Getting Characters Together

[LostOne]

I was curious what ways people have brought together characters in HU other than the stereotypical "you all meet in a bar, conveniently there's a barfight" or the also stereotypical "you get a note/invitation or are approached by a flackey from a corporation/supergroup/agency to get recruited."

[Glistam]

A supervillain has taken complete control of the city and has a spell/device/power that prevents all entry and exit from the city. The only heroes around who could stop this madness are the player characters, and they've got to work together for the first time if they want to have any hope for freeing the city.

[BillionSix]

There is the copout way, but it's a useful copout. That is to say you could say that they already know each other at the start.
Just talk to the group, and say, "You guys are already a superteam. Let's figure out how you met and formed a group."

[Prince Cherico]

in the campain im in every one got lost in the
woods and we just sort of ran into each other

[Iczer]

Typically, I like to have them show up at the same time to the same event's and letting things work themselves out.

Another tact is to have another group of heroes run tryout's for their team, and have the PC's join up.

Of course A lot of HU characters have shady backgrounds. If The molten man was created by a criminal cartel, have that same criminal cartel be the bane of another PC. that way they end up with complimentary interests.

Batts

[Glistam]

Another option is the "B-Team" option: All the characters were called to try out for some prestigious super team within the game world and didn't make the cut. Rejected and dejected, they decide they won't take this lying down and form their own team, united in thier desire to show they are worthy of being considered amongst the best.

[Garm]

Another option is the "B-Team" option: All the characters were called to try out for some prestigious super team within the game world and didn't make the cut. Rejected and dejected, they decide they won't take this lying down and form their own team, united in thier desire to show they are worthy of being considered amongst the best.

Mystery men comes to mind, though I don't know if they qualify as a B-team.

[LostOne]

ystery men comes to mind, though I don't know if they qualify as a B-team.

They sure started out that way, although the way they started out might even qualify as a C-team.

[Tiree]

My favorite is having the players already in a fight. ROLL INIT! Wham! Nothing gets the game to a good start than a small fight.

Depending on their origins, you can have several things - I once had a fight break out at a Super Hero Auction... now that was funny! It requires a little backstory to start, but they are wheeling and dealing to get things going at that point.

[bigmac8583]

how about simply being knocked out and finding yourself in a superhuman prison with your fellow players in nearby cells. Each cell being made to keep you specifically in there so you have to work as a team to get out. As to who put you in there... well it could either be a shady gov orginization, someones arch enemy, aliens, or a test put together by one of the PC's to see if these players can work well together and possibly form a superteam. You can come up a hundred reasons I'm sure. Just remember the basics (who / what / when / where / why / how) to make it a good story.

[bigmac8583]

just reread some old notes and found some more good ones...

1: theres a battle in progress downtown. each PC is observing in their own way (tv / radio / in person / via astral projection / whatever) so far its been a fair fight between the cities much loved and respected hero and his long time arch enemy. then without warning the bad guy has some of his cohorts in crime jump in. the fight is no longer fair and the hero is getting his butt whooped. will the PC jump in tha try to help? is there time to get there before the battle is over and the hero has fallen? can the PC's work well together? will the hero survive? who are these new heros and will they have earned the respect of the city? will they continue to work together?

2: each PC starts to have the same nightmare. every night i gets more and more vivid and horrible. the dreams are of some powerful demon breaking out of some hell dimension and raining death and destruction down upon earth. each dream has the PC working with other faceless heros. who are these other heros? who is this demon? where are these dreams coming from?

a little Dimensional Outbreak/Armageddon Unlimited i know but hey it was my idea first so there lol! besides who can't wait to get their hand on those book!

3: i like how Marvel brought the Avengers back together in the Breakout! miniseries. there's massive prision break at a maximum security supervillian prision. a whole crap load of bad guys (some superpowered some not) are loose in the city. all kinds of heros from all over the city are showing up to help put these villians down and back into custody. its a epic royal rumble to save the city. who staged the breakout? how was it accomplished? who got out? who showed up to help? how many where recaptured? will all the PC's make it through the night battles? who's still out there?

this one may take a lot of NPC's depending on how big the GM wants to make this.

4: Aliens are real and just abducted several of the planets hero's and villians to participart in their barbaric gladitorial games. each PC is pitted against another superpower one on one. then the survivers of the first round or two are all thrown in togeher in a winner take all intergalactic cage match. will the PC's survive the initial qualifing rounds? will the remaining PC's come together and join forces in the end? who will they have to fight? what is the grand prize? how will they get back home? will they stick together as a team if/when they get home?

again this one may take a lot of NPC's depending on how big the GM wants to make this.

[LostOne]

Great ideas, everyone, thanks!

Feel free to keep posting if anyone has any more.

[csbioborg]

well since I basically played the punisher (recon marine rifted in) the dm sent the other pcs after me and we fought until we realized we were after the same guy

[Cybermancer]

What I like to do for any campaign is this:

First, I sit the players down as a group before any dice are rolled, classes chosen or any other individual decisions made. I tell them what we're playing and anything special they need to know about playing in the campaign world. This is also were house rules are discussed.

Then I tell them to create a group concept. The onus is entirely up to them to figure out why their players are together and what their goals are. I sit in and take notes and offer suggestions. This gives the players a lot of investment in the story that's going to be created. By designing the group first, important roles are covered off so there's rarely a weakness or over-specialization. It also illiminates the situation where you have one character that wouldn't realistically be together with the others for any reason, but is because the player is part of the game.

At this stage, the players are thinking about who their characters are and how they relate to each other. Then they move on to create their individual characters, but still as a group. They work together to make sure that there is sufficient redundancy in key areas that taking out one character won't leave a gaping hole in their defenses while at the same time ensuring there is enough diversity to tackle most situations. They will also discuss among themselves more indepth inter-relationships (Hey! Our characters should be siblings!). Complex and often interelated backgrounds begin to emerge for the characters.

Next, the characters take their character concepts and backgrounds and work out the mechanical aspects of their characters. Stats are rolled and asigned, character classes selected, skills selected and everything else that is required.

While they're busy doing that, I am busy adapting their ideas to my campaign and interweaving the threads that will form the tapestry of a fine story.

Players who want to join a campaign that is already in progress have to come and sit in on a session first. During that session we'll all take time to explain the setting and campaign (my job) and the characters backgrounds and why they do what they do (the players jobs). Then either at the end of that session or the start of the next the player will make their character with the help of the other players. The other players must also all accept that character before I even see it.

I've found that this ensures that the players all have a vested interest in story and they are all active in trying to improve the overall expereince for themselves and for everyone else.

Using this method I've seen everything from Hero groups, to anti-heroes and villians. They've all been entertaining and long term games.

[bigmac8583]

how about simply being knocked out and finding yourself in a superhuman prison with your fellow players in nearby cells. Each cell being made to keep you specifically in there so you have to work as a team to get out. As to who put you in there... well it could either be a shady gov orginization, someones arch enemy, aliens, or a test put together by one of the PC's to see if these players can work well together and possibly form a superteam. You can come up a hundred reasons I'm sure. Just remember the basics (who / what / when / where / why / how) to make it a good story.

anyone ever seen Cube? or its sequel HyperCube.

Actually i have!! The second one at least. It was reeeealy trippy with all the time space multiple dimension all crashing into one thing. i mean wow seriously

[The Beast]

Nothing beats waking tied up in a dark room sitting in front of a ticking bomb.

[BillionSix]

I am reminded of a phrase in the game Feng Shui which more or less went: Yeah, having a group fight alongside each other once, then immediately decide to form a team and adventure together may be a lame RPG cliché, but it's a lame RPG cliché that works, dammit!

Brian

[LostOne]

One idea I have will depend on the powers the players select.

If they all take some kind of advanced healing or always on defensive power like immune to Rechannel Kinetic Energy or Massive Damage Capacity. Basically, if they can survive an explosion they'll all be in the same place when a terrorist bomb detonates, a public place like a subway or mall food court. The intention being they pick themselves up, realize they're all superpowered and decide to investigate the bombing.

Hopefully they'll realize that odds are against 3 metahumans being within the blast radius when it goes off, so it is possible that one or more of them were the intended targets. Perhaps some villain is testing their limits.

If they can't all survive it, well then the ones that couldn't survive would be on the edge of the blast radius so they'd take lesser, survivable, damage.

[runebeo]

Three of our group are still in high school together and the others were serving in the military together. The have a loose alliance and usually deal in more supernatural encounters like BTS. During an encounter in which a summoner used children as batteries for his dimensional experiments. The military sent in some heroes, but the high school mutants had already killed the summoner. The groups had to deal with his returning minions and that how they all got together.

[Glistam]

Depending on backstory, the heroes could have individually each teamed up with the same existing super group, all at different times. When that group gets in trouble, they call in all the people who have helped them in the past. Once they solve the crisis they are formed into a branch of that team, operating out of a different location.

[Specter]

I describe things that all the characters are likely to be doing... and then a very mobile villian. The last game I ran had a tank rolling through the city.

Road God sensed the disturbance.
WarBlade heard it coming with his super hearing.
Peg Leg picked it up on a police band in her flying pirate ship
Ambiance had the tank crash into her disco club when Road God rammed it

[NMI]

In my current campaign, all three players are experiments. What they dont know is that is all experimentation by the same agency (Sector or perhaps The Nursery).
2 of the players are cops. 1 of the cops was severly injured while on duty and was rebuilt, repaired and made stronger (SuperSoldier from PU2 - Endoskeleton Replacement). The 2nd cop volunteered for experimentation (via nano-technology) and has two major abilities - Machine Merge and Weapon Melding (team pilot/tech) pilots a basic Power Armor suit.
The third player is a former thief/thug whose team was surrounded by cops. Not wanting to go to jail most of the team fought back, injuring a lot of cops and killing 2. The player had gotten knocked out just prior to this shoot out. However, he was eventually arrested/tried and given the death via lethal injection. However Sector had him in their sights and offered him a chance. Experimentation and work for us or die! - Has APS: Shadow (Modified), Super-Regeneration, Bio-Aura and Strength of the Shadows (Home brewed power).
The players all work together in the Chicago Police Departments Tactical Operations Branch as a S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Response Squad) Team.