I'm starting up a homebrew campaign soon. Rather than the typical "meet in an inn" scenario or "you answer a want ad for adventurers", I'd like the PC's to have some pre-existing connection with each other, and maybe a humble home village as well.
What are some ways to encourage a closer knit PC party and discourage murder-hoboism? This is with the intention of cutting down on PVP disputes and increasing emotional investment. On the other hand, I'd like to give the players free reign to express themselves; if one player comes to the table with a noble-born Paladin and another with a gutter-rat cutpurse I don't want to shut anyone down. Although I will shut down gunslingers because it's a medieval-tech campaign.
I should mention that I haven't even posted an ad for the group yet.
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I was JUST thinking about this!
My great idea: award an extra trait to any PC who writes a story explaining how they met another one of the PCs. My GM always gives us an extra trait if we write a backstory - I think it would be great if ON TOP OF THAT there was another trait for the inter-connection stories. So everyone gets one trait, a bonus trait for your personal backstory, and a third trait for an inter-PC connection story.
Of course, the connection stories would have to be OKed by both players, so it will give them a lot of chance to cooperate and learn about each other's characters even before the session starts.
That's going to depend on your players. You won't have any of that unless players have value in their characters as something other than bags of stats and tricks.
So then the question becomes, how does one attract the right kind of players?
I don't even mind min-max powergamers, as long as it's understood that they're fighting alongside their brother (or uncle, or roommate, or Sergeant-at-arms) and they're not going to derail.
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First of all, I do not recommend starting a long term campaign with folks you don't know. If the plan is to throw out an ad and take whoever bites, prepare yourself for a possible train wreck. I would try meetups, one shots, and PFS first to try and meet some players.
This will help in a number of ways. First you can meet people and compare play styles before committing to something long term. Secondly, you can gauge the player's interest in your homebrew campaign. If players get a heads up they can let you know what they think. I believe this would help greatly when it comes to investment in the game.
Another suggestion is to take a look at Paizo's AP players guides. If you were to write up something for the players this would help them big time with chargen. I find the more I have to grab onto the easier it is for me to buy into the game. Custom traits and an introduction to your homebrew can only lead to win for you and the players.
Last bit that comes to mind is to have a chargen session. Tell the players it is ok to come prepared with a character, but they might want to make a few. Or come with a blank slate ready to hit the ground running with PC ideas. At the table you can discuss campaign character ideas. The players then can make PCs that will fit the story and have reasons to work together.
Essentially, the more you lead as a GM the better the game will be. Especially, if you are going homebrew the players will need direction. I hope you get some excellent advice I imagine you will from this community. Good luck and have fun with your next game.
First of all, I do not recommend starting a long term campaign with folks you don't know. If the plan is to throw out an ad and take whoever bites, prepare yourself for a possible train wreck. I would try meetups, one shots, and PFS first to try and meet some players.
This will help in a number of ways. First you can meet people and compare play styles before committing to something long term. Secondly, you can gauge the player's interest in your homebrew campaign. If players get a heads up they can let you know what they think. I believe this would help greatly when it comes to investment in the game.
Another suggestion is to take a look at Paizo's AP players guides. If you were to write up something for the players this would help them big time with chargen. I find the more I have to grab onto the easier it is for me to buy into the game. Custom traits and an introduction to your homebrew can only lead to win for you and the players.
Last bit that comes to mind is to have a chargen session. Tell the players it is ok to come prepared with a character, but they might want to make a few. Or come with a blank slate ready to hit the ground running with PC ideas. At the table you can discuss campaign character ideas. The players then can make PCs that will fit the story and have reasons to work together.
Essentially, the more you lead as a GM the better the game will be. Especially, if you are going homebrew the players will need direction. I hope you get some excellent advice I imagine you will from this community. Good luck and have fun with your next game.
Well, I'd start with a shorter-length campaign and see how it goes. I like to give frequent points of closure so that Players feel like they accomplished something even if the group falls apart.
The makeup of the group will probably be mixed between known and unknown players. Meetup will be a last resort if I can't get enough PCs together through acquaintances and PFS. But I also favor a relatively small group.
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If you know a story-based player, invite that person first.
Have that person give a bit of their backstory out if they are willing, and watch as the rest of the group suddenly builds stories around them.
This has happened multiple times in games in which I've played. In the current game I'm playing, I went Maestro Sorcerer with a major background in Performing and spywork. Before I knew it, many of the other PCs came in with skills that would fit with a traveling circus cover, and we went with that as our assignment.
Good stories will attract other stories like magic.
Also, when advertising for players, let it be known that it will be a campaign with roleplaying. Maybe provide an exciting snippet of backstory yourself?
Hmm
I've just started in a Crimson Throne campaign and the opening was done really well. All the players were allowed to choose a starting trait and all the traits were directly related to being wronged by a local crime lord.
For example two players selected the trait where they lost their home and allegiances because they had been framed crimes.
One player was looking for a missing princess who had been kidnapped by the crime lord.
Another player's wife was killed by his thugs.
My character had become addicted drugs which were his business.
The first chapter revolved around bringing the crime lord to justice, while chapter two was actually unfolding at the same time to force us to work together.
The thing (I think) is back story is meaningless unless players actually play out their histories. A good interplay and banter is quite hard unless you have the "right" people. What our GM was really good at, was a big emphasis into interaction with the world before players actually got into a fight. Also being able to balance the starlight and give everyone a part in every interaction was important.
Tread lightly. This is my only advice. I speak from experience.
If you toss out an ad for players at random, be ready for a random assortment of players. The more well defined your intention is in the ad, the more defined your players' expectations will be but the fewer responses you'll receive.
The real problem, above all else, is one of communication and language. You say you want intertwined characters with a pre-existing connection. Your players may wonder "why?" You mention emotional investment; suddenly people are asking "what do you define as emotional; how DEEP an investment?"
My version of investment and yours might vary wildly. I might show up with a well-practiced elven accent wearing fantasy garb with a foam bow strapped to my shoulder, ready to completely transform into the persona of Lythos, the elven ranger. However you might have meant "it's a light game of beer, pretzels and dungeon hacking; just don't kill each other when the healing potions run low."
But once you feel confident dropping your hook in the waters of potential players a good way to get everyone together as a group is to have a session zero. Literally no roleplaying or games of any kind. Meet in a neutral place in the real world or, if you're hosting online just show up at the hosting site. Then chat, plather, and otherwise hob-nob with your fellow gamers.
Tell them about yourself and encourage them to do the same. Create a safe, social environment full of common ground among all of you. Be inclusive. This is a good time to level with your potential players in person - tell them why you've put this game together and what you hope to get out of it. Also make a point to ask them what they hope to get out of the experience.
Finally, at the end of session zero, make characters. Do this togehter, sitting with one another or while you're all online together. Sure, it's not time-efficient but by making characters in this way you're actively sharing your first role playing experience as a group.
Vibe off one another. "Oh, you're gonna be a fighter? I was thinking of going fighter too. My guy was going to go sword and board... and you're thinking polearms? Cool! Maybe your guy and my guy work together, like one taking down the foes close up and guarding the polearm guy with his shield. Kind of like a team..."
Hopefully this works for you.
Grant some Team feats only to those who develop a relationship. Give them out as extras, over and above the ones they normally get, so there is incentive. Only those characters who share in the background can use the feat.
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Getting rid of PvP is as simple as saying "There will be absolutely no PvP in this campaign; you're supposed to work together as a group" and then bringing down the hammer on anyone who breaks the ban.
The rest of it is a little trickier though.
We use social combat like cmb/cmd like this:
Social combat defense
Half level + social status + sense motive
Where social status is based on your birthright rating:
-1 criminal/outcast/merchant
0 peasantry
1 freeman
2 vassal
3 military/clergy
4 titled
5 nobility
Obviously, this draws on social standing from a true caste system.
Social combat bonus
half level + influence + social class + skill
Where Influence is a point pool derived from cha and int bonus + level. Influence points are
invested in NPCs to represent persistent relationships. You can only allocate or deallocate 1 + int bonus influence per session if you interact with the target NPC.
It works really well and encourages RP/intrigue. Again, this is primarily for games where people are not all born equally in the
The Drama System by Robin Laws does a really good job of addressing what you want to accomplish, Joey. Its first product, Hillfolk, has a whole section on defining intraparty relationships as a sort-of game within a game.
-Matt