We are trying to "get the band back together" with a game for myself and my old High School Buddies (we as a group started with DnD 3, but most of us cut our teeth on ADnD or earlier). This was our first session of the new campaign and we hadn't talked much about our characters. In fact my wife wasn't even sure she was going to play before she sat down at the table to ask "so.. what's the party need?"
The best part of the night was doing this part though:
Roll 1D20 for each character pairing and that player has to answer a question about the other player. They do it once for the "positive" list and once for the "negative" list. So for my wife's new cleric, she had 6 additional character traits added to her that created bonds with the others in the party.
For example, when Mirinn (my wife's character) was but an acolyte she was called to help tend the wounded after a major battle. That was where she met the party's wizard for the first time as his first memory of Mirinn was when she was tending to his wounds on the field. But to her he was just another wounded battlemage. He didn't stick in her mind until a few days later when the wizard was discharged from the temple hospital and he made a point of thanking Mirinn for her work to save him. Despite this, the wizard still think Mirinn trusts people too easily and because of that he cannot ever really trust her.
The party ranger also is connected to Mirinn. The ranger's brother was at the battle and sadly Mirinn's magic nor that of her fellow acolytes could save him. Despite this the ranger still has faith of her own in Mirinn. Similarly she believes that Mirinn knows more details of her brother's demise but just hasn't felt ready to say. Because of this the ranger continues to adventure with Mirinn hoping, someday, to learn the full story. As a way to show this dedication to learning the truth, the ranger has even forgiven Mirinn for breaking her nose while sparing, a wound that never quite healed right and left the ranger scarred.
Mirinn's first encounter with the party bard came when he ran into a pub to escape some people he owed money to. He bought two points, sat down opposite the lone sea-priest (at this point Mirinn had left the temple) and tried to pretend they were on a date. When the thugs arrived he dove across the table to kiss her and when they passed he thanked her and made a mad dash out the back door. Mirinn would see the bard again and again, as he tended to end up wounded and in need of a friendly face to set a bone, or heal burned feet (yes, put their feet to the fire is sometimes literal when money is on the line). But through this one thing always bothered the bard; Mirinn never wavered in her courage to do the right thing. And that gave him pause because each time she did step up to help and serve, he was reminded that he lacked that courage.
ALL of that came from rolling on the table and challenging the players to talk about my wife's swashbuckling sea-priest, Mirinn. By the end of the evening we had gone around the table and I typed up a matrix of back stories to help keep track of it all. And when we sit down for our first adventure there won't be that moment of "how did we end up together?" It's all there and even I, as the DM am positioned to tailor the stories to the characters they created. While I'm planning to run The Hoard of the Dragon Queen pretty directly, I know going in that our Wizard is basically Magic-Merc, our bard will try to sleep with anything that shows feminine tendancies, our Ranger will blindly try to prove she didn't wait too long to become an adventurer (yep, she put down 40 as her age on a level 1 character) and our priest is on the verge of a break down from all of the faith everyone has in her that she lacks in herself.
We are trying to "get the band back together" with a game for myself and my old High School Buddies (we as a group started with DnD 3, but most of us cut our teeth on ADnD or earlier). This was our first session of the new campaign and we hadn't talked much about our characters. In fact my wife wasn't even sure she was going to play before she sat down at the table to ask "so.. what's the party need?"
The best part of the night was doing this part though:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54148cdae4b05a3412bfa19b/t/5ade659e70a6ad52326cbbd8/1524524449213/Appendix-A-Final-01-19-18.pdf
Roll 1D20 for each character pairing and that player has to answer a question about the other player. They do it once for the "positive" list and once for the "negative" list. So for my wife's new cleric, she had 6 additional character traits added to her that created bonds with the others in the party.
For example, when Mirinn (my wife's character) was but an acolyte she was called to help tend the wounded after a major battle. That was where she met the party's wizard for the first time as his first memory of Mirinn was when she was tending to his wounds on the field. But to her he was just another wounded battlemage. He didn't stick in her mind until a few days later when the wizard was discharged from the temple hospital and he made a point of thanking Mirinn for her work to save him. Despite this, the wizard still think Mirinn trusts people too easily and because of that he cannot ever really trust her.
The party ranger also is connected to Mirinn. The ranger's brother was at the battle and sadly Mirinn's magic nor that of her fellow acolytes could save him. Despite this the ranger still has faith of her own in Mirinn. Similarly she believes that Mirinn knows more details of her brother's demise but just hasn't felt ready to say. Because of this the ranger continues to adventure with Mirinn hoping, someday, to learn the full story. As a way to show this dedication to learning the truth, the ranger has even forgiven Mirinn for breaking her nose while sparing, a wound that never quite healed right and left the ranger scarred.
Mirinn's first encounter with the party bard came when he ran into a pub to escape some people he owed money to. He bought two points, sat down opposite the lone sea-priest (at this point Mirinn had left the temple) and tried to pretend they were on a date. When the thugs arrived he dove across the table to kiss her and when they passed he thanked her and made a mad dash out the back door. Mirinn would see the bard again and again, as he tended to end up wounded and in need of a friendly face to set a bone, or heal burned feet (yes, put their feet to the fire is sometimes literal when money is on the line). But through this one thing always bothered the bard; Mirinn never wavered in her courage to do the right thing. And that gave him pause because each time she did step up to help and serve, he was reminded that he lacked that courage.
ALL of that came from rolling on the table and challenging the players to talk about my wife's swashbuckling sea-priest, Mirinn. By the end of the evening we had gone around the table and I typed up a matrix of back stories to help keep track of it all. And when we sit down for our first adventure there won't be that moment of "how did we end up together?" It's all there and even I, as the DM am positioned to tailor the stories to the characters they created. While I'm planning to run The Hoard of the Dragon Queen pretty directly, I know going in that our Wizard is basically Magic-Merc, our bard will try to sleep with anything that shows feminine tendancies, our Ranger will blindly try to prove she didn't wait too long to become an adventurer (yep, she put down 40 as her age on a level 1 character) and our priest is on the verge of a break down from all of the faith everyone has in her that she lacks in herself.
Best start to a campaign ever.
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