Getting Player characters to become closer

[DukeGurren]

There is an Issue I'm trying to solve with the player characters in the manner that when they are not associated with each other before the start of the game, it's not an easy task to have their characters sympathize with one another and become closer to a point of friendship, brotherhood, etc. At the moment, my first Pathfinder group is going with each other because they're simply hired and/or forced to work with each other, which is obviously very breaking for immersion and it would go much better if they actually cared about each other and I'm not sure how to make that happen exactly. I decided to merge Crown of the Kobold King with my campaign and want to make some bonding moments but I'm not entirely sure how to go about it. Are there any tips that can be offered up to solve this problem? Thank you for reading and I hope to hear from someone soon.

[EisenKreutzer]

Overcoming shared conflicts can bring people closer together. Saving each other from danger, helping each other deal with personal issues and standing up to a common foe can turn a group of strangers into close friends.

[TandemChelipeds]

Overcoming shared conflicts can bring people closer together. Saving each other from danger, helping each other deal with personal issues and standing up to a common foe can turn a group of strangers into close friends.

This is where getting your players to provide you with plot hooks at character creation comes in handy. If a character has a personal problem, you can give them a day in the limelight, and since that becomes the pretext for the adventure, the other players will probably have their characters help out. In-game, it's only natural for the character with the problem to be grateful.

In a space opera game I'm in, one of the PCs wants to keep his planet from falling into a civil war and shifting out of the orbit needed to remain hospitable to life. My character has his own backstory to deal with, but I'm really looking forward to the civil war quest later on. As a result, I, as a player, take an interest in the other player's character, and this motivates me to RP with him. So far we've had at least one in-character philosophical debate, and both characters have a respect for each other in spite of their diverging opinions.

[Fenryr]

Sadly it depends completely on the Player. If the Player doesn't want to roleplay, well, boomer.

A couple of suggestions would be to run a dungeon with a single exit and not a revolving door (you can't leave and enter a couple of times). Offer XP for good roleplay? Create a situation where one needs help from the others.

[TandemChelipeds]

Sadly it depends completely on the Player. If the Player doesn't want to roleplay, well, boomer.

A couple of suggestions would be to run a dungeon with a single exit and not a revolving door (you can't leave and enter a couple of times). Offer XP for good roleplay? Create a situation where one needs help from the others.

This is true. You can't take away a player's free will. However, you can encourage the conditions that lead to the emergence of roleplay. This is probably easiest to do when you're starting the game, but you can manage it later on. If all else fails, try to arrange for the party's healer to contract a curse, and lead into a quest to get it removed. Players can be selfish, but as Dende said: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZTEtzsOtDw&t=66

[jiriku]

I often find it useful to require that each starting character's backstory include a contact or connection with at least one other PC, and at least a line or two describing the context of how they know each other and what they've done together. You can then create story lines that reference that shared history between the PCs, which will naturally help them connect. It's also helpful if you have some kind of social group for the PCs to join, like a guild, military unit, or other group with a clear identity. They'll then have a common identity as members of the group. Note that mercenary groups are poor for this purpose, since their identity is "we're all just in this for the money". Groups that share common interests or patriotism are better.

[jedipotter]

want to make some bonding moments but I'm not entirely sure how to go about it. Are there any tips that can be offered up to solve this problem? Thank you for reading and I hope to hear from someone soon.


The easy way is to simply force the players to work together with the ''well you want to play, right?'' idea. It's OOC, but it works.

A little bit harder is to just make everyone part of the same group or organization and have them be ordered to work together IC.

And for hard, you as the DM, can connect all the characters. You get all the backstories before the game and link them up and add links.

During the game itself, greedy is a great way to have characters bond. The good cleric can team up with the sneaky thief to get treasure. The same way the anti-magic barbarian and the wizard will do so.

The backstories work in the game too. If Koty hates orcs like crazy, just have the orcs have the Spell Scroll of Allspells. And Zbon the wizard will want to go after them with just as much zeal as Koty, and they can bond over it.

But mostly, you just have to let it happen naturally.

[Sith_Happens]

Try spiking the (in-game) punch bowl with Elixirs of Love.

[Curmudgeon]

The enemy of my enemy is my friend (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_enemy_of_my_enemy_is_my_friend). This is the flip side of jedipotter's idea of the PCs being part of a common organization. Instead, make them all have an enemy in common.

[Azoth]

Another option, is to create a variety of situations that showcase why each member is useful to the group as a whole, then giving them some social downtime.

This inadvertantly happened in a game I am in. DM didn't plan it, or if he did none of us saw it coming, but we had several situations where we as strangers became a group. Over the course of our meeting up and getting an initial job offer each of us had a chance to show what we were capable of without necessarily saving each other from death.

Afterwards we got some R&R time, and spent a chunk of it just shooting the bull in taverns/inns talking and going over things. Had us bond with one another lightheartedly and naturally.

Now none of us could see leaving the others behind in a jam, even if it would make perfect sense to do it.

Another option is giving them encouragement to roleplay a bit more as their characters. Even something as simple as joking around the campsite and such can get people to be more friendly.

[Troacctid]

"You are all friends before the game starts."

All problems are solved forever.

[Nibbens]

If all else fails, try to arrange for the party's healer to contract a curse, and lead into a quest to get it removed.

This happened incidentally in my PF game. My level 2 PC's encountered a Werewolf biting them over and over. Eventually someone failed. After they killed the WW, I had them make Knowledge Nature/Arcane checks to determine what WW-ism is. I gave them all the details, especially the "in three days it's permanent" clause.

This created a mad dash to the next town - in which they rode their horses to death in doing so (to get there in time) and then game them a small "I don't have the power to cure it, but I can do the work to prepare a Belladonna plant, if you find one."

This creates a situation where to save time, no one is resting and in PF they're all at -6 in their stats due to exhaustion, and fighting the simplest monsters are difficult.

At the end of solving this problem, if they were all more cohesive as a group - having shared in 1) saving an ally from all but certain doom, 2) having the stress of "we've got to do this asap" and nearly killing themselves doing so, and 3) actually getting anxious about potentially letting an 'ally' die.

[danzibr]

Sadly it depends completely on the Player. If the Player doesn't want to roleplay, well, boomer.
This actually is a great idea.

DM: You don't want to roleplay? *boom!*