To assemble the heroes, you can play out their meeting as a kind of mini-adventure. Or you can bypass the idea and have the players themselves come up with the reason why they just formed a company.

In general, a good way for heroes to meet is to just happen to be at the same place at the same time when something extraordinary happens that compels them to act or they learn about an opportunity or are forced to deal with a predicament. Ideally, this gives them (or reveals) some sort of shared goal that will help bond them. A shared goal will inform the characters’ back stories and help drive the whole campaign, so consider it carefully.

• They all suffered at the hands of some villain.
• They all wish to one day overthrow the evil overlord.
• They all hope to one day restore the rightful ruler or a golden age.
• They all want to help some creatures or people.
• They all want to destroy certain monsters or some evil faction.

The traditional hero meet-up is for the heroes to happen to be in the same tavern the night old Silar Brokennose tells the tale of a treasure he saw when he was tricked into thatching a roof for the Witch of the Scorched Woods. That’s fine, and it gives them opportunity to role-play with the old man and each other, altho playing out the telling of the tale and role-playing the decision to join together is slow. It’s better to let the players look over a list you like and choose one to happen or to say has already happened.

Categories

1. They Learn about an Opportunity
2. They Get Mixed up in Something
3. They’re Old Friends/Relatives
4. They’re Together When Something Happens

They Learn about an Opportunity

1. The heroes win contests requiring their class abilities and get to meet the local lord, who offers them positions in his castle garrison, which develops into being his champions.
2. Calls go out offering a reward for the capture or destruction of a local nuisance in the wilderness nearby, and the heroes happen to be in a crowd hearing the town crier.
3. The would-be wizard has been tasked with retrieving something for her master and needs muscle to ensure she is not robbed along the way.
4. A merchant hires the heroes as muscle and brains to protect his shipment to a nearby city, either by land or by ship. Perhaps he knows the shipment is the target of villains.
5. The heroes are present at a festival where a troupe of actors portrays the “true story” of a lost treasure.
6. The heroes have been arrested by the watch for various crimes (drunken fighting, theft, openly practicing magic, etc.); the cleric was sent to minister to them. The thief has heard about a lost treasure but he needs some muscle and brains….
7. One hero advertises a need for stalwart fellows to join him to accomplish a delicate mission: retrieve a packet of love letters between parties who shall remain nameless.
8. An adventurer died without clear heirs and left a scroll case containing a puzzling map with a trusted innkeeper….
9. The heroes happen to be at a fortune teller’s tent at a fair when she gets a sudden vision of monsters and treasure.
10. The heroes are traveling in the same ship or carriage to the city. Each character knows a rumor about treasure, monsters, or a ruins.

They Get Mixed up in Something

1. The heroes are targeted for harassment by a gang (or NPC party or city watchmen) for some trait they share (red hair, ancestry, lacking the region’s traditional cap, etc.).
2. The heroes are named as wanted persons, suspected of a crime they didn’t commit. They were actually randomly fingered by one of the real culprits.
3. The heroes accidentally activate a magic item that binds them together with a silver thread (an immaterial bond that draws beings together) until they fulfill a quest for it.
4. The heroes accidentally activate a magic item that curses them rather inconveniently until they can get it lifted, which will cost money they don’t currently have.
5. The heroes are old friends who meet up again at the funeral of another friend—whom they quickly discover needs to be avenged.
6. The heroes are summoned to a remote location by mysterious visions and discover they are all sensitive to dryad calls. The dryad needs a desperate favor.
7. The heroes have all been recruited by the county sheriff as a posse comitatus to track down some outlaw men-at-arms and rescue a merchant’s daughters.
8. The heroes happen to be at a fortune teller’s tent at a fair and learn their fates are entwined.
9. The heroes have all been recruited by the same mercenary company for a mission.
10. The heroes have all been recruited by the same ship’s master for a trade voyage.

They’re Old Friends/Relatives

1. The heroes all grew up in the same city as friends and were reunited after their early training when a disaster or siege occurred.
2. The heroes are all related to a long-dead ancestor, who left clues to a treasure.
3. The heroes are all related to a long-dead ancestor, who left an unfulfilled duty.
4. The heroes have come of age to fulfill their feudal obligation to muster for the local noblewoman to be inspected and evaluated for service in case of war.
5. The heroes learn that a local official is organizing a rescue party to find a lost pair of sisters.
6. Some of the heroes were carriage or trade caravan guards or trained as mercenaries together. Some are family. Others lost their families in a foreign raider attack.
7. Some of the heroes are foreigners, part of a trade caravan or shipping company that broke up, and are looking for employment that makes use of their skills.
8. The heroes were all part of the same mercenary company for a time.
9. The heroes were all part of the same maritime trade company for a time.
10. The heroes were all part of the same border patrol company for a time.

They’re Together When Something Happens

1. The heroes are present at a festival when a fight breaks out.
2. A building catches fire, and the heroes are among the people who decide to help. The owner, a sage, explains what items are of greatest value to her and promises to reward them if they save them. Each character uses their class ability to help (bashing down a door, casting a spell, deftly navigating the building, healing the sage, etc.).
3. The heroes each have business at the docks when a ship arrives manned by undead sailors.
4. The heroes witness a crime and become hunted by the perpetrators. If the combine forces, they might be able to defeat them.
5. The heroes witness a crime and are begged for help by the victim after the criminals have made off.
6. The heroes witness a murder and are haunted by the victim’s spirit to avenge her.
7. The heroes happen to all be in the same place when a wizard falls to earth and gives them mysterious clues with his last breath.
8. The heroes encounter each other on a road (some passing each other; some crossing the road while hunting) when they are set upon by bandits.
9. The heroes happen to be in the same are when a priest cries for help because the zombies and skeletons have risen from their graves in the cemetery for mysterious reasons.
10. The heroes are traveling in the same ship or carriage to the city. They’re attacked.