How are you guys getting your parties together? Do you do long, drawn-out backstories or do you just start them all knowing each other in a tavern somewhere?

I generally do backstories. I usually have players prepare a backstory of at least a half page or so, and I try to work them together. If I can't, then some sort of crisis while they all happen to be near each other can suffice.

My most recent group began inside a tavern in the classic "looking for work in a bar" scene, when Cultists decided to burn it down. The Dwarf Soldier was so offended that he had to get revenge, the Reikland Mercenary was a friend of the (now deceased) innkeeper, and the Stirlander is an initiate who is angling to join the Templar order, so sees it as an opportunity to fight the scourge of chaos for the glory of Sigmar.

Maybe not the most unique way about it, but they all have driving forces behind them now.

I created back-stories for each of my players (they preferred it that way) and tried to tie them into the beginning of "Eye for an Eye". I pasted the email I sent them below in case you cared to see what I did. It is a bit long so feel free to skip it, but if it helps get you thinking perhaps it could be of some use (also, I am actually kind of happy with how it turned out). Please excuse the numerous typos and errors in it if you do read it, I ended up having to type it out later in the night after the kids went to bed and didn't have time to proof read and correct it very well (and have not done so since I sent it out).

Some players want to roleplay their initial grouping up and others (like mine) would rather have it handled as back-story.

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The story begins in the town of Ubersreik, a moderately (not small but not very large) sized town situated south of the Imperial capital of Altdorf near the base of the Grey Mountains. Ubersreik’s economy is largely fueled by the mining operations located in the mountains. As part of the Empires Reikland province Ubersreik, like pretty much all the other towns of any size in the province, is connected to Altdorf’s nobility and politics through family ties. That city’s major officials have connections through blood or marriage to almost every minor noble house in the province, and every noble house in the province is seeking greater and stronger connections with Altdorf’s major nobility in order to advance itself.

The gossip around town:
A stranger (in reality a private agent from Altdorf) has recently arrived in Ubersreik seeking a meeting with Lord Richard Achaffenburg, one of Ubersreik’s minor noble families who was recently engaged to Ludmilla von Bruner (a niece to the very powerful Altdorf Magistrate Lord Heissman von Bruner). Lord Achaffenburg was not in Ubersreik however as he is currently moving into Grunewald estate in the Reikwald forest (the estate was given to Achaffenburg as part of the dowry by the Magistrate von Brunner), his most trusted manservant was in town collecting the rest of Lord Achaffenburg’s luggage to bring to the estate. The stranger has contacted the manservant and has posted the following hand bill:

“Resourceful men needed to assist in house move. Job involves discretion, danger, and some heavy lifting. Only honest applicants need apply. Interested parties may inquire at The Red Moon Inn.”

Three other exotic new arrivals have also been seen in Ubersreik within the last week: a rather large man most likely from one of the mining villages in the mountain foothills carrying a warhammer who keeps telling people that he has come to serve the Sigmar and the god’s through action instead of just giving them empty words; a dwarf with bright orange hair and a lot of tattoos carrying an axe who is rumored to be a member of the brotherhood of trollslayers looking to find a glorious death in the Reikwald forest; and perhaps the most exotic and disturbing of all is a mysterious man dressed in grey robes who may actually be a wizard of all things. The grey robed man is causing quite a stir as only a few townsfolk have actually seen a wizard before and many of the villagers who travel to town on the weekend to trade are frightened enough to return home rather then stay too long and be “cursed” or turned into “something unnatural”.

Who are these strangers:
The agent from Altdorf – was born the son of a proud and stubborn (and poor) night watchman. Believing (or realizing) himself to be more intelligent (too clever and ambitious) then his father he quickly decided that he wanted more then the somewhat meager money earned by what his father deemed “honest labor that is actually useful to real folk”. Thus, when the opportunity arose he began working privately for minor nobles in the city running messages and eventually spying for them. At first he enjoyed the politics and intrigues of his jobs and found that he had quite the knack for observing and manipulating people. However, he quickly began to tire of the pettiness and superfisciality of the nobility. Most of his tasks involved tailing spouses or fiancés of important nobility for minor nobles hoping that a marital indiscretion by a rival family could become an opportunity for their own advancement. Hoping to put his developed skill to more meaningful use he has accepted an unusual job for a lesser member of the von Brunner family that will require him to travel outside of Altdorf to the provincial town of Ubersreik.

The religious zealot – was until a few weeks ago a relatively contented miner from a small mining village in the foothills of the Grey Mountains with a fiancée and a job he didn’t hate. That is until he returned to his village from a few days at the mining camp to found that it had been sacked by a large goblin raiding party. The only part of the village with anything resembling a fortified wall for defense was the manor belonging to the largest property owner and village headman (kind of like a mayor for backwater communities), who chose to lock his gates and order his small group of body paid guards to stay behind the walls and protect his property, leaving the rest of the village as vulnerable to the goblins as a buffer from the attack. Although the villagers were able to fend off the goblins they paid a heavy price for their efforts. The goblins made off with a significant amount of women and children and many lost their lives in the defense, including the miner’s fiancée and the village’s elderly priest of Sigmar who refused to take refuge in the manor and stood with his warhammer to defend his flock. Distraught at the death of his lover and enraged at the indifference of the headman, the miner took up the priests old but sturdy warhammer and vowed to spend the rest of his life destroying the enemies of the gods, starting with man who had left the priest and his flock to die at the hands of Sigmar’s vile enemies. Selling all he had (which wasn’t much) he waited for an opportunity to strike the coward down with the priests hammer and fled the village to serve Sigmar and the empire’s god’s through violent action driven by a new found religious zeal. He quickly discovered that religious zeal is a great motivation but it isn’t by itself a plan. Not knowing what else to do he has arrived at the town of Ubersreik and awaits direction from the gods.

The dwarf trollslayer – was originally born in the major dwarven hold of Karak-Zorn but at a young age traveled to the fledging dwarven community of Karak-Azgaraz to make his fortune outside of the stifling rules of the elders. After only a few years trying to mine silver from Azgaraz’s somewhat meager silver veins he began to realize that he wasn’t really happy mining ore for a living. Others were better at finding quality veins then he was and without an abundance of ore he found himself taking the leftovers. Eventually his unhappiness and greed got the better of him and he attempted to sell “fools gold” that he had discovered to a passing merchant, claiming it to be the real thing. Unfortunately, the merchant was not as naïve about precious metals as the dwarf thought, spotting the false gold for what it was the merchant raised a loud and indignant complaint with the Karak’s ruling elder council. The council, seeking to protect the reputation of the fledging community, ordered the guilty dwarf to pay the merchant the price the dwarf had tried to get the merchant to pay for the false gold and then they banned him from entering the mines. Shamed, with his reputation destroyed and having to give his intended victim his small stockpile of silver as recompense, the dwarf sunk into a deep depression. Deciding that the only way to restore his reputation and his honor in the eyes of his community, his ancestors, and himself was to perform glorious deeds and through glorious battle he recited the slayer vow, dyed his hair orange, and acquired the distinctive swirling tattoos of the slayer cult. After wandering the Grey Mountains for almost a week he came to the thinking that fighting stray goblins or dying to a goblin horde all alone is not the best way to achieve a truly glorious and memorable end. He decided to travel into the empire, try and find others to join him (and more importantly record his deeds) and perhaps seek out foes more worthy of his death. Towards that end he has found himself in Ubersreik, where he goes from here is an open question.

The mysterious wizard – never really knew who his family was as he was identified as having an affinity for the winds of magic and brought to Altdorf’s college masters at a very young age. As is sometimes common in those who have an affinity for grey magic the young boy had an unnatural tendency to see strange and disorienting shadows. The college masters sent him to the Grey Order for further testing and after enduring their cruel and enigmatic “nightmare” trials (which have been known to cause insanity) the boy was accepted into the order. Although he was not a dull boy, he exhibited less of an interest in academic study and researching mysteries then he did in the practice and use of manipulating the grey wind of magic, at which he showed some skill. This was noted by his mentors who are always a little concerned to be on guard for those who may be too interested in acquiring the power of magic and may not be satisfied with the carefully controlled boundaries/limitations placed on them by law and custom. However, his skill was also noted and when he was of age he was sent on what was supposed to be a routine and mundane task of seeing whether the reports that a young girl was exhibiting magical talent were true. He, along with two other apprentices, was simply supposed to secretly observe her and bring her back to Altdorf if the rumors were true. For reasons that the Grey masters will not divulge he was the only apprentice to make it back to Altdorf alive. Believing that he had handled himself adequately in the affair his mentors have granted him the ability to leave the confines of the college and gain more real world experience, though he will be watched and is expected to act on the Grey Orders behalf and at their direction when contacted. His first action once leaving the college was to travel to Ubersreik, from where he was originally taken as a child so long ago, in order to find out who his family was or is. It didn’t take him long to be disappointed by the truth however as he quickly learned that his mother was a drunk who had many children with many different men, meaning that his who his true father is will remain a mystery. His half brothers and sisters didn’t seem to shy about asking him to “conjure up some gold” or make their enemies disappear though. Before he was able to leave town he was approached by a mysterious stranger from Altdorf with a proposition.

I ran a back story of them working a military camp, dwarf was the chuck wagon guard, wood elf was scavanger/scout for for the Reikland Rough Riders, apprentice wizard just enter the care of his Master of the Bright Order. This took place 4 years before the present game and away to teach how the game work as the player went with the RRR on a greenskin clean. Did one more two year before the game start at village festival, to do some social rolls and get those down. the game started with the group knowing from start.

I told my players they's all get a free advance if they came up with their own interlocking backstory for the group. They did. One's an initiate of Sigmar from a family of lesser nobility. Another is a down on his luck gambler from a similarly wealthy family and the two grew up together. His family had a few black sheep who were burned as witches and he's trying to stay on the church's good side, lest the witch hunters come after him. The messenger is an orphan who is employed by the church. And finally, the gambler recently won a dwarven pit fighter in a card game. The initiate of Sigmar is constantly deriding the gambler for "owning" a dwarf and demanding that the gambler set the dwarf free. Oddly enough, the dwarf doesn't seem to mind as long as he's fed and his beer is paid for. One of the nice things about this group is that players will constantly role play out friendy little arguments and raise the party tension meter themselves.

I use a slightly different approach.

I typically have a character generation session where the players answer a bunch of questions, such as "What is your character's most prized possession?" or "What do others notice first about your character?" or "What forced your character out of their old life?" etc.

I alternate between the player answering for himself and another around the table answering for him.

By the end of the evening, the connections tend to be self-evident from the answers and many of the backstories have "written" themselves.

Some of the party cards suggest ways to meet up. Not literally, it doesn't say "the Gang of Thugs have been working together in a rookery in Altdorf for the past two years" or anything like that. But certainly cards like "Oathbound" and "Servants of Justice" have some implications that the PCs have a common background. If you pick that before the rest of character creation, a starting point may suggest itself.

In general, if you can avoid role-playing the day the characters first met, it's usually better. Those sorts of scenes frequently go haywire.

I try to avoid the "adventuring party" approach completely. In the D&D campaign I'm playing in addition to WFRP, the party is a political fraction, not dungeon dvelvers. In the WFRP campaing I am planning as a GM, the NPC's are hired help for a nobleman's expedition. So I will exclude some careers that I know won't fit in with the campaign at all, and I encourage others. Careers like soldier, coachman, commoner and student fits right in, while envoy will be excluded.

Also, the group I'm starting the campaign with have not played a lot of Warhammer before, so they don't knw anything about chaos, skaven, mutants, cultists or beastmen. So figuring out how the world works, who Sigmar was, how magic is regarded and why being a troll slayer is not actually all that cool (it's a suicide cult!) will all be roleplayed, rather than taken for granted. A lot of the cool stuff about Warhammer lies in details such as these, and I can't wait to see the faces of my players when they gradually realise that warhammer, despite the elf and dorf trappings, is really a very different game (and setting) from the D&D fare they're accustomed to.

In D&D it's always super-easy to get the PC's started - they're simply adventurerers, so they meet in a tavern and go adventuring, because that's what adventurers do. In my opinion, such a straightforward apporach would sell Warhammer short. The best stories as more about being hunted, or trying to stay alive in a harsh worls, og maybe try to figure out some horrible plot to save the Empire - not just to go dungeon crawling. Although that certailnly has it's place to, sorta.

Personally, I think that pre-generated PC's with long(GM-written) backgrounds is the wrong way to go entirely. I am going to tell my players that they are living in a gtitty, low-fantasy verion of Wurope ca. 1550 AD, and should make characters that could belong in a pseudo-scientific expedition, accompanying some bored nobles into the grey mountains, and see what they come up with. I'll probably reward good background storys with an extra advance, thats a good tip - thanks!

I had three new players who created characters at the same time. I improvised their entrance to the party with micro-encounters.

Wardancer woodelf had been captured by a war party players had encountered in a village during their last session. They had to pay 100 silver to free her.

Astromancer Wizard had been working as an advisor for the same war party but had not been paid for his services during the last 2 months and left to join PCs.

Swordmaster high-elf was encountered in the next adventure location in Ubersreik where he was giving public sword fighting lessons in a market place. One of the PCs challenged him in a weapon-skill opposed contest with no other than narrative results.

This worked beautifully. Short and sweet, just enough to make things logical and be able to give "fifteen minutes of fame" per each new PC.

I am currently playing with 4 players, who are new to the Warhammer-world and dont know much about Sigmar, Chaos etc.

Ive started a campaign in which the characters are all living in a small village far, far away from anything. Ive taken M. Night Shymalans "The Village" as an inspiration and worked in some reasons for the elders of this village, to tell their kids (the characters) stories about the forbidden forest around it.

So, their characters know about as much about the world, as the players do themselves and I hope, they will have tons of fun, to find out how the world works.

But back to character-creation... Coming from this small village, the PCs all know each other. Some might even be friends or relatives... Ill let the players answer the basics questions about their characters (who are your parents? what do you love/hate? etc.) and while doing so, we´ll try to find some more links and relationships between them.

This approach has the advantage, that the PC already know each other anyway. On the other hand some careers and races wont fit into this kind of scenario. (High-Elf characters for example wouldnt make much sense...)

In general, I try to let the players create a backstory about why their characters are together, as a part of the character creation process.

I really dont like these classic adventure-starterss, that sound like a bad joke ("An elf, a wizard and a priest are entering a bar....")

During creation i like to work with each player to come up with a backstory that works for both of us. Something that blends well with the upcoming story yet also is fun for the player.

I have 2 players in my group. I had my fingers crossed that they would play concepts related to the Church of Sigmar in some way, as this is one of my favorite parts of the lore and it would be easier for me to create stories around. By some twist of fate, my players both decided on their own to be characters affiliated with the Church. One is a messenger that carries important documents and items between churches. Another is a zealot who aspires to be a witch hunter.

I'm actually taking inspiration from Dark Heresy, and starting my players off as acolytes of a powerful Witch Hunter. He will largely be removed from the story (as the focus should always be the PCs), but he can be used to provide some direction if they need it. The zealot will already be working under the witch hunter at the start of the game, and they will meet the messenger when he delivers a letter (first plot seed) to the high priest of the Church of Sigmar in Ubersreik (whom the WH / Zealot PC just so happen to be meeting with at the time). Semi-traditional, but I think it will work just fine for the game I'm running and shouldn't suspend belief at all like the traditional "You meet at a tavern..." often does.

The old amnesia card could also work well, even though it has been done to death in films, books and not least computer fantasy games. Could still be fun, tho.

Let's say that the characters all wake up in a forrest clearing. They dont know anything - they have knowledge of what skills they have(but they can talk), and don't know anything about the world or their background. They don't even know their own names? What has happened?

That is for the GM to decide and the characters to figure out. Maybe they were mortal enemies prior to a serious spell misfire. Maybe one of them is actually Kastor Lieberung, the Mistaken Identity guy from Enemy Within. Maybe one of them is really an evil sorcerer, one is his witch hunter nemesis, and the last one a hapless victim intended for a summoning sacrifice. Gradually, the characters recover their skills, and perhaps even fragmented memories to drive them along the plot you've laid out for them.

When they finally realize who they were before the memory loss occured - what path will they choose? The path of the Witch Hunter - or the Demonologist? Will they somehow meet in the middle, or will they resume their battle?

If they do chose the latter, the battle might even result in yet another spell misfire, with the characters once again waking up in a forrest clearing, naked and without any memories. Maybe this time, you've even changed the setting completely, to Dark Heresy or something else entirely. And so it begins again.

Tydirium said:

Personally, I like the kill their parents off and have a wise acquaintance take them on a journey of discovery through the country side before blowing up the main badguys doom machine. It doesn't hurt to have a smart alec NPC and his wookie companion along too.