Here is the Team Concept: All characters are currently mortal but they'll be transitioning soon, so I've noted what they want to change into. How do I get them to work together?
My original approach was that they know each other, and be cool ahead of time, but that's failed, maybe because I wasn't clear about the level of "cool". The fact is they're doing a decent job of role playing their characters, but they have no reason to work together, because their jobs would actually dictate that they don't.
- Police Detective -> Werewolf
- CSI -> Vampire
- College Student -> Changeling
- Surgeon (former military) -> Hunter (Null Mysteries)
- Black Market Surgeon / Antisocial Sociopath (Dexter) -> Mage
The story thus far with inside info. A child was taken by a Fae from a park/playground, Student witnessed, Police investigated, set up crime scene, blah blah. Next Day Kid shows back up at the playground (his fetch). Later that same day the original kid shows up aged about 60 years, and murders his fetch and is generally acting like a madman.
The characters don't know anything about Fae or fetches. The plan is for the Keeper to follow and have that result in a showdown triggering most of the changes, the student will then be taken by the keeper, for my purposes it's going to trigger the first change for the wolf (yeah I know that's not exactly cannon, I'm chalking it up to stress levels can do weird hormonal things), all this madness is going to cause the Hunter to start his supernatural research.
My problem restated, do I get these characters to start working together, should I just drop them in the same place and let my keeper scene play out?
Best Answer
There are a couple of the classic "Campaign Archetypes" (a topic for an essay?) that I think may work. First is:
The Deadly Peril
Something is out to get the PCs, something bigger than them. You need to make it very, very clear that they cannot survive without working together. Problem is, when one of them inevietably goes off on their own. To keep the party together you need to slap them down, and hard. This is a very delicate task and can go horridly wrong.
next:
The Patron
Give them an aim, something they can all agree on, and have someone with the power to make them work together. Someone they don't want to cross, but want to ally with. Given your party this could be grating, but with some of their connections a conspiracy within the law enforcement community could work.
Or,
Try Something Different.
Give them something to tie them together. Normally this would be a lot less drastic than this party will require, but hear me out. It's gonna sound nuts...
Focus on a single character at a time. For one, maybe two sessions. In each arc one player takes on a sort-of-mentor figure, the rest take on various NPCs, perhaps multiple in a session (simple summaries are enough). Play through their awakening.
The Trick is thus: The mentor figures are the same person, under different names, wearing different clothes. Don't mention this to the players.
The Twist: The mentor goes missing. They all have ways to contact them, and they find leads to the other players. In this arc jump around between characters a bit. If one goes to the a diner, have the others pass it on the way, play up the near misses. Finally, have them meet, having found, through their own investigations a solid lead who is not going to be mistaken for one of the PCs.
Now, you have a mystery they are personally involved in, and know that the others have a similar connection to it. If the players are willing to make the characters work, it should be enough.