Getting the characters together....

[Palskane]

How do you get all the characters together, and make it interesting and believeable?

I've DM'd for awhile now (10+ years), but I'm starting a new game this coming weekend with more players than I've ever had (8). What are some good ideas to actually get the characters together as a group so that they /stay/ together to form a team?

 

[S'mon]

I find that "you're a band of adventurers" works pretty well.

"You're a band of retainers in service to the Baron" works good too, giving them a boss who sends them on missions helps group cohesion, gives them someone to relate to and makes them feel more like part of the setting.

 

[Randolpho]

The problem is so big for me as a DM (I like to write believable stories), that I pass the buck.

I set aside at least an hour or two for the players to come up with a believable back-story for why their PCs know each other. This usually involves a few slight rewrites (or initail writes in some cases) of the individual PC backstories. I take an active role in it, adding plot hooks I prefer to use (mentors, family, government, etc.), and we go from there.

 

[Sodalis]

why stress over it? I have found that the best (and easiest) way of doing it is to have your PCs email you (or tell it on the first adv) their character background and also how they came to know each other. this forces them to talk to each other before hand and work out the quirks of each relationship. When you finally come into the piocture, they would alredy have their char concpet worked out, as well as how they got together and their goals- and also their place (niche) in the group.

saves youa lot of work and stress...

 

[JoeGKushner]

When I GM, rarely does everyone in the party start off knowing one another. One character will now one or two of the other ones, and they in turn will know one or two others ones, etc... Kinda like roleplayers. When you first get together, you might not be familiar with everyone, but somewhere along the line, someone had to introduce you to one another.

Of course, that's for standard adventurerers. For other types of games, there can be a much tighter reign of control. Soldiers, mercenaires, slaves, or other odd ball assortments that just have to get along to survive.

 

[Crothian]

Personally I like have the Party all ready know each other. How is up to the characters and the players.

In the current campaigns I'm playing in both the DMs had us hired out by the same person and we became a group that way.