>>47220299
Have them all imprisoned/captured for one reason or another and make them escape together

Make them starting out with serving in an army.

Massacre the town the start in.

Force them to come up with a reason they work together

Shipwreck them

In my adventure, they were hired by a bored but adventorous noble to go explore another continent with him and a few other guys, with loot and treasures in mind.

>>47220299
I'm about to try out a method I call "The Reverse Imprisonment" method.

A common scenario, is to start characters out, locked in jail, or in a dungeon, and have them join forces by breaking out.

HOWEVER, I'm about to run an adventure where the party just happen to be traveling together for a little liesure time. Basically, it's a fishing trip that's going to lead into an adventure. At the beginning, they're all just going to describe what their characters are doing on their downtime, then they all happen to stumble across the rumor of treasure. All of them have skills that can benefit such an adventure, so it only makes sense that they could rely on each other.

Things may get interesting, later on.

Have them create characters together and force every single one of them to create a 'connection' with at least two others, whether it be a per-existing relationship (I met him when we were both mercs together) or a shared goal (we both want to kill the King of Badness)

>>47220299
Conscripted into the military, battle goes south, they're the only survivors, labled as deserters, stay together to stay alive

They met at the dentist

1. See what your players want to do and what goals their characters have
2. Try to work with those as much as possible
3. Try to create a start that forces reliance and social interaction, so they're not just joining with each other for OOC reasons

One interesting start I had was where most of the PCs were slaves, but I had come in a session late so the GM just brought me in as a traveler coming across the newly runaways. I had to convince them to trust me enough to pretend to be my slaves, to get them inside a city where they could get proper clothes and items. It set me up as an other, but it was handled well.

>>47220299
Someone has hired them to do a job. If you are playing Shadowrun, Dark heresy, Laundry files or a similar game this has already been built in to the game.

The person hiring the player characters can also be one of the party members (like in Rogue Trader one of the players can play the RT.)

This kind of start means that the party has a reason to stick together for their first mission, they have all been hired because they have the skills needed for the job but can still have various motivation for why they took the job and if some players leave or characters die there's a reason why new characters join: they hire the replacements.

Have someone hire them specifically to be a long-term team, and to do that they need stable group lodging.

>This is the true story of [number of] strangers picked to live in a [building], work together and have their lives changed - to find out what happens when monsters stop being polite and start getting real.
>The Real World: Forgotten Realms

>>47220299
>What's a good way to have player characters met up and stay together?
Tell them that the PCs are childhood friends before they commit pen to paper. If the players start asking you to arbitrate between different backgrounds, say that you've already contributed an idea for how they got together, it's up to them to make that work or come up with something better.

The characters start out as literally themselves. Regular folks who know each other, as they most likely already do. Whilst performing some mundane task like taking out the trash or cleaning their jock strap, they come across a piece of an amulet. Like any regular human, they go "Ooh! Shiny!" And pick it up. Poof! They have been body switched with a pre made character, preferably one they know nothing about. They have knowledge of a select few fantasy settings from their regular life, excluding the game you're playing. You have fun with it from there. Reassemble the amulet, find your way home, etc.

>>47220299
I'm having them all get caught at a shootout at a concert

Fate style:
Everyone writes down an adventure they 'starred' in already.
Pass the sheet to the left, write down how your character 'also featured' in that story.

>>47220364
I pretty much start out every adventure with the characters in jail.