How to start/introduce PCs

>>48847238
Rogue/wizard bets on a little known barbarian (second player) in a tournament because of his ridiculous odds. Feeds him clues using message based on any silent casting or tips he gleans from watching the fights. Basically uses up all his spell slots fucking up the competition discretely. Blackmails half the prize money from the now very injured barbarian for his help.

>>48847238
Why would you pin your players against each other from the very start?
If anything, you should make it clear that they had already been traveling together for a little while and work from there.

>>48847238
I make them pair up beforegame, with brother/brother, ex-soldier and his commander turned equal mercenaries (but the commander still commands and the soldier counters with playful banter about how there's no rank anymore), childhood friends/rivals, ex-cons, lovers, or whatever connection two people might have.

And then I slap the pairs together via some common connection, like they did a gig together before, traveled together, the CLICHE DREAM OF PROPHECY or something else.
All PCs come prebaked, pre-paired and pre-motivated into the game, we start on the road to the quest, not in the tavern.

So far, this is not very good because most of my players don't roleplay, they treat D&D like offline WoW/Mount and Blade with fun bits included (and I'm okay with this), so they quickly forget those connections.
I think that this could work for other, better groups too.

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>>48847532
THIS, except my players actually roleplay it.

It works extremely well, because it gives them all a reason to stay invested with the group and go along with eachothers plothooks and such, rather than devolving into betrayal or just flatout not having any reason to be the party besides meeting in a bar and leaving.

Pic related is one I did with this group, it's a bit of a wall of text, but it worked extremely well.

Extreme situations work well too. Maybe they were all prisoners of someone's captives.
Maybe they are all on about to be executed or hanged and then Skyrim happens
Other one I remember using was they are the only survivors of some rapid plague that hit
their village and then I can throw any hook I want on top of it, they will want to get out of
a village field with corpses and vermins

>>48847238
I let the players decide.

They establish the events leading up to the first session, then I pick it up from there.

I use that information to inform what kind of game the players want / expect, and ask clarifying questions or give suggestions to maintain cohesion.

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>>48847238
Best results
Have them come up with episodes from their common past. Could be childhood stories, or things that happened last week.

Intrigue
Give each one a secret to keep from the others and a clue to two others' secrets. Then start in a situation that involves those secrets.

Make as you go
Start in a stressful situation and have the players flesh out details as they play. These details then become canon and possibly even the main plot.

Mechanically
Play a Luke Crane game. Or Fate.

Always works
Apply pressure which takes priority.

My group has done more trickle-in style stuff where one character is the focus and as things go on the rest of the party fall into place.

>>48848540
>have the players flesh out details as they play. These details then become canon and possibly even the main plot.
I'm big on world building and I love the idea of using the players' escapades to expand the setting and plot. I have three campaigns planned in a custom setting, but each has two or three possible endings to account for different options the players might go with. Regardless of what they choose, I plan to make it canon and color the setting from then on.

My next campaign: All characters get a quick intro story to themselves; all eventually end up out at sea; massive fleet of people fleeing from BBEG hrode gets slammed by nasty storm and kraken. Party wakes up shipwrecked on pirate island, nearby the continent they were trying to flee to. DMNPC greets the survivors and points them in the direction they should go, as they were the only survivors out of thousands in this one wave of ships.

Hand out hardcore badass pregens and send them to kill some mooks holed up somewhere. They deserve whatever they get, and this is where it ends. Let the players plan the attack and initiate their strategy. Then collect the pregen sheets again.

>You're all holed up somewhere and scary people are coming to kill you, in fact they're here. Roll initiative.

Everyone is in the same jail cell.
To be executed at sunrise.
For heresy and dark magic.
With fire.

>>48847238
My GM has always had us part of some sort of organization or something similar so we either meet each other that way or we've already known each other for some time before the game begins.