Hi all,

I am just curious, when you are starting a game, whether it is D&D or something else do you start out where all of the players know each other

I like to bring people together and give them time to roleplaying meeting each other.

The only time I will have the party already know each other is when I am running a one shot and time is of the essence. 

Which way do you do it and why?  I am curious to hear how others bring a party together.

I fall on the "they already know each other" side. I'll take their character sheets and write out an original to explain how they know each other. I also, typically, have new players be upgraded henchmen or I'll have new characters be someone that the players have met before. Either previously in the game (related to some group the players encountered) or just someone that they met during their downtime.

I get the characters, then I create a first adventure that weaves them together organically.

It's obviously a lot more work, and if a player flakes out for the session it leaves me scrambling; but I take pride in my GM'ing.

"You have gathered around a dinner table in the Gold Dragon Inn, in the center of town, to discuss your plans."

This doesn't work so well with other genres, but for D&D there's no reason to have elaborate backstories for adventuring.

Either way works.

I conceptually like the, "At least some of the party members know each other," but I'm not going to force people to do it. Sometimes you get those bad combinations where two characters are supposed to be closest of close friends who covered each others behinds in some past incidents -- And then in actual play, the character personalities don't mesh at all.

Depends on how I'm starting the campaign. The last one I ran, the characters all started as standing in front of the local ruler, having all just been let out of the lockup. Worked for that group and their character mix. Sometimes it's the old "There you all are, having a drink in the tavern..."

Last night I said 'You all met at the pub last night and decided to go adventuring"

I've played both.  More often than not recently, the folks I game with ask for back stories which are then used to bring the party together.

I don't want to spend a lot of game time on that stuff in the first session when play starts.  It can drag out with some players--and I have some of those in my typical groups.

Now, depending on the nature of the campaign, and how and when we are making characters, some of that might happen before play starts.  Which I don't mind, as a very minimal "background" kind of thing.  This happens sometimes with characters that are being "rolled up" just before play starts.  There's a lot of chatter about it as we do it, and someone makes a remark about the characters knowing each other, and off we go.  But that's a social aspect of joint character creation.

Otherwise, it's in the context of the adventure.  If it's a bunch of pre-gens "all from the same village", then of course they all know each other to some degree.  If it's a jailbreak start, then they probably just met.  Either way, they get to know each other better during the adventure. 

My last major adventure setup used a twist to give me some of each side.  Every player is attached to a large trade caravan that has stopped for some time near the adventure location.  I wanted that specifically because I did not want any character to be from the local area, but did want them to have some vague idea of each other.  They joined this caravan several weeks ago for their own reasons, and when the adventure started they were brief acquaintances.  Easy.

My current favorite game, Beyond The Wall, creates the bonds between pcs during character creation. But otherwise I'll echo the "it depends" sentiment.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on April 03, 2023, 11:52:11 AM
I don't want to spend a lot of game time on that stuff in the first session when play starts.  It can drag out with some players--and I have some of those in my typical groups.

This is true, especially if someone really wants to get into role playing their character and explain their entire background.

Quote from: Joey2k on April 03, 2023, 12:08:00 PM
My current favorite game, Beyond The Wall, creates the bonds between pcs during character creation. But otherwise I'll echo the "it depends" sentiment.

Interesting concept.   Though after reading the description of Beyond the Wall the system wouldn't be for me.

Not that you were suggesting it.  I just read the description having never heard of it before.

Quote from: GhostNinja on April 03, 2023, 12:26:56 PM

Quote from: Joey2k on April 03, 2023, 12:08:00 PM
My current favorite game, Beyond The Wall, creates the bonds between pcs during character creation. But otherwise I'll echo the "it depends" sentiment.

Interesting concept.   Though after reading the description of Beyond the Wall the system wouldn't be for me.

Not that you were suggesting it.  I just read the description having never heard of it before.

If it's the tone/theme that doesn't work for you (young adult fantasy), it has a sister game called Through Sunken Lands aimed at a more sword and sorcery feel (think Howard, Moorcock, Lieber)

Quote from: Joey2k on April 03, 2023, 01:21:26 PM
If it's the tone/theme that doesn't work for you (young adult fantasy), it has a sister game called Through Sunken Lands aimed at a more sword and sorcery feel (think Howard, Moorcock, Lieber)

Thank you.  I will give it a look over.

I will pretty much always start the campaign with the PCs as at least acquaintances. Doing meet-cutes for 5 or 6 characters is way too much, especially when it's a foregone conclusion that they're going to choose to adventure together anyway. I do generally have new characters that join mid-campaign start as strangers, though. It's more manageable when it's just one character to introduce, and it stretches plausibility for the PCs to be bumping into people they know everywhere they go.

The exception I make to that is if the introductory adventure is going to push them together anyway. So that'd be stuff like starting the PCs off as prisoners or just opening the campaign with them already having contracted to do something. Modiphius adventures are generally kind of trash, but I like the way the introductory adventure in the Conan 2d20 book sets it up. It starts all the PCs as the only survivors of an ambush, trapped behind enemy lines. I might steal that some day.