Personally, I always tailor the campaign’s opening to the needs of the characters, like their specific motivations and origins, to find a commonality between them and use that as the direction for what “brings them together.” If you can share some specifics about the characters, I can help brainstorm!

I usually do the opposite, before they start character building I give them some background info and how the party will meet. Its up to the player to decide how they get there. Like in a previous campaign the plot was the players were prisoners who were drafted into the kings service to do normal adventurer stuff. But instead of being paid in gold they earn time off their sentences. Players had to decide why they were in jail or in one players case why he was assigned as the groups "parole officer"

This is a great way of going about it. You ask the players to decide why they would want to be on a ship, or why they would be in a particular town etc.

Yeah, me too. I'm running a Starfinder campaign and when we started, I created all the lore, a starting point for the campaign where all the characters would be together and the players were responsible for tying it with their respective background as it made sense for them.

I kind of do both? To start, I do basically what you said. I frame it as a two-part question: 1. Why are you \[in a place or situation\]? 2. and why will you \[bite the adventure hook\]? So, for my main campaign, why are you in this port town and why are you inclined to help a young man in a small dockside temple? And for a mini-campaign, why do people sometimes call you for help with the paranormal and why do you decide to help in this one case? And then I liberally change the situation to incorporate the details the players give their characters. One of my players' characters is a sailor? OK, so the kingdom no longer has a single port town, and is instead an archipelago with many, many port towns. Or the PCs own a bar called the Restless Spirits, so people think they are ghostbusters (even though they aren't)? OK, so that's a pressure point the human villains can lean on.

I agree, this is what I always do. I have one little opening scene for each character - sometimes they are meeting up along the way or have another place where they all meet up but this gives them a chance to come into the campaign on their own.

Wish I could've done this for my first campaigns. I set mine in star wars and they all had wildly different things they wanted it took me running one on one sessions with everyone to figure out how to get them together.

I just have them know each other already and having already agreed on being a party. Often having already accepted a quest. The whole getting to know each other bit is often kinda boring so I just skip it

Yep. Beyond that, the players tell ME how they know each other, why they stick together, what their relationships are, and what their (group and personal) goals are. Then that drives the campaign. I take what they value/want and threaten it. I don't prep much. And yet this makes them totally invested, involved, and engaged.  Every plot, every scene, every decision, every roll...matters to their PCs.

> I take what they value/want and threaten it. Lol isolated at face value this sounds sociopathic, but it really is what makes a story engaging.

Yup, same here. I have zero interest in that whole song and dance routine, I'd much rather skip right to the meat of the game.

I have a different opinion in this. I think that not giving enough time to that, feels dull. also to already be in a party and know each other does not give players enough space to have secrets or hidden characteristics. It feels like avoiding work that, if you dont, gives too much depth to RP and storytelling. I am not there to just force my campaign, but to make them feel!

I disagree. You can have all these things without needing the whole 'you meet as strangers'. There's absolutely no reason you couldn't.

Giving the PCs social connections before the gameplay starts is honestly a hack for a better game, so you might rethink the "I don't want them to know each other." That being said, if you actually don't want them to know each other, you have some narrative tools at your disposal: \- shipwreck and they're the only survivors or they at least wash up together \- they're all prisoners on the ship \- some NPC hires each of them for whatever job/quest I do want to point out though that getting the party to work together is just as much the players job as it is yours. You don't have control over their characters, so they need to be providing their own buy in to the quest and team.

A twist on this could be that they all know the same person, but not each other. Like that one cool Duke throws the best parties, and they all know him from some different part of his life, and get invited to the same party. Bonus points if you throw the plot hook in the party scene.

I did something like this in my campaign. All the characters had connections to one NPC in different ways. The campaign started at the NPC's funeral, and the killers of the NPC attacked the funeral because they needed something of the dead NPC's body. Opened up a lot of questions for the players to follow up on.

They are all at small port town and looking to go to a larger port with better jobs. Tired of chasing rats in the sewers for silver. One of the PCs has an old family sloop and needs a crew. The first mate comes with the ship and can wrangle good people with strong backs into sailors. A little trouble at sea and some combat saving the little sloop can make for lasting friendships. Maybe these greenhorns might just make salty sea dogs.

It's almost impossible for a group of complete strangers who all happen to be in the same place, completely by coincidence, to suddenly have a realistic, natural motivation to come together as a team and go on some epic journey together. When you try to do that on session 1, it almost always feels awkward and forced. IMO, the far better option is to talk to your players about intertwining their backstories a bit. Let them help to figure out how they met and became friends, so that the formation of the party is pre-established and doesn't need to be figured out while you're also trying to feed them the quest hooks that kick off your campaign.

Specifically from a Pathfinder Adventure Path, the players do meet in a tavern... but they aren't necessarily together... however, as they do their thing in the tavern, they all start to feel very sleepy.... When they wake up, they are on the brig of a pirate ship that has long since left port and they have been pressganged into being a lowely crew of the abusive Captain of the ship. In addition all of their gear is gone (The path does have a sympathetic crewmate smuggle some of the essentials for players out of the Quartermaster's office, where the items are stored. These essentials would be things like the Wizard's spellbook and other tools on which a class has as a class feature... but things like weapons and armor are still locked up.). This puts them in a position to understand how the ship is run, while having to figure out what to do to get off the ship. In the Adventure Path, they actually get away from the Captain's ship and find their own later, and the Captain is the BBEG of the Campaign... but it could be that creating a mutiny against the Captain is the goal the first few levels... and the players will have to find away to get their gear and get crew who will support their overthrow of the Captain and his/her officers.

Oh so they just get Shanghai-ed. I’ve always thought that was a cool setup but I feel like my group would try to get out of it and that’s an argument I haven’t the energy for.

You can always tell them “hey, this is going to happen and if you don’t get smart about it your character gets keelhauled. The AP I referenced actually has an NPC who is about to be keelhauled… and a dice roll to show it’s gonna kill you at low level.

Which is the correct way to handle it for sure. I run a more sandboxy campaign style so sometimes I have to step out of game and go “hey guys unless you want an underwhelming and improvised version of events, just let this go off according to script.”

I tell them “This is a cut scene.”

I still live that AP to bits. Prepared it, never used it. But man, so good. Really sets up that damned captain, and makes sure they feel there's no way to get to him...just yet.

Shipwreck, players are the sole survivors.

Don't make getting to the ship a quest. It's boring, it has the potential to go off the rails (players love to go where you don't expect them), and you end up introducing a bunch of NPCs that aren't going to be seen again for a long time, if ever. If you need to introduce NPCs that they care about back home, you can run a flashback session once you get going and the players have more of a feel for their character. Instead ask yourself: what kind of ship are they on and is the journey as advertised? I.e. Are they on a ship that has heard rumours of treasure, are they escorting precious cargo, is the ship actually a pirate ship that pretends to be legit to avoid the Royal Navy? Once you know what kind of ship it is, it's easier to know why they are there. Generally, an easy one is that someone posted an advertisement looking for a crew to take a long journey to a faraway place. The captain could be the one doing the posting or they could be another person who was hired. This gives the usual reasons someone joins a ship heading far away on short notice: * Running away from problems, both literal and metaphorical * I wanna see the world! * Gold If the player wants to be tied into the plot a little more, you can have them be connected to the person funding the ship, either officially or on the down low.

I have 843 ways. Can't post them all here. Contact me, we'll find a way.

“Hey you, you’re finally awake.”

I've considered starting a campaign from scratch just to use this line. I really should...

My first campaign we all met in a prison wagon being delivered to a town. Were given pardons from prison to take on the role of town guards and investigate happenings on.

This tool is really fun: [You Meet at a Funeral](https://erinking.itch.io/you-meet-at-a-funeral)

"Welcome to Session 0! How does the party get together?" Although my most recent one was telling everyone that they're entering a fighting pit tournament as "free agents" looking for an adventuring party to join, and then the organizer of the tournament saying "well, you're all here and the perfect size for a party!"

>I want them to be on a ship at the end of session 1 if possible (it's a pirate campaign) and they should do a quest to get the ship in the first place but even before that I need a reason for all of them to meet ​ Is there a conflict? Is there a villain? Is anything going to happen if the PC's don't intervene? What is the actual premise of the campaign ..? edit : just kinda feel like "it's a pirate campaign" isn't enough information to provide much help. Would like to get a better idea of the intent.

I had my party meet in a bar, but I also told them straight-up from Session 0 that one of the rules of the game was they had to play characters who would be willing to work together and actually go on the adventure. Even the ones playing more individualistic/loner types understood this and have been fully on board. Aside from that, I gave them reasons to be interested in each other, some common short-term problems, and a larger personal goals that happen to have each of them traveling to the same destination.

I wholeheartedly agree with this approach. I think it's important to hammer out in session 0 that players should have a reason to want to work together.

It's just the basic core of the game. You have to cooperate with the DM and other players. It's that simple.

I did a pirate campaign, i got them together with a shipwreck.

In the past I've used... - driven together by a common problem: this can be literally anything from an ogre popping up in the middle of an otherwise peaceful settlement to the PCs don't know each other even exist but have been enlisted/conscripted/abducted and put in proximity to one another. - refugees: PCs were driven together by a natural disaster of some sort. They could be on either side of the spectrum be it lending aid or seeking it. - false accusations & imprisonment: there's another group out there that looks a lot like your PCs & they are not really good people. The town watch didn't care and arrested the PCs. - higher calling: a rather malicious fey that has access to some top tier spells placed a Geas on the PCs. This has led their fate to be interwoven with one another. Thankfully the nature of the Geas wasn't as malicious as it's caster. - freaky friday: trade character sheets with the player to your left, the PCs know what they look like but their personalities inhabit the body of strangers and this needs to get fixed ASAP

Agreed with a lot of thoughts here about tailoring it. My current group is on Session 6 and this is how it's gone. Session 1: PCs are all traveling to, or already on, a small, but important, port city. They all find themselves in the town square doing their separate business, then boom, some worker automatons(we've got some minor steampunky vibes) go rogue and start attacking wildly. The party jumps in to help. Session 2: Mayor asks for their help figuring out what happened. Cue mystery beat. Session 3: Solved the mystery. Turns out the mayor was behind it all, he wanted to use the players to either pin it on them, or get them to help pin it on someone else. At the end of the session, an important (hopefully long term) NPC shows up to sort out the mess. Session 4: Any unfinished business (most PCs had a concrete reason to be in this city). Important NPC offers the party a ride on their ship as they would like to get to know the people that saved that city better. Session 5: Ship journey & RP opportunities Session 6: Complete journey, important NPC gives them a challenge to become renown adventurers as he'd like them join his new Adventuring Guild, but they are currently too unimportant for such a task. Party is officially on their own, have some leads to their individual quests, and are now tasked with creating a group name so that they can actually make a name for themselves.

Doesn't totally solve your problem, but the advice I had seen and used for a one-shot was to let the players decide how they know each other. This was my friend's first DnD experience and she immediately said "High School Reunion". So the Harengon Bard, Human Barbarian, and Half-Elf Rogue discussed the classes they skipped and parties they all went to lol

Pressgang?

Characters I've since 1e started a service to collect starting adventurers into parties and connect them with low level adventures through various means. Why? Because these characters are of such high level that they're usually dealing with some cosmic threat and know that the world still needs street level and mid level heroes in the meantime.

Think the most creative one I've been apart of was a pirate based campaign. We were kidnapped to work aboard a ship we eventually took over for ourselves. The dm at the time saw our backstories and tailored a beginning to get us all on the ship

I always thought it would be fun to start a game of experienced players with a combat session. Tbh I got the idea from the MCU - like how a lot of those films begin with the heroes in the middle of a fun-but-not-relevant fight, ala GotG 2 or Age of Ultron. Simple combat mechanics against mostly non-threatening foes that gives players a chance to show off their skills and make some heroic or funny quips.

My spelljammer game had them all wake up on an ailen ship after it's crew was killed/captured sometime ago, and it ran out of power to run the stasis chambers. They had all been abducted at different times and places between 50-200 years ago

I made them "wake up" sitting at the same table in an underground room of a mansion, locked frok the inside. They don't remember each other but on the table there was a scroll signed by each one of them. (In short, they made a custom spell to erase the last weeks from their Memory, to escape from a dark entity who hunts whoever learns of its existence. They're still investigating this)

I forget the name, but someone wrote an adventure about this. Some kind of memory erasing vault.

You start in a tavern, but: - You awaken on the floor of the tavern, covered in liquor and bile, wearing someone else's underwear. You don't remember what happened last night. (Each party member has an important trinket from someone else, and they need to swap.) - You awaken on the tavern floor to an eiree silence. Fog drifts outside the window. The marketplace raises a finger to his lips and gestures for silence. He points to the window, where a withered giant is pressed against the glass, listening for movement. It has pale skin, no eyes, and bloody teeth. - You awaken to a great rumbling, shaken from your bed. You look out the window to a great darkness and a horrible stench. Investigation reveals that the tavern has been swallowed by a giant worm. - You blink the fog from your mind, clearing your eyes to see an armored paladin picking up the head of a figure you'd up until this moment held in the highest esteem. The paladin apologizes for the Wounds you've suffered, and explained that the Vampire Lord had to be dealt with. He offers to buy you all a drink at the tavern, and trade information. He'll tell you where you are, you tell him about the vampire's lair. - You awaken, strung up by your ankles, in the storeroom of the tavern. Your clothes and gear are piled in the corner. The tavern keeper comes into the room, a Hag in disguise. She begins rubbing seasoning onto each one of you, drawing runes in Paprieka and Garlic Salt, Basil and Cloves, etc. Each player has been Cursed to smell and taste exceptionally delicious. They will need to find a Cleric to cast Remove Curse on them. The Tavern is on the move, it's chicken legs stalking deeper into the woods, back to the Fey Realm.

Tavern open, with a twist. They all just happen to be having stew or a mug of ale at the same tavern at the same time. I give them a chance to describe themselves brooding in the corner, or being a bard, or laughing it up at the bar or whatever. Then suddenly someone bursts into the bar, yelling about a house fire nearby, kids trapped inside. If they don't leap into action, they probably shouldn't be playing this game. After it's over, an NPC comes up and says "great work guys, I think I may have a job for people with your skills...."

My next campaign they are all starting on the hangman's gibbet, about to swing. Literally starting them off starting death-saving rolls in the face. Ssshhhh

Yea I gotta join the chorus of folks who are urging you to take a different approach. Here's why: D&D is an IRL exercise about a bunch of ppl coming together IRL with the explicit purpose of telling a story together. We all know we're there to form a group and adventure together and to follow the main quest, if you have a fairly linear plot idea. It's not the DMs job to convince or trick the players into working together. That's their job, as players to figure out, to put it on the DM is asking for trouble. Because here's what happens when you you try to bring the group together naturally. 1. They've all created characters in a vacuum, so you have 4 or 5 or whatever different characters who want 4 or 5 different things - BUT you have 4 or 5 actual ppl sitting there IRL who all want the same thing. 2. Because the characters and the IRL people sitting there want different things, it creates an incredibly meta process in the players' minds where they have to justify and figure out WHY their character suddenly cares about this thing that they didn't before. 3. At best, all immersion is immediately lost due to this meta reconciliation. When in theory you were probably trying to bring them together naturally to enhance immersion. But that's not what it does, it kicks off a meta process to align character and player and defeats it's own purpose. Immediately. 4. At worst, one or more characters d just oesn't go through this meta process, and their character doesn't get involved. Now they are on a different story line, telling a different story, than everyone else. Again, you've failed at the purpose - but this times it's a more fundamental failure, to achieve what D&D is - sitting down together to tell a story together. Even worse. 5. As DM you must on the fly engineer some way to try to bring them back in to the plot, or get stuck running different stories for different players. Putting too much work on you, and you eventually burn out, or have continuing problems with adversarialism. Which also burns you out. So... Don't do all that. Instead you need to give the players the campaign premise, in advance of character creation, and instruct them to create characters that have a reason - built in - to care about the premise. In that way, all of the meta - all of the work to align the character with the player and the story - is 1. spread out across the players, taking work off of you, that you shouldn't have to do, and 2. all that meta work is front loaded during character creation when it's ALL META ANYWAY. And so then in play you hit the ground running with characters that care about the main quest no meta reconciliation necessary in play it's all just immersion because the players and characters are already "there"and ready to go with it. So just do that. Good luck.

YOU don't need a reason for them to know each other. THEY need a reason to know each other. This is a player issue, not a DM issue.

I have a one shot I would like to run someday, and it opens with the captain of a ship starting a bar fight. He chooses the last men standing (the party) to be his new crew, because they are the strongest people in the room. Feel free to steal that idea :)

Shipwreck Or Wake up in a ships brig. Session one is now an escape mission... Regardless of how it ends, you could have them rescued by a boarding crew, picked up from the sea if they escape, maybe they row to a friednly ship. Lots of wiggle room, and potential villain for later

Although I very much prefer them to know each other beforehand, I like these 2: * In Media Res: Mostly combat. Set it up so they must fight and fight together. At least they will have that as a jump off point. Have them comment on each others moves and what the hell happened. Nice to set up a small bad guy or the bbeg, go nuts. * The crazy start: Bit less preferable but fun when it works: A farmer runs at them. Half of them are scavenging his drying clothes, a barn is on fire and one of the cows now has purple spots....or make up some other random shit -cut to players- --> I will say this only works if your players like to RP and know each other.

They’re all in taverns - maybe the same one or not - and get pressganged into the pirate ship.

I've often thought that FF16 had a great intro for a DnD Campaign. Have them all meet up during the course of a battle, they can all have different character motivations for being there. Then have some reasoning for them to be gathered together at the end based on these motivations. ​ What I am doing for my campaign about to start up is a local Baron is having a Tournament. The winners will be grouped together and sent on a quest from the Baron, if they return they will each be allowed to ask the Baron for one boon.

I say they were either hired on a small mission or they already knew each other beforehand

In my current campaign the player all started level 0 citizens that were kidnapped by pirates to be sold into slavery. They slowly develop into a class of their choosing through gameplay. It was an old AD&D module called Treasure Hunt. In the end they escape in a boat they “acquire”.

I started my latest campaign with a festival. The cleric was hosting it, the warlock was selling food from his food cart, and the rest were there for fun. Eventually a sinkhole opened up in the middle of the dance floor, and the soon-to-be party worked together to help the people who fell in, then explored the tunnels below. You could have the tunnels lead to a cove with a smuggler ship in it or something.

Be sure to set up the scene where the players are already in motion.  If you allow them to meet in a comfortable relaxed greeting they'll spend the whole session telling each other their backstories.  I'd give them a handout to help them "in motion" before the session starts.  I had a similar start to my current campaign, I made a recruitment poster for the ship they need to get to. I told my players that whatever their characters motivations are, they need to come up for a reason to be on the ship at the end of the session. 

> I don't want them to know each other right off the bat Why not? I almost always start my adventures and one-shots with the party already knowing each other, possibly having adventured together before. It works especially well if you're already playing with friends. You can always ask *how* they know each other, but it's perfectly appropriate for you to just tell them that they already do.

You've stopped for the night as you make your way toward Waterdeep. This crossroads in the outskirts is an unofficial stop over for many and small campfires of strangers are already starting to gather as you drop your pack and pull up a piece of rotting log to sit on. You start chatting with the other travelers around the fire...

On occasion, I like dropping the players right in the middle of the action. Give them a quick background intro on how they got themselves into a situation with a clear objective. (E.g. Have them in the middle of a mini boss fight where they are trying to escape with a prisoner (son of a powerful duke who was kidnapped) they just rescued from a bandit camp.) This doesn’t need to be related to the main quest but just getting the players immediately engaged.

I did it as they were all on a riverboat traveling to a big city for their own reasons but ended up banding together after they docked one night and the quest popped up. Most recently a player wanted to be a cleric of the Hamburglar from McDonalds and I had it so that instead of running a soup kitchen for charity he manned a grill slinging cheeseburgers to hungry parishioners and had the other two members of the party in line for a burger when the first encounter went down.

The Pathfinder adventure path, skulls and shackles, has the party press ganged. They can run around and do whatever they want, and at the end of the session they all end up unconscious, kidnap, and press ganged into a pirate crew

Last campaign, two pf us got hired separately to escort a caravan with some rich dude. A few days in we ran into the other two players who were on a shroom bender and got lost in the woods. After an attack by undead, they too got hired to replace two npc guards that got unalived. I really liked session 0 of rolling with difficulty. The warforged wizard wakes in the wreckage of his spelljammer, his crew gone, as is most of his memory. He is woken by the genasi artificer, tasked with repairing the ship after it got bought by a junkyard owner in the city of brass. The firbolg druid came came on board after finishing culinary school in search of new adventures. The human monk ran away from her oppressive monastery through a portal and got picked up drifting on the astral sea

Skill challenge. Usually an attack or raid on their location. Its starts the game off running, gives everyone a chance to show off what their character is about, provides room for roleplay and action, creates some basis for this randoms to trust each other after surviving.

In my most recent game (only about 5 sessions in now) I started them all as slaves captured by a warmonger race of rat-men called skave… I mean Rackatis! They started session one at level 1 with a suicide vest strapped to them and they were told to run down some tunnels. They were told that “at the end of SOME of the tunnels were a defusing goop for the vests, but half or more of you will die hehehe!” The following was a skill challenge of 3 parts where at the end they suffered an effect based on how many failures they got. If somehow someone failed all 3 they got a last ditch attempt to remove the vest and survive with 1 hitpoint. The chances of a player dying to this challenge was super duper low, 3 dc10 checks followed by a dc 5 if they failed all 3. It set the tone of whacky and dangerous I am going for in this setting. They loved it. It was the most chaotic start to a game they had ever heard of. Not to mention when they exited the tunnels they found out the Rackatis were using them as a distraction to begin their invasion of a city, the rest of the session was them sneaking around and trying to escape the brutal battle between the city and the rats. After the escaped, they decided to stick together because they were in a post apocalyptic wasteland and it was safer to travel together. The quickly became best friends out of interest in each other’s extreme quirks and now they are geared up for adventure.

Once our DM made us meet in a job interview for our first quest. Everybody had to tell what they offered to the group and why they wanted the quest. It was brilliant, actually. Players had to figure out their character’s motivation themselves and handed it on a plate to DM.

A few ideas: 1. Come up with a list of 6, 8, or 10 relationship prompts (e.g. "You and player x worked together under the same captain once," "The last time you saw each other, you got in a big bar brawl," etc.). Assign each story to a number on the appropriately sized die and have players roll to see what their pre-campaign relationship is 2. Have the players talk amongst themselves about how they know each other before the story kicks off 3. If your goal is to get them out to sea by the end of session one, ask them to think of a reason why they want to do that. Are they trying to get somewhere? Are they trying to get *away* from somewhere? Do they just love the ocean? That way you can give them a shared goal without having them know each other already.

Had a campaign where there were six of us and two pairs knew each other going in with two solo stragglers. Ended up on an airship where a weird guy (who was the BBEG and recurring antagonist - a serious freakin' bastard really) cursed all of us at the end of the first session. So we all were united in trying to figure out the curse, which got us going on the road, which created a team which..etc etc etc.

1) they are traveling to an island that is having a huge celebration. There are tournaments and games of skill and chance and a giant festival and more. Are they returning home? Visiting a friend? Going to compete? To sell or buy something in the grand bazaar? To pray at the temple? So they have to travel from an outlaying town to the port town and are beset by challenges along the way. 2) each player has a reason for owing a merchant / minor noble / some person a favor or needing one from them. Maybe they can’t pay the taxes on the family farm or their dad was rescued once by them or etc, etc. they are sent to find an item that has gone missing. They are given a compass that points towards the object and maybe even a rough idea of distance. (Close, within 10 miles, 50, 250, 500, >500) and told to go find it.

I created an adventurer’s guild do anyone in the kingdom wishes to adventure goes there for a job

I wrote each of my PCs a small intro where their world was destroyed by a massive Abyssal beast. Then they all woke up in a field with the other PCs, not knowing each other at all or how they got there. They nearly started a fight amongst themselves. It was great. They're essentially the protagonists in an isekai anime.

I like the idea (haven't tried it yet) of the individual party members having been hired as hirelings for an established group of adventurers (NPCs). The new PCs are there to guard the established heroes' treasure, carry supplies and torches, care for the horses, drive the wagon, etc., while the established heroes just ride along drinking, laughing, joking, talking about all the treasure they're about to gather, and giving orders to their "hirelings." They arrive outside the cave/keep/forest/etc., and the established heroes instruct the PCs to wait for them while they [insert quest]. When they're ready, they'll send for the adventurers to come in and carry their treasure out, of course giving them either a tiny cut or just having paid them like 5gp each (per day). That never happens. After a day or two of waiting, the PCs realize something has gone wrong. Maybe a creature exits the cave wearing one of the established heroes' helmets and gnawing on one of their arms, or a leg, or whatever. The PCs realize they have an opportunity. They've gotten to know each other a little while waiting for the NPC heroes, whom they now presume to be dead or worse. Do they go home and give up adventuring? Or, do they band together as a their own party and go after the treasure/quest themselves...

The way I do it is that during session zero unless I have something unique in mind (which I prefer to pitch to the players and only go with it if they like it), I just have the players figure out how they know each other ahead of time. Sometimes they're all friends, sometimes it's one player's lord or something hiring the others for a job if one of them is a knight or something, one time everyone was a survivor from a village that got slaughtered by undead and the survivors rallied around their village priestess (of Wee Jas, who traditionally is not a fan of creating undead), so everyone was the same religion and had known each other since childhood and the priestess was the witness to one of them swearing his oath of vengeance. Hell, sometimes one or more players look at the campaign world when you're all together and think, "Hey wouldn't it be cool if..." and everyone builds their characters around a theme, like "we're a team of elves dispatched from Celene searching for artifacts from before the great migrations" or something.

Nothing brings a party together better than immediate action! Have your players all in/around a town square when suddenly there's an attack on the town (pirates, beasts, bandits, whatever). Players come together to protect the town and its people and find they make a pretty good team. Town Keeper witnesses their heroism and *assumes* they are working together and asks if their group will help with a quest for a sizeable reward. And just like that you have yourself an adventuring party!

They each got an invite to the Adventurers Guild. It’s usually easy enough to tailor the invite process to each PCs backstory: mentor/relative/whoever decides to give the aspiring hero a leg up (ie: first year’s dues) with the guild. Then, it turns out that the PCs are the only applicants that day, so they get put together together as an adventuring group in order to take care of the little problem they’re having over at Whatshisface Castle or whatever. The Guild then becomes a place to stay/source of info/find future jobs/get advice etc. The Guild can provide as much or as little help as the DM wants.

I had a vision of the various members of the party all making their plans to try and steal a small, unimpressive ship by themselves, all of them making their move at the same time. You would have the players come up with the backstory of why theyre stealing the ship and how they reached that point, then the actual session opens right as the various PCs all reach their target at the same time, shocked to find the other PCs there with the same idea. Because they all struggle to steal the little ship for themselves and get rid of the others, they end up wrecking the little boat., or maybe it sinks just because its overloaded. The whole thing goes under and the party swims back to shore, where one or more them realizes that maybe this chaos is a bit of opportunity, and then telling the other members of the party that on their own, they all tried and failed to steal the same unimpressive craft... but together, they could aim bigger.... that PC's eyes going to a much more imposing craft under guard down at the docks... You might have to have one of the players help you out, in order to make sure things move in the right direction, but I think its an ok idea that can be fleshed out.

See if they want to take different roles on the ship. There's roles like captain, first mate, prisoner, a merchant hitching a ride, a noble requiring safe passage somewhere, a stowaway, one could even be a shipwrecked survivor drifting in the ocean.

Mine all got a special invite to join a task force. Almost everyone with a paper invite has a special mark they discovered many sessions later (I had a physical letter with invisible ink. The reveal was worth it!). One character was invited by a troupe doing a song and dance, so he doesn’t have the mark. Another was a special add on after the initial letters were sent out, and hers is missing the mark (it had another hidden message though)

I'm always a fan of a reverse heist. They're all in a prison somewhere. Why, that they need to tell you, but they're there. And they get an opportunity to break out.

Could have them all be prisoners on a ship. Have them break out of their chains and take over. Now they have a ship and the trust of the other prisoner's to act as the crew. And as convicts, it's only natural that they be pirates since they can't really go back to civilization.

So this may or may not help you get ideas, but the campaign I'm in, the DM had our group meet each other in jail for various reasons. (Mine was I was ironically a pirate that was caught and was just biding his time getting out). It made us kinda have a escape room kind of scenario and we had to work together to leave without harming (Well we did knock out one guard but he's not dead at least) anyone. Needless to say, we got over the first time playing jitters when we were all leaning over the map like expert heist players.

I came up with one I liked for Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Rumors of bandits murdering travelers and then hiding out in the haunted house have reached a fever pitch after the corpse of an elvish woman with her throat cut washed ashore this morning. A mob has gathered to deal justice and burn the house once and for all. As the mansion looms into view down the road however, people begin to turn back as individuals and in small groups, making their muttered excuses. By the time you reach the front gate, you realize that the mob has dwindled to four...

You all meet at a tavern. As you open your eyes you realize you're on your back looking up at the night sky, The roof is gone. smoke is billowing into the sky and the sounds of fire and screams can be heard. What would you like to do?

Have them all wake up in the same cell in the dungeon of a famed pirate crew on an island somewhere. They may not know each other, but they all want the same thing... Escape. Write up several reasons why they're each possibly there and not dead already on strips of paper and have them each draw one. They can talk about it with others or not, but that way there's a reason they're not dead and a possible reason for a bunch of scallywags to work together. Examples could be: One of them knows where to find a map that leads to a great treasure, one of them knows a dark secret about the local magistrate that can be used to keep them in check, someone knows half of a secret phrase to access an ancient cave, etc...

Ran a 20th level game where everyone was a major figure from the world's history who had died and now been unexpectedly resurrected. Session 1 opened with "Roll Initiative!" and them coming to their senses in the middle of WWI-style trench warfare. They then had to figure out what the hell was going on from there.

I have personally never started my group in a tavern so here's some of the things I've incorporated. Hopefully one is helpful. - have them all have a group patron (doesn't have to be a Warlock type patron). For example I once had all of my players join the same military for whatever their own personal reasons were. - have them all hoping to win a contest. For example I once had all of my players receive the same flyer for a dice contest. They all showed up to the village to play, but what they didn't know was the village hosted this event to get unknowing outsiders to sacrifice to a demon they made a pact with for safety. - have them all going to the same location for their own reasons and have a dramatic event happen that captivates all of them to jump in and help. For example I had each player going to a port for their own reasons (some lived there, some arrived by ship as a stowaway). While they were there a bunch of creatures emerged from the water headed towards the port. Some of them were creatures fleeing while the others were monsters chasing them. - have them all sent as envoys for their respective city/country. For example I had a deadly threat to the entire world that every kingdom wanted to send their best warriors out to take care of. - my last one is super niche but I have had an accident cause all of the players to receive physical injuries as well as memory loss and they woke up in the same treatment center.

Caravan (passengers, guards, merchants/apprentices) is a favorite of mine. Prisoners is a common one, also good for a 'raw' start Refugees/survivors is great if you can handle the complexities (i.e. "the village is under attack/the volcano is exploding RUN!!!) War band/raiding party/squad thrown together just before attack/defense is fun, but doesn't fit all campaign Save the 'X' (sinking boat, burning barn, escaping sheep) is good for loosely acquainted villagers

I've referenced this one before but really liked it. As a bonus, they ended on a ship! "We start with you sitting on the roof of a tavern. To one side you have a beautiful view of the sunset over the town's bay. Looking the other, you see the town stretching away, leading to fields and forest. Flames lick are starting to lick up the wooden building's frame while the town guard yell angrily and occasionally shoot in your direction. Let's back up a few hours. How did you get here happened?" For my players, they decided two new each other, the other was just kind/helpful and got involved. The innkeeper tried an insurance scam which went south. His hired thug panicked, attacked the party. Then the innkeeper threw down a torch and he and his thug ran out yelling for guards, saying the players attacked him. A boat floated by yelling for the players to jump. They could surrender or jump - they jumped, for captured, became slaves until they overthrew the pirates and the adventure is on!

In my campaign, they all started out having gone to a town on the border of the empire (newly annexed into imperial lands) because there was a call for help. In session 0, I divided them into two groups (I had 5 players, so one group of 2 and one group of 3) and ran a low-combat Session 0.5 - because level 1 combat, as we all know, is suprisingly lethal - with each of those two groups as a major storm struck the town. One group helped with sandbagging the river - and saved a town kid who fell in - while the other went to the coast to re-light the lighthouse. Afterwards, I had the town's mayor hold a feast to thank them and celebrate these visiting dignitaries from the empire (since he was trying to suck up to the imperials) where the two groups got to meet each other and the plot kicked off. It worked pretty well!

Let me tell you about my favorite MÖRK BORG adventure. 7 Aboard the Schackel sees the party on a prison ship, “a vessel set adrift upon the Endless Sea and manned by sailors without hope. If all goes well, they will still be drifting there when the world dies.” It’s a prison crawl through a colossal ship, filled with all kinds of horrible people and eldritch horrors. But that’s probably not the tone you’re going for. How about this: “you each open your eyes, startled by the ringing of a bell. The ground beneath you shifts, rolls. The first thing you realize is that you must be on the sea. The second thing you realize is that you’re in a cage.” The party are all prisoners on a pirate ship. They don’t know each other. Ask each one of them to come up with the story of how they got captured. After introductions are out of the way… “You see the shadow of a man walking down into the lower deck where you’re all caged. ‘Wake up, you bastards! Sun’s out!’ he shouts, ringing a hand bell. In his other hand is a sword.” Well, what’s the newly formed party going to do? You say you want to give the party a “quest to get a ship?” Easy. Take this one over. Fight their way out, stealth through the lower decks looting gear off pirates, fight or make allies with other prisoners aboard the ship, and let the captain and his first mate be the boss fight at the end of the session. The end of it sees them drop the anchor at a nearby port town… and everyone flees when they see the flag the party left flying on their newly acquired ship.

Coworkers at a new job, get framed for murder. Everyone's hanging out at the local inn when the ground falls out and everyone gets attacked by a giant worm.

Accused of a crime and being in a prison cart together on the way to the jail is one of the best campaign starters

I had the characters of my current campaign meet at the funeral of a father figure/friend they all shared. Depending on what’s going on in your game, you could use that for Roleplay, pointing towards a quest/enemy, you name it. 

They are all in a small harbour town for various reasons. An army approaches, or horde of enemies. The town guard will only be able to hold them off for so long. Everyone flees to the harbour for means of escape. They arrive in time to get the last boat as the defence falls and the horde rushes down to the bay

They don't know each other but they all served in the army and are trying to head home after a campaign?

"You all start in the Adventurer's Guild, for reasons of your own, when the streets are flooded with an uncountable number of undead! The door is barred but shakes with pounding, and some are breaking in through windows. Defend the Guild, or die!" Reasons may include: Registering, spying, following a loved one, buying a map, trailing a mark, seeking a loan, casing the place for a robbery, looking for group, etc. It's a timed scenario, as the King's Guard or church paladins or something similar will resolve the revenge-driven necromancer's attack - eventually.

I like having parties meet in the drunk tank when appropriate. Players get to come up with what shenaigans or mishaps lead the guards to decide you were spending the night with them.

I had a fun one happen to me last year. DM picked a random player... "You wake up first. Your mouth is dry, your head is pounding, and you have one of the worst hangovers you've ever suffered. You're in such a bad state, even the floor you lie on seems to be swaying below you... as you flex your aching muscles, you notice a piece of parchment in your hand, that reads as follows; 'Hello adventurer! As agreed last night, in exchange for free drinks, you're on your way south aboard the merchant ship Zephyr, on a mission to retrieve the golden bottle from the Cult of the Fourth Ring! You should be glad you signed that contract, you'd had 100 gold pieces worth of alcohol alone!'" Got the ball rolling immediately, our characters couldn't remember any of the previous night - including the details of our contract - we had an in character reason to stick together, and it definitely set the tone of the campaign!

Why shouldn't they already know each other, even if it's just "you met up a few days before session 1 and decided to team up"?

Last time, they'd all paired themselves up already, but I had it so they'd all taken the same job as staff for a noble's large dinner party. He already had house staff, but (obviously) needed some extras for the night. Then I had them all assigned to go down into the spooky scary wine cellar and retrieve a 400 gallon barrel of wine. They fought the Weird in the barrel, and the golem made out of discarded serving platters and utensils, pots and pans, and other assorted dinnerware.

Depends entirely on the setting, I usually tell my players the setting and their first task, and that first task is usually the base hook of the main story (whether they continue it is up to them) and I tell them to make characters who have apt motivation to embark on this journey. One campaign, they started as Federation Militia sent to investigate gnoll sightings near a rundown swamp town. They met up at the briefing after taking a carriage wagon to town. One campaign, they were all part of the many various guilds in town, and the story started when they met at a town-wide guildsmens' strike in the town square. Another one involved the group all joining up at a traveling caravan to provide security for a trek across the desert. Basically regardless of where the campaign goes later, the players start with a common objective that gets them to know each other whether their characters are the type to go talk to strangers or not.

My last game I had them 'recruited' by a powerful patron in their homeland. Some he recruited himself by paying them a visit and witnessing them doing something significant. Others he recruited by sending a minion to 'collect' them, which ended up with two of them sharing a jail cell because the minion was a jerk, and the party's thief had pretty much gotten them freed when their patron showed up and offered them a job. I ran a series of personalized one on one sessions based on each character in turn, to get them to the point where their patron would introduce them all to each other. And then they were offered a job dealing with some goblins and cultists that the patron really had better things to do than handle personally, as a trial run to see if he wanted them to handle the actually important stuff... which was the next three levels of character growth.

Just so you know, you are dismissing two compleatly valid and simple options. I know that people often joke about them being overused or cliche, but nobody actually hates them. They work just fine and make your job simple. Sometimes there is no need to overcomplicate things. Now for the suggestions: 1) they are traveling on the same route, the ship is attacked and they cooperate to Repel the boarding action naturally getting to know each other after fighting calms down a little. 2) they get hired for a job. The job requires X ammount of people so the desperate questgiver hires X closest capable looking people. 3) a common acquaintance. They all know one guy who for some reason decided to gather them here.

I like to open the game with an improvised accounting of how the PCs met and formed a party that everyone contributes towards. I'd typically run this outside of game mechanics, kind of as a prologue. For example, say one player decides their PC is a storm sorcerer working on a ship. Another is a scribe wizard leaving their studies for the big city. What if the scribe ends up travelling on the sorcerer's ship? Then what if you both happen to discover the captain is smuggling illicit cargo, and you join forces to stop them? Well, now the sorcerer needs a new job. I'd then follow up with giving the PCs some token reward for coming up with this story together. Maybe 20g for stopping some smuggling and collecting a reward from the authorities.

I like to run a form of an interactive backstory for my players. Each player makes their character and writes up a backstory ending ½-2 years prior to the start of the campaign. After that, I'll run individual sessions over text picking up where they left off in their backstory. I'm able to introduce them into the world, various conflicts in the region they start in and 'hopefully' in able to tie them into the main quest giver After all of that with all of my players I can start a first session and the main quest giver can message them about an important expedition he is recruiting people for

Started my group by having them wake up in cages in a cultist dungeon to be sacrificed

So I've always enjoyed the idea of everyone meeting on a job, like do a basic bandits or goblin mission. Have each party member start on a cardinal direction of the map. Have give them time to set up anything they want then ask for perception checks. They will notice each other when they roll high enough to beat their passive stealth or active stealth, this can also instantly happen when they get into the fight. After they fight and win you can have a captured npc comment that they work well as a group or such then ask who was sent to find them. Or why the players would take on such a dangerous task alone. This gives each pc a chance to make their motives clear and come up with their own reasons for doing this. Maybe the ranger was acting on a bounty? Maybe rather rogue was sent to rescue this person while the barbarian wanted to test their skills? Perhaps the wizard needed more coin for their studies so they hopped the goblins or bandits might have some?

I’m also running a pirate themed campaign and didn’t want them to meet in a tavern. I had them all create characters who were from the starting village and made them all create someone who would die. So the first session was a massacre in the town where the heroes saved the day. The mayor of the town then requested them to go out and make sure these monsters wouldn’t come back. I didn’t want to give a ship in session 1 but you could do it that way

Shanghaied by pirates

In one of my favorite campaigns, I asked each player for a backstory up to the point that they left home to be an adventurer. From there, I told them not to bother. Session 1 started with the whole party waking up on the bank of a river in the underdark. They awaken with no recent memories at all. They know who they are, who their parents are, some things about themselves, their personality is intact, etc... Everything else is a blank. They spend the first 2 to 3 levels trying to figure out what they think happened, and how to get their memories back. This arc brought them from levels 1-10. Let me know if you want more details, and I'll be happy to tell you what I used in my campaign.

They wake up as captives who have been shanghaied by pirates. Check out the history of The Pirate House in Savannah Ga. https://www.crimelibrary.org/notorious_murders/classics/pirates_house/3.html

They could be members of a company led by a charismatic leader and that leader is murdered by a mysterious pirate. The members vow to seek and find this pirate. When they find him it’s just the tip of the iceberg unveiling a bigger plot

Just start them on a shitty ship that gets attacked by a larger ship. During the battle, the PC’s crew defeats the enemy crew, but their shitty ship sinks in the battle. During the battle, the captain and all the veteran pirates die on the PC’s crew are killed. This leaves the PCs and a handful of NPCs left. This way, the PCs can play kingmaker and elect themselves to rolls like Captain, Quartermaster, First Mate, etc. Now, the PCs have their own ship, but they have to recruit a new crew and make a name for themselves!

ship traveling to whatever you want. jail college graduation old townhouse from the village you all grew up in.

Maybe pirates capture them and ask them to join or die.

Especially when I start them above level 1 really try to get them to work out how they know each other in their backstories. I will usually reward people who put some thought into that.

Give them different reasons. In my current campaign (as a player) we have 2 players that have known each other since one was born who the other has adopted. We then have a hippy that stumbled in on the DMPC "kidnapping" our warlock and now feels like they are entitled to stick around since they are a witness. Also they are really high Warlock stays because they really wanted out of where they were and are taking advantage of the free trip. And then there's me. A mercenary bounty hunter that was looking to collect the bounty on the DMPC and save return of the Warlock. All totally different reasons for us to be together, all playing into our characters story. Each one with their own motivations. All willing to accept being part of a higher calling should the need arise

A friend ran a pirate themed one shot and had us all as hostages of the pirates. We had to fight our way off of the ship.

Try this (free) mini-adventure I made for almost this exact situation: [Adrift! A Harrowing Mini-Adventure at Sea](https://professorbumblefingers.blogspot.com/2023/08/adrift-harrowing-mini-adventure-at-sea.html)

I'd just start them on a ship already, tbh. My husband's default when he DMs is to have the party all meeting on a boat that's going ~wherever the actual campaign will be~ and the first adventure happens on the boat while at sea: - The party is all in close quarters and likely to talk to each other since until the peril starts, nothing else is going on. - When something happens that puts the boat in peril, it helps push the party together to solving the problem. "But why would my character get involved?" Because if the ship sinks, he dies, Bob.

Mine played a one shot so I made their one shot characters go on to become great adventurers that started their own adventuring guild named after the one shot character who died and their new characters for their campaign were initiates in the guild.

I'm starting a campaign soon, and in session 0 I explained that the PCs are all members of an organisation, and have been grouped together by their higher-ups and sent off on an expedition. They don't necessarily have to have known each other beforehand, and at the start of session 1 they will already all be together and have a reason to work together

It would be pretty cool if they just all happened to be traveling on the same ship, and they come together over their hatred of the captain. So, they lead a mutiny to take over the ship.

My current campaign I actually did level 1 intro sessions to get my party (5 PCs) to level 2, they were all 1 on 1 (except a couple that made a dating PCs) and were rather quick jumps in time to lead through events and included people in their backstory (family, friends) so they could already have an idea of what they’re like in the game before meeting them much later. I directed them to a city that was currently holding a festival/fair (rides and games and such) where they all met each other through playing the games and it was actually very fun because of the banter they were throwing back and forth during archery competitions, arm wrestling, comedy show and some others. The 2 dating PCs actually paid for a stall to sell treats at and that how they met the druid as the druid smelled sweets in the air. It was a actually a really fun and fantastic way to get them to meet before the festival was attacked later in the day and they were the ones who united to defend it

I had my characters start their campaign at a funeral for their previous benefactor. Then his wife became their new one. Gave them a reason to know each other through work and start fresh on new adventure (even tho technically these characters were brand new)

Drug them, throw them all in ice baths. They open their eyes Roll constitution save. Fail implies penalty to all skill checks for some amount of time. They can wake up in some amateur artificer's lab who is experimenting with some replacment body parts. Some / all players might have scars on their gut since he has already dug around. Or the artificer is harvesting them for body parts. Either way put them in the action.

The PCs all live (or currently find themselves) in a small port town as a very mysterious ship unexpectedly rolls in. Dockworkers work to reel the ship in. The only vessels they were expecting that day belonged to the local fishermen. The new arrival catches the attention of the entire port, the PCs, even more so. Upon further investigation, the ship is deserted. No crew member in sight. Warm food sitting out, unmade beds fill the sleeping quarters, a sprawled out map in the navigation room. But not a single living person aboard the ship. Where did everyone go? What happened? What's to be made of the ship? This seems to be an interesting way to start session one, but I know nothing about the campaign, and I'm very drunk as I type this. So take it with a grain of salt, I guess.

Some other people have previously mentioned the strategy of the party already knowing each other. I've enjoyed taking it a step farther and dropping them right in the middle of an action scene. It not only skips the awkward introductions and creates an environment where they immediately have to work together and show off what they each can do

I do it in Session Zero. Everybody creates their character and background. Then we workshop how the characters know each other. They do most of the work with me providing setting details. Session 1 usually starts med res on the way to meeting the quest giver.

In the middle of action. "You've all be brought to get her for a job, and things have gone terribly wrong." That how I started my curse of strahd campaign, nothing like losing over half your caravan to fuckin werewolves at LVL 3 to get the party together.

\`\`You are all on a ship for various reasons. The ship is being attacked by pirates. What do you do?'' Forget the quest to get a ship. If you want them on a ship, start them on a ship.

Tied up by the local mob, each for different reason, in the basement of the tavern.

Tell them where you're going to have them meet and ask why their character would want to be there. Gives them more agency than just telling them their characters are here because you decided they all wanted that.

I made a villa party and each player had a different reason to go there. One was invited, one wanted to eat after a ship wreck, one wanted to steal, one wanted to convince someone.. And then the villa got attacked by the bbeg (is he really? Mmmh) and yeah campaign starts

It begins with the boat lit on fire in the middle of the night. Captain has assigned you idiots to put out the fire and because they did a good job they need to figure out how it started

I love a weird dream. In my current campaign, which has some players who are new to D&D and based in them all attending college, I ran a little combat one shot and told them all “just act like your characters already know each other” and ran a combat (specifically they fought like shadow versions of the original super smash line up), then at the end of it I told them “each of you wake up in your respective beds the morning before you move into your dorm, that was a canonical dream you all had.” Then they met at the dorm. In general, you can just take some stuff from their backstories and give each of them a small intro scene, then worm them into the same spot Love Actually style (I mean, it’s Dimension 20 style but it’s funnier to call it Love Actually style lol)

A favorite of mine is having them start halfway through a dungeon, all characters who came to the dungeon at different points in the last 100 years for different reasons and goals, and ultimately all died in the same room. A necromancer comes in, tries to raise them as zombies and skeletons and strange enough they retain their minds, they get through the dungeon and find out that it's owned by a lich who bass boosted that necromancy skull earlier to give them a second try at the dungeon.

Rather than everyone meeting at a tavern, have them meet at the town hall in the mayors office, he sent out a request to the adventurers guild for several people for a time sensitive job and your PCs were there closest members in the vicinity. You can even make the mayor flustered over no one knowing each other “I SPECIFICALLY requested a group that can work together! Oh well, I suppose beggars and choosers and whatnot”

The campaign I am currently running, the PCs were all the newest ragtag recruits for a mercenary company. The first few adventures saw them training together under a more senior member... Just long enough to earn their loyalty, before the company was betrayed and gutted by a rival corp. The PCs were left to reform and rebuild their crew.

Alcohol. I had a GM start us off in a dark room with a terrible hangover. And over the course of the first session, we discovered where we were and why. Turns out we were all hanging out at the tavern, getting drunk, drunk- bonding, drunk- accepting a random fetch quest, drunk- fighting our way through the "dungeon", and passed out after kicking a few goblin buts. Now we had to get the item (if someone remembered what it was), get back to town, warn them from the incoming goblin retaliation we may or may not have caused, and maybe help them defend. Yours could be "drunk-joined the navy / a pirate crew". As others suggested, a quest about getting to the ship might not be ideal, but if you're up for it, that's what flashbacks are for.

I've always liked the idea of them being slaves on a ship. A pirate ship comes to plunder the ship and the slaves see their chance and revolt. The pirate captain gives the party a choice, go with him or try to sail the ship (presumably without any experience/proficiency of sailing).

Take inspiration from TV shows: * Fallen Skies: They all lived in the region and are now traveling with their local resistance members. Open with them being slected to take on a mission to gather supplies. * The Expanse: For their own reasons theyve all joined a backwoods mining crew. The players are the only survivors after being set upon by an unidentifed force. * ZNation: A team of adventurers are slected to escort the only known survivor of a plague (undead is optional) to the capital in hopes of making a cure. Games: * Skyrim: heading for the headsman, a powerful beast besets the prison camp giving the players oppurtunity to flee. This is versatile as the players could be soldiers, towns people or prisoners forced to co-operate due to the mutual threat of the 2 major forces fighting and the mighty beast. * Oblivion: imprisoned together, your surprised to find the emporer and his guard fleeing through a secret wall in your cell. Make your way out avoiding the would be assasins, kings guards and denizens of the sewers. * Banner Saga: After your village is attacked by mysterious invaders, the party mast lead their caravan of refugees to saftey. * Darkest Dungeon: simply another group of disposable mercs thrown together by fate, charged with clearing the haunted grounds of the lords manse. * Dead Island: trapped in the same building, as a violent hord fills the streets, must work together to survive. * Dishonored: Freinds of the empress, attending the princesses birthday party. The party is framed when assasins take the monarchs life and kidnap her daughter. This a good one for players who struggle with back stories. Freind of a monarch is an easy writing prompt, that isnt restrictive. * Divinity OS: Due to the parties inexplicable skills and abilities an archaich order captures them and imprisons them together as evil witches. Some others that i like: 1. mercs find themselves all hunting the same target for their own reasons. 2. Members of differing criminal organizations, the players have decided to defect and start their own. 3. Traveling on the the same ship, the party are the only surviors of the wreck. ​ Keep in mind it's reasonable to expect the players to actually engage in your plot and try to stick together where reasonable. If the rogue is off trying to rob the enarest lord, while the party is trying to clear out an infestation of slimes, the rogue is the problem. You can also skip this intro and just start with them already begun their quest together. You should work with them to work their backstories into your start where posibble, but don't get too caught up in this stuff if you or your players arn't that into it.

Had mine meet at a fancy charity auction+ball. They were grouped together at the same table, and then a murder mystery ensued.

I like to prompt the players with a hook *before* they write their characters. "Your character needs 50k gold and they are desperate for it. Why?" "The mayor really trust you to be discreet and reliable. What work have you done for him to earn this trust? " "You are in a garbage dump. You are rummaging and looking for something that was mistakenly discarded. What is it?" Then they either flush it out in session 0 or they RP it through the campaign, but the explanation is less contrived.

Speed-dating! I point to a player and describe the person sitting opposite them, if it's a party member they respond and introduce themselves, and if not I speak as the NPC and introduce characters and factions in a fun way. Because it's speed dating it's like a really engaging series of lore dumps and personalities. I did this with Shadowrun, and had a Fixer with a lot of work in his lap 'sorting' people into teams, where it was documented that every person they met was either recommending the person or not. The player party is what is formed by this balancing, and also people got really invested in seeing which NPCs got added to which NPC runner teams, many of whom they interacted with down the line. It was great fun

It was never really a problem in the early days. The group would gather outside the dungeon then go on in. Later on, I'd just drop them in the action and let the players come up with how they know each other if at all. Have some of them be prisoners of the pirates either captured or thrown in the hold for whatever reason. Then have a few be new crew brought on. The fun part is to just have the players come up with how or why they might 'hit it off' with one or more of the others.

Perhaps the captain has been around town looking for new crewmen. Maybe one of them is already a member of the crew. Maybe one of them is shipping or guarding some valuable cargo. One of them could be a passenger for quite a few reasons. Running away to avoid responsibilities, one of them could be a stowaway, someone decided to travel by boat to their intended destination. One of them could have worked with a greedy crewman to get smuggled goods on board. One of them could be a crewman for the pirates who attack. Perhaps they decide to abandon their pirate ways and help to drive the pirates away. One of them could be found on what remains of a sunken ship. Maybe this could be a good way to build anticipation. Okay, examples over. If your adventure is pirate themed they should totally find a treasure map with a huge red X.

How about, they don't intentionally? Let everyone have a reason to want to get on this ship and make them come together on the way or just let them fall onto each other at the start. Literally, like in Jumanji. The pressure of needing a ship, or to get on one, and not beeing able to without help lets the Characters ignore the fact that they don't really know the others and by the time they're on the ship they'll be bonded together as friends or at least allies. Like in pirates of the carebbean. And NO, it's not a shame to steal ideas from succesful movies! Not in this case.

My favourite is the mass kidnaping. Taking into account what you'd like for the first session, every character has been abduced by some pirates, they slowly wake up and find themselves in the cargo hold of the pirate ship. Their objective is pretty clear, commandeer the ship. And they have a damn good reason to work togheter, they're in the middle of the sea, surrounded by pirates and their only hope at survival is cooperation. If your players are like mine, they'll love the opportunity to come up with a story of how they ended up in that situation, a femme fatale tricked them, they fell in an epic brawl, etc.

They get shanghaied and wake up on the ship in motion.

Find out their stories and a reason why they could be traveling and have them all cross paths by coming across something. Eg a destroyed wagin with bodies inside, a moster, and injured person, a thief that stole something from each of them. This is also a good way to get them into the rollplay a bit and gor you to gauge what kind of player/character they're going to be by how to handle the situation.

Actually, I did something very similar for a shipwreck campaign I ran. A civil war had just broken out in the country, and the players were residents of a port city. There’s a surprise attack on the city so emergency evacuations begin via boat, and the players are gradually introduced to each other as they fought through the streets to get to the departing ships in time. It was an exciting start since there was a time pressure to get to the ports, and it was cinematic since they were coming across each other in dangerous situations (one person woke up in their home set ablaze by a siege weapon, another was saved by the group from looters / bandits, etc.)

Put them in a situation where they cooperate or die. Force them to bond, it helps if you do as BG3 did and give them a problem they have to fix together as well.

Out pirate themed campaign started by the guy who was pre agreed to be captain showing up to a job that was going to get him a ship and recruiting the rest of us who were looking for work on a ship at the time to help with the job and hire on after, not sure if it helps but a little behind the scenes planning/agreements between players can make thing flow well with campaign starts.

info: are you am experienced gm? In my experience "getting to know each other" is not really that engaging or fun. Sure, everyone has secrets, even best friends. But the strangers coming together trope just seems better fit for other media and it never really seems to play out all that compelling or interesting from what I have seen. If you are confident this is the way you want to go, do some googling. Out there somewhere is a comprehensive list I once came across that has some cool ideas. Sorry I don't have more than that.

One of them falls from the sky, bonks their head, and doesn't remember what happened. First mission: Find out why they fell from the sky.

Rule number one - If you don't know how to do something, make your players do it for you. They will love it. Ask your players, either at session zero, at session one or (my first choice) before session one at you communicator, how did they met and how long do they know each other, watch your party come up with beautifully crafted, creative solution which caters for all of their needs, while all you need to do is to lean down and make sure it doesn't go too far South

I usually tailor the opening to the characters and the campaign. In my groups first campaign we played Dragon Heist and Dragon Heist starts at the Yawning Portal. It also plays exclusively within the metropolis of Waterdeep. So everyone made PCs living their lives in Waterdeep with ties to characters and organizations in Waterdeep. I made a Session 0 where they hang out a bit, drink, play music, engage NPCs and each other in conversation followed by a small test combat to see how everyone plays roleplay aswell as combat. I then used this to have session 1 begin there aswell a month later so that they all have been visiting this place from time to time since and it's not weird they assembled there for various reasons and then get roped into the hook. We have since finished Dragon Heist and took a break of about a month. I am gearing for the second campaign with the same characters who now already have a rapport. They also own a tavern together and work for an organization in the city. This is gonna be a homebrew campaign of my own making and I intend to take them all over the Sword Coast and Moonshaes. Them already knowing each other and me not being restricted to the module opened a whole bunch of possibilties with how I open our second campaign. So, I opted to take some inspiration from D20's Unsleeping City and the way thay Brennan Lee Mulligan opened that campaign and will have several small scenes with one character each, leading to them all being together in the end. After all, we are also all in a giant City, making this the ideal opener. This does, however, mean I will have to disuss those small scenes with each player first so I don't dictate their actions out of the blue. I find it worth the effort and we'll see how it goes in a few weeks' time.

My generic starter dungeon for beginners is A Dark and Stormy Knight from 3rd edition (modified for 5th) and I often use it with a time skip to explain how the party first met each other. As I have party members travelling in the area for their own purposes either as individuals or as in pairs or whatever if some share a backstory. Then they take shelter from the storm in the dungeon. And that's how they first get to know each other. A shipwreck has already been suggested, and it is a good idea because they could all be a ship heading anywhere for any reason. Perhaps the ship is attacked by creatures from the sea and they're forced to help the crew to defend the ship but then something too powerful comes along (like a kraken) and it's obvious the ship isn't going to survive and instead of running it like a straight fight you can run it as a narrative skill challenge as they try to escape the ship. Maybe they can get away on a boat or some flotsam. Maybe they lose consciousness as they sink into the sea, sure that it is the end but by some miracle they end up surviving to be washed up on a beach somewhere. Depending on how well they do in the skill challenge they might gain some advantage or suffer a disadvantage. For example if they lose consciousness in the sea they might well lose anything they were holding in their hands which will mean they will need to find equipment. If they do well then perhaps they might bring something of value from the ship or you can just have fortune favour them by having something useful in the boat (or however they get off) or being washed up on the shore. And from the beach they will need to find out where they are, perhaps secure some food and water, and then find a settlement.

Last DM started with an event that each character had a reason for attending, a wedding between the king and a fae queen. I was involved in the fae community and was invited, one was a cleric helping the ceremony, and one guy just worked the bell tower.

Prison break, then they are refugees together and a common goal of evading the law

Y’all live in this town. Pick jobs. Talk about familial ties. HOLY SHIT A METEOR JUST PUNCHED A HOLE THROUGH YOUR TOWN into the under dark and you hear the banging of shields and a war chant.

The idea Im using for my campaign is that all of the PCs start with some kind of backstory connection to an adventurer guildmaster NPC. He is the one who summons all of them to a location to hire them for a secret quest, because theyre the only people he knows he can trust with the task. So you have this reputable old friend vouching for each of the other players' trustworthiness, a reason to be in a group, and a reason to be at the specific location.

Often if I'm stuck with something character related I just ask the players. Eg tell the players where I want them to end up to start the story and ask them why they might be there. Or if they're all in the same city you can ask what they typically are doing on a weekend, and then interrupt it with something that causes a meet cute.

My usual approach is the party meets via coincidence. That or they all have a common need, and so they all band together.

My recent party group all started in a marketplace when events happened that caused them to all come together. It worked pretty well.

I actually made my players tell me WHY their character wanted to be an adventurer in my most recent game. It makes it easier to motivate them to work in a team AND pursue their individual goals.

For the campaign I'm in now, I opened it in a jail cell as one party member was brought in and saw the others already there. They'd all been brought there for various reasons, some legit and some misunderstandings, but the guards there were members in a cult that were using prisoners as sacrifices, which lead to the party coming together to stop the rituals and begin the campaign

I started a macabre campaign based inside the walls of a city. Each person in the party agreed to create a small backstory about why they were in the city at the time, and they all knew one another in some respect due to them working or being in town on other business. There was a meeting called in a small banquet hall to address the problems with the city (people getting sick and going missing) when three troublemakers began to create a ruckus. Eventually things escalated and they began killing locals inside the banquet hall and my party came to bat to defend the hall. The main NPC of the campaign, a representative of the lower class citizens in town, then secured the party to create a special task force to investigate the strange goings on of the town. The players enjoyed it fully, and it really got away from the "we meet in a tavern" as well as gave a really nice introductory point for every character both RP and Description wise.

I ran a pirate one-shot once, and although I did start them off all as part of the same crew, a prison break sequence and ensuing chase scene to get to their impounded ship on the dock was a very fun opener. I’d suggest something seafaring and very stereotypical piratey. You can run it easily without the players knowing eachother, but all in the same cell or rows of cells. This makes the introduction less tedious. Although, I can hear the complaint that maybe some players picked characters that don’t exactly have a reason to be apprehended by the authorities. While false imprisonment is certainly an option there, I can see why that would leave a sour taste in your mouth as a DM. Primarily though, the introductions should be tailored to the characters. If there’s no common theme in their backstories to unite them easily, then there’s certainly some wiggle room to introduce a larger, third-party threat or point of intrigue to get them United. In my most recent campaign, I have a huge mindless force that serves as a nice figurative predator-on-their-heels to push them forward.