Bringing together a wildly varied party

[ParagonOfApathy]

I'm about to run a GURPS game, but each party member is immensely different, with no real motivation to adventure together. I have an excuse for them to be in the same place, but I'm struggling to think of a way to being them together.


Some details:
The party is starting in a major city, during that world's equivalent of the Olympics.
The party are all from different nations. I'm anticipating a 7th Sea style language map to see who can talk to whom.

[Velaryon]

The easiest way I can think of is to give them a common enemy. Have it be someone powerful enough that they need to ally with one another to stand against said enemy.

If they haven't written that enemy into their backstories, then you just need to find a way to have them each start having problems with the enemy right from the start of the game.

Are the party members involved in the games? If so, maybe the enemy is another nation who's trying to cheat to win most of the events.

[Red Fel]

Do the players know one another? One of my favorite campaigns involved the DM telling everyone what the setting would be (generally) and instructing us to confer with other players and write at least one of the other PCs into our backstories. This DM also informed us that we all came from the same hometown (not that we were necessarily born there, but that we all lived there) and therefore were likely to at least have passing knowledge of the other PCs, even if we didn't know them personally.

It worked out incredibly well, even for our remarkably varied party. We had CG, CN, LE, NE, we were all over the map alignment-wise. For races, we had a half-elf, a minotaur, a gnome, a construct, and a couple of humans - again, widely varied. For classes, we had bards, fighters, wizards, and whatever the construct was supposed to be (I forget). But because everyone had everyone else in their backstories, it worked. The LE minotaur served and trained the CG fighter, whose older sister had saved the minotaur's life; the NE wizard was friends with the CG bard, since they had grown up together; the CN construct, a divine creation of a gnomish deity, had resolved to serve the first gnome it found, who was the CG gnome, who purchased components from a shop run by the wizard, and around and around we go.

It works even better in GURPS, as roles are less concretely defined; basically anybody can be basically anybody, and know basically anybody, and do basically anything. So I would suggest having your players confer on their characters. They don't need to tell each other everything - indeed, keeping secrets can increase in-character drama - but having them relate to one another before the game creates relationships so that you don't have to force them on your PCs.

[Rhynn]

each party member is immensely different, with no real motivation to adventure together

Why?

Make your players come up with a reason why they're together and will stick together.

[ReaderAt2046]

This is one of the things FATE and its offshoots do really well: Part of the character creation process involves each player "guest starring" in two other player's minor adventures, so everyone starts out interconnected.

[Airk]

Why?

Make your players come up with a reason why they're together and will stick together.

This can fall victim to the "My guy" syndrome, where the players seem to actively try to avoid doing things that are helpful to the game because "my guy wouldn't do that."

That said, players who do this are basically saying "I don't really want to play the game and you can't make me" so you shouldn't feel any qualms about giving them a warning and then not playing with them in the future.

Edit: Of course, the correct way to deal with the OPs problem is to not have it in the first place by not allowing your players to do chargen in a vacuum. Remember that in the future. It's MUCH easier to tell the players in advance that either A) They need to have reasons to be a party (implied "Or I will reject your character") or B) Your reason(s) that you are a party are A,B,C and D, make sure you account for that in your character background.

[Dawgmoah]

I'm about to run a GURPS game, but each party member is immensely different, with no real motivation to adventure together. I have an excuse for them to be in the same place, but I'm struggling to think of a way to being them together.


Some details:
The party is starting in a major city, during that world's equivalent of the Olympics.
The party are all from different nations. I'm anticipating a 7th Sea style language map to see who can talk to whom.

Throw a little love at them. Have the story revolve around two very different people falling in love and their connected friends and family no matter how remote happen to be in the area for the games and all get invited to the wedding: either as guests or to stop it from happening.

[Scow2]

This can fall victim to the "My guy" syndrome, where the players seem to actively try to avoid doing things that are helpful to the game because "my guy wouldn't do that."

Actually, it avoids "My Guy" problem by forcing them to adapt and change their character before the game actually starts to the point that they will do that.

[Rhynn]

Actually, it avoids "My Guy" problem by forcing them to adapt and change their character before the game actually starts to the point that they will do that.

Well, I see Airk's point: it shunts the "My Guy" problem into the pre-game. But I think it's best handled there in any case.

"STFU and make your guy play nice" is much better in the pre-game than during game; telling the players how their characters act is not the same as telling the players what sort of characters they need to create (using some very broad and sensible parameters, like "in a group with the others and likely to stay").

[Airk]

Well, I see Airk's point: it shunts the "My Guy" problem into the pre-game. But I think it's best handled there in any case.

Yes, and by "pre-game" I mean BEFORE they make their characters. Doing it afterwards (even if they haven't played yet) is only marginally more likely to produce results than telling them how to act, IMHO. As soon as the character is 'realized' in someone's mind, they are all set to start resenting you. ;)