Still More on Adventuring Groups

[The promised blathering continues from the previous post.]


There’s no worthwhile direction in any version of D&D explaining how or why the players’ characters should become a group and go adventuring. Therefore, this is the implied setting of the game. Random people get together randomly and decide to go kill monsters and find treasure. This setup doesn’t happen in every game, or even any game, but that’s what most of them boil down to. A few tiny bits of motivation can be artificially grafted on, or the DM can create a big railroad setting. Doesn’t matter. The players have little say in it or it’s ignored.

By virtue of these directionless parties, all published D&D adventures have no real motivation for the characters other than a few lame, cheesy plot hooks. The players might not bite, after all their group has no motivation to do anything. So, the DM may have to force it or engage in some creative improvisation.

Adventures created by the DM suffer the same problem. He might create a sandbox, but can’t write in what the characters’ place in it is, since they don’t have one. How could they? No profession, no motivation, no objective that isn’t meta-gaming?

By giving no group direction to allow complete freedom of choice in adventuring, you’re actually forced into only one choice: a completely generic set of adventurers. With no inherent motivation in the group, the DM is forced to run a vanilla adventure with nothing in it that’s really personal to the characters.

A game which is trying to be all things to all players, ends up being nothing to everyone.

Group creation needs a seat at the gaming table, a prominent one and settled before the first adventure. Since there’s nothing concrete in a rulebook concerning this, anyone who agrees with this premise, is left to their own devices. Go Old School. After rolling 3d6 in order to make up characters, roll on another table of professions for the group. Maybe another to determine the characters’ relationship to one another, and another to give them starting motivation. Alternatively, the DM may pitch possible settings and the players pitch groups for the setting. Or vice versa. Or something totally different. The important thing is that there is agreement among the players and with DM about why the characters are together and what they’re doing.

The group doesn’t have to be stuck with a choice forever. In fact, there may be tremendous anxiety in keeping their jobs or social status, which is what motivates their adventuring.

[Wait. There’s more coming.]