My party is a paladin, a fighter, a blood hunter, and a necromancer. I'm having a hard time aligning their motivations into a campaign. The paladin is in no way motivated by money. The blood hunter is mostly interested in exploring his personal lycanthropy. The fighter is a retired soldier and member of the local militia. The necromancer of course wants to develop his talents.
I'm struggling to find a way to align their motivations towards the adventures that I want to run them through. If I hands off the players they will likely each go their own separate direction. Their first session they did all work for the same patron, but I'm not sure that is enough motivation for each of them to band together.
Well, some of this is session zero stuff -- it's helpful to get the players together and explain "I want a set of PCs who are willing to work together and would be interested in Y", as then you avoid the issue of trying to link together a bunch of disparate character concepts. This is a problem if you want to keep the general theme of your adventure a secret... but I don't really recommend doing that.
You can still do this after the fact. Get the players together and explain "I'm having trouble figuring out why your PCs would be working together, or how to get them involved in the adventure. These are the types of adventure I'm interested in running" and then ask them to come up with hooks.
Well, some of this is session zero stuff -- it's helpful to get the players together and explain "I want a set of PCs who are willing to work together and would be interested in Y", as then you avoid the issue of trying to link together a bunch of disparate character concepts. This is a problem if you want to keep the general theme of your adventure a secret... but I don't really recommend doing that.
You can still do this after the fact. Get the players together and explain "I'm having trouble figuring out why your PCs would be working together, or how to get them involved in the adventure. These are the types of adventure I'm interested in running" and then ask them to come up with hooks.
I think this is sound advice. Instead of fretting over the situation on your own, pull your players in to devise a resolution with which everyone can agree. Plus, they may empathize with you as the DM as you are trying to make everything work at the table and try to respect the diversity of their characters at the same time
You can still do this after the fact. Get the players together and explain "I'm having trouble figuring out why your PCs would be working together, or how to get them involved in the adventure. These are the types of adventure I'm interested in running" and then ask them to come up with hooks.
I think this is sound advice. Instead of fretting over the situation on your own, pull your players in to devise a resolution with which everyone can agree. Plus, they may empathize with you as the DM as you are trying to make everything work at the table and try to respect the diversity of their characters at the same time
I agree. I'm completely stuck on how to merge them all so I'm going to need their cooperation to get this game going.
Quick idea. You could tie all these together with a backstory of the creature who gave the Blood Hunter its lycanthropy. The Paladin and the Fighter are trying to solve a murder that could tie back to the beast. Still, the necromancer wants to study the creature to learn more about the transfer ability of lycanthropy, and the Blood Hunter wants to know what is happening to the body and the changes it is going through.
Along the way, the party runs into side-quests and adventures that take them away from their search. Still, it is an idea that you can string along and add plot points from time to time, and as soon as the party has adventures together and has jelled, you can run a big adventure about the creature vs. the party.
Quick idea. You could tie all these together with a backstory of the creature who gave the Blood Hunter its lycanthropy. The Paladin and the Fighter are trying to solve a murder that could tie back to the beast. Still, the necromancer wants to study the creature to learn more about the transfer ability of lycanthropy, and the Blood Hunter wants to know what is happening to the body and the changes it is going through.
Along the way, the party runs into side-quests and adventures that take them away from their search. Still, it is an idea that you can string along and add plot points from time to time, and as soon as the party has adventures together and has jelled, you can run a big adventure about the creature vs. the party.
Great idea. Please read my post "Blood Hunter Quest Idea". I could expand on it to include the whole party.
I think Pantagruel has made some really important things here. This should have been a Session Zero thing; But you still have time to talk about it with your players and help them come up with a unifying goal. If you have time, you could also even make some adjustments to the adventure or your campaign.
The Necromancer can "develop his talents" by adventuring and leveling up, and potentially doing some stuff during downtime. Getting them on a quest shouldn't be too hard, and the other players motives all seem fulfillable. Just make sure that each of them has a reason to go on the quest, and try to get all players and characters invested in your plot line (Which might need to be modified or changed to work for them best) if you want to have an overarching theme or goal of the campaign.
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BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
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Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explainHERE.
I agree with the others about putting part of the workload on the players. As a side benefit, it will help them become more invested in the campaign.
Just to throw out an idea, I'd go with, continue to use the patron. They get sent on another few missions, and as they complete these missions, they start discovering other things going on and realize they're really the only ones who can do anything about it. Its a pretty typical plot arc, but it works to help bring together a diverse group. The party doesn't have to become friends forever, they just need to stick together long enough to beat the BBEG and finish the campaign.
The best answer is already mentioned - do a session zero brainstorm with the players and get their takes on it. Maybe people will have great ideas that you can use, maybe they won't even really care that much, who knows. It's always nice to have a better explanation than "we all just got thrown together by fate and are working together because we have no other option", but plenty of DnD parties (not to mention TV shows and movies) have held together that way
For a simple answer if you don't get much out of a session zero discussion, you can never go all that wrong with the righteous characters being there to protect the realm from the evil bad guy, selfish characters being there for money/rewards, ambitious characters being there to gain experience/power, chaotic neutral characters being there for the antics, etc. Usually any adventure will cover all those bases and loosely justify the party sticking together
While they may not be interested in money, they all have A Goal, and like it or not, money is usually the best place to start with any goal. The Paladin is only interested in building orphanages and digging wells? Timber and shovels cost money and it sure would go faster if you could hire help. BH wants to study necromancy? Gonna need a lab and equipment, maybe assistants, all of which cost money. Necromancer wants to practice? Gonna take a lot of spell components, and hey what wizard doesn't eventually want their own tower? Old soldier? Gotta make a living using the only skills they know, adventuring for coin makes about as much sense as anything, and they can use the leftover funds to buy their militia members better equipment.
As long as your players have a tangible goal, then they should have a reason to work together to achieve that goal as quickly as possible.
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My party is a paladin, a fighter, a blood hunter, and a necromancer. I'm having a hard time aligning their motivations into a campaign. The paladin is in no way motivated by money. The blood hunter is mostly interested in exploring his personal lycanthropy. The fighter is a retired soldier and member of the local militia. The necromancer of course wants to develop his talents.
I'm struggling to find a way to align their motivations towards the adventures that I want to run them through. If I hands off the players they will likely each go their own separate direction. Their first session they did all work for the same patron, but I'm not sure that is enough motivation for each of them to band together.
Any ideas?
Well, some of this is session zero stuff -- it's helpful to get the players together and explain "I want a set of PCs who are willing to work together and would be interested in Y", as then you avoid the issue of trying to link together a bunch of disparate character concepts. This is a problem if you want to keep the general theme of your adventure a secret... but I don't really recommend doing that.
You can still do this after the fact. Get the players together and explain "I'm having trouble figuring out why your PCs would be working together, or how to get them involved in the adventure. These are the types of adventure I'm interested in running" and then ask them to come up with hooks.
I think this is sound advice. Instead of fretting over the situation on your own, pull your players in to devise a resolution with which everyone can agree. Plus, they may empathize with you as the DM as you are trying to make everything work at the table and try to respect the diversity of their characters at the same time
I agree. I'm completely stuck on how to merge them all so I'm going to need their cooperation to get this game going.
Thank you both.
Quick idea. You could tie all these together with a backstory of the creature who gave the Blood Hunter its lycanthropy. The Paladin and the Fighter are trying to solve a murder that could tie back to the beast. Still, the necromancer wants to study the creature to learn more about the transfer ability of lycanthropy, and the Blood Hunter wants to know what is happening to the body and the changes it is going through.
Along the way, the party runs into side-quests and adventures that take them away from their search. Still, it is an idea that you can string along and add plot points from time to time, and as soon as the party has adventures together and has jelled, you can run a big adventure about the creature vs. the party.
Great idea. Please read my post "Blood Hunter Quest Idea". I could expand on it to include the whole party.
I think Pantagruel has made some really important things here. This should have been a Session Zero thing; But you still have time to talk about it with your players and help them come up with a unifying goal. If you have time, you could also even make some adjustments to the adventure or your campaign.
The Necromancer can "develop his talents" by adventuring and leveling up, and potentially doing some stuff during downtime. Getting them on a quest shouldn't be too hard, and the other players motives all seem fulfillable. Just make sure that each of them has a reason to go on the quest, and try to get all players and characters invested in your plot line (Which might need to be modified or changed to work for them best) if you want to have an overarching theme or goal of the campaign.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.I agree with the others about putting part of the workload on the players. As a side benefit, it will help them become more invested in the campaign.
Just to throw out an idea, I'd go with, continue to use the patron. They get sent on another few missions, and as they complete these missions, they start discovering other things going on and realize they're really the only ones who can do anything about it. Its a pretty typical plot arc, but it works to help bring together a diverse group. The party doesn't have to become friends forever, they just need to stick together long enough to beat the BBEG and finish the campaign.
The best answer is already mentioned - do a session zero brainstorm with the players and get their takes on it. Maybe people will have great ideas that you can use, maybe they won't even really care that much, who knows. It's always nice to have a better explanation than "we all just got thrown together by fate and are working together because we have no other option", but plenty of DnD parties (not to mention TV shows and movies) have held together that way
For a simple answer if you don't get much out of a session zero discussion, you can never go all that wrong with the righteous characters being there to protect the realm from the evil bad guy, selfish characters being there for money/rewards, ambitious characters being there to gain experience/power, chaotic neutral characters being there for the antics, etc. Usually any adventure will cover all those bases and loosely justify the party sticking together
While they may not be interested in money, they all have A Goal, and like it or not, money is usually the best place to start with any goal. The Paladin is only interested in building orphanages and digging wells? Timber and shovels cost money and it sure would go faster if you could hire help. BH wants to study necromancy? Gonna need a lab and equipment, maybe assistants, all of which cost money. Necromancer wants to practice? Gonna take a lot of spell components, and hey what wizard doesn't eventually want their own tower? Old soldier? Gotta make a living using the only skills they know, adventuring for coin makes about as much sense as anything, and they can use the leftover funds to buy their militia members better equipment.
As long as your players have a tangible goal, then they should have a reason to work together to achieve that goal as quickly as possible.