas above. I've started planning my next game using these ideas.
I'm thinking of combining the two. A fortune-teller discovers through actual talent that the forming of this group has a history in prophesy. That creates a great mystery. Why this group? What are they destined to do? Can they change this destiny? What other forces are at play?