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View Full Version : DM Help Getting the Party Together in a Sandbox Campaign



DixieDevil
2016-03-22, 02:37 AM
So, as the title says, I'm kinda suck on how I can I go about getting the party together in a sandbox-style campaign. Outside of "you meet in a tavern" :smallbiggrin:

Comet
2016-03-22, 03:10 AM
If you mean sandbox as in "a bunch of dungeons and other obstacles that the players tackle while managing risk and reward in a changing world" then having them meet in a tavern really is good enough. The characters are professional dungeon-delvers or such who can't hold down a regular job so they seek out others like themselves, draft a contract on a piece of vellum and venture out to seek riches. It really does work, is surprisingly relatable and gets you into the game quickly. Other storylines might emerge during play but starting with as blank a slate as possible helps with keeping the world open.

If you mean sandbox as in "an open world where the players set their own goals and the GM develops things for them to do in order to reach those goals" then you really should create your characters as a group and put in links between those characters that give them a common cause to strive for. Time is a limited resource at the table, so having a bunch of primadonna characters that each have their own epic storylines planned out is going to be a tough thing to balance in play. Talk about the game while creating characters, decide on what you want to do and create characters that have their own reasons for pursuing that same goal. Having them join up after that should be easy.

Surpriser
2016-03-22, 03:58 AM
You ask them:
"How do you guys know each other and why do you work together?", preferably, as Comet said, during the character creation phase.

If you expect trouble with some players, make it an explicit part of the pre-game agreement that everyone creates characters that either have common goal or at least a sufficiently strong incentive and the ability to work together.

BigKahuna
2016-03-22, 04:35 AM
I just started a sandbox campaign a week ago, and I'm a big fan of making sure the party knows each other first. I just ripped off the opening of Bone and started with the three level 1 PCs having been run out of town by a lynch mob.

They ended up coming up with this elaborate story about how the LE cleric had been trying to do a ritual sacrifice and lied to the CN rogue in order to get a corpse. Then, as they were getting run out of town, they pointed to the NG ranger and said he was part of the scheme so he could help them in the wilderness.

Noyoki
2016-03-22, 05:03 AM
"You and several other people meet at the community job board of [town name here], all of you are obviously searching for work. There are several jobs that you can do in a day that would earn you a modest amount of gold (50-60), a "save the world" quest line (party lv 1-14; minimum party of four; possibly millions of gold as reward), and a clear out a nest of kobolds to the [pick a direction] for about 200 gold (recommended party of at least [however many players you have at the table]). Before you (or any of the other people at the table for that matter) manage to get to the board, the save the world and most of the jobs you could do in a day are all ready gone. Fortunately for you lot, there happens to be just enough people looking for work that you could conceivably clear out the kobold nest in a quick amount of time."

Bonus points if clearing out the kobold nest is the last thing the characters ever do because of distractions on the road lead them to a completely different direction doing god knows what somewhere else (because PCs are easily distracted beings when you wave a shiny in front of them). Extra bonus points if they accept the same quest to clear out the same kobold nest in the same town.:smalltongue:

Hopeless
2016-03-22, 05:38 AM
Perhaps you can answer a couple of questions first?

What game are you running?

Do you know what your players are running?

Exactly in what direction do you want your players to be going?

For example a Traveller game most of the group were picked out of jail to retrieve a package off a robot freighter heading for the asteroid belt.
They get aboard easily enough but discover the package isn't what they assumed as the freighter is a prison ship and a mercenary ship is inbound quite possibly looking for the same package and they need to find it and get far enough from the freighter to avoid being blown up by the mercs.

So all bar 1 of the group are recruited from jail with the last member being either the package or their contact aboard the freighter.

So what game are you running?

Aran nu tasar
2016-03-22, 10:06 AM
I highly recommend asking the players to determine during character creation why they know each other and what their common goals are. It is usually forced and awkward to try to impose something later on. While players will usually have their characters work together because of the signs saying "I'm a PC" hanging above everybody's head, the party will be much closer if they have a previously established reason to be together.

Segev
2016-03-22, 10:38 AM
One technique that has worked well every time I've seen it used does require the GM to have a "starting point" and hook to get things going, but is pretty simple if that's so:

Have the players tell you why they're at the starting point of the campaign. Whatever it is that's going to happen to need them to band together, you have them tell you why they're there.

Are they all prisoners in a jail that's about to be part of a massive breakout for another NPC? Have them tell you why they're in that jail.

This can extend to establishing a party's cohesion, if needs be: "Tell me how you know each other and why your group is [at start locale or interested in initial plot hook]." You can also ask them to coordinate a scripted "how we will get to know each other" in a sort of session 0 or 0.5 to be played out just before or in the first session or few. If the players are on board with railroading their own PCs into becoming a group, that isn't going to offend anybody. And they can all work out how to conspire to make their PCs' choices make sense and still get them all together.

In essence, make the players work with you on the "how we meet" plot, either providing it wholesale from their backstory (including the last few hours before the start of the first session, as needs be), or planning it out together with you. There may not be many plot surprises in that first session or so, but that's fine. Cooperative pre-planned storytelling when everybody is agreed upon the goal is okay.



Have them all tell you about what they were doing the night before. Don't require them to have any coordination or to know each other at all. Then, as the opening of the game, have them all waking up in the same locale. A dungeon, scattered around an island, on a boat...some sort of closed-room type scenario. This probably won't match where they went to bed the night before.

If it's not a shipwreck type scenario, describe their surroundings as if they'd set up camp or are in a personal room that...well, looks like THEIRS. Mementos, trinkets, decore...their style, maybe a little off, with elements they don't recognize, but...identifiably "theirs." And now these strangers are all here with them.

And they have powers and strengths they don't recall ever having before.

What's really going on: you've just started the game weeks, months, or years after the "last night" they described, and they're more powerful because they've leveled up/gained CP/whatever. They have, in the intervening time, met all these yahoos and formed a party of close friends...but something happened to wipe their memories of all that time. The sandbox AND the plot can revolve in part around finding this out, learning to trust each other again, and - over time - playing out flashbacks as they recover some memories and re-forge friendships and other relationships lost to this amnesia.

This will not be EASY to set up well, because you'll have to make assumptions about some of what's happened to establish relationships you think they'd have...and then have flashbacks where they play out things that make that...believable. But it could be a lot of fun.

Lycanthrope13
2016-03-22, 10:56 AM
This is why backstories are important. If the players collaborate on that, they can work out a pretty good story.

Just as an example, in a game I played a while back, there were 5 players:
Human Cleric
Human Barbarian
Tiefling Bard
Dwarf Rogue
Half-Orc Ranger

The Cleric said he was on a mission of discovery for his god, a sort of trial by fire to test his faith.

The Barbarian and Rogue were linked. The Rogue having adventured with the Barbarian's grandfather, joined the grandson in his quest for vengeance after his wife and daughter were murdered.

These three ended up going after the same sorcerer, and hired the Ranger to be their local guide.

The Bard was just going wherever there were interesting rumors, looking for good tales to tell. She followed the other four so she could give a first hand account of the battle.

And thus, the party was born.

Joe the Rat
2016-03-22, 11:07 AM
Encourage each player to have a link to two other characters - one a history, one a favor or secret
Have them be the least bad hires of a bad hire montage.
Have half the players be the least bad hires, the other half the ones hiring ("Seeking additional partners")
Find a table of 100 reasons two characters know each other, roll until everyone is connected to someone.
(I left mine at home, sorry)
Fairy Geas
Everybody is human, half-elf, or half-orc (etc). You're all looking for your father.
As above, except you've been summoned to his funeral.
You survived the character funnel together. Welcome to first level!
Each of you had a piece of a treasure map; combined, they lead to your first plot hook.
You all meet on a merchant caravan: Who's guarding, who's selling, who's traveling, who's making an ill-fated attempt at banditry?
Each character has a personal quest. Another character has an important key. Let the chain of deals commence!
It has been fortold that you (X many) people are destined to save/destroy the kingdom/monster/item of great power. You travel together so the damn seer will stop apppearing in your dreams and nag you about it.

TheThan
2016-03-22, 07:58 PM
Option 1: all the characters already know each other;
Option 2: all the characters just met but have a common goal (hired for the same job, must escape from a prison/slavery etc etc)
Option 3: all the characters meet in a tavern or some other social local.

Vinyadan
2016-03-22, 08:31 PM
They are all courting the same person, who sends them off in bulk on a quest to prove themselves.

goto124
2016-03-23, 12:15 AM
They all meet in prison, duh.

RazorChain
2016-03-23, 05:10 AM
Start the campaign at a spot where they are working together when things go horribly wrong. Now they have to stick together to survive as they have a powerful enemy that will kill them easily one by one.

OldTrees1
2016-03-23, 08:46 AM
Small starting area + a task that benefits from teamwork
Prison quarry + escape
a frontier village + defense
gate to the big city + gate to the big city(took longer than normal to group up)
a remote dojo + their master leaving them the dojo.

However asking them how, and how well, they know each other is a good compatible tool.

sktarq
2016-03-23, 09:53 AM
I recommend that before character creation you ask why the party exists.

If it is for hire what kind of missions are they going to be available for and wat are they specialized in? Has the party been assembled by a backer/s and if so what are the players motivations to work for their patron?

If the party is to advance the party members monetary, social, and magical status then why they chose each other will primary be social bonds-they would have known each other prior to game one.

Lots of prison, blackmail, bystander type means of creating the party are fine for that first escape/deal with the situation adventure and then fall apart after that. So I only recommend it for one shots.

hifidelity2
2016-03-23, 10:46 AM
Some of the ones I have used


- Meet in a tavern
- All work for the same employer
- All on the same (space) ship / wagon train
- All captured by pirates / slaves etc
- All in prison
- All apply for (the same) job

Lycanthrope13
2016-03-23, 08:09 PM
Just thought of one that explains why the party stays together long term.

You were all kidnapped by a powerful entity who pitted you against individuals of similar skills in a series of bracket style eliminations until only the players were left alive.

Since the players proved themselves to be the best of the best, they earned the honor of serving this mysterious entity.

He then places a binding on the party which prevents them from being separated by more than (x distance). If they are, all members are instantly teleported to the point where they separated. The binding will remain until they have completed the purpose they were selected for (which is never fully explained).

This adds 2 instant story lines for the party. 1) Discover your purpose, and 2) find a way to lift the binding. A clever party could also make some creative uses of the teleportation too.

ShaneMRoth
2016-03-29, 04:47 AM
You ask them:
"How do you guys know each other and why do you work together?", preferably, as Comet said, during the character creation phase.

If you expect trouble with some players, make it an explicit part of the pre-game agreement that everyone creates characters that either have common goal or at least a sufficiently strong incentive and the ability to work together.

This is my personal favorite. It keeps the sandbox concept intact by appealing to the players' inherent agency.

Frozen_Feet
2016-03-29, 06:03 AM
Ask yourself the question: "where has it been historically probable for lot of random violent people to end up in one spot?"

Taverns are one choice. Most of other classics, such as prison and a ship (preferably smuggling fugitives across a border...) have already been mentioned.

The one that's missing on a glance is "you were all drafted to the military". BOOM, an excuse for these people to be together, to work together and to go on stupid life-threatening missions. You as a GM even have in-game excuse to punish them for not playing along. :smalltongue:

If you're good at managing turn order and invidual characters, you can pretty much leave it to players whether they'll co-operate or why. In sandbox style play, this typically results in every character having a slightly different motive for being with the group. For example: one was a servant boy who ended up with a treasure map and showed it to family friend; said friend, being rich old guy, decides to outfit a ship to go after the treasure; the ship's captain is short of crew, but the ship's cook volunteers to hire some sailors; said sailors go with the cook because they're his friends from the time they were all pirates.

In the long term, the character roster will change as characters complete their goals and retire, die, split or betray others etc. When the campaign ends, the last characters might have no connection whatsoever to the initial events and goals.

mujadaddy
2016-03-29, 09:41 AM
There's nothing wrong with a tavern meet, but there should be a reason WHY all the characters are in the same tavern at the same time. I had my current party start out wandering in the marketplace individually, then they sheltered together from an impending hurricane, then an orc invasion hit the city. The party is tied together by circumstance; roleplaying covers the dynamics of camaraderie from there.