I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

[McManus]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

"You wake up naked and bound..."

 

It has worked for me in the past.

 

Start the game in the middle of an adventure where the PCs have been captured by a big bad guy. You can have them give the background on what they were doing before they were captured in a way that implies that the enemy knows a lot about them and their weaknesses. They have to work together to get out and then bad guy gets away. They now have a history and a common enemy. They may not even know why the enemy is after them.

 

It is also one of the only ways I have ever gotten away with capturing all my PC's something that GM likes for the storytelling potential but players hate.

[Shaft]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

"You wake up naked and bound..."

 

Or you wake up in transparent vats full of bacta as the villain's base is under attack. It appears that the lab in which you were being studied has lost power, and you have no recollection of the past month...

[Cassandra]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

Let's take a few comics book characters from different publishers and put them together.

 

Hollywood Actress Linda Turner is in Gotham City promoting a new movie when she hears about a thief known as the Catwoman. She reads in the newspaper how a new Cat Themed pieced of Jewelry is on exhibit at a local museum and she stakes it out . . .

 

The exhibit is part of a collection of Atlantian artifacts, which gets the attention of both Power Girl, who hopes they will provide a clue to her real origin, and the Sub-Mariner, who suspects they were stolen by pirates, and both visit the museum at the same time . . .

 

Meanwhile U.S. Senator Thomas Wright and Debutante Sandra Knight arrive. They as Black Condor and Phantom Lady have been working on a case involving spies and discovered some kind of attack was going to take place at the museum, and are ready to take the spies on . . .

 

Suddenly there is an explosion across the street and the crowd inside the museum rushes out to see what's going on. The heroes, however, all change into costume in the confusion and not recognizing each other are about to confront each other when Joker, Harley Quinn and his gang show up and attack the heroes . . .

 

Realizing their on the same side the heroes take on the Joker, and during the melee Magneto levitates the Atlantian artifact out of the shattered skylight . . .

 

What do you think?

[Checkmate]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

Sketchpad -

FANTASTIC get together story. Very creative and works well in most scenarios.

 

Assault -

The best advice I can give you is to wait until you have players. The best GM tip that has been passed down to me, is make your stories personal to the characters. Tailor your stories to the PC's. If your adventure includes things that happened in one of the PC's origin stories, you make that character a living breathing part of the world.

 

I've always felt one of the downfalls of creating adventures prior to having PC's is it often feels like the characters were thrown into the world and never existed until the players started playing them. If you make the characters origin, something that happened 5 or even 20 years ago in the character's history, part of the story, well that character had to have been part of that world for that long. You may even be able to tie the characters together through their origins.

 

If you know your players well enough to know what they will and won't like done with their characters, you can begin to take liberties with their character's origin. What they have written on their character sheet is what the Character THINKS his origin in, it may not be what it really is

[pinecone]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

I'm considering starting a game, but I've run into a rather obvious snag.

 

Basically, it's going to be a mystery heavy, low combat thing - the kind where Batman rules, and Superman would use his X-Ray vision more often than his Heat Vision. (No telepaths!)

 

I have a set of scenarios to run, but... I don't really have a framework for getting the PCs involved!

 

I envisage it as being a bit of a Scooby Doo set up, but I need a way for the group to get together in the first place.

 

The PCs will be fairly low-powered in combat terms, but may have world class non-combat abilities. They're not a bunch of wannabes. I don't envisage them having a common origin.

 

So: does anyone have any bright ideas about why a bunch of supers would want to start hanging around together and looking for clues?

 

I can provide (make up) more information if requested.

 

Give them a mystery each...they stumble on each other via red herrings And real clues, and decide to pool their knowlage...teaming up is phase two...

 

I usually use differant mysterys that seem to link up (I make heavy use of character suposision to make that happen)

 

I especially like "Lost time" mysterys, Old foe is up to something mysterys (Good use of a hunted), and Someone is hunting ME! mysterys...(Good old self preservation, a motavator amoung motovators.. )

[pinecone]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

If you can link the characters to a location, that may be a start. It's tough to get specific without details of the characters. Possible Maguffin Locations:

 

- a conference - given they all have world class non-combat abilities, they could be presenters, attendees, or panelists on the same panel. Maybe the scenario can start at the conference.

 

- they're all on the same airplane flight, going to the same location for different reasons. If the scenario can begin at the departure or arrival airport, or in transit, they're all in one place to start working it.

 

- they're all at the same hotel, or at the same restaurant.

 

Location, Location, Location!

You are all at a tavern, when...

[assault]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

Give them a mystery each...they stumble on each other via red herrings And real clues' date=' and decide to pool their knowlage...teaming up is phase two...[/quote']

 

I've already mentioned this a few times, but... I don't want to spend much more than five minutes or so on getting the characters together.

 

The "you're all invited to a meeting" thing is looking better and better.

 

Of course, the room will be locked when the characters start to arrive.

 

And then somebody will be poisoned.

[assault]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

You are all at a tavern' date=' when... [/quote']

 

Already suggested.

[pinecone]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

I've already mentioned this a few times, but... I don't want to spend much more than five minutes or so on getting the characters together.

 

The "you're all invited to a meeting" thing is looking better and better.

 

Of course, the room will be locked when the characters start to arrive.

 

And then somebody will be poisoned.

 

I once did a "You are asked to try out for a new super team" once. It was a death trap meant to eliminate all oposition to the "master plan". The hero's were the only ones to survive the trap...

[pinecone]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

Annother I used for many a year was the "Giant monster attacks" senario. It gets everyone together and lets each get a handle on the other's abilitys. Hard to use as is for a buncha mystery solvers....maybe a serial killer?

[Jagged]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

I've already mentioned this a few times, but... I don't want to spend much more than five minutes or so on getting the characters together.

 

The "you're all invited to a meeting" thing is looking better and better.

 

Of course, the room will be locked when the characters start to arrive.

 

And then somebody will be poisoned.

 

 

Perhaps you could give your players initial clues that would lead them to investigate each other? Then providing they can all alibi themselves quickly enough they can all work together.

 

Of course if you want to go heavy on the mystry you can always leave a little doubt to those alibis

[assault]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

Annother I used for many a year was the "Giant monster attacks" senario. It gets everyone together and lets each get a handle on the other's abilitys. Hard to use as is for a buncha mystery solvers....maybe a serial killer?

 

It would actually work quite well. Punching the monster wouldn't be enough to make it go away. The PCs would have to work out where it came from, what it wants, what its weaknesses are, etc, and then deal with it.

 

This is the kind of thing the Challengers of the Unknown used to do all the time. Even Batman got into it a bit in the 50s.

 

I've got a monster bash sitting in my 'to do' pile. I wasn't planning on using it first, but I suppose I could.

 

A good example of this kind of thing can be found here.

[bubba smith]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

It would actually work quite well. Punching the monster wouldn't be enough to make it go away. The PCs would have to work out where it came from, what it wants, what its weaknesses are, etc, and then deal with it.

 

This is the kind of thing the Challengers of the Unknown used to do all the time. Even Batman got into it a bit in the 50s.

 

I've got a monster bash sitting in my 'to do' pile. I wasn't planning on using it first, but I suppose I could.

 

A good example of this kind of thing can be found here.

a monster bash campaign would be good in octoberthat being halloween time and all

[brionl]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

I once did a "You are asked to try out for a new super team" once. It was a death trap meant to eliminate all oposition to the "master plan". The hero's were the only ones to survive the trap...

 

"I'm sorry, we wanted a Block of Flats, not an Abbatoire."

 

Improbable plot coincidence is one of the GM's best friends. "You are all traveling around the city in your daily wanderings, and happen to be right outside the Museum, when it catches fire, falls over, and sinks into the swamp."

[Colossus]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

One of the best games I ever played in back in college (not Hero game, another, famous, fantasy system) started with the GM spending 2 hours with each PC.

 

Once characters are created have them have a role played back story and then bring them to a common point. It need not be a battle, it could be a crime scene, or anything else of that sort you need. You do not have to do this on the same day. An example:

 

4 characters, we will call them Shaggy, Daphine, Fred, and Velma.

 

Velma: Background brainy investaigator. While working for the school paper discovers whatevert is going on and follows a lead to the alley...

 

Fred: The jock, leader. Some friends of his are in trouble and he goes to the alley to try to help them.

 

Daphine. Giles sends her...sorry, could not resist.

 

Shaggy: Dude's dog runs away into the alley...

 

What matters is that all the characters must have goals that help each other.

[assault]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

One of the best games I ever played in back in college (not Hero game' date=' another, famous, fantasy system) started with the GM spending 2 hours with each PC.[/quote']

 

This is good when you can afford to do it.

 

My game is going to consist of short, sharp episodes: hit the ground running, wrap up the plot-line, new story next week.

[pinecone]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

"I'm sorry, we wanted a Block of Flats, not an Abbatoire."

 

Improbable plot coincidence is one of the GM's best friends. "You are all traveling around the city in your daily wanderings, and happen to be right outside the Museum, when it catches fire, falls over, and sinks into the swamp."

 

But the Next Museum, That meseum did Not sink into the swamp!

[Colossus]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

This is not 2 hours with each player, each week. This is a one time thing to create character background. It also means the characters can be much more personal plot driven. But, then again if the mystery is what the game is about, not so much.

[hooligan x]

Re: I'm not sure how to get the PCs together!

 

Have them meet in the upper left-hand corner of a George Perez groupshot in Captain Fabulon's wedding special.