Quote Originally Posted by Batcathat View Post
As I mentioned in the original thread, whether or not starting with a meatgrinder is a good idea (I'm not sure it'd be for me, but I can see some of the appeal) I don't see how it could possibly be replacing a backstory or somehow providing a reason for the party to stick together any more than any other intro adventure.
Quote Originally Posted by Satinavian View Post
Or you could just take a regular introduction adventure and get the same bondingexperience out of it. Even more as you don't need any "trickle down attachment".

How ? Meatgrinders are notorious for the characters having not well thought out reasons for being there or working together. They tend to be just some other random warm bodies to each other and usually stay that way. It is not unheard of players not evenknowing the names of the current PCs that belong to other players. Why care for some other poorly thought out mayfly PC who was made in 5 minutes more than about some random NPC hireling ?
You could just do an introductory adventure that's not fatal. But extreme stress is a bonding moment for many players.

In-so-far as the OP, meatgrinders specifically do have a disadvantage over an introductory adventure if they're the model "reroll a new character when the previous one dies, only one character at a time". The party you end up may have only been together for the very tail end of the meatgrinders session(s).

A character funnel version, or the all guardsmen party version, doesn't have that. Character funnels each player controls multiple characters, and some number survive to the end. The all guardsmen model didn't kill all the characters ... a number were incapacitated due to wounds and evacuated. The resulting group was put together from the evacuees.