The Tricky Subject of Making Introductions...

[Ronia Sun]

My Ravenloft campaign is in the first stages of fizzling, so I will be asking my players to step back, do some rethinking, and then hit the 'reset' button. (Schedules, summer, and trips abroad have wreaked havoc in the gaming group, and it's becoming such a headache that I, the DM, have begun thinking up lame excuses as to why we can't game this week...that has to stop.)

I'm still a new DM, so I feel I can get away with this whole 'reset' thing. It'll give me a chance to offer the players a shot at rethinking their characters a bit, powering down one or two that, though their players are roleplaying them well are nevertheless too darn powerful, and generally try it again.

Which brings me to my particular bugaboo: Introducing PCs to each other.

I have no problem with PCs knowing each other before they begin adventuring, provided the players write out the histories. It surely saves the DM headaches. However, what I'm looking for feedback on is introducing PCs to one another who have never met before, and giving them a compelling reason to continue adventuring together.

I've seen this tried in a couple of different game settings, and rarely has it worked out all that well. Mostly, it's a player being rather contrary. ("But I *am* roleplaying my character! He's a loner...!") Other times, though, it's simply because the DM trots out the tired old cliche about meeting in a tavern...

I think I did all right in my initial foray into RL DM'ing: several of the PCs were on their way to meet someone in particular--and that someone happened to be the same man. I did have them all meet up in a tavern, true, but it was because they were forced to stop due to the weather and they subsequently were involved in investigating a murder. It worked otu well, but it still felt a bit stilted to my (admittedly picky) mind.

So...what do you all think? What's a good way to get all your PCs pointed in the same direction without either railroading them or wasting a lot of time herding contrary players into line?

[Joël of the FoS]

IMC, what I did was giving them a similar background, i.e. they were Freedom Fighters for the Gundarakite cause, and they had a common hate of Barovians.

The first adventure they did played around that theme, the rest followed smoothly...

Joël

[Nathan of the FoS]

The only thing I've done that I thought worked out well, and was at least somewhat original, was to have the PCs be criminals (not necessarily for anything evil--they live in an authoritarian police state) who were sentenced to fight in the gladiatorial games. They were all assigned to the same "team" and were originally intended to be cannon fodder--an interlude in which hapless people are eaten by lions. Fortunately, they weren't all that hapless, and succeeded in overcoming their opponents, thereby beginning a glorious gladiatorial career.

Of course, said career was cut short when an NPC team member was revealed to be a dragon, who attempted to assassinate the head of state--but it was nice while it lasted.

[Ronia Sun]

Huh. Now *that's* an approach I've not seen, and a very cool one. It won't really work for my campaign, but it is certainly something I will keep in mind for other settings!!! And it certainly gives the PCs a compelling reason to work together...

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

My PCs where all hired by the Port-a-Luciene museum as a special task-force to look after precious artifacts during transit. That's worked quite well so far (though the game has been on hiatus for 6 months).

[Rucht Lilavivat]

I'm going to hit on what alot of people have just said here.

In horror games, it's very important to have the characters to have a crucible - a reason to work together. That''s because in horror games, people have very nasty things to confront, and those things stretch their relationships father than most regular D&D situations do.

So, before anyone creates a character, I always tell my players the premise of the game. You're all part of the same family. You all are loyal to the same secret society. Etc.

That solves the whole "loner" PC problem, because that character now has an in-character reason to be loyal to the party.

Most recently, I've even gone as far as to write out a number of PC archetypes for players to choose from. These have been simple, one-sentence backgrounds that the players had to choose from, so that they would still have some freedom in character creation.

An example might be:
Crucible: You all are members of the same secret society, that is dedicated to stomping out the forces of darkness, and covertly dismantling the Kargat in Darkon.

Archetypes:
1) Your father was a member of the society, as was his father, and his father before him.
2) You were rescued by the society as a young orphan from the streets.
3) You have a terrible curse that the society is helping you with.
4) You don't remember your life before you joined the society, you have amnesia about your life before that point.
5) You were screwed over by the Kargat, and joined the society in rebellion of that.

I usually try to make more archetypes than players, but it helps to create a solid base from which everyone can build their characters.

[Ronia Sun]

I do like that idea very much. It certainly saves a lot of headaches!!! Since I require my players to make good backgrounds for their players anyway, this would help them out as well, especially the less experienced gamers who have *not* spent their entire lives dreaming up stories and characters...

Thank you! (And keep the ideas coming. I imagine this can be a valuable source for more than just myself.)

[Van Richten]

In my campaigns I have done basicly the samething Rucht Lilavivat said. I have found it works very well, but really everything depends on the player and how good or bad a player is.

My experiment right now in my game to hold the characters together. Is playing the major hero's. Its something I have wanted to try for years and is working out really well.

Hey just wait till your GMing 3 modules in one night for 3 different worlds. With all different characters for each world.

[Ronia Sun]

Ooooh, the very thought makes my eye twitch. I rather think that'd be impossible with my groups, anyway, since half the time is spent chatting and goofing off rather than gaming...(I think we started this as an alternative to sitting in front of the tv or computer... )

[Lord Cyclohexane]

I want to say "Thanks!" for this thread as well. I am also having this problem, as I'm thinking of running a game but haven't even offered as I saw this as a typical problem.

My idea was to have all of the PCs start, for whatever reason they choose, on taking a ship voyage across the Sea of Sorrows (some might be aiming to get to the University of Tvashtri for some information, others for business in East Riding, etc). They'd all run into each other due to the confined quarters of the ship, and perhaps make friends with the Lamordian/Dementlieuse settlers on board. Before getting to any of the PCs destinations, the ship is to drop off these settlers for a proposed colony on Markovia...

And then I'd run a modified version of Neither Man Nor Beast (set for levels 1-4), perhaps starting with a modified "Haunted Ship" story ala Ship of Horror.

Of course, the problem was: after getting off Markovia and back to civilization, what's to keep them together instead of going after their original objectives, the ones that put them on that ship voyage to begin with?

But the above stuff very much helps! Thanks for the ideas, and to Ronia Sun, thank you very much for bringing up the topic! I'm looking forward to other ideas that people have as well.

[Jeremy16]

When it comes to character introductions in game, my thoughts naturally gravitate towards those things that bring disparate groups of people together in real life: work, school, clubs, family reunions, etc.

Take the army, for example. You have a large group of people who start out having only two things in common (forgive me for the oversimplification) - they belong to the same nation/domain/kingdom, and they like to fight. Then through hard work and training, they form a unit so tight it lasts for the rest of their lives.

Reasons for keeping a group together are numerous. I think one of the keys is trust and comfort. Just look at who makes movies together, for example. Sometimes directors latch onto actors (or vice versa) and make several movies together because they work so well with each other. And its a well known fact that workers tend to stay at jobs where they feel they are treated well and respected by their bosses.

So, maybe the secret is giving the players a deal that's too good to pass up. One where they meet characters that accomodate them. Then, when they have harrowing experiences, they'll have a reason to stick on course.

[doctor-evil]

The charcters I have in my current campaign were primarily members of a travelling canival troupe (rogues, bards and fire-eating psionicists). Another one of the PCs was a mage who was experimenting with a scroll that he had discovered that promised to open a gate to a world of untold riches and power (i.e. ravenloft) and the carnival troupe were just unlucky bystanders when the gate opened in the area they were travelling through (or rather ran through - as a bar room brawl had got out of hand resulting in a quick exit).

Other PCs and NPCs have been added either as the result of various prison breaks, rescues, or adopting 'orphans' after their home/family were wiped out (either by creatures or in one case accidentally by PCs in the party). All the PCs and NPCs have been been outworlders, outsiders in a domain, or left without their previous life and have clung together as 'strangers in a strange land' or in one case through guilt and trying to atone for misdeed to an NPC.

[JinnTolser]

I remember reading once about somebody who had their PCs all meet at a will reading for somebody all of their characters knew. There was some mystery surrounding the death or something and they had to work together to solve it, very much like The Westing Game. Never tried that myself but it seems like a great unique way to bring a group together.