Comments

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  cgregory

  Posts: 780 August 2016

  There are a couple ways to do that. The first is to write down the goals of each of the characters and see if you can make some links between the various goals.

  For example, lets say one character wants to go off and kill a lich, another wants to catch a notorious thief.  You could have news/rumour suggesting that the thief had just recently a powerful item used against undead. Give them a reason to team up.

  If you have access to the Dresden Files RPG, i'd highly recommend reading the character generation section specifically the sections tittled "What Was Your First Adventure?", "Whose Path Have You Crossed?" And "Who Else's Path Have You Crossed?"

  You can add those three steps to character creation of any game and it will help create that bond you are looking for. 

   Actually i found a website that talks about those sections. 

  http://www.rickneal.ca/?p=614

  Maybe you can think about adding that to you guys character creation still.

  They are among us!

  

                     XCom: Defiance - Campaign of the Month November 2016

   

   
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  jjhighberger

  Posts: 9 August 2016

  I think the biggest problem is more that they have no 'real' goals as of yet. The RP aspect is too new to us all and I'm not sure how to pursue certain things. I believe it didn't help that in my noobish attempt at a home brew and just learning the game, didn't have them give their back stories until 3rd level while I was looking for inspirations and fishing for hooks. After I had railroaded the 1st 3 levels I was looking to make more of an open world, being inspired by 'Critical Role', therefore seeking the camaraderie that they have in character. 
  
  The more I think about this I realize there are some things that do tie the group together in a trusting sort of way. I just need to find that one hook that gives them all a common purpose to build upon.

  To add to the idea of the party dynamic, we basically have two groups, 2 players are new and didn't participate in the 1st story arc, They were easier to tie together and have a 'history' together (part of a recently fallen party - only survivors) and a similar back story (parents killed - find out who/why.)  The original 3 went through the 1st 3 levels and encountered a young black dragon, through negotiations completed the arc with a main antagonist who tasked them to find items for him. The base party has a goal of relocating the dragon for who know what purpose yet. The newbies joined the party out of necessity and are just kind of following along after negotiating their way in with the group. 
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  Jim_Mount

  Posts: 162 August 2016

  Every campaign, the first session is "cooperative party building" based on this article. For Age of Serpents, it was very important to establish ties because the PCs were expected to trust each other strait away in an emergency. So here is a copy of my notes from the first session, adapted from DM Samuel's wonderful technique...

  COOPERATIVE PARTY BUILDING

  Prong 1: Have each player describe his PC to the others:

  1)        Describe the PC in terms of race, appearance, quirks, clothing, attitude, and weaponry.  This does not include personality, because I want personality to come out in role-playing.
  
  2)    Discuss backgrounds.  Some of the PCs in this game have pasts that may be considered... sketchy, so it is important for them to decide how much the other PCs might know.
  
  Step 1—Homeland, Family, and Childhood: Determine the circumstances of your birth, your parents’ profession, and a major childhood event (see pages 16–24). To determine the number of siblings you have, roll on the table appropriate for your race. For each sibling you have, roll on table 1–22 (see page 19) to determine the relative age of the sibling.
  
  Step 2—Adolescence and Training: Determine the circumstances and events that defined your adolescence and the training you received, as well as create an influential associate from this time in your life (see pages 25–45).
  
  Step 3—Moral Conflict, Relationships, and Vulnerabilities: Determine a major conflict in your past, the other party involved, and how you resolved the conflict. Also determine your romantic relationships, relationships with fellow adventurers, and personality drawbacks (see pages 46–51).
  
      Everyone should state where they boarded the Jenivere, and what they typically do aboard the ship—find out their campaign background trait. They may say why if they are inclined. What is their relationship to the other passengers and crew?
  
  3)    After descriptions are given, each player chooses one other PC, and describes how their characters met. The scene may be roleplayed. You may not choose the same person who chose you. Then they must decide one interesting thing they noticed about the character. If this is difficult, the player may roll on the "Relationship with Fellow Adventurers" table in Ultimate Campaign.
  
  4)    What does your character expect to find or accomplish in the jungle? General goals question.
  
  5)    Discuss the “finishing moves.” If your character was a Mortal Combat character, what would her over-the-top Finishing Move be?
  
  6)    What is your PC’s biggest regret? (this should be something that they had the ability to affect and they chose not to, not something that they had no control over).
  
  7)    Finally, ask this in order: If your character was an animal, what do you think it be and why? What animal do you think best describes your associate? Record these.

  Prong 2: Have players answer questions (asked by me) with the following parameters:

  1)        Answer as the character sees it.
  
  2)    Only the person asked gets to answer the question, even though the answer may affect the other PCs.
  
  3)    Be interesting.  This is what makes for great experiences.
  
  4)    You may include stuff about the other PCs, but you may not make anyone look like a jerk or a buffoon.
  
  5)    Ask each question, with maybe a follow-up or two.

  So What were the Questions?

  1)    You feel that you owe one of these passengers your life.  Who is it, and why? This can be something that occurred in the distant past, or something more recent that happened aboard the boat trip.

  2)    Who among your fellow passengers strikes you as a natural leader?  Why? (this is a question about leadership as the PC sees it, not about PC roles)

  3)    What is one thing that so-and-so is good at that has nothing to do with adventure training?

  4)    Who do you trust the most and why?  Who do you trust the least, and why?

  5)    You have a friendly competition going with one of the others. This can be a shared skill, hobby differing means to accomplish a similar result, or something like an interest in rival sports teams or political figures.

  6)    One of the other PCs has a secret or suspicious desire. Can you speculate on what this might be?

  Prong 3: Determine the existing relationships within the party.

  This prong usually happens as a result of prongs 1 and 2 above.  During the course of the session, players may find that their PCs have things in common.  For example: they are from the same region, they are both running from the law, they are both outcasts from their respective social groups/societies, they are both good at a particular skill or knowledge (and the reason why that is the case).  

  Players may also find that their PCs have differences that may make the game interesting.  For example: one of them might have spent their childhood as a street urchin living off of trash while another is from a noble family, one of them may be from the forest heavily steeped in fey traditions which another has never been out of the urban sprawl in which he grew up.

  Use these similarities and differences to bind different members of the party to each other.  Have them talk about the general goals of the party.  Once they determine what each individual PCs motivation is, it may be easier for them to form natural connections.

  ~ JIM,
  
  
  
  Campaign of the Month, September 2016
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  cgregory

  Posts: 780 August 2016

  Nice article Jim. Reminds me of Night's Black Agents for character generation with the trust most and trust least. 

  They are among us!

  

                     XCom: Defiance - Campaign of the Month November 2016

   

   
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  weasel0

  Posts: 435 August 2016

  I like combination die rolling and BP styles. One thing to do is take a few BPs off the top and relegate them to back story award. Write a good enough back story(where from, maybe some friends and their interests, family and interests, and a loose goal in life) and you get them all. If not, well...maybe if we don't forget about them you can fill in the blanks later in play and gain them then.

  ~Weasel0

  A Parade of Black | ShadowRunHack |

  Where I play with CSS code
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  ketherian

  Posts: 203 August 2016

  Hi jjhighberger, 

  Jim_Mount's list (posted previously) is by and away the best list of things to ask and do to build party cohesion. My own style is more loose - I ask the party to help me tell the best story possible. I try to keep rewards and repercussions in character at the table, but don't hesitate to talk to a party member away from the game to try and smooth out problems.

  The only thing I'd recommend is to be up-front with the party and explain why you want them to work on the relationships between the characters. And be willing to negotiate. Players are awesome at coming up with unexpected solutions. 

  Ketherian
  Signs & Portends, Dwarves of Lost Koldukar, In a certain realm
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  jjhighberger

  Posts: 9 August 2016

  Awesome feed back everyone. Thank you very much.

  Jim especially, I love how that looks to pan out. However starting without this is a mistake i'm going to have to learn to live with. I've had them already do their back stories, unfortunately i did it one-on-one with them due to limited game time availability. Not to mention this is a campaign we are picking back up on after a yr or so hiatus. Some of the players are new, to fill in where others aren't rejoining.  The first session back played out pretty well, save the one player kinda railroading the rest into following him around towards the end of the nite. The new arrivals definitely earned their place (trust) in the party. Now to get the older party to make bonds that tell a story. 
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  sabian2505

  Posts: 5 August 2016

  I use guilds/factions with common goals to bring the characters together. It works 60% of the time. If that fails I make a common enemy that the problem children (ones who care more about the fight/ mechanics instead of vesting into characters as a person), this villain has to be special, so foul that the meta player has to hate him on a personal level. A necromancer who defiles and reanimates children, a barbarian tribe who raids the village and rapes/kidnaps an npc whom the player has a romantic/sexual relationship with. Once this player has a vested intrest emotionally keep, clues, ties, and plots of this foul villain, reoccurring theme in game. The key for hack/slash player in a party of rp players is getting him/her emotionally invested as a person. ask things of the player like favorite books, movies, and characters of either, what they liked about the character, would they like their character to be more like them?, what villian did they hate most and why, then incorporate this into the game. So far so good using these to hook hack/slash players into emotionally investing into their character.
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  Keryth987

  Posts: 1,047 August 2016

  Well, when I'm not running a FATE system campaign (FATE has the whole connections to each other built into the character creation) I rely on both my players to find their own reason to stick together, as well as the story I have in mind. Sometimes this is easy - The group is wanted for a murder they didn't commit, they've all been prophesied as the only ones who can stop an impending apocalypse, things like that. Other times, I'll nudge them into their characters realizing they need one another to accomplish their individual goals. 

   

  Id a player is truly disruptive (something I've not had to deal wiht in ages) and insisting on his character going one way and the PC's the other, then something has to be worked out OCCly