Do most GMs just assume the party knows each other already or do the characters play through their first encounters?
Some first meeting ideas:
Shipwreck. Easy and fairly neat, the characters are all aboard the same ship when disaster befalls. They are the only survivors and must fend for themselves.
Attack. The characters are all in a particular city when an unknown (or known) enemy attacks and they are forced to work together.
Vision. THe characters are all plagued by dreams or portents of a place or each other. They have an urge to reach a particular destination that haunts them and only find relief whn heading to that destination.
Just a few ideas to get the ball rolling. Okay they're not brilliant but how many times can a party meet in an Inn after all...
Arandur
In my soon to be started campaign I'm going with a twist on the stereotypical Tavern Meeting.
In short- all of the PC's will be in the tavern but not having met each other previously.
They will all hear a loud commotion/disturbance outside, and soon thereafter someone will burst into the tavern exclaiming of a Town Guard murdering an apparently innocent passerby in cold blood.
Such an intro should provide them with sufficient reason to investigate, and hence come together.
On the unlikely chance one or more of the PC's choose not to investigate I've multiple avenues through which I can involve them in the scenario happening outside even without their direct intervention.
I'll have two more character to add next week and unless they pick like Kagonesti elves I think I can find a way to add them in. I prefer to try to make them have some connection to the location they start adventuring from so they have some sort of base of operations and a connection to the area.
Arandur
Faeyrl
EDIT:
Whatever you do, don't pull a Vince and begin the campaign with "You all wake up naked in a forest.". I'm glad that I missed that session. Oh, and no 217th level Wizards controlling Krynn and forcing the PCs to do what he wants either.
I always start small and work them into the larger scale gradually.
Originally posted by Mucknuggle
[OT] Kipper, has anyone ever told you that your avatar is scary? It gives me the creeps...stop looking at me!
See that's what I LOVE about that icon. It actually makes people feel something... it's usually scared or paranoid but at least it's something. Sort of like SweetMeats icon does to me.
Whatever you do, don't pull a Vince and begin the campaign with "You all wake up naked in a forest.". I'm glad that I missed that session. Oh, and no 217th level Wizards controlling Krynn and forcing the PCs to do what he wants either.
Oh my God! You totally described a game I ran when I was younger. I moved the entire party from our homebrew world to the Forgotten Realms and they woke up, naked in a forest with a strange tatoo on all of them that gave a wizard control over them. What a great game!
I've yet to see anything detailing the survival or lack thereof of that group. That means it's ripe!
Usually I spend one game session with my players working out character concepts and history, and I usually demand a well thought out history.
Character creation is done as a group so people can play off eachothers ideas, perhaps linking up various characters, brothers, friends, etc.
I usually have games of 5 players, and I don't necessarily like 5 different people who know nothing about eachother to meet up and start off on their adventures. So all in all I like to link characters that CAN be linked, THEN worry about the opening scene of my Campaign where everyone gets involved.
I hope that made some sense, it's late.
Originally posted by Freaklegion
My prefered method of starting a campaign is always tied to character backgrounds, which in a lot of games I feel is sadly overlooked.
I could only dream of such a possibility, all my players have a tendency to disappear as soon as the words 'character backround' is mentioned.
It's all I can do just to get them to write a brief bare bones coverage of their characters past.
Originally posted by Freaklegion
My prefered method of starting a campaign is always tied to character backgrounds, which in a lot of games I feel is sadly overlooked.
Agreed! When I have character backgrounds from my players, oftentimes I'll have enough to get things started, or adventure possibilities for the future.
I'm trying to run a game right now myself (having some scheduling conflicts). One of my players told me that his character has no background, that he was just a farmer. He purposely wanted to play a character that way.
So, I did the worst thing possible, and had the Great Storm destroy his home, and kill his family. All he had left was his horse. I can't wait until he sees his family in the River of Souls. Hee.
Eventually, he was brought in by an ex-Solamnic who is heading up a local cell of the Legion of Steel. This cell will be akin to the Regulators from Young Guns. From there, he met up with the others.
The other character in my game is a half-Qualinesti elf. His family was descended from an old elven prince (the same from Ghost Blade in the DLCS), so he was "tolerated" in Qualinost. When Beryl attacked, he helped in the escape, although he was trapped with a dwarf NPC and some refugees in a tunnel for a while. When he later saw the spirit of his deceased grandfather in the River of Souls, he swore he was hit on the head with a rock in the cave-in!
Basically, I've brought everyone together with the Legion cell. They're currently looking for the Ghost Blade, believing it will help unlock the mystery behind the River of Souls.
As for the vision thing, I've found that it can be a bit cheesy. So yes, I use it fairly often (probably a bit too much). :D
Originally posted by RandPC
I could only dream of such a possibility, all my players have a tendency to disappear as soon as the words 'character backround' is mentioned.
It's all I can do just to get them to write a brief bare bones coverage of their characters past.
One of my long-time players has a nasty habit of not rolling up his character until game day. I basically have to be prepared for anything.
One little trick I would recommend is giving bonus XP to those who write up a character background. The more detailed the background is, the more XP the character gets. That gives an incentive for players to work on character backgrounds.
You may also wish to consider other rewards. I've allowed players to have some bonus items (within reason) that they can have when the game starts. Perhaps a magic item that they don't know how to use yet, or a hint as to something they can gain further on in the campaign.
Anyway, I hope that helps. Good luck!
Never rush a game, if there's one player out of 4 still screwing around, everyone will get on em.
1. a mystic and a wizard. the mystic trained at the citadal of light. the sorcerer was on the same boat as Mina (WoS) and was also adopted by goldmoon.
2.the fighter and the rouge. the fighter is a scosiopath, and hurts someone. he gets taken to the jail, and thrown in a cell with a kender :D the kender than takes them both out a "back door".
gorup one is sent by goldmoon to deliver a message (a secret message) to austinnus of palanthas. little do the players know the letter is about a weired old mage . . . named Fizban. (in my campaign, at the end of the WoS paldine, upon becomeing mortal, adops the form of the bumbling old mage).
group one ends up needing bodyguards; and hire group 2.
on the way to palanthas, they'll do the sylvan key adventure.
afterwards, i'm planing on having them be artifack hunters.
and by the time some of them fulfill the requirements to become dragon riders, i plan on having war happen. (in wich a group of kender will adventually acure a flying cytadle, and NOT crash it; forming a new kender nation)
what does evreybody think?