I'm a second time DM running a game for some friends of mine. I started things off by telling people to make whatever kind of character they wanted, and we would make it work. The results were a glory-seeking barbarian, a Captain-America-ish fighter, an antisocial ranger, and a distrusting rogue.
Originally, I gave the party different reasons to attack the same bandit camp as a sort of "bring everyone together" move. That worked, and they've traveled together for a bit, but at this point, the characters don't have much of a reason to stay together. Does anyone have suggestions on how I can bring together a group of characters who at this point more or less want to do their own completely different things?
You've got Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow. I'm sure that, now that I've pointed that out, you can come up with something.
The four of them - along with a troll berserker, and a warforged - are recruited by an eye-patch and trenchcoat wearing Drow, to be the secret defenders of Waterdeep .... " to defeat the Dragons, we never could " ...
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They have faced death together against bands of Bandits, but now they don't give a hoot about one another? Doesn't sound odd to you? I'd have one of them become engaged in a cause and the rest should come along to help their war buddy.
The brother of the barbarian wields a mind controlling staff that turns the anti-social ranger against the party, once he's released, the barbarian's brother opens a portal from the astral plane, unleashing an army of extra terrestials.
They have faced death together against bands of Bandits, but now they don't give a hoot about one another? Doesn't sound odd to you? I'd have one of them become engaged in a cause and the rest should come along to help their war buddy.
I see what you're saying, but at the same time, just because a group of strangers survive a nearly traumatic experience, doesn't mean they always stay together after that. Some times that can even hurt the cause if one of the characters wants to forget that trauma.
Something at the bandit camp magically marked them, and now they have to seek a means to remove it.
They're all hired by a benefactor who learned about something they did.
Or perhaps you narrate that they go their separate ways... for at least a while. They do some personal stuff until an old friend tracks them down and tells them about an irresistible opportunity. I've had campaigns where there were years long gaps in the action. In one, the quest giver had to go halfway across Faerun to find all the characters.
Do the players not get that this is a social game and their characters need to stick together in order for it to work? If they want to play four loners, they will get four solo sessions and each character will be alone without help. Very edgy and great for fiction, where you can write about just the one character. Not so great for RPGs where there are several other people at the table who want to play too.
To be honest, it I snot your job as th eDM to bring the characters together and keep them together. That is on the players. They are their characters. It is on them to figure out why this group sticks together.
If your campaign has a main plot or main bad guy, then finding a reason for each character to have personal stakes in taking them down is a good way to keeping them together. As they do missions, they should develop a closeness that should keep them together.
If someone still isn't feeling like their character has a reason to stick around? Don't make them. Instead invite them to roll a new character as their previous one goes off on their own. Maybe the reason they couldn't get into it was they made their ranger too antisocial (through no fault of their own) and didn't realize it would effect the game, and then they felt stuck with it? Giving them an opportunity to switch lets them make a character that works better with the group/ story, or suggests to the player that they can develope their character a little and make some changes.
And while we're stealing from Marvel, I'd say the Guardians of the Galaxy movies are a much better model of how to get a disparate group of people together (vol. 1) and how to get them to care enough to stay together (vol. 2).
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
To follow on from Vedexnt's post above; as the DM, I don't think you should have to worry too much about bringing the party together as the reason we're playing D&D in the first place is to share a collaborative story. If all of your players are going to go off and do their own individual thing, then they are poor players. Tell them outside of the game that it's not going to be an enjoyable TTRPG if they aren't working as a party. If they want an individual story arc where they are the hero, there are plenty of video games that will allow them to do this.
Your party sound like they will be fine. They just fought a load of bandits together and are feeling great, there are adventures to be had and some new people to get to know. Encourage them to interact in-character with each other and see where that takes them.
My current LMOP campaign is great, the PCs have only known each other for a day in-game and already they're telling off the hot-headed paladin for wanting to hit first, ask questions later, and realising that they by working together, they will find out what has happened to their mutual friend Gundren.
Of course, that's the slow-burning way to bring a party together. There are other ways you can group people into a party. For example, the campaign I am currently planning for a new D&D group starts with them waking up tied to a pole and hanging upside-down over a fire whilst a band of orcs argue over which one they're going to eat first. I think it will be quite the bonding experience ...
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Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Look at Star Wars. Fram kid comes into new robots (NPC henchmen/hirelings), discovers princess needs rescuing. Kid goes to see old wizard, agrees to go with wizard to rescue princess after his family is killed. Kid and wizard hire pilot and his partner for transport. During rescue of princess old wizard is killed. Pilot, partner, kid, and princess bond during rescue, but part ways shortly before big attack on enemy fortress. Pilot has change of heart and comes back in nick of time to save kid's bacon. By the start of Empire they are all close friends and associates. They didn't become a solidified "party" all working together because they wanted to until Han and Chewie came back in the Death Star battle. Before that Han was just in it for the money, and they were stuck together by circumstances.
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I'm a second time DM running a game for some friends of mine. I started things off by telling people to make whatever kind of character they wanted, and we would make it work. The results were a glory-seeking barbarian, a Captain-America-ish fighter, an antisocial ranger, and a distrusting rogue.
Originally, I gave the party different reasons to attack the same bandit camp as a sort of "bring everyone together" move. That worked, and they've traveled together for a bit, but at this point, the characters don't have much of a reason to stay together. Does anyone have suggestions on how I can bring together a group of characters who at this point more or less want to do their own completely different things?
You've got Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow. I'm sure that, now that I've pointed that out, you can come up with something.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
The four of them - along with a troll berserker, and a warforged - are recruited by an eye-patch and trenchcoat wearing Drow, to be the secret defenders of Waterdeep .... " to defeat the Dragons, we never could " ...
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
They have faced death together against bands of Bandits, but now they don't give a hoot about one another? Doesn't sound odd to you? I'd have one of them become engaged in a cause and the rest should come along to help their war buddy.
The brother of the barbarian wields a mind controlling staff that turns the anti-social ranger against the party, once he's released, the barbarian's brother opens a portal from the astral plane, unleashing an army of extra terrestials.
Published Subclasses
I see what you're saying, but at the same time, just because a group of strangers survive a nearly traumatic experience, doesn't mean they always stay together after that. Some times that can even hurt the cause if one of the characters wants to forget that trauma.
Published Subclasses
Something at the bandit camp magically marked them, and now they have to seek a means to remove it.
They're all hired by a benefactor who learned about something they did.
Or perhaps you narrate that they go their separate ways... for at least a while. They do some personal stuff until an old friend tracks them down and tells them about an irresistible opportunity. I've had campaigns where there were years long gaps in the action. In one, the quest giver had to go halfway across Faerun to find all the characters.
Do the players not get that this is a social game and their characters need to stick together in order for it to work? If they want to play four loners, they will get four solo sessions and each character will be alone without help. Very edgy and great for fiction, where you can write about just the one character. Not so great for RPGs where there are several other people at the table who want to play too.
To be honest, it I snot your job as th eDM to bring the characters together and keep them together. That is on the players. They are their characters. It is on them to figure out why this group sticks together.
If your campaign has a main plot or main bad guy, then finding a reason for each character to have personal stakes in taking them down is a good way to keeping them together. As they do missions, they should develop a closeness that should keep them together.
If someone still isn't feeling like their character has a reason to stick around? Don't make them. Instead invite them to roll a new character as their previous one goes off on their own. Maybe the reason they couldn't get into it was they made their ranger too antisocial (through no fault of their own) and didn't realize it would effect the game, and then they felt stuck with it? Giving them an opportunity to switch lets them make a character that works better with the group/ story, or suggests to the player that they can develope their character a little and make some changes.
And while we're stealing from Marvel, I'd say the Guardians of the Galaxy movies are a much better model of how to get a disparate group of people together (vol. 1) and how to get them to care enough to stay together (vol. 2).
Also - let's not forget the meta-game reason that binds most Parties together: all the Characters are controlled by Players.
Many Parties - unfortunately - don't have much of a binding agent beyond that.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
To follow on from Vedexnt's post above; as the DM, I don't think you should have to worry too much about bringing the party together as the reason we're playing D&D in the first place is to share a collaborative story. If all of your players are going to go off and do their own individual thing, then they are poor players. Tell them outside of the game that it's not going to be an enjoyable TTRPG if they aren't working as a party. If they want an individual story arc where they are the hero, there are plenty of video games that will allow them to do this.
Your party sound like they will be fine. They just fought a load of bandits together and are feeling great, there are adventures to be had and some new people to get to know. Encourage them to interact in-character with each other and see where that takes them.
My current LMOP campaign is great, the PCs have only known each other for a day in-game and already they're telling off the hot-headed paladin for wanting to hit first, ask questions later, and realising that they by working together, they will find out what has happened to their mutual friend Gundren.
Of course, that's the slow-burning way to bring a party together. There are other ways you can group people into a party. For example, the campaign I am currently planning for a new D&D group starts with them waking up tied to a pole and hanging upside-down over a fire whilst a band of orcs argue over which one they're going to eat first. I think it will be quite the bonding experience ...
Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Never tell me the DC.
Look at Star Wars. Fram kid comes into new robots (NPC henchmen/hirelings), discovers princess needs rescuing. Kid goes to see old wizard, agrees to go with wizard to rescue princess after his family is killed. Kid and wizard hire pilot and his partner for transport. During rescue of princess old wizard is killed. Pilot, partner, kid, and princess bond during rescue, but part ways shortly before big attack on enemy fortress. Pilot has change of heart and comes back in nick of time to save kid's bacon. By the start of Empire they are all close friends and associates. They didn't become a solidified "party" all working together because they wanted to until Han and Chewie came back in the Death Star battle. Before that Han was just in it for the money, and they were stuck together by circumstances.