Let's say I'm starting a new game. What's the best way to get all PCs together? How do you do to get your PCs together BEFORE they start adventuring?
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I've had a huge success with having the players start their characters as 8 year olds and have a few (0-level) encounters together as they grow up.
Its worked particularly well for Rise of the Runelords, where I had the, grow up in the sandpoint orphanage (whoch for plot reasons makes sense) but it would work well in pretty much any rpg setting.
The only disadvantage is that players cant sketch out their entire childhood, but if you tell players in advance you're plannong to do this its not a problem...plus they can still get to decide who their parents were (great for later subplots about being the lost heir to the barony, long lost brothers, the full inigo montoya, etc,etc...)
Just don't have them all meet conveniently at a tavern. That has been done to death.
I'm a fan of having a shadowy third party hire them for a job (that either goes wrong, or is a set-up to the over arching plot). In settings with more interventional and active deities, I've had them led to meet by signs and prophecy. I've also had good luck with the common problem approach, where you give them a common enemy and let them bond by opposing it.
I'm a fan of having a shadowy third party hire them for a job (that either goes wrong, or is a set-up to the over arching plot).
Including the Pathfinder Society (the in-story organization, or any other generic "Adventurer's Guild") is a great way of doing this quickly and easily, especially if one or two players might have reservations about taking random jobs from shady people.
I like to have the players meet somewhere remote, or in the wilderness, and let then something happen where the players benefit from working together to get through it. It has to be something appropriate for the characters and classes involved, but it worked really well so far for me.
Years ago I ran a short PF game for two friends. They were hired as caravan guards and we jumped right into the middle of freaking nowhere, where I let them roleplay their characters a bit. Then an avalanche hit the caravan, with only the PCs and one NPCs as survivors. They were all wounded, had no gear, and no clue of their location (spending time bickering with the other NPC guards instead of paying attention). It worked great, because they came up with good ideas resulting in several MacGyver montages, and when they hit the next city they had become a team.
Another time I had the players arrive one by one at a small galloper's station in the middle of nowhere, each with their own reasons for being there. They camped at the stables, and due to a nightly attack from satyrs and the rogue watching a special delivery box being brought to the galloper's office (and, of course, stealing it) they got involved in the plot, but every character assumed something different going on. The confusion later down the road was pretty hilarious.
Two of my favorites:
1) Heroes start in prison. They manage to escape when some calamity distracts the guards and bond under the common cause of being unjustly imprisoned (which I made sure each had a story as to why they were there) and after that, well, it was time to topple the evil regime :)
2) The PCs all met when a notable mage's tower collapsed spontaneously. Several knew the wizard, all were nearby when it happened. No one seemed too intent on investigating it officially, but when monsters emerged from the rubble....
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In a recent campaign, all of the characters had been petrified at various times and places in the past. Their 'statues', among others, had been collected by a wizard who liked collecting petrified things. Then there was a magical mishap, and they were all un-petrified at the same time.
I really liked the background feats from 'Curse of the Crimson Throne', where all of the PCs have a grudge against a local crime boss and team up to take him out.
Of course, talking with your players is always good, and finding out if they have some way they'd like to know one another, if they want you to take the lead, or what. The FATE rpg has as a part of character generation a section where you write a brief, vague story from your past, and then two more sections where two other players include themselves in that story in some way, so everybody all has some reason for knowing everyone else.
In a recent campaign, all of the characters had been petrified at various times and places in the past. Their 'statues', among others, had been collected by a wizard who liked collecting petrified things. Then there was a magical mishap, and they were all un-petrified at the same time.
This is so yoink'ed, awesome idea.
+1 to having the players figure it out. If they're stuck for ideas, there's a table in UC for inspiration or random pick.
I'm planning for my next game to hold the pc's traits hostage for this, one trait per connection with another pc that's a viable reason to trust and adventure with them. (Or instead one appropriate bonus trait for at least two of said connections)
In the past, once i had one player recruit the others, char-gen restriction that they all had to be willing to adventure for fun and profit; similar to the creepy tavern employer, but with more player agency..
In the future, i plan a sequel to an old campaign, where all the PCs are descendants of one or more of the original party, dealing with the fallout of some of that game's loose plot threads.. i've seen similar games where all the characters are related to eachother..
Once we had a list of pc connections, and a list of dark secrets, each player randomly drew one of each to incorporate into their character..
Dresden Files RPG has a neat system i'm itching to use.. each player writes a short description of a story worthy event of their character's past, then passes it to the left, where the next player adds the short description of such an event that involved both of their characters, so each pc has a history with each other pc which they can riff on..
I ran a werewolf game once inspired by SK's It, where i dumped them into the action telling them they were childhood friends that hadn't seen eachother for 20 years, then slowly filled in the blanks with flashback scenes..
Have two of them be brothers and just released from prison.
Have them make a trip to see the Penguin, the Inquisitor that took care of them, and others, when they were all orphan children.
Trust me, it'll all flow smoothly from there.
But what happens if the two players don't want to be named Jake and Elwood?
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For the most part, I think it's better to have the party decide (though with the stipulation that they must be reasonably trusting of one another by the end of the session, even if it means some degree of metagaming)
Though one thing I've wanted to try out, but never gotten the nerve to, just because I know how it could go badly, if I'm not careful is this: The party are all dead. They are also all Evil. But being that the evil afterlife planes generally suck, they all jump at the opportunity to be returned to the mortal world, when the god of death offers them the opportunity. The reason for why they're brough back is generally some large universe threatening event, but beyond that it doesn't really matter too much. The big thing that matters is that, even though they're evil (at least starting out) they a) want to be good (since they know how much the evil afterlife sucks), and b) want to work together, since if they don't, it's back to Abaddon (or wherever) for them.
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I usually run a very short 0-level adventure that helps flesh out the character personalities (there is no fighting really since they are children usually) and set the tone for the specific campaign. So far the best results came in Sandpoint (for RotRL) and Rogarvia (Kingmaker). If you can pull it off and get your players to try it, it really adds a lot of depth to the early game in longer campaigns.
Some good answers in this thread so far.
The Big Job is the most efficient means of getting everyone together, i.e., "The Arch-Mage summons you all to his tower to take on a mission of the utmost importance!" It gives everyone a common goal, and a sense of worldly importance to what they're doing.
For the most part, I think it's better to have the party decide (though with the stipulation that they must be reasonably trusting of one another by the end of the session, even if it means some degree of metagaming)
Though one thing I've wanted to try out, but never gotten the nerve to, just because I know how it could go badly, if I'm not careful is this: The party are all dead. They are also all Evil. But being that the evil afterlife planes generally suck, they all jump at the opportunity to be returned to the mortal world, when the god of death offers them the opportunity. The reason for why they're brough back is generally some large universe threatening event, but beyond that it doesn't really matter too much. The big thing that matters is that, even though they're evil (at least starting out) they a) want to be good (since they know how much the evil afterlife sucks), and b) want to work together, since if they don't, it's back to Abaddon (or wherever) for them.
Never tried this one before... sounds intriguing.
One I used once was starting the party in the middle of a running battle.
The players were informed they were hired to escort refugees out of a war zone and to safety. (I then started them with 1/2 supplies, and damaged gear). They loved it.
My current campaign is starting all the pcs in the same settlement, where they grew up.
And I stole a idea from the dungeon world game.
Each player will have to make 3 bonds with up to 3 other characters (total of 3 bonds) and describe how they are connected and why.
so sense of community and personal bonds...that and meeting in a tavern . :)
Best into I've ever run (according to my players) was where they were strangers trapped in a ramshackle wilderness inn by a horrendous storm lasting days. The inn was filled with colorful characters that allowed some role play and character investment. On the 6th night the inn collapsed into a sinkhole that opened up into a series of caves, tree roots, animal dens and burial tombs with natural obstacles to overcome.
The challenge became trying to get as many NPCs out alive as possible, with the players (not characters) aware that every NPC would offer a campaign hook or boon if they survived.
The players loved it, and became really invested in the campaign NPCs, who went their separate ways to turn up at various stages later.
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We were all members of the same family in our Carrion Crown campaign. Siblings, cousins, and such.
Kingmaker campaign started with a core group of relatives and friends.
Anything that can build up group buy-in is well worth considering, whether it's a shared past in the background or things like Curse of the Crimson Throne's campaign traits that put them on track for a common cause.
Shanghaied by the Same Pirate Crew
sold to the same slavemaster when something leads to the slavemaster's accidental demise
family and friends from nearby areas
hired by the same patron
liberated from the same prison
soldiers for the same noble house
I'll take note for each of your suggestions ^_^
My original version of my current campaign had the group be escorting a scholar traveling with a caravan, but I had to nix it when i lost some of my players and ended up assembling a new party of closer friends, and ended up rewriting a lot of my plans to be better. While the party did all meet at an inn (not talking to each other at first, until a hobgoblin attack on the village turned them into flash-fire-forged friends), the nature of the campaign is a sandbox with each character having unique purposes of their own, so the inn meeting at least made sense for the way it goes.
tl;dr All meeting at an inn works if your story is loose and your characters are individuals, just make sure there's SOMETHING that calls them all to act together.
Anyway, the other campaigns I had had a party of assorted fugitives and misfits who'd banded together to live in a world that didn't want them, and a group of specialized individuals who had all been brought together into a government intelligence organization as the new team.