Your Small Legend: Using PC Reputation To Get The Party Started

[Neal Litherland]

A lot of the time players will make PCs who are entwined when the game begins. They're childhood friends, family members, or they've been co-workers for some time. Other times the DM has to contrive a way to make the party form up. That can be a huge pain, especially when you're bringing 4-6 strangers together, and expecting them to form a team.

One way to help with that is to ask players to create Their Small Legend. Even low-level PCs are notable in small ways, so get players to ask what people know about them. Is The Headsman's Daughter feared for her skill with her father's ax? Have people heard the songs and stories of Briar Redwood, the northern skald whose drinking is nearly as impressive as his sword arm? Etc., etc.

Just a handy tool I wanted to pass along to any fellow DMs.

[Mark Hoover 330]

This is a very cool article Neal! I like the idea that your PCs have done something notable behind the scenes of the game's start. I'd go one better - don't TELL the legends... SHOW them.

If you're willing to accept that your PCs have done something interesting before becoming the Level 1 PC class you chose, perhaps consider acting that out in some way. Maybe play it like a mini game at a "session 0" of the campaign. Perhaps use this opportunity not to just show your own "legend" and integrate the party, but also demonstrate what makes your level 1 PC different from others.

There's even a school of thought that PCs start in NPC classes and "graduate" to their level 1 status. Imagine running a "session 0" where the PCs participate in some challenges near one another - maybe the same town or region, and these challenges intertwine in some way giving your PCs the needed XP to go up to level 1 as well as the story-based means of knowing one another.

[blahpers]

"Mah name's Murt. Ah done grown the biggest dern turnips Ravenmoor done ever seen tin years runnin'. Betcher fancy sord-thing cain't beat that." *spit* *plorch*