So why do your characters stick together?

[Paganboy28]

A big problem with some of the games I have played in is that there has never really been a good reason for the characters to stick together, trust each other, or generally remain together for longer than to say "hello, goodbye".

Example 1:

In an unknown armies campaign one player was a entropomancer and so picked fights with the other characters to generate charges... my question was why would my character want to stick around with someone who frequently beat him up....


Example 2:

in a DnD game there were a variety of races that never really gelled as a team as their goals were different.


Could give more examples but you get the idea....



So how do other GM's get their parties together and ensure that they stick together? What stops inter-party strife?


For my part, my characters tend to be bent on their own survival. Maybe this is because i like to develop my characters and sending them into combat and such where death is a real chance goes against this grain. Some call this cowardness, I call it "looking after one's own".....

[Rhiannon87]

Fear tends to bind people together pretty well. Have something actively hunting the party and trying to kill one or more of the members.

In the game where I'm a player, we started off as kind of mercenary types, all working together but hired by different people and investigating things for different reasons. Then vampires started trying to kill us, an assassin started gunning for my PC, and a couple characters started acting very strangely. By the time we got out of there we had bounty hunters and assassins chasing us for about three months in-game, and once we finally got to our goal, we were quite the tightly bound nakama. Now we stick together because of those bonds, even though we've all taken different directions within the city where we live.

[TheCountAlucard]

Fear tends to bind people together pretty well. Have something actively hunting the party and trying to kill one or more of the members.

Probably one of the biggest reasons for the Wyld Hunt in Exalted, I'd imagine...

[LibraryOgre]

In our current game, most of the characters work for the Rex family. In fact, most have worked for the Rex family for some time.

[Swordgleam]

My current party has an evil paladin, a neutral cleric, and otherwise good characters. They argue a lot, but never fight, because the campaign world is so deadly that they know they'd all die without each other's help.

I mean, sure, the paladin tortures prisoners and you don't want him taking watch alone, but do you really want to shiv one of the only people who can heal you? Likewise, the warlock might be an amnesiac doppelganger with totally unknown motives, but he can curse your enemies. Are you really going to throw that away, in a world where everything out there wants you dead?

Of course, my game is post-apocalyptic (still 4e, just homebrew setting) so that might not work as well in other settings where, if you want another cleric to heal you, you just have to stop by a major temple in a big city. In which case, my main suggestion is to not play with jerks - if you know there is going to be a party and you'll have to get along, most reasonable people will design a character who has some motivation to stay with such a party.

[Kris Strife]

Have you ever heard of Sovereign Glue?

[PairO'Dice Lost]

In the last campaign, all of the PCs were fey of various sorts working for the Faerie Courts of the Seasons as an elite force taking the war to the Evil Empire^TM--and I explicitly made it a part of their founding that they were one of the few parties made up of fey from different Courts and different races, so all of the inter-PC bickering and grudges and such worked nicely with the story.

In the campaign before that, the PCs were the only horribly-transfigured creatures who survived a magical portal mishap (one of many) brought about by the elves, and the start of the first session involved them being hunted by the elven military, so they had no choice but to stick together.

[Vizzerdrix]

Honestly, if the DM (or group)cannot provide a good enough reason, I'll often retire a character that has no reason to stay with the group. That's just bad story telling to expect a bunch of strangers to stick together for no reason.

[oxybe]

because there is a tavern, and anyone within it is destined to meet either:
A) an old man
B) a dying solider
C) a maid/butler of a wealthy patron
D) a convenient plot device

and then they are thrown together in an action-packed adventure that will make them laugh, cry and learn the true meaning of friendship.

because how else would a dwarven cleric from the mountains, warforged warden from the wilds, an urban theifling warlock, the githyanki paladin from outside the prime material and that weird plant guy ever travel together?

[Satyr]

Because the pressure from the outside and the mutual sacrifices they made for each other weld them together, and because they have a common interest (usually survival, or something elaborate like getting filthy rich) and there is no one out there they can trust. Because one character is their commanding officer, captain or otherwise the leader. Because they love each other. Because one of the characters pays the rest.
In the new campaign I will start tomorow, based on Arthurian lore, two of the player characters are brothers, one is the captain of their warband, one is a camp follower in said warband and the last one is a young warrior in yet the same warband.

[boomwolf]

Because they are ADVENTURERS, and adventurers rarely go far by themselves.

In most of my games taverns are, as an unwritten rule, a "neutral zone" where everyone at the least gets along good enough not to attack each other, even no a paladin attacking an opposed alignment paladin.

It became the natural place for adventurers to rest and enjoy themselves, the job offerings soon followed so people who need adventurers know to find them in taverns, and as nearly everyone there is an adventurer or is looking to hire some-its easy to find a team to complete adventures too hard for yourself alone.

Sure. there are some NPC adventurers out there, but they are usually far above the ECL of the PC's who has interest in that area. (in an area intended for level 3-5, a solo adventurer will be 7-9.)

I actually have other adventuring groups roaming around. and they sometimes meet them, even if the groups find no reason to interact with each other,

[randomhero00]

In my groups we usually go out of our way to make sure all our characters belong and have a reason for sticking together, otherwise they split (retire/reroll). Reasons why have varied a lot. A common enemy and common alignment is a big one. Sometimes they have family and inter-nobility ties. Usually there's 2 or 3 core characters who have been around the longest and have backstory together, then 1-2 new characters who are PCs but roleplay like their mercs, or if on the more lawful side, then a holy mission type.

[Johel]

I'm currently into a pbp campaign on another forum where we are playing orcs.

We are six players and have every stereotypes, including two half-breeds : an half-hobbit and an half-goblin. Both have amazing dexterity and a slightly better-than-average intelligence.

Yet, for these two poor souls, life is far from easy, as my character is an "elite" orc (Str18, Dex14, Con12, Int10, Sag14, Cha9, this guy is seen by his fellow orcs as slightly better than them in every single discipline) whose ruthlessness is only equaled by his aggression, racism, selfishness, pride and sloth. Your average orc, only biggest and meaner...

First thing I did was to clearly establish that, because of their "bad blood", I was going to make their life a living hell :

• They carry the luggages and, as orcs are usually strong, there's a lot of heavy stuff, mainly food and including a dead comrade (aka more-food).
• They search dry wood for the fire. We are in the middle of the winter...
• They act as baits for monsters. The half-hobbit got nearly eaten by an ogre and I personally tackled the half-goblin so that I wouldn't be caught by said ogre.
• They are systematically sent on suicide missions. We sent the two of them scouting in a "cursed" village and the half-goblin is currently climbing the palisade of a human village, alone, to get some food.
• They got abused at the slighest sign of rebellion and blamed for the slightest problem, even if they advised against the failed tactic before hand. When they find a good tactic, they are shut up and I take credits for the plan.
• Finally, if we don't get food from the human village, it's already planed to offer one of the two as a "gift" to an Ogre-Mage we are instructed to find, so that he'll accept us as his minions. We already got hints that our future boss is both sadistic and glutton...which doesn't speak well for the two half-breeds.

Why haven't the players already quit or their characters ran away ?

For the players, it's because the "abuses" are merely storytelling : OOC, they are part of the team, we listen to them and praise them when they got ideas. They wanted to play half-breeds and accepted the consequences.

For the characters, it's because, while badly treated among the orcs, they wouldn't stand a chance on their own and would be killed on sight by humans, goblins, hobbits and even other orcs. One does not choose his family but when said family is the only one to accept tolerate you, you stick with it. Also, were they to become the "alpha dogs", they would act exactly alike. That's what being Chaotic Evil is about : being a Son of a B**** at hearth and enjoy it when you can.

Now, in "normal" adventuring party, the only reason people stick together is either for the mission calls for it. If the party doesn't work, it will dissolve once the mission is over or once everyone is out of danger.

[Saph]

As a DM, I have three preferred methods of handling this.

Method 1: What Makes You Think You've Got A Choice?

Sergeant Whatever: "You've all been reassigned from your previous units to complete this mission. These are your new teammates and you will work with them for the duration. Is that understood?"
PC: "But who's that guy?"
Sergeant Whatever: "DID I SOUND LIKE I WAS ASKING YOUR OPINION, SOLDIER? These ARE your teammates and you WILL WORK WITH THEM! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?"

(This is the 'necessity' approach. Other variants are: PCs are all dumped together in the wilderness, PCs are all framed for a crime, PCs are all in the same place when an attack happens, etc. Basically the PCs are stuck with each other. It's not my favourite method but it sure does speed things up.)

Method 2: Leave It Up To The Players

Me: "You can make any character of any class and any alignment that you like, but you all have to have a reason to work together. I don't care what it is, just as long as it works. Come up with something yourselves."

(This is my preferred approach for a long-running campaign. The players work together to create characters and make sure they're compatible. Joint responsibility.)

Method 3: See What Happens

Me: "Okay, your character is here. The rest of the party is here. Off you go."
Player: "Uh, do I know these guys?"
Me: "Nope."
Player: "Do I have any reason to trust them?"
Me: "Can't think of one."
Player: "So what should I do?"
Me: "Up to you."

(This is the zero-interference approach. Has the obvious potential to crash and burn horribly, but it also has the potential to be a lot of fun as the characters interact with each other and the old PCs grill the new one. Also, if the new player's made got a dysfunctional character, it may be best to have the problems out early and at least get some entertainment value out of it.)

[Inhuman Bot]

Simple.

In our previous IK campaign, we'd all joined the Cygnar millitary.

Currently, we're mercenaries. Two of the group knew each other beforehand, one person is too lazy to ever RP, one person joined for reasons that he's kept secret, and I joined because my town was set on fire.

[Lioness]

We all got hired by the same person, with promises of loots if we did what she asked us to.

[Optimystik]

We all got hired by the same person, with promises of loots if we did what she asked us to.

Were said loots phat?

[Rhiannon87]

As a DM, I have three preferred methods of handling this.

Method 1: What Makes You Think You've Got A Choice?

Sergeant Whatever: "You've all been reassigned from your previous units to complete this mission. These are your new teammates and you will work with them for the duration. Is that understood?"
PC: "But who's that guy?"
Sergeant Whatever: "DID I SOUND LIKE I WAS ASKING YOUR OPINION, SOLDIER? These ARE your teammates and you WILL WORK WITH THEM! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?"

(This is the 'necessity' approach. Other variants are: PCs are all dumped together in the wilderness, PCs are all framed for a crime, PCs are all in the same place when an attack happens, etc. Basically the PCs are stuck with each other. It's not my favourite method but it sure does speed things up.)

Method 2: Leave It Up To The Players

Me: "You can make any character of any class and any alignment that you like, but you all have to have a reason to work together. I don't care what it is, just as long as it works. Come up with something yourselves."

(This is my preferred approach for a long-running campaign. The players work together to create characters and make sure they're compatible. Joint responsibility.)

My group usually ends up with a blending of methods one and two. It's a more-or-less unofficial rule that your character should have a connection of some kind to at least one other person in the party. For example, in the game we're hopefully starting soon, four of the players are connected thusly:

Raya (my PC) is best friends with The Druid. Raya gets kidnapped right before the campaign starts, and her parents hire The Urban Ranger to find her. The Gnomish Han Solo is one of The Urban Ranger's underworld contacts.

Other characters will be tied in similarly-- someone who owes a debt to someone else, friends or lovers of other PCs, etc. The goal is to be able to do a flow chart and have everyone connected, with no stray characters who don't know anyone. Our current game didn't quite start like that-- only a few of the characters new each other (two couples, a pair of friends, and two loners), but stronger bonds have been forged since.

[Lioness]

Were said loots phat?

So far they are, and DM promises that they get phatter.

[oxybe]

is a fat lute like a large guitar or something?

[zoobob9]

I know exactly what holds people together. It is a force stronger than love, than hate, than friendship. It's called mutual need. Lets say a dragon destroys two rival villages. They will put aside their differences to help kill the dragon, no matter how much they hate each other. That or the stronger of the two will kill the other, get weakened by a significant amount, and then be slaughteed by the dragon when he or she comes back. The obvious choice to use is mutual need.

when your PCs complete their first mission have somebody behind the whole plot- probably a demon, lich, dragon, go nuts!- will track down the PCs' families and kill them. Then he PCs will have no choice but to work together and kill the big monster from before. Along the way have one get killed and everybodyelse pools money for raise dead, or have something else to help them bond together. Then by the time they're like 13, they will all be friends! Or just keep using decoys for the family murderer until the last levels of the campaign if you have stubborn players.

[Coidzor]

Most recently: We were a bunch of childhood acquaintances who got drunk and decided to take on a mission from the mayor to go check out what was going on in the lighthouse and what had the lizardfolk riled up. Then we sort of found out we had an adventuring company charter as part of our reward so we figured we might as well go with it once we were back, bloodied, and sober.

Then as the party composition changed, we basically either hired people or had them buy into the partnership. ...We think the gnome wizard is going to try to figure out how to get people to invest in us by buying stock...

2nd most recent... Suffice to say we got embroiled in the events of Red Hand of Doom. Long story of course, follows.

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The druid and the rogue/spiked-chain fighter(me) were just traveling together when some orcs attacked us and subdued us offscreen for sacrifice, so when we came to with the rest of the party in cells across and next to ours, we didn't really object to helping them bust out. Then once we got back to the town with them, we invited them to come along to follow a treasure map which lay on the other end of the city they had been hired by to deal with whatever it was in the hills (which turned out to be the orcs).

Hmm, in the original party before we joined, there was a gnome paladin who was basically somewhat in charge of two necromancers (one a wizard, the other a dread necromancer. One drow, one gray elf) and a tiefling monk, who had all been picked up by his church for being too evil for their own good and basically put into his service to redeem them, or at least make sure they took their evil out on legitimate targets. Then the druid and rogue were basically offered part of the reward for the mission they were on in exchange for picking the locks on their cages and manacles and helping them escape and complete their mission, and then they stayed on due to not having pressing business beyond some treasure looting. One of the nobles that had hired the party to rescue some lost kids (15 year old nobs anyway) who had gotten drunk and decided to go hunting for kobolds or orcs in the mountains hired us to investigate some odd reports of another migration of goblinoids to the west (the orc horde buildup had been in the east) while the army was called up to clear out the remnants of the orc horde after they set to fighting each other after their warmaster was assassinated (by us of course), which coincided with where the treasure map was leading us, and the noble gave us her body guard to represent her interests, who was the barbarian. The party finally topped off at 7 members set off.

The treasure map led us into an ambush that began the Red Hand of Doom, and we basically were stuck together out of self-preservation. After we finished them off, we mostly split up to go our separate ways, since the paladin had only a partial success in redeeming the necromancer and tiefling in his charge and the druid needed to get a curse he acquired from the Ghost Lord fixed. Since that was the end of that campaign anyway.

[Darrin]

How about...

"...because if we try to split up or go our own way, rocks fall on us and we die."

[Lappy9000]

Our party sticks together because bands of incompetent murdering psychopaths tend to be less incompetent that individual murdering psychopaths (and there is loot involved) /every adventuring party ever.

[Project_Mayhem]

I'm currently into a pbp campaign on another forum where we are playing orcs.

We are six players and have every stereotypes, including two half-breeds : an half-hobbit and an half-goblin. Both have amazing dexterity and a slightly better-than-average intelligence.

Yet, for these two poor souls, life is far from easy, as my character is an "elite" orc (Str18, Dex14, Con12, Int10, Sag14, Cha9, this guy is seen by his fellow orcs as slightly better than them in every single discipline) whose ruthlessness is only equaled by his aggression, racism, selfishness, pride and sloth. Your average orc, only biggest and meaner...

First thing I did was to clearly establish that, because of their "bad blood", I was going to make their life a living hell :

• They carry the luggages and, as orcs are usually strong, there's a lot of heavy stuff, mainly food and including a dead comrade (aka more-food).
• They search dry wood for the fire. We are in the middle of the winter...
• They act as baits for monsters. The half-hobbit got nearly eaten by an ogre and I personally tackled the half-goblin so that I wouldn't be caught by said ogre.
• They are systematically sent on suicide missions. We sent the two of them scouting in a "cursed" village and the half-goblin is currently climbing the palisade of a human village, alone, to get some food.
• They got abused at the slighest sign of rebellion and blamed for the slightest problem, even if they advised against the failed tactic before hand. When they find a good tactic, they are shut up and I take credits for the plan.
• Finally, if we don't get food from the human village, it's already planed to offer one of the two as a "gift" to an Ogre-Mage we are instructed to find, so that he'll accept us as his minions. We already got hints that our future boss is both sadistic and glutton...which doesn't speak well for the two half-breeds.

Why haven't the players already quit or their characters ran away ?

For the players, it's because the "abuses" are merely storytelling : OOC, they are part of the team, we listen to them and praise them when they got ideas. They wanted to play half-breeds and accepted the consequences.

For the characters, it's because, while badly treated among the orcs, they wouldn't stand a chance on their own and would be killed on sight by humans, goblins, hobbits and even other orcs. One does not choose his family but when said family is the only one to accept tolerate you, you stick with it. Also, were they to become the "alpha dogs", they would act exactly alike. That's what being Chaotic Evil is about : being a Son of a B**** at hearth and enjoy it when you can.

Now, in "normal" adventuring party, the only reason people stick together is either for the mission calls for it. If the party doesn't work, it will dissolve once the mission is over or once everyone is out of danger.

I give your character this advice: Watch your back, or there may shortly be a crooked black dagger in it

[Piedmon_Sama]

Basically, I've used all the methods depending on where it was in the campaign. This game of mine started way back in 2005 with the standard "you're a pack of random mercenaries/monsters hired for a dirty job out in the wilderness," and the simple motivation for most PCs was collecting their pay. Later on it became "you've been lost in this wilderness, and you need to stick with this band of people to survive," and then when only two of the original PCs remained it was "this character (the party leader) is a famous monster hunter, following him will win you fortune and glory." Now that the story has moved into high-stakes, world-saving territory it's literally all-for-one as defeat means virtual annihilation or eternal slavery for men, elves and fey under the Cult of Orcus.

---
Alphonse Arcanus (human Cleric 11): Is not only the group leader, but one of a handful of Clerics who exist in the world. Each one of these "Godtouched" are considered great men of destiny; he's already a famous monster-slayer, and now that the Empire is in crisis both men and elves consider him instrumental in saving the world. Even the villains of the campaign, the Cult of Orcus, appear to consider his death necessary before they can complete a prophecy that would ensure world domination and the end of the mortal races' existence as they know it.

Alleria Kanan (draconic elf Monk 11): Although for all intents and purposes a roaming whirlwind of pointless destruction, Alleria took on her first adventuring job with Alphonse and feels some kind of weird loyalty or kinship to him (at least she seems willing to commit her random acts of destruction "in his name," to the nobleman's horror). After attacking some random guards in a Free City and almost getting the group into an inadvertant war, she was excluded from the rest of the party literally by an act of the gods. But with equal arbitrariness, she appears destined to be entangled with Alphonse again and again.

Valda Diefendorf (human Fighter 11): Isn't even from the setting, but a parallel earth which was destroyed. As a survivor from a wiped-out timeline, she was hunted by the Inevitables, and then made a foolish deal for protection with a Death Slaad. She's got literally no-one in the world except her current companions, is slowly being transformed into some kind of Chaos Beast and has been told multiple times that her mere existence is a danger to the universe she currently inhabits. Emotional support aside, she has to figure her only chance of survival is sticking with her current group of powerful friends.

Xerxes (killoren Duskblade 11): Xerxes is the third greatest Duskblade in all the Elven Realms, a fact galling since he is not an elf but one of the fay races of their desmene. A hotshot monster-slayer with a penchent for trophies, Xerxes was sent out by the Elven Council to hunt and battle the Cult of Orcus, which just so happen to be targeting the human hero Alphonse Arcanus for death. An alliance was natural, but Xerxes found Alphonse's might slightly greater than his own, and as a proud warrior Xerxes is determined to prove his arcane and martial discipline greater than the Godtouched's powers.

Tiel D'arnath (human Rogue 6/Avenging Executioner 5): Xerxes' counterpart is a human orphan, adopted and raised as an assassin by the elves (humans and other mortal races are often used this way, due to their quick maturation rate). His home village was burned by the Cult of Orcus, making the war personal for him. His enormous admiration for elves and disgust for mortals puts him at some odds with the party, but Tiel is utterly loyal to the Elven Councils' commands.

F.F Fizzlebottom (gnome Bard 11): The profession of comedian is an ancient and honorable office in gnome civilization, and F.F Fizzlebottom is one of its finest. He is determined to one day perform a standup routine that will make the gods themselves laugh, and what better way to reach their ear than following a Godtouched man? Moreover, now that he knows they are playing against the Cult of Orcus for the highest stakes in the world, how could he not offer his skills up for assistance?

[Zaydos]

In my last two campaigns I DM'd the reasoning has been:
1) I gave them a list of campaign ideas, they chose Lv 12 and members of a semi-secret order of adventurers who stopped illithids from taking over the world. They generally worked in 2 or 4 man squads. The party started together because the order said so. By the end, 3 of them were friends and the 4th (role-played by my little brother in a Belkar-esque manner) was at least a trusted comrade in arms who had fought by their side often enough they weren't about to abandon him.

2) They were approached in a tavern by an old man who gave them a McGuffin and told them to go to the meteor they just saw fall. This meteor was currently being grabbed by an evil madman who easily beat them and teleported away. Given time he could use it to take over the world. As it was a rather dark age without power centers (initially, I also made it as I went along) they couldn't just go to higher level people for help. They met two more people while helping dwarves for loot, and they ended up joining them on false pretenses (they were secretly sent by Cthulhu's church to get the meteor). They ended up destroying the meteor saving the world, but also destabilizing it and it began to fall apart so they decided to stick together since none of them wanted to die and by now they were friends (and there had been alignment changes and an attack from an angry Cthulhu cult because their agents betrayed them).

So... to save the world... why does that sound bad?

[Johel]

I give your character this advice: Watch your back, or there may shortly be a crooked black dagger in it

Excellent advice.
It won't apply until we find that Ogre-mage, though.
They need my character more than they hate him
But yes, in normal adventuring circumstances, I wouldn't have survived the first night.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

My group: NO

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I plan to give them a keep in my upcoming campaign. As they all cleared out the monsters, the town deeded it to all of them. So they all own something that can't be sold or divided. I figure it will help keep them working together.

[valadil]

Convincing them to stay together is one of the harder things a GM has to do. Some groups are willing to just go with it, and be an adventuring party without any cause. Others are trickier.

What I try to do is start the PCs as individuals with separate plots. As the game progresses the plots all join together into one big plot. The players are invested in that plot but for different reasons. It can be hard to write this way though.