During your session zero of a new campaign, or if you're running a single-session one-shot game, consider establishing connections between the characters to help build a cohesive bond between them before the game begins. This can help prevent ham-fisted and convoluted attempts to build a story that connects the characters, when all the players already know perfectly well that they're coming together simply for the adventure.

This section presents two potential approaches to connecting characters. First, all the characters can be previously connected through a single organization, faction, or patron, using ideas from the Group Connections table. Alternatively, each character can establish a connection to one or more other characters through a personal relationship and history, using ideas from the Character Connections table. Players can work together to come up with these shared histories based on the overall themes of the campaign, or the group can randomly select potential relationships and tweak the results as desired.

For individual connections, each player can roll on the Character Connections table to establish a relationship with the character of the player on their right. Going once around the game table this way means that every character will have two relationships-one with the player on their right and one with the player on their left.

For single-session games, consider establishing a single group relationship for all the characters before the game begins. This relationship can directly tie into the story of the adventure, and will speed up the game by eliminating lengthy discussions about how the characters got together.

## Group Connections

1. Mercenary company
2. Self-employed investigators
3. Official investigators
4. Royal advisors
5. Thieves' guild
6. Secret society
7. Religious investigators
8. Adventuring company
9. Business investigators
10. Assassins' guild
11. Wizarding school
12. Monastic students
13. Gladiator school
14. Military specialists
15. Spy network
16. Constabulary
17. Magically bound servants
18. Divinely inspired
19. Protectors of the common folk
20. Seekers of vengeance

## Character Connections

1. Sibling of
2. Saved by
3. Served with
4. Protected by
5. Adventured with
6. Friendly rival of
7. Childhood friend of
8. Magically bound to
9. Survived with
10. Escaped with
11. Apprentice of
12. Acolyte of
13. Idolizes
14. Drinking buddies with
15. Business associate of
16. Lost a bet to
17. Indebted to
18. Trained by
19. Dueling partner of
20. On the run with

^character-connections