Every adventuring party needs a story – a connection that turns them from misfits to found family. Here are some ideas!
There are a lot of ways to start a gamen of Dungeons & Dragons. You can start with an adventure seed. Start with a campaign-spanningn threat. Or as it’s often the case, you can start with whatever handful of miscreants the players have brought to the table to cobble together into a group that can challenge the cosmic order itself. Eventually.
Sometimes, it can be both helpful and fun to start with who your adventuring party is, and work outwards from there. It gives everyone a reason to know each other – and trust me, once you have that hurdle overcome, your game will be racing into the story. So with that in mind, here are five adventuring party concepts to try on for size.
Childhood Friends
Sometimes the best way to form a party is to already have known each other years ago. When the whole party knew each other as children, there’s an instant connection to draw upon, no matter where their lives might have taken them.
By making your adventuring party a group of childhood friends, you immediately have a strong reason to interconnect your backstories as well. After all, you had done of the same shared experiences to reminisce about. Taking this path can help make any party feel a little more cohesive no matter its makeup.
Apprentices Trying To Do A Good Job
Or if you prefer your characters to be a little more in the present, you can always go the Apprentices route. It’s up to you (and the DM) to figure out what that means. Are you apprentice adventurers, like a Knight’s loyal squire, or maybe a Wizard’s hapless apprentices, trying to grasp the lessons your patron is always going on about.
Starting as apprentices gives the DM an immediate storytelling lever to play around with in the form of whoever has all these apprentices. It does mean you’ll want to spend a little more time thinking about party cohesion, but that just means knowing how you fit into the group. After an, a master wizard probably has a reason to have a Fighter apprentice; you’ll just have to figure out what that reason is.
Guild Mates
Or just be coworkers down at the friendly local business de jours in wherever your campaign begins. You could all be memento of a Thieves’ Guild, or a merchant’s consortium, or even all just working at the local adventuring guild.
I like this opening party option because it immediately puts your characters firmly into the world. They work for someone (maybe an organization or a network of someones) who will likely ask them to do something. And once that happens, you’re already on the road to adventure!
Retinue Ragamuffins
Similar to the apprentices of a powerful master, concept, you could play as a party that makes up the retinue of a local lord or something. You’re bodyguards, investigators, scouts, assassins and more, depending on what your patron has need of. This is a slightly more potent option.
Usually because players will then have the support of whomever they serve, ostensibly. Like that of a 40K Rogue Trader or Inquisitor, being in a mighty retinue can open all sorts of doors. Even if they’re one who has to get out there and actually pull open every door so that the party can walk theorist.
A Polycule
Finally, there’s the ultimate adventuring party – a polycule. I mean half of the reason to be in a polycule IRL is to consistently have enough people to play D&D with. But why not put that in the game.
Your party can be a group of lovers who, for whatever reason, are saving the world. You have an instant connection with backstory potential. Plus the Ceremony spell will absolutely be overpowered. Take a chance on love, and adventure might just be in the air.
What do you do when the party just isn’t gelling?!
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