Dealing with a mess of getting a party together

[Pinjata]

Heya guys,

Our latest campaign is slowly drawing to an end and eventually it is me who will take the torch of a DM. I may solve the problem I will mention here in some different way, but playground has been in term of solution finding helpful more then once, so I decided to present my problem here anyway. I'd like in a non-railrady way knit together players, scattered all over Faerun, not to mention for them to be of a very difgerent levels.

Rogue, Barbarian, Wizard and Ranger have adventured together east of Waterdeep for a few months. Eventually Rogue has left the group to roam the North and Warlock has joined. This new group adventured over North and has eventually travelled in deep south to Chult. Now, this group is returning north, to Waterdeep to conclude the adventure there. Warlock will lose a player and become an NPC as well as a Ranger. Barbarian and Wizard are lvl 10, as well as North-ranging Rogue. Now. This group is to be somehow joined by a lvl 1 Paladin, Druid and Rogue nr.2(all lvl 1). Now I KNOW "big boys" will take good care of "little ones", I just have hard time getting Lvl 10 Rogue from the North to couple with lvl 10 Wiz and Brb plus Warlock and Scout NPC(how should I handle these NPCs? Saying they just leave some day is just silly) with lvl 1 Druid, Paladin and Rogur nr.2?

Now, I know this is a mess. But commenting on this mess will hopefully give me some material which I may use to create something that will not be a series of brutally forced coincidences and railroading.

Thanks

[smcmike]

You provide a lot of information that isn’t very helpful, such as their classes, levels, and locations. The relevant question is their goals and affiliations.

[Tiadoppler]

Here's what I've understood from your paragraph:

Original Party:
Barbarian (in Waterdeep)
Wizard (in Waterdeep)
Rogue One (somewhere in the North)
Ranger (became NPC in Waterdeep)
Warlock (joined later, then became NPC in Waterdeep)


New Blood:
Paladin
Druid
Rogue Two


So, what I'm gathering from this is:

Ranger and Warlock don't really matter to your plot. They are NPCs who may be friendly to the party, but are not relevant to the campaign specifically.

The New Blood group doesn't really have a location. They could be based in the North getting guidance from an experienced Rogue One on a complicated quest.

Rogue One + New Blood could have discovered an important quest that's simply too big for them to handle, prompting Rogue One to suggest meeting up with his past allies in Waterdeep.

Rogue One leads New Blood to Waterdeep, introducing them to the rest of the Original Party.

[Contrast]

Is there a reason the new characters have to join at level 1? They could be adventurers in good standing in their own right before they met up with the party.

If you have a philosophical objection to people playing levels they haven't 'earned' alternatively, couldn't the high level people play new characters for a bit? This gives you time for the other people to move around/join up/split up. When the new people are level appropriate they make contact with the old team and people can choose which characters to carry on with.

More broadly in line with your actual question - have a major event happen which requires large scale co-ordination. For example, <enemy> attack across the entire <country/continent/world>. <someone important the party will listen to> calls on all adventurers no matter their standing to come to their aid and calls a meeting in a location that everyone comes to and assigns missions. The number of events means there aren't enough experienced adventurers to cover all the locations and their groups are split up but given support from less experienced people to compensate.

[Pinjata]

@Tiadoppler

This is so perfect, i became teary-eyed. Rogue player is perfect as a "daddy' of young ones while coming up with a proper quest will not be hard. Have +1 karma, I know it was a difficult question.

Thanks so much!

[Dr. Cliché]

The DMs in my group have come up with a solution for this sort of thing - put the characters in a confined pace and then delegate the rest to the players.

For example, the DM might say that we'll be starting in prison. Why we're in there is entirely up to us - but once it starts we'll be breaking out together and getting to know one another in the process.

Another one was us all happening to be on a coach to a city at the same time. Again, when we'd got on that coach and why were up to us.

Basically, find a situation where their characters will be forced to endure each others' company for a time and even work together. However, so far as possible, leave the why to the players themselves - that way you're not treading on anyone's backstory.

A related option is to have them all working for the same individual or organisation. Again, let them decide exactly why they're there - they don't even have to be the same level (one or more could have a higher rank). But by having them work for the same person/organisation you are free to send them out on jobs together (you can even have NPCs tag along if it suits your purposes). Even if they stop working for that person later, hopefully they'll still want to work as a group.


The last thing I'll say is - and this might sound contradictory - is don't force interactions. Basically, once the characters are free of their initial situation and confinements, they should still want to work together. If most of the group can't stand one or more members and want nothing to do with them, don't force them to keep working together just because they're PCs.