So, How Does One Not Have Their Players Meet in a Tavern?

[Amaril]

Hey, so I'm not entirely sure this thread should go in this section, but I didn't see any that looked more appropriate, so here I am.

I'm a fairly experienced player, and I'd like to get into DMing for some of my friends. I have a setting I like and an idea for a campaign that I think is pretty cool, but one thing is bothering me a little, so I thought I'd take it to the fine folks on the Playground :smallbiggrin:

My question is this--how do you, as DMs, have your players meet up without them all starting in a tavern?

I'm interested in any and all ideas. I have one that I'm leaning towards a bit, but I figure all you folks together are much more likely than I am to be able to come up with something fun and original.

So, what are your ideas?

[Crake]

An interesting way to do it is to get the players to come up with some kind of short backstory that tells you about their hopes, dreams, fears and loved ones, then find a way to play on that.

Another somewhat more railroady way to do it is to have each player have some authority figure in their lives initiate the adventure (a druid could be instructed by their circle's leader to undertake a task, a wizard could be directed by their teacher/master, fighter/paladin could be commanded by their superior, etc). This way might seem a little railroady as I said, but its a good way to give a sense of a looming threat if several different organisations both know and seek to remedy such a threat. It also gives the players a reason to co-operate and roleplay their meeting, rather than just slapping them together with "you guys are childhood friends".

[docnessuno]

In the last campaign i ran (FR setting) the player's characters were heroes who were summoned into Faerun from other material planes, "stealing" them from the embrace of death.

I run a quick one-on-one game with each player, and each ended (in one way or another) with the death of the character.

In the first "real" game, the party woke up on a shore, not too far away from Bezantur, each with confused memories about their death and about a symbol (involved in their sumoning).

[Archmage1]

Depending on alignment:

Good: Helping someone(combat)
Neutral: Job board, meeting somewhere else
Evil: Taverns? They make great bonfires

[toapat]

Have all of them be caravan guards, then get the caravan attacked

[Amaril]

Hmmm, okay...

My idea was a bit different--as the campaign begins, the PCs are all travelling with a caravan that is carrying an important plot item from one settlement to another, and their first few adventures would be focused on getting that object to its destination. I'd let them come up with their own reasons for being with the caravan, so I think that's pretty open-ended (it could range from "I was commanded by the secret organization of which I am a member to ensure this item reaches its destination" to "I bumped into the caravan by coincidence while travelling on the same route").

Anyway, keep the ideas coming, people--as I said, your combined creative powers far outweigh mine alone.

[Amaril]

Ah, got ninja'd by toapat. Happens to me a lot.

[KillianHawkeye]

There are lots of options, but it tends to vary depending on what type of quest it is and how the story of the campaign is starting off.



Is it a typical quest of "Go someplace and kill x/retrive y/do z"?

Adventurers are summoned by the King or High Priest or whoever is issuing the quest. Everyone meets in the Adventurers' Guild. You assume everybody accepted the quest and they all start on a boat--or riding with a caravan or whatever--already on the way to their destination. A group of travelers encounters a mortally wounded NPC on a quest of vital importance in the wilderness who uses his last breath to pass his quest onto the party. The quest-giver happens to be somebody each of the PCs owes a favor to, and he's calling in all his debts.



It is more of an investigation or a reaction to events occuring?

This one depends heavily on where the events are occuring and what the story of the adventure is going to be. Maybe an adventure introducing the city's Thieves' Guild starts off with a group of people getting pickpocketed in the city markets. Maybe an evil cult summons a bunch of demons in the basement of the inn the PCs happen to be staying at. Maybe all the PCs happen to be on the same ship that gets caught in a storm and crashes ashore a mysterious island filled with treasure and monsters. Maybe the PCs are all kidnapped in their sleep or teleported to the same location by the villains or a neutral magical force. Maybe the PCs are all prisoners who happen to all be in the same prison wing when an earthquake knocks down a few important walls. Maybe the PCs unknowingly grew up at the same village and by fate all meet again after several years.

The possibilities are virtually endless.

[Phaederkiel]

I have also used the caravan aproach to some good effect.

My last campaign started in a jail in which each member of the party had been thrown . Then the chief gaoler comes and tells them to break out, steal the mcguffin but Do Not Hurt My Guards. Oh, and poisons them to make them stay on their rails...

My best opening yet was probably: The coach gets attacked. Your protege has an arrow sticking from his chest. Throw Ini. everybody loved that.

I think that in beginnings a good bit of railroading is quite okay, if it throws everybody into an interesting situation.

[Amaril]

Great so far! Keep it up, anything might be useful :smallsmile:

A little more detail on the idea I've been working with:

Our story begins on the road, with the noble heroes travelling as part of a caravan from one of the great cities to another nearby. A renowned scholar in the city for which the caravan is bound is constructing a device he calls a "telescope", which can supposedly grant the user the power to see objects as distant as the stars as though they were no more than a few feet away! However, in order to complete the telescope, the scholar needs a component from an artisan in a neighboring city. That component is now finished, and the caravan (including our heroes) has been assembled to ensure it reaches its destination undamaged.

However, unbeknownst to our heroes, a deadly threat approaches. A massive comet is on a collision course with the planet, and should it impact, the devastation caused would be unimaginable. As of yet, nobody has been able to make out the comet as anything more than a bright star in the night sky. But with the assembly of the world's first astronomical telescope, that is liable to change...

[Ravens_cry]

Meet in jail is a classic. A boxed crook is a good, if forced, way to get players to bite a plot hook that might have a few more barbs than usual, though planning an escape could also be fun for creative players and a good way to bond as a team.

[Malimar]

I've personally done "you're all summoned to a rich merchant's house for him to offer you a job", "you all meet on a ship", and "you all meet at the Adventurer's Guild".

I keep wanting to do a more interesting opener, and every time I start a new campaign, I forget that I wanted to do a more interesting opener, and wind up going with a bland one.

I do like to point people to David Morgan-Mar's list (http://www.dangermouse.net/gurps/reject/tavern.html) whenever anybody asks this question.

[Crake]

Great so far! Keep it up, anything might be useful :smallsmile:

A little more detail on the idea I've been working with:

Our story begins on the road, with the noble heroes travelling as part of a caravan from one of the great cities to another nearby. A renowned scholar in the city for which the caravan is bound is constructing a device he calls a "telescope", which can supposedly grant the user the power to see objects as distant as the stars as though they were no more than a few feet away! However, in order to complete the telescope, the scholar needs a component from an artisan in a neighboring city. That component is now finished, and the caravan (including our heroes) has been assembled to ensure it reaches its destination undamaged.

However, unbeknownst to our heroes, a deadly threat approaches. A massive comet is on a collision course with the planet, and should it impact, the devastation caused would be unimaginable. As of yet, nobody has been able to make out the comet as anything more than a bright star in the night sky. But with the assembly of the world's first astronomical telescope, that is liable to change...

Being the person I am, I just have to play devils advocate here and ask: what happens if the players abandon the plot, or take too long to get the telescope assembled?

[Amaril]

Well, then the comet will hit, and the setting will become post-apocalyptic, of course :smallbiggrin:

Seriously, though, I somehow doubt that will be a concern. The comet will take a few months at least to impact, which gives the PCs time to faff around a bit before getting started with the main plot. Once they get started with the main plot and find out about the comet, I'm guessing their self-preservation will kick in and they'll move to work on stopping it (especially since the comet actually turns out to be part of a prophecy about the end of the world).

[Hand_of_Vecna]

The correct answer is, whatever makes sense for your player's characters and whatever is necessary to your first adventure. Make sure that everyone has a character concept that gives them a motivation to "adventure" and that fits the campaign you wish to run. So, no human hating half-elf rangers with favored enemy human in a campaign about saving human villagers from rampaging orcs.

Caravan Guards is fine as long as everyones character would reasonably take the job. Of course being a common traveler or merchant might make more sense for some characters so its good to be flexable.

One option I've always liked is throwing a threat at a small town they live in and just letting the PC's be heroic. Lone survivors works too.

Authority figures giving orders.

Honestly almost any meeting will work because the social contract should motivate the PCs to stick together once they meet.

[Crake]

Nice! So you've got the initial setting sorted, but do you have any plan on hooking the players?

[Amaril]

Well, as I've said, they're gonna start on the road with the caravan. I'll talk with them each beforehand to discuss motivations for being there and going where they're going (I'm planning on a small group).

The hook will, of course, be the classic--the caravan has been stopped, and the PCs need to get it moving again. My plan is for them to have three basic options for this. One--they attack the hostile group holding up the caravan and clear them out of the way. Two--they negotiate with the hostiles, find out what fee they want in exchange for letting the caravan pass, and come to an agreement. Three--they strike out into the wilderness off the road to find the caravan another path. They might come up with something else entirely, though, which should be interesting to watch.

Depending on how well they enjoy this adventure, I may run another where they're still travelling. Once they get to the city, they'll have to complete some quick tasks there to finish up the telescope's assembly (with a reward involved, in case the telescope is of no interest to them). Then, finally, the telescope will be finished, the first reading will be taken, the first view of the comet will be seen...and the Days Until Impact clock will begin ticking down :smallamused:

[Getsugaru]

In a friend of mine's campaign, he started by having us beat up in a dungeon, then shoved on a cart, and finally released in a small field together. All of this was done by a "Hunter" who thought of us as "prey". We got an hour head start, had to find our gear, put it on, and decide what to do next, all before the guy caught us and killed us. The guy used traps including, but not limited to a poisoned spring, a tree branch swinging at us, and I believe he stuck part of our gear in a bush of poison ivy. Once we got our gear, we decided to turn the tables by swaping the roles of "hunter" and "prey," hunting the guy down, etc.

It was fun! :smallwink:

[Kelb_Panthera]

I like to simply tell the players where I intend to set the beginning of the campaign then let them work out amongst themselves how they all came to be there at the same time. Saves me some time and effort. I'll help brainstorm with them until we get something everyone's (at least mostly) happy with.

Only for more thematic games do I dictate the scene for the beginning of the campaign. For example, if I want to do a survival horror type campaign, then I might well tell them they all happened to be staying at the same inn. Of course, giving the players the sense that they're in a situation that's almost completely beyond their control is rather important for a survival horror feel.

[Psyren]

Jail is a good one (see also: most Elder Scrolls titles.) The players can decide whether they were wrongfully or legitimately imprisoned, and their alignments get involved immediately. They also have an instant reason to cooperate (escape), and from there you only need a hook to keep them together.

[CIDE]

In my game I started on a ship that shortly thereafter was sunk by a Kraken. Only character that didn't start there was on the island that everyone washed up on. It really wasn't hard to set everyone up on the ship either. One character was a wanderer and fit in anywhere, one was looking for work, one was a slave, and obviously the one already on the island.

[elvengunner69]

I started a game once where all the characters woke up naked with out gear in the forest...They began searching around for each other and I went quickly around to each one -- eventually they were all being chased by Fire Giants. The Giants chased them into a Cavern where a Hag lived and had all their weapons...

It was lots of fun watching them figure out ways to

A. Get their equipment back
B. Stop the Hag
C. Fend off the Fire Giants
D. Find out what each other could do

Was like six party members around lvl 12 iirc. It was actually a lot of fun..it took the whole session and in the midst they found out about each other's characters.

[Amaril]

It might be useful to mention that I'm planning at starting this campaign at 1st level (because I like building my characters from the ground up, and I think guiding a group to do the same as a DM is something I'd enjoy). Two of the friends I'm planning on inviting are veteran players, while the 3rd is a noob.

[Dienekes]

I have never started a game in a tavern. I didn't even know starting games in a tavern was a thing until I joined this site actually.

The first game I told my players that they all needed to start in a city right before it was attacked by the neighboring elvish kingdom and conquered. They could start anywhere they wanted so long as they were in the city. The next two sessions of the game was basically me trying to get them all together in a group in a way that made sense for their characters. It worked, but it took time. Years later I tried doing that again after I had some experience GMing and it worked much easier, and they were all in a group about 2 hours in.

Another one I had was telling them that the game would start in the throne room of King X who was about to build an alliance between the stereotypical monstrous races and the stereotypical good races. It was up to the players to come up for a reason why their character was invited to the meeting or at least to the feast before the meeting. Then I maneuvered them all through RPing to the outer part of the Hall and magic-nuked the place leaving the players as one of the few survivors and all needing to work together based on the fallout of that travesty.

And in another I just said I had a plan for a mercenary campaign and whoever wants in on the game just needs to be a part of the merc squad. Easy peasy.

So basically, there's plenty of methods for starting a game outside a tavern. Some of them don't even require much originality.

[Eldariel]

The group does not need to group up at the start of the game. You can start with the group already grouped up. However, other places to group up; basically any place with a large number of people. Few dozen cookie-cutter options:
- The Church (maybe employed by Nasuversian Burial Agency-style organization that hires anybody capable)
- State military of any kind/Mercenary Company
- Job (any kind of a guard, forest ranger, some such)
- Prison (either legit prisoners, or captured by some BBEG-type power before busting out)
- Village community of any kind
- Council of any kind
- Druid Circles or some such

The players can all be called by a group as such, or they can witness something that launches them into an adventure, or they can just end up being dragged into something by circumstances; the way things work in reality, really. There are many ways to get drawn into messy circumstances and having to do something.


My last campaign started with the PCs being summoned by a power to find out why and how much the Orc activity has increased beyond the north border.

The campaign before them had the PCs be villagers whose village got attacked by a gargantuan monster; they fought alongside the village militia and were able to defeat the monster but everybody was shaken by such a monster appearing and worried about more coming from where this came so the PCs decided to go find out what and why is going on.

Before then there was a simple political campaign that started with the PCs in a meeting room; they came to the conclusion the current rulership is corrupt and they ought to overthrow it.

EDIT: Oh, and once they decided to found a merchant company. That campaign ended since I didn't want to DM that under D&D rules (nor did I have any grand interest in starting to get into the details of fantasy economy in general).

[Srasy]

In Prison... In a Lawful Evil Country and have party members thikn of ways they could of been arrested...
Slaver ship that gets shipwrecked
Survival Situations in general are good just try to make it clear they should stick together...

[Tvtyrant]

In a dungeon! Have every character make up a reason they are already running around on the third floor or a dungeon. Then they have lots to talk about when they meet, and a common goal.

Remember to have a purpose for the dungeon so they can work it in.

[Paulcynic]

Brothers/Siblings. Kin. Friends from back home. I find that it allows the players to begin with character relationships that are familiar to the real ones held by the group. It tends to go the way of existing personalities anyhow, so you create a strong bond from the start, explaining why the characters would risk their lives for one another and why they follow a common (adventure) path.

I think the key thing to consider is Zero-sum. Grouping randomly at a tavern requires some sort of hyper-dramatic 'us v them' scenario to forge completely random strangers together. This is a cool group-hook only if they truly have something deeply in common, like a similar birthmark/defect when a seer walks in and proclaims that those with the 'mark of demons' is among the crowd, or plain old racism where the characters are all the odd race out and tensions boil over. And then after the tavern bit, you've got to keep 'feeding the fire' as it were to keep the flames of common interest going. This is a fun and rewarding meta plot if you the DM care to tend it. But I have personally found it tedious, detracting from the ever important main story as well as when I attempt to spot light a particular character one session, suddenly the other character's aren't as motivated to engage. Not players mind you, its an issue of in-character motivation.

A good in-between is the Liege/Subject relationship, where one or two of the characters are landed nobles, and the rest are beholden subjects with either a debt, or genuine love and gratitude toward said noble's family. This is kind of a hybrid between established relationship and meeting for the first time :)

I hope my ramblings help!

[toapat]

Alimony Hearing: The PCs are brought to the same courthouse to be forced to stand trial for being deadbeats. The person who is declaring accusation has never been seen by the PCs before, although you may have one of the kids be one of the player's. More fun if the PC in question and the Accuser are the same gender

[LordBlades]

In my group we usually work together (players&DM) to define the campaign start. Usually the DM gives a rough outline of the planned starting location/even, and it's up to the players to fill in the blanks regarding how their character fits with the story.

For example, the beginnings of our last 2 campaigns were something like this:

1)Dragonlance campaign, DM gives us a year and a Tower of High Sorcery and asks each PC to come up with a reason why they'd be in/near the tower then. Everybody is around there and the tower gets attacked.

2) DM asks each player to write whatever kind of background tickles their fancy with the caveat that it needs to end with the character passing through a door in a relatively magical location and disappearing(the doors pulled them into a time machine of sorts). People came up with the most diverse justifications: we had a psy-gish that disappeared while running from ilithids in a dungeon, a wizard that disappeared while passing through his bedroom door and a dwarven mason that disappeared during a routine inspection of his latest work-in-progress (heavily warded house for a rich customer).

[Daer]

I think ship would be nice (airship about to crash if eberron or even some beach or something middle of ship parts. )

cellar of tavern after very wet night. awful hangover going, they wake up soaking in beer its dark. floor covered with bodies (everyone but PCs dead there. )

then some sort town hall perhaps. or guild house.

perhaps some sudden storm and everyone tries to get to cave or something to be safe from weather?

and of course classic. Delicious cake on table middle of forest.

[Story]

Grouping randomly at a tavern requires some sort of hyper-dramatic 'us v them' scenario to forge completely random strangers together.

Why can't they just be adventuring for individual motives? A band of mercenaries may not go to the trouble of raising each other or something like that, but they'll at least work together enough to get through the next dungeon. Maybe if they work together enough they can become friends and start trusting each other.

[Kudaku]

You can check out the Pathfinder Adventure Paths for interesting ways to form party groups at the start of the campaign. For instance, the Rise of the Runelords path starts with the characters attending a festival that's subsequently attacked by a raiding party of goblins.

[Dsurion]

I usually start in medias res and just tell people up front that it's on them to figure out why they're together. I don't care whether or not they come up with a reason, but if they don't get their act together and have a cohesive party willing to work together by the end of the session... Well, then they know where the door is located.

[Paulcynic]

Why can't they just be adventuring for individual motives? A band of mercenaries may not go to the trouble of raising each other or something like that, but they'll at least work together enough to get through the next dungeon. Maybe if they work together enough they can become friends and start trusting each other.

That's perfectly fine too. I am sharing my experience is all :P

I tend to play with good natured, fun, comedian types, which means there's more than a hint of biting cynicism thrown in for shock and laughs, but it also bleeds into the RP elements of the game in session. They're not wrong to point out that the differences between characters are not washed out by common interest, especially when you have so much character depth available to know that two characters (not players) have no reason work together after the initial 'we survived the Meet Up Challenge.' And so my group inevitably encounters the "what's my motivation for continuing on with this prick?" all in character of course.

Here's an example of what happens early on: If you watch The Walking Dead, Shane and Otis meet, and have common cause to work together to find the medical equipment needed to save Rick's son, Carl. However, things go south during the trip, and because Shane doesn't know Otis, and has no reason to risk his life any more than he has, he shoots Otis in the leg to bait off the horde of zombies. Had it been anyone from the original party, Rick, Glenn, or even Merle, Shane would have taken that risk because they had an existing bond at that point in the story. But if we rewind to when they first grouped up, not including Rick, there were a ton of trials that forged Shane and the others together. The one mechanism that forced them to work together through all of these trials was that they were under constant, real time pressure to stay in the same location. This threat lasted long enough, and they were successful enough during this time to have forged a trust and some small bit of friendship. But it wasn't just a tavern meeting. It was months, and there were a million events. That builds the Zero-sum alliance, which then turns into friendship.

And so one tavern meet up to perform one job, for my table and players, isn't enough to then put aside a lifetime of personal differences. And so, as a GM, I'd rather build into the group's story a mechanism for strong loyalty and cooperation, where differences definitely pop up and can be quite serious between characters, but they never take it so far as to 'Shane' eachother, or out right leave to find more successful and compatible people. Oh! Think TMNT, the conflict between Michael Angelo and Rafael :)

[Threadnaught]

I have two, first one, the players were in a crowd listening to some guy boasting about how awesome he is. So, just like the tavern a few feet away.
The second one had them on a ship as migrants. Though they happily went back to their homeland at a later point.

All I can say is, try to build the campaign opening around your players and give them something that can integrate them into the game as seamlessely as possible. If one starts making up places to go into your world (thus, clumsily creating a load of awkward seams that don't mesh well), slap him. If the culprit is female, it is acceptable to tell her to go in to the kitchen, or go outside, or to her room, as long as she shuts up about what names you give to the places in your world. Unless she's a feminist, then slap her, she'll want equality.

I do not condone violence or threats of violence toward players. I do condone violence, threats of violents and complete jackassery towards the players' characters. :smallamused:

[Paulcynic]

Alimony Hearing: The PCs are brought to the same courthouse to be forced to stand trial for being deadbeats. The person who is declaring accusation has never been seen by the PCs before, although you may have one of the kids be one of the player's. More fun if the PC in question and the Accuser are the same gender

Loved this one :)

[killem2]

In my session (which just celebrated its 1 year anniversary on the 8th! woot), we had the following classes:

A Dwarf Fighter, Dwarf Cleric, Halfling Rogue, Elf Ranger, and Gnome Evocation Focused Specialist (that was me at the time).

We Lanicor the ranger's background story was that he was a bodygaurd for a well known and wealthy merchant, who had been ambushed by a gang of bandits that have thus far been able to evade the long arm of the law.

Dar, the rogue, WAS part of this bandit group, though he was still a new member and discovered that he was being set up as a fall guy and backed out of this last hit which was the merchant's caravan.

However, no one knew of where they would be starting out, so when I told Lanicor you see a small figure that appears to be wearing clothing made of the same fabric you found at the crime scene and has left the same impressions from his spiked shoes as the ones you have been following for most of the day.

Combat started, just as lanicor was about the make the final swing, I (rail roading yes), let Lanicor know that the little halfling is begging for his life, and I had Dar (the person) his character sheet and they tell each other what is going on and what they want to do.

They find out the tracks continue to a cave to the north.

Meanwhile, in a larger city, the cleric and the fighter are meeting with the high bishop of Moradin, because the cleric wants to become a hand of moradin, and the fighter a stonelord so he sends them on a special initiation, into an unused part of the cathedral underground. They meet up with lanicor and dar who are fighting their way through some bug bears and orcs, and together they realize there is quite a lot of treasure on these little guys that is far beyond what they should have, and that there are four locked doors that they can;t seem to get into and they are highly sturdy.

So they return the elven area where lanicors boss used to frequent (on the way there they stumble across a gnome in a jesters outfit who is scrubbing down the local teleportation rune).

The story of the mage was that he was jacking around in evocation class, and shot a magic missle at the teachers apple on his desk only to find that all teachers have reflective aura around their area, and it went out side and struck a soilder who was practicing they lost balance and came down on their arm and it broke.

Just so happens the soilder was the son of the merchant, and their family had just relocated to the magic city of this area to be safe and live out their lives.

Anyway the 5 went searching for clues in cities until they learned that the hide out of the bandits was in those caves and by that time dar was high enough level to get into them with lock picking now.

So, that's how they met up.

this however is a HIGHLY condensed version of how it all played out.

[rockdeworld]

Well, with my first D&D campaign, I had my players write backstories as soldiers, and the first session involved them waking up on a battlefield post-battle, on the losing side. Then they got chased off by the winners, who saw them waking up, and went into a cave to hide, thus starting a certain level 1 module (that I can't find right now).

After that I realized a lot of my adventurers involved the PCs running away from something well-beyond their CR, and eased up.

[Need_A_Life]

A couple I remember:

The characters were brother in arms from the recently-ended war, sticking together in a place where there was little use for professional soldiers any more.

Another GM asked us to recount the previous adventures our group had to propel us to 3rd level. The stories of the Invasion of the One-Legged Kobold became the stuff of legends :smallwink:
We were level 9 by the time we stopped referring to it as our greatest accomplishment (to our GMs confusion and amusement).

Then there was the time we were shipwrecked.

Or the time we were all on the run from the law, sticking together because 1) we needed each others skills and 2) here's some people who understand your need to keep a low profile.

Or the time we were members of an organisation dedicated to seeking out and collecting artifacts, so they'd be readily available for use in future prophecies (a group founded by a former player character in an earlier campaign).

Or the time one character had been given land and a title and we would work for him, because he offered great terms (an equal share AND nigh-immunity to the legal repercussions of our murder-hobo ways? Deal)

Of course, the greatest campaign opener was this.
"It's a dark and stormful night. You've just come from the tavern where you played dice with 2d6 orcs* and you're all heading home, when you see..."

* Yes, the GM actually said "two dee six" to invoke that cliché. It was awesome.

[Razanir]

I'm starting them as the strongest warriors the town could find on short notice.

The plot hook: A lich took over the capital. There's the main entrance, but it's too well-guarded, and quite frankly, you guys probably aren't strong enough to kill him. But... You're the best we've got on short notice. Anyway, there's a side entrance. We don't think the lich knows about it. Good luck with that.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

In my current game (which is the first I've ever run, though it's been going on for over a year) the PCs were all individually hired by a merchant's guild to travel to a mining town and investigate some problems in the mines. They met up along the road to the mining town when they all coincidentally took refuge in the same cave during a thunder storm. (Each player gave me his own reason why the merchant's guild had hired his character and why the character accepted.)

Since then, two characters have joined the group. One was the result of a player changing characters and joined approached the party in a bar (sigh) after seeing his player's old character storm out after an argument with the party. The other helped the players out during a fight while they were pursuing the same goal and decided to stick around after that goal had been accomplished.

[Blackhawk748]

My favorite intro is when they wake up in the middle of the road or a ditch after having been thrown from a wagon in a caravan they were a part of and theres a huge battle going on. My parties martial characters love me for this