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I've played in game were we started off in the same Merc Company somewhere around Texas. When that GM moved away, I brought back the campaign with a few new characters, so I had to old Company strength merc outfit killed off by Vampires, and the old characters were the only survivors, they fled to Colorado and met the rest of the party on the way. Not really complicated by worked well for us.

In another one years ago the party started off in a Inn, because the GM often used that in PFRPG and thought it would be somewhat funny to do the same with Rifts (This does get a little over used sometimes, but it's also a classic starting point).

In my 3G campaign the characters were all members of a planet's 'Royal Park Guards.' They get assigned to a new squad together for some purpose. I find it natural to motivate groups, and give missions when they're part of some form of military hierarchy. Again nothing special, just simple and straight forward, but it works.

I think the first Rifts game I was in, we were part of the NGR forces, where again we, the PCs were all assigned to the same squad.

My current game I started it with a stampede that busted threw a metal bar that was actually a worm wrath attack. None of the players new each other some met the night of the stampede and they met the rest of the players when the town grouped volunteers in to posies to hunt down the still at large worm wraths. Other players have joined since then and I try to bring each one in in a unique way.

Too many to mention. I've done the "You're all in a bar" route even to this day.
Which is understandable, since in my 'verse the Lazlo Mercenaries Guild is run out of a tavern down by the lakeside docks.
... cuts down on property insurrance rates when some of the potential clients & contractees get hot around the collar.
But i've done more exotic routes for getting pary members together, including divine / infernal intervention.

paprocjo wrote:Just looking to see how other parties have formed in the past, specifically new players (But feel free to post up cool stories for veterans as well)

Ready? Set? Go!

A hot pan of fudge. Even angry dragon hatchlings like fudge.

All the PC's grew up in the same small town. One of their father's ran a group kind of like the Boy Scouts, which helped explain why every last one of them had Wilderness Survival.

They all left the town at various ages for different reasons. Some of them fought the Tolkeen war, others fought in the Quebec war, one went to the NGR and squired for a Cyberknight lord, another wandered the Ozark mountain region helping people with his technical skills, the last went far out west to live his dream of adventure and gunslinging.

Five years later, the Quebec and Tolkeen veterans met in MercTown and had a great reunion. The mountain wanderer showed up there later that night in The Hanger (a bar in MercTown) and helped them out of a jam with some mercs concerning a game of pool. Finally, the gunslinger is about to show up while they're on mission and save the group's bacon (one of the other characters became moderately famous for winning the Battledome Championship in Merctown, so he decided to track him down, which will lead him out near Kingsdale, where the group is currently operatng).

All the new party members wake up in a lonestar research facility, clones of each other but each with a different augmentation; one's a Juicer variant, one an experimental 'borg, one a master psychic etc etc.

Claxons are going off, red warning lights are flashing and scientists in hazmat suits are running around frantically checking their readouts. The player's restraint cuffs click open and they have moments to make their escape....

GM: "Ok, where do you want to start out and what do you want to do?"
Players (collectively): *manical laughter*

--flatline

Prison Cell. One of the people with the PC's is getting out of jail. The PC's can go with, or stay behind. If they stay behind, they are going to the gallows <insert reason here based on who is holding them>.

Our group all showed up at the same time to accept the same difficult mission. We decided to team up and were together (more or less) since.

Super soldiers that were cryo-suspended and stored in orbit just before the Rifts came are deployed to Earth when their containment system finally lost power. GM can either pick the location of deployment or use a random latitude and longitude.

A powerful figure sends out requests to potential employees with certain skills and the characters answer the call. Alternatively, there is an advertisement on "black" message boards and through black market/ merc associations that people of particular skill sets should come to such and such place and ask for such and such figure. The characters all apply for the position are are the ones chosen.

The characters are captured by Thraxus and sent on a wild "Running Man"esque televised fight for their life. Survivors are rewarded with positions in Thrasus' elite guard.

One of my longest running Rifts games started with all of the PCs in jail.

I've used the old "you all wake up naked in a hotel together, and have amnesia" routine a few times.
That one's pretty fun.

the worst version of that is, "you wake up naked and tied to each other."

Background-driven methods:

1. All in the family: The characters are all related. Shared motivations come easily, and they have an inherent reason to care about each other.

2. Team Spirit: The characters all belong to/work for the same clan, community, guild, mercenary outfit, or noble house.

3. High-School Reunion: The characters all know each other from way back. Maybe they grew up together.

Event-driven methods:
1. Disaster! The characters are forced to work together due to extreme circumstances. This is a great technique for bringing together characters who otherwise don't have much in common. Good examples are shipwrecks, infestations, invasions, witch hunts (You're all suspects!), natural disasters, wars, et cetera.

2. Divine mission/Crusade! The characters are ordered, manipulated, or coerced into working together by some kind of higher power. (See "A God... Rebuilt" on Obsidian portal for a great example of this).

3. Capture! The characters are imprisoned or enslaved. Atlantis and the Phoenix Empire's slave markets can be great melting pots for diverse groups.

Alrik Vas wrote:the worst version of that is, "you wake up naked and tied to each other."

...in a LARP.

Killer Cyborg wrote:

Alrik Vas wrote:the worst version of that is, "you wake up naked and tied to each other."

...in a LARP.

Killer Cyborg wrote:

Alrik Vas wrote:the worst version of that is, "you wake up naked and tied to each other."

...in a LARP.

My one LARPing experience would have been much improved had it started that way.

--flatline

Let's see...
My first Rifts adventure, the typically individualistic characters were all heading in the general direction of the West, but decided to pool resources(essentially teleport fare) to go together and avoid CS territory altogether. Of course, complications start up, including the regular service getting disrupted, and the only mage-practitioner good enough to fill in was a reclusive witch(not really, she just had a rep for being bad natured) and persuade her to transport them. Cue trouble along the way to the mage's remote hermitage, forcing the characters to start working together. And when they find the mage, preconceptions get blown away when, instead of a hag, the 'witch' turns out to be quite comely, more powerful than they're willing to try to intimidate, but wants more than the first mages agreed to. This amount is more than the players are willing to part with, and it's looking like they're going to have to cut across the CS anyway, when the players combine their skills(the OPerator agrees to do some electrical work, the other characters agree to do yard work, the 'Borg has a high MA and puts his Cooking(Professional) grade skill to make a Seduction Pie---nothing magical, just good cooking)), and they persuade her to lower her demands.

You are the Crew of star ship X assined to explore region Y of the three gallixies.
joint exploration mission of a few galatic powers last time the crew consited of a -
minitar warlock marine (chief of secerty)
One of the phase world machine men from phase world setting (naviagotor.)
Altoriean(sp) noble- ships science oficer.
Altoriean boady fixer-ship doctor
TW fairy bot-(Cheife engineer.)
Shifter-(Ships councler)
Nexus deviel- (shifters familar and transporter cheif)

Others are part of a merc group.
You enter are called LFG corrak.
Set up to run by a friend to help out a friend of a friend.
You all randomly meet.
God summons you and says you are needed to save the multiverse.
Help wanted adds in Kingsdale/merc town papers.

First and only (so far) Rifts campaign starts in Psyscape. My pc works for the Central Security Division (think secret service for the mayor? of psyscape). The other pc's are specialists brought in to combat the growing threat of Soulharvest/Nyxla. My guy specifically is sent along to protect psyscape's interests and (I believe) to make sure everyone else plays and works well with each other. Everyone else has some loosely defined role in the group. We're all hired to do the same job basically.

Characters are:
Anthropomorphic Blue Unicorn Zapper (My homage to those mod colored cartoon ponies)
A Psi-mechanic
A psi-..??? (I think he might be a psi assassin)
A mystic knight of the white rose
A card mage

Killer Cyborg wrote:

Alrik Vas wrote:the worst version of that is, "you wake up naked and tied to each other."

...in a LARP.

A Human Centipede LARP...

Killer Cyborg wrote:

Alrik Vas wrote:the worst version of that is, "you wake up naked and tied to each other."

...in a LARP.

sHaka wrote:A Human Centipede LARP...

flatline wrote:My one LARPing experience would have been much improved had it started that way.

--flatline

I need an adult...

My first game I ever played in had my character double crossed and left for dead. He was found and was saved by being turned into a Plains Borg. He worked for a few years to pay the debt and now he's out for revenge. On the way I run into the other characters in the group who join me in my quest for revenge/vengeance. One because he was robbed by the same gang and the second pc joined just because he wanted to fight some villains.

Other games were the typical in a bar, merc group, same military unit (one we were all different GB Variants).

All the PC's saw the same ad of "hero wanted"

In a Skrapyers game we all had different starts (I was the top enforcer/second in command of a local maffia family) but we all ended up as "freedom fighters" for the resistance.
In jail (which happened to be on a plane that was mid flight) - Nightbane game
Woke up in a warehouse with amnesia and the police sirens were getting louder/closer.

Members of a special joint military operation, I was a PA pilot from Triax/NGR book and I remember one of the guys was some type of mage who did line drawing and another guy was some kind of alien sword fighter from a noble house (can't remember which one though, but would know it if I saw it. Think it started with an "A").

Summoned by some type of Deity (this was a chat room game), there were some pretty powerful characters, like godlings, powerful mages/psionics, (I was an adult dragon)

Were all members of Nema - Chaos Earth game

Those were just some I remember off the top of my head.

Alrik Vas wrote:

Killer Cyborg wrote:

Alrik Vas wrote:the worst version of that is, "you wake up naked and tied to each other."

...in a LARP.

sHaka wrote:A Human Centipede LARP...

flatline wrote:My one LARPing experience would have been much improved had it started that way.

--flatline

I need an adult...

You should be carefull about editting quotes to make it look like some one said something they did not.

Blue_Lion wrote:You should be careful about editing quotes to make it look like some one said something they did not.

They were separate quotes, and assigned to the correct folks. Just not in the order that was presented.

But then again, when I quote folks - I usually spell check for them.

I played one game where we all woke up in an Atlantian Asylum together.

I've come up with a few things in games. I ran a play by post game where everyone happens to be in the same train car together when all hell breaks loose. I ran a villain game where a bunch of d-listers armed with knowledge from the future plot to take over the world. Right now I can only think of stuff from Crawlers where I made several references 'you all meet in a bar'

Tiree wrote:

Blue_Lion wrote:You should be careful about editing quotes to make it look like some one said something they did not.

They were separate quotes, and assigned to the correct folks. Just not in the order that was presented.

But then again, when I quote folks - I usually spell check for them.

yes but the way you changed the order of them changed context of what was said.
Leading to make it look like he said something he did not do. I mearly pointed out you should be careful doing that because you might affend.

made a small merc team and custom apc/prisoner transport on the way to sell slaves off in atlantis but a fight between CS and atlantian forces broke out on the coast giving an oprotunity for the players to get out of the cells and try to figure out what was going on and who was taking them (never got far as the game only lasted one session though)

One of my more memorable campaigns actually had the group come together when my Sheriff character arrested most of the party for involvement in a bar fight. The last member was arrested for trying to pick up a prostitute.

The group was then sentenced to help with some local problem under my supervision in lieu of jail time.

The best part about it was that the whole scenario was RP'd out and that wasn't the GM's original plan. We just had some ridiculous players.

Crow Splat wrote:One of my more memorable campaigns actually had the group come together when my Sheriff character arrested most of the party for involvement in a bar fight. The last member was arrested for trying to pick up a prostitute.

The group was then sentenced to help with some local problem under my supervision in lieu of jail time.

The best part about it was that the whole scenario was RP'd out and that wasn't the GM's original plan. We just had some ridiculous players.

That sounds awesome!! It's like the players brought themselves together, but built a whole mini-sub-plot on top of the game. Sounds like a heck of a group.

One of the party members owned a bar in a small town that had just become ground zero for dozens of adventurers searching for an ancient artifact. Then I had the bad guys blow up her bar. She and the small handful of adventurers that survived the explosion became the party.

On another occasion, I was starting a new group up, but two of the five players couldn't be there for the first session because of blizzard conditions(Like 3 feet of snow is a valid excuse. ). So I quickly switched my opening a bit:

The first person in the party was the now grown child of a famous hero and adventurer. The bad guy comes calling looking for some information from the adventurer's past. Dissatisfied with the answers the offspring give, the bad guy places him in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death and then leaves to hunt down the next of kins of the adventurers' teammates. The offspring escapes death of course and then proceeds to track down the bad guy's targets before he can and warn them. One by one, a new generation of adventurers is born to protect their family legacies.

Looonatic wrote:The offspring escapes death of course and then proceeds to track down the bad guy's targets before he can and warn them. One by one, a new generation of adventurers is born to protect their family legacies.

That there is pure gold