D&D: Five Ways to Make an Awesome Adventuring Party
Rolling up a party full of new characters? Here’s five ways to make your adventuring party memorable.
Starting a new adventuring party is an exciting time for anyone. Whether you’re at the start of a campaign or recovering from an unforseen tpk, making an adventuring party is an exciting time! And we’re here to help you make the most of it, with some easy tips for making an awesome adventuring party.
Start Off Knowing Each Other
First of all, or is so much easier to get your game going when you are playing characters who know each other, at least a little. Not too say you have to be childhood best friends or siblings (though those kinds of connections are a great jumping off point for characters if you can plan with your fellow players), but at least know of someone else in the party. That way you have a built in reason for adventuring, you’re going along with this person you know.
Choosing to know each other also gives you an in to character dynamics. It’s much easier to discover things about your characters when you have an existing connection. Sitting in the tavern? You’ve got a shared history to start roleplaying from. Or little character moments to build on when you’re delving through your next dungeon.
Plus it gets you talking to the other players, and nothing makes the social dynamics of the game kick off quite like getting other people excited about what each of them is doing.
Have Opinions About Each Other
Similarly, once you decide your characters know each other (or even if you don’t) have opinions about the other characters in the party. And then, more importantly, voice them. It’s generally best for party dynamics if you have a comment that leans a little more positive/complementary – but a little friendly snark, backed up with some affirming commentary goes a long way too. Good natured ribbing is at the heart of any adventuring party, and at the heart of it is finding little character things to talk about.
Maybe you notice the dwarf is always hogging the bread, or the aasimar is literally always holier than thou and doesn’t understand the concept of fun. So have some opinions and share them! Instant party connectivity.
Common Goals
Another great bond in the works of any good adventuring party is a shared goal. Whether it’s the party’s big overarching quest type of goal, which you discover through the DM, or smaller, more achievable things that you all decide on together as a group. While the story of your game might be “stop the tyrant from becoming a god” as a group you might decide “yeah but we’re going to totally go kill those goblins who stole from our favorite NPC”.
Basically, look for minor things, small goals that the party can share and work together to try and achieve. Find things that are already in the world to try and do. But make them specific. “Raise our reputation” is useless. Pathetic. Impossible to imagine. “Convince the Captain of the Watch that our Rogue is secretly a demigod?” Inspired. Requires the whole team to pull it off.
Personal Quests
Similarly, have your own individual goals. You’re often going to anyway. If you’re making a backstory, one of the best ways to do that is by having your character want something and not, at the moment your game begins, have it. Easy. Then, tell the party what your goal is.
“Become head of the thieves’ guild” or “win the pit fighting tournament in Waterdeep” these are all concrete, measurable things. Make it so that it’s easy to know when a goal has been accomplished and when it hasn’t. And your party may well start looking for opportunities for you. If they have reason to want to help your character do their own personal stuff.
Often the best way to ensure that is by looking for ways to help the other characters with their own personal goals and quests too.
Complementary Roles
Finally, there’s the ever-important party cohesion. Especially with a rules change on the horizon, the way each character plays with the others can be really powerful. Maybe talk about the classes you’re considering. There’s a lot of powerful combos that you can build right into the fabric of your party.
Maybe you’re playing a group focused around taking advantage of magical darkness. Way of the Shadow Monks and Warlocks have ways to do this. But so can characters that have the Blindfighting Fighting Style. They can see within ten feet, so put that on a melee character, and you’re good to go.
Likewise, you can more broadly plan “okay we have someone who can take a lot of hits, someone who can heal us” and so on. But the more you look at how your mechanics can play with the rest of the team, the stronger your adventuring party will be.
What do you try and do when you’re making an adventuring party?
