[Kirthen]

Highdie Ho Everyone!

Im back after a few days and need some new ideas for my campaign im gonna be sarting for my group. All i need is a good way to fit in each person into without making them certain specified classes... so i got what will happen later on but the beginning is still a little skidish, so i cant make my campaign without a beginning

[Silver tears]

Are they new characters or experienced adventurers ?

[Kirthen]

They are experienced, i want them to meet under some extreme pressure or something with a lot of action that leads into a smaller picture that slopes into a huge event, i just need a way for them to meet as i said above.

[ladyofdragons]

Are you trying to create a campaign where you don't need a balanced party (i.e., your party has no cleric and no rogue)? or are the characters starting out as zero level peasants, and therefore are not classed? Or are you playing with a bunch of Gestalt characters (as defined in the Unearthed Arcana), where everyone has abilities from several classes?

Of course, all of the above questions really don't matter in the long run. A D&D campaign is best defined as "A set of adventures or overarching storyline that takes a group of adventurers and brings them up in experience". As long as you modify your adventures to not require the skills of a certain type, or give the party items that can make up for those abilities that are lacking (like bunches of healing potions to cover the lack of a cleric), your group should do just fine in any campaign you create.

[ladyofdragons]

Kirthen, on Jul 20 2004, 11:17 AM, said:

They are experienced, i want them to meet under some extreme pressure or something with a lot of action that leads into a smaller picture that slopes into a huge event, i just need a way for them to meet as i said above.

ah, that's a bit different.

meeting under extreme pressure with a lot of action that leads into a smaller picture that slopes into a huge event:

• Characters are the bare few survivors from a small army that has just gotten it's [CHAIR] handed to it. The evil warlord who has won and taken over the kingdom will need to be deposed.
  
• A plague has ravaged the land and only a few chosen people have survived. They are gathered together to build a new world and face the final battle against evil. (this, by the way, is the basic plot of Stephen King's The Stand).
  
• A summon monster spell cast by a wizard has drawn the characters together from their lives into the middle of a battle. The wizard does not survive the battle, leaving the party in the middle of an unknown dungeon with no idea where they are and how to get out.

[WoeTheSinner]

My favorite 'work together because you all have the same enemy' tactic is a ship. Say they are all heading off to some town somewhere to do something (hopefuly something heroic). The ship is attacked by pirates (Salt Dogs in my world )...battle ensues...make it clear to the PCs that they can not win. I generaly do this by telling them they are outnumbered 20 to 1. So that they are already in the mindset to run for it. Then have the pirates set the ship on fire and give your PCs enough time to get ashore to an uncharted island...

Once on the island anything is fair play...whatever your campaing calls for can happen. I like having them find some old relic or something that was thrown tot he remotest parts of the world so noone would ever find it ...DUM DUM DUM! >

I like changing up what the players thought was going to be a standard 'this town needs us to save it' mission. I think it adds more excitement to the adventure when they dont know what they will be facing.

Woe

[Kirthen]

Thanks for the ideas you two, never heard of the pirate ship one...nice idea, but in my campaign it wouldnt quite workout the plague one(Steven King scenario)is to extreme and wouldnt work for the plot i have going so the one with the war would work great, yes very good...then i can have this happen and this happen, and *lost in thoughts*...anyway thanks

[The_Bard]

ok i have a similar question so i guess it would make sense for me to make my own post but i am feeling lazy. so i have ideas of how to throw characters together but how do you make them stay together or give them incentive. For example lets say you use that island idea, and one character has some way of flying and everyone else doesn't. wouldn't it make sense for that character to leave, or lets even say no one can fly but there is a rogue character, that would want to join up with the pirates. It seems like the classes each have their own direction. A lot of times saving a certain town wouldn't necessarily interest a druid. it just seems like assuming your characters are role playing then they would break up and go different directions. In some cases it would make sense for them to work together cuz safety in numbers and i see how that could link some classes together, but like paladins often have different motives, druids, and other such classes. well if you have some help go ahead and post it for my lazy self that can't even make my own post.

[WoeTheSinner]

well in general i think we all count on a little bit of meta gaming to get the party together and make them friends...and once you and your friends save each others lives a few times well...you wouldnt abandont a friend like that would you? So in my mind the trick is to get them to be friends.

So lets go back to the island (which was an actual quest) On my island there was a cabal of wizards doing some nasty stuff trying to tap into an ancient power and all that fun stuff wizards do, these wizards hd placed various wards on the island preventing escape...various wards meaning DM perogative there is no flying off my island buddy! you can get in but you cant get out kinda stuff. Several of my more interesting pcs built a raft or tried to swim off...so i just kept teleporting them back when they reached a certain point...also it helped that the second they got on the island they were acosted by a band of goblins which almost overran them then they were saved by a nifty high druid that kinda set things into motion and told them they were all alone on this island except for him and his 1 ranger friend...

so after a long rant what im trying to say is make them fight together once or twice...after that they should be developing at least grudging frienship because after all that is the spirit of the game isnt it ? and once that happens they will stay together on their own

Woe

[Silver tears]

I think that the general idea is to cause a direct "menace" to all the pc ....

What I do is:

1. take all the caracters.... look at allignements.... and divide them into ali groups (these are the ones who have the most chance of getting friends)

2. take the groups and look at special, class, racial powers ....

3. Find what a group could find from the other

4. put a situation where the groups are interdependant and it works ....

For example ....

My present crew is :
Elven Fighter 1/Rogue 8 (CG)
Human fighter 7(CG)
Human fighter 5(LG)
Half-elf femal cleric 6 (NG)
Elven Invoker 6 (LN)
Human Paladin 5 (LG)
Elven Ranger 5 (CG)
Human Fighter 4 / cleric 2 (NG)

So the groups were simple ... separate elves and humans .... find why elves could use human and why humans would rely on man ....
(You only need some orcs for that)

Why the wizard who is LN would need a bunch of Good
(He is wanted for an injust crime he hasn't done)

ETC ..... the key is interdependance ....

[Darklook]

You just have to present them with something that threatens them all in some way. So that even if they don't want to work together, they will still have to focus on the same goal. This will eventually bring the party together if you play the right cards.

If the druid doesn't want to save the town, let him know that whatever is happening in the town will most likely affect the nearby forest, and an ancient tree exists within the forest.

But there are few people who just doesn't like to gulp down story hooks, and want to make their own storyline by doing something totally strange and unrelated to what's going on with the party. I usually try to shut them down as stealthily as I can, when I see someone trying to comepletey sever their connection with the group and go on in a completely different quest.

So for example, if the rogue wants to join in the pirate troupe, I let him, and then the pirate captain lets him know that they are planning to rob the town the party is currently trying to save. And it works too, they don't feel that I am trying to interfere with their roleplaying and this way I can still make all of players become involved with my storyline.

I am not suggesting forcing a plot on the party however, it is always best to let them decide what to do. But sometimes it is required that you step in to make everyone happy but still have the ability to have a nice flowing storyline (and not an abrupt one where everyone is doing their own things..trust me you won't like it and neither will the players).

[ladyofdragons]

I've always felt that as players, it is our duty to create characters that have a reason to work together, or to mould our characters and interact with other characters in a way to build bonds of friendship or loyalty and reasons to maintain a party.

I mean, it's the GM's responsibility to set everything up and create worlds and scenarios and maintain order and play NPCs and direct combat and manage experience and tons of other things. The least we can do in return as players is to try and collaborate with eachother and coordinate our characters' ties within the party. A bit of out-of-game discussion between players with the GM as moderator can help to create direction for in-game social interactions, and can help the GM create opportunities for those characters to grow.

Now, this is not to say that strife can't exist within this atmosphere. Most families have conflict, nobody's lovey-dovey all the time. Most people have worked a job where one or more people just get on your nerves and you want to hit them with a mallet. But as in life, these conflicts have to be resolved, or put aside, or you just find another job. And if your character decides that this group isn't for him, then fine. But the next one you roll up you need to target somewhere in his mental makeup the right social attitude that will interact well with the party he's going to be in. Several times I've seen people create a character who's personality just didn't work out with the rest of the party, or headed in a direction that really wasn't expected. In these cases, we tend to either drop the character and create a new suitable one that may work better, or arrange an in-game event that helps to adjust the character's personality or the rest of the party's view of the situation.

Anyway, long story short: As a player, it's your game too, and well worth doing some work to make it enjoyable. If your character is reacting badly with the rest of the party, then something needs to change.

[Ssri-Tel-Quessir Hitokiri]

One thing that you can do is use a bit of GM power and set some of the background for each character. It doesn't have to be much more than telling the characters that you guys have known each other for various time periods and know strengths and weaknesses and such of each person. Using a tad of "six degress of seperation," you could have the entire group be brought together by, for example, the bard of the group (assuming that you have one, of course). The bard knew the fighter and wizard for some time. The fighter knew the cleric and rogue and throught they might be a fun addition to the group. The wizard knows another fighter, who in turn knows (insert other random class). That way some relationships are already developed in the group. It is usually better if you can have multiple characters be the link but that is up to you as the GM.

Also, just because you know someone does not mean that you like them. You just recognize that the person would be useful to the group.

Tip: If you are going to do something like this, then it would be good if the characters had at least a couple levels (at least 2nd level characters) because it will work easier to explain how people know each other.

[Silver tears]

I tried to put that tactic in my game, ....

It worked for some but not for others so check out the characters.....

Example ...
The Priestess of pleasures and the barbarian fighter had an affair ... so these two characters where doing and are doing great along....

The elven Ranger and the elven wizard....
Since all elves are searching to kill the wizard, the Ranger heard about that and tries to protect the wizard.... but the ranger became nothing more than a bodyguard for the wizard and now the ranger's player want's to quit the group ...

[WoeTheSinner]

well to be a bit blunt, you need to have a group of players who wants to be a group of players...i have a good friend who likes to make trouble in every one of my capaigns...everyone wants to go save the kidnapped child except for him...after he makes his argument about why he wont go and everyone is going but him he thinks better about what hes doing and goes to help his friends not because he wants to save the child but because they are his friends

ps it doesnt hurt to dangle a monetary reward in his face