So we had our first session last night and as always I was faced when preparing it with the age old question, how do I bring the party together and give them a reason to form. It has been about 3 years since I last had this situation having been running some well established campaigns up till now, or simple one shots where they all know each other.
I simplified things a little bit during character creation, as a general rule I allow my players to create their characters as they wish (within campaign broad guidelines) and then work with them to make subtle tweaks as required to backstory to get them to the starting location. So the make up of this party.
Halfling Warlock, brand new to the wider world, was isolated in his little village has only in the last 2 weeks discovered his powers, arrived in town on a barge after saving a merchant and being drawn to travel with him, has now felt this is the right time to leave the merchants side and see what this part of the world has to offer.
Minotaur barbarian, escaping his criminal family, These 2 I put in contact as they where arriving at the same time, so had them come in on the same barge having spent about 3-4 days together.
Tabaxi Twins, Fighter and Rogue, already in town having arrived 3-4 days earlier with a large merchant caravan (will play a part in the early campaign story). Satyr Sorceress, she works as an escort in town and is looking for something new and different. Also hiding her sorceror powers. The Satyr is the character with local knowledge, I like to have one in a party as it means someone can know basic stuff without the party needing to ask people all the time. I have also said that in my world Satyr are very rare, they rarely leave the feywild. Tabaxi,while not as rare, are not a common sight especially in this part of the world, so the few days they are here she has been drawn to them and forged a brief early friendship.
Warforged Artificer, has no idea who made him, where he came from or how old he is. Was found by dwarfs and is now out exploring the world.
Half Elf Bard (Couldnt make the first session) also knows the Satur, been in town 3 weeks and she has got to know him as he has played in the same places she frequents when working.
So the opening session. Having determined the groupings I needed a way to bring them together as a party. I decided an Inn (cliche I know), focussing on the halfling and minotaur first the walked into the inn, scanned the room, a card game was happening to one side and I pointed out the stand out characters, Satyr, Tabaxi and the Warforged, and the Bard playing on the stage.
Halfling was invited to join the card game, game was a scam, 5 members of a gang taking it in turns to occupy 2-3 seats at the table, using a combination of false deals, palmed cards and other tricks to make sure one of them one more times then they lost. Gave the players a chance to spot the con, and decide if they wanted to help this halfling who was slowly losing his gold. Tabaxi spotted the ruse, got involved in the game, the Warforged also spotted it later on and backed them up, as did the bard who had been keeping an eye on them all day. The landlord stepped in before a full out fight took place, backed up the members of the party. He had sent for the town guard having also seen the scam but they hadn't turned up yet. Offered the characters drinks and food, and sat them together.
So players are together, captain of the guard comes in, explains her forces are stretched protecting the merchant caravan on orders from the mayor who sees great opportunities in this new trade route. A new gang has been taking advantage by getting into town and causing trouble. Meanwhile someone has moved to within earshot (spotted by the rogue) seems to be muttering to himself (using a sending stone), rogue follows him out, finds him and the other card players casing out a house they plan to break into, lets the party know and the leader of the guards asks them to go and deal with it while she rounds up a patrol to come and support. Offers a cash reward and suggests the owner of the house, a rich merchant, may also pay them for protecting his assets.
The session flowed really well, better then I expected actually, at no point did the players feel railroaded or forced to come together. The situation I laid out and the freedom I gave them to do whatever they wanted made them feel they had had freedom. They had obviously known that this first session they would need to form together to some sort of a group so they took actions to facilitate that rather than just trying to stop it, but it was probably my most successful session 1 to date.
There are still some learnings, I maybe stopped a little bit of player agency in having the landlord step in and stop them arresting or killing the gang, but I wanted them to be involved in the later burglary. I relied a little too much on perception rolls to spot the card scam, although I lowered the DC the longer the game was observed. But we had a mix of experienced and new players and I wanted to expose them to these types of mechanics early on. But overall my aim for the end of session 1 was achieved, party formed and everything going well.
So I am wondering, as bringing a party together is not something that happens all that often for most DM's what are peoples most memorable ways you have done it, good or bad. What lessons have you learnt, do you even run a party forming session or as standard do you tell your party they already know each other?
My usual tactic is to have the party work for the government or some kind of guild as a team to start the campaign, so they’re forced to work together. I know, it’s kind of railroading, but it works, and the players have been fine with it so far.
My favorite is just to make them do it. I tell them, you are starting in town X. Why are you here, and how do you all know each other?
Usually it ends up in a degrees of separation situation where player A knows B, and B knows C, and C knows D and E. That type of thing. Then when the complication arises, they can think, hey, I know a guy who can help with this, and off they go.
Adventuring League. Company which posts adventures and members sign up. Patron. School Buddies. Hand Wave. Or. Guys I taking a smoke break. Be back in 5 and you tell me why you are together.
I also typically follow the following "Character X is at location Y because of [overarching] reason Z" type of formula. Players can then help work their character's personal backgrounds into the mix that best fits for them but still moves things forward in that direction. A couple examples from some of my most recent campaigns that I ran as the DM:
Curse of Strahd: Duchess of an influential province will be hosting the marriage of her one and only son in one of the largest cities under her dominion. The marriage and following festivities is supposed to encompass hundred of citizens over the course of multiple days. In order to provide enough security to cover the size and duration of the celebration, the town guard has received permission and funding to hire mercenaries (i.e., adventures) to help fill in the gaps that the normal guard cannot adequately cover. The 1st level character deals with some minor scuffles during the celebration, which ultimately earned the gratitude of the town guards as well as some of the NPCs involved in the scuffle. PCs are then offered future employment opportunities for their good work, which leads them being hired temporarily as caravan guards for some of the people that were attacked during the festival... Never reach the final destination because they're taken by the Mists, but they had a chance to meet each other and cooperate a bit before being an official party.
Planescape (homebrew): Each player's character received an invite (either directly or indirectly) to attend a tournament of sorts on an island a few days travel out on the sea/ocean. Each character decides why they ultimately received and/or accepted the invitation, but they're all meeting in the same port town seeking passage on a ship that can take them to the island in question. Since most captains won't travel there, everybody ultimately ends up on the same boat. A few days spent traveling provides opportunities for them to deal with various encounters before reaching the island, so the characters have the change to work together and bond a bit before reaching the final destination. Ultimately, they band together as an adventuring party, but it allowed them time to bond naturally versus being immediately thrown into a "defined team" situation.
Both examples railroad a little bit, since I'm pushing the characters in a particular direction with the overarching reason, but the players have enough openness to respond and react accordingly while heading toward that defined initial goal. Might not work for every person and group, but it's worked well for me and my players in the past.
1. It is graduation day from the Adventurers Academy. Handily named after my Local Game Shoppe where we play. You are formed up in the courtyard and a full assembly for the first time.
2. Your party is gathered together at the local saloon looking at the Job Board.
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So we had our first session last night and as always I was faced when preparing it with the age old question, how do I bring the party together and give them a reason to form. It has been about 3 years since I last had this situation having been running some well established campaigns up till now, or simple one shots where they all know each other.
I simplified things a little bit during character creation, as a general rule I allow my players to create their characters as they wish (within campaign broad guidelines) and then work with them to make subtle tweaks as required to backstory to get them to the starting location. So the make up of this party.
Halfling Warlock, brand new to the wider world, was isolated in his little village has only in the last 2 weeks discovered his powers, arrived in town on a barge after saving a merchant and being drawn to travel with him, has now felt this is the right time to leave the merchants side and see what this part of the world has to offer.
Minotaur barbarian, escaping his criminal family,
These 2 I put in contact as they where arriving at the same time, so had them come in on the same barge having spent about 3-4 days together.
Tabaxi Twins, Fighter and Rogue, already in town having arrived 3-4 days earlier with a large merchant caravan (will play a part in the early campaign story).
Satyr Sorceress, she works as an escort in town and is looking for something new and different. Also hiding her sorceror powers.
The Satyr is the character with local knowledge, I like to have one in a party as it means someone can know basic stuff without the party needing to ask people all the time. I have also said that in my world Satyr are very rare, they rarely leave the feywild. Tabaxi,while not as rare, are not a common sight especially in this part of the world, so the few days they are here she has been drawn to them and forged a brief early friendship.
Warforged Artificer, has no idea who made him, where he came from or how old he is. Was found by dwarfs and is now out exploring the world.
Half Elf Bard (Couldnt make the first session) also knows the Satur, been in town 3 weeks and she has got to know him as he has played in the same places she frequents when working.
So the opening session. Having determined the groupings I needed a way to bring them together as a party. I decided an Inn (cliche I know), focussing on the halfling and minotaur first the walked into the inn, scanned the room, a card game was happening to one side and I pointed out the stand out characters, Satyr, Tabaxi and the Warforged, and the Bard playing on the stage.
Halfling was invited to join the card game, game was a scam, 5 members of a gang taking it in turns to occupy 2-3 seats at the table, using a combination of false deals, palmed cards and other tricks to make sure one of them one more times then they lost. Gave the players a chance to spot the con, and decide if they wanted to help this halfling who was slowly losing his gold. Tabaxi spotted the ruse, got involved in the game, the Warforged also spotted it later on and backed them up, as did the bard who had been keeping an eye on them all day. The landlord stepped in before a full out fight took place, backed up the members of the party. He had sent for the town guard having also seen the scam but they hadn't turned up yet. Offered the characters drinks and food, and sat them together.
So players are together, captain of the guard comes in, explains her forces are stretched protecting the merchant caravan on orders from the mayor who sees great opportunities in this new trade route. A new gang has been taking advantage by getting into town and causing trouble. Meanwhile someone has moved to within earshot (spotted by the rogue) seems to be muttering to himself (using a sending stone), rogue follows him out, finds him and the other card players casing out a house they plan to break into, lets the party know and the leader of the guards asks them to go and deal with it while she rounds up a patrol to come and support. Offers a cash reward and suggests the owner of the house, a rich merchant, may also pay them for protecting his assets.
The session flowed really well, better then I expected actually, at no point did the players feel railroaded or forced to come together. The situation I laid out and the freedom I gave them to do whatever they wanted made them feel they had had freedom. They had obviously known that this first session they would need to form together to some sort of a group so they took actions to facilitate that rather than just trying to stop it, but it was probably my most successful session 1 to date.
There are still some learnings, I maybe stopped a little bit of player agency in having the landlord step in and stop them arresting or killing the gang, but I wanted them to be involved in the later burglary. I relied a little too much on perception rolls to spot the card scam, although I lowered the DC the longer the game was observed. But we had a mix of experienced and new players and I wanted to expose them to these types of mechanics early on. But overall my aim for the end of session 1 was achieved, party formed and everything going well.
So I am wondering, as bringing a party together is not something that happens all that often for most DM's what are peoples most memorable ways you have done it, good or bad. What lessons have you learnt, do you even run a party forming session or as standard do you tell your party they already know each other?
My usual tactic is to have the party work for the government or some kind of guild as a team to start the campaign, so they’re forced to work together. I know, it’s kind of railroading, but it works, and the players have been fine with it so far.
My favorite is just to make them do it. I tell them, you are starting in town X. Why are you here, and how do you all know each other?
Usually it ends up in a degrees of separation situation where player A knows B, and B knows C, and C knows D and E. That type of thing. Then when the complication arises, they can think, hey, I know a guy who can help with this, and off they go.
Adventuring League. Company which posts adventures and members sign up. Patron. School Buddies. Hand Wave. Or. Guys I taking a smoke break. Be back in 5 and you tell me why you are together.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
I also typically follow the following "Character X is at location Y because of [overarching] reason Z" type of formula. Players can then help work their character's personal backgrounds into the mix that best fits for them but still moves things forward in that direction. A couple examples from some of my most recent campaigns that I ran as the DM:
Both examples railroad a little bit, since I'm pushing the characters in a particular direction with the overarching reason, but the players have enough openness to respond and react accordingly while heading toward that defined initial goal. Might not work for every person and group, but it's worked well for me and my players in the past.
I typically start 1 of 2 ways.
1. It is graduation day from the Adventurers Academy. Handily named after my Local Game Shoppe where we play. You are formed up in the courtyard and a full assembly for the first time.
2. Your party is gathered together at the local saloon looking at the Job Board.