You all meet in the inn.
It’s clichéd, but it works.
But how else do you bring your players together?
In the last long-running game I played in, I met the party in an inn – but it was Planescape, so they were all sat around having a drink when a portal opened above them, and I came barrelling down a hallway, gravity flipped, and I landed on the table between them all.
In the current game I’m playing, we all met ‘off-screen’ as passengers on a trade caravan, so were at least familiar with each other before the first session.
In the last game I ran, the players all woke up (in passive perception order) after an earthquake – the island they lived on was sinking.
This wasn’t the best start though, as there wasn’t a lot of reason to have the players start near to each other – one was in a jail cell, another was in the city watch (but was on patrol), another had been asleep up a tree in the countryside just outside the city.
I managed to get them all together on a boat in the city centre pretty quickly, but could have done with sitting the players down first and establishing some connections.
I’ve had people meet in inns, taverns, flophouses, and prison a few times too. They all work, but I’m in search of a new place to grab them all together.
jot jot ïota 