You All Meet In An Inn

There is a tendency in certain mindsets to dismiss a certain popular wiki known as TVTropes as an over-analytical media dissecting machine, and while I think there is truth in that argument, there is also truth in the idea that Tropes Are Not Bad, and I would like to take a moment to justify one of the more well known tropes in RPGs.

So you start your game, all your characters are ready, and the GM has donned whatever piece of clothing makes himself feel that touch more important (I have a particularly nice top hat). You are awaiting the GM's first words eagerly/absently doodling on your character sheet when you hear the words: "You are all sitting in a pub/bar/space bar in space". Instantly the table erupts in groans and accusations of a severe lack of originality are thrown around. But why? The way I look at it, your GM has chosen one of the most likely places for a group of people to meet up. If they know each other, what better place to hatch your plans that in your favourite local? If you have all just met, how better to loosen up than with a round of drinks/futuristic hallucinogenics.

You all meet around an array of novelty shots.

I will grant that in the everyone-knows-each-other setting maybe someone trusted's home would suffice, though in all likelihood, someone will still call out for the host to provide at least a glass of water, in startling resemblance of the RL group itself. But the usual setup in the cliché is that a group of people bound by common cause meet from afar at an inn, a well known landmark in any town. Your character who is not from town can easily ask a passing stranger "Where is The Juggling Tomcat?" and get a positive answer. There is however little chance in all but the smallest towns of getting where you need to quickly with a "Where is Urist McHammerdorf's home?"

My final point lies in the often all too looked over effort required of the GM to come up with somewhere for a bunch of characters who really have no business being together to meet. This ties back to the previous points that really, the best place for an upbeat sniper specialist and a depressive technomancer with Occult (Herbalism) to meet up is somewhere neutral, somewhere both can easily locate and no-one feels overly uncomfortable.

"Do you reckon they know any Michael Buble?"

In summary, there is nothing particularly wrong with the trope. If your GM pulls it out, and you really have a problem with it, just consider it an unoriginal starting point for an adventure that you can make brilliantly original yourself. And GMs, if you are really stuck for a logical starting point for your diverse set of characters, you can do worse than an inn.

If nothing else your PCs can start a bar brawl. That should keep them entertained while you figure out which crime lord they pissed off doing so..


NB: You'll thank me, dear Reader, for not actually linking you to any TVTropes pages. It would have resulted in hours of lost productivity for both of us, I'm sure.