%%%
%%
%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
%%
%%%
Poor heroes. Sure, the idea is that you want to go out and save everybody, but what's the sense in doing it all alone? You're only one guy, and how much change can a single person affect in this crazy world of ours?

What the hero needs if he really wants to get ambitious is a group of like-minded heroes that can help avenge the downtrodden, smite evil, solve puzzles together, all that good stuff. So if he is firmly resolved in his belief as to ThePowerOfFriendship, he makes a blatant effort to go out and find these other heroes, thus assembling the best team of warriors ever.

The result of his search usually depends on where the work as a whole falls on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism. If it's the former, he finds friends and saves the day. In the latter, everyone is either too much of a jerk or too evil themselves to be of much use.

Usually how TheMagnificentSevenSamurai get started off. If it's very easy then it's YouAllMeetInAnInn. If the hero has already worked with the ones they're recruiting, it's PuttingTheBandBackTogether

SisterTrope of MagneticHero (a heroine with remarkable personal magnetism who gains friends and allies with astonishing ease). Contrast AvengersAssemble (a {{montage}} of the members of a hero team being signaled to come together).
----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Animation]]
* ''Animation/RimbaRacer'': After finding out that the Rimba Grand Prix is rigged, Tag forms a team with four allies. [[TheLeader Tag]] is a hot-headed newbie to the races, and constantly aims to win every race, but is kept safe and in check by his older mechanic and father figure, [[TheLancer Miles]]. His fellow teammates are [[TheBigGuy Sonny]], whose large frame and larger car do a lot of the heavy lifting, [[TheSmartGuy Meelo]], the socially awkward tech genius, and [[TheHeart Meika]], who is the most feminine and socially-active of the group. The team stays at five members until the later half of the first season, where [[spoiler:[[TheSixthRanger Tamira]] joins them to work against her former employer.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Luffy wants to become the king of pirates, so he travels the East Blue and the Grand Line to assemble a ten-member crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, with which to find the mythic One Piece. During the Dressrosa arc, Luffy manages to get 7 pirate captains to pledge loyalty to him (resulting in the Straw Hat Grand Fleet) to undertake the perilous Operation SOP.
* ''Anime/SamuraiSeven'': Shimada Kanbei is hired to get a group of samurai together to defend the villagers who hired him in the first place. He even specifies "seven" samurai as the number needed, but settles for three in the interest of time constraints; after all, he doesn't want incompetents or braggarts, he seeks quality and integrity. [[spoiler:He lets two that have been with them from the beginning call themselves "samurai" as time goes on, and they meet another two on the way to the village.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': Captain Metropolis keeps trying to form a league of superheroes but never ends up getting anywhere. The more positive-thinking costumed heroes who would likely have joined are inevitably turned off by the DarkerAndEdgier heroes being obnoxious pricks about the whole enterprise. However, this doesn't stop them from working together (in the loosest of terms) to cover areas during the police strike.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/{{Paradoxus}}'':
** Galadwen's whole shtick is that she trots the universe's many dimensions and timelines seeking elven populations to unify against the threat posed by the Burning Legion. In a 'TheOutsiderBefriendsTheBest' way, she focuses her efforts on faction leaders. The ones she pursues the most are what she calls the Elven Elemental Aspects which, while not her TrueCompanions, are among her most valuable allies. This includes Sylvanas Windrunner (Aspect of Dearh and Galadwen's sarcastic [[TheLancer Lancer]]) and Bloom Oðrson (Aspect of Fire who ends up being Galadwen's ambassador with the Magix Dimension). Additionally, there are Flora and Queen Daphne of Domino, with whom [[spoiler:she pulls the strings of the plot from behind the shadows]].
** Queen Daphne [[spoiler:remembers the original timeline, a BadFuture in which everyone she loves dies and the Burning Legion destroys the Magix Dimension]]. As a result of this experience as well as her duties as Nymph of Magix, she seeks allies to help prevent things from worsening. Her first SecretKeeper is her reliable husband Thoren, her EmotionalCrutch. She picks Flora because, out of all the Winx, she's the most level-headed to resign herself that [[spoiler:they can't thwart Bloom and Stella's deaths]]. When she meets Galadwen, their greater good-geared mentalities cause them to recruit each other in their respective plans. Finally, when her daughter Morrigan is revealed to be the newest incarnation of the Nymph of Time, Queen Daphne tells her the truth and even consults with her about which events in the timeline are immutable.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheDrawingOfTheThree'': Roland spends the entire book drawing a ka-tet of three people--a RagtagBunchOfMisfits composed of a drug addict, a SplitPersonality, and a serial killer--via magical doors that led to our modern time. The reason is that he needs them to access the Dark Tower.
* ''Literature/TheExecutioner'': In the second novel, Mack Bolan forms a 'Death Squad' of Vietnam veterans to help him in his war against the Mafia, but most of them get killed by the end of the book, after which he decides IWorkAlone. The two survivors, '[[MrFixit Gadgets]]' Schwartz and '[[TheSocialExpert The Politician]]' Blancanales, do help him out from time to time, and later when Bolan joins the government-run HeroesRUs unit Stony Man they form the basis of Able Team. He also recruits Phoenix Force, a FiveManBand of the world's best anti-terrorist operatives.
* ''Literature/WarsOfTheRealm'': In the last book, the angel Validus realizes that bodyguarding Drew Carter from all of the demons in the world is too big a job for him and his partner Tren. So he goes all around the world and [[AvengersAssemble recruits the best angelic warfighting talent there is]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'': The Bhaalspawn winds up doing this after they're forced to leave Candlekeep and their foster father, Gorian, is killed. Fortunately, it seems like half the Sword Coast wants to sign up with them (the other half wants to kill them).
* ''Franchise/DragonAge'':
** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening'': The fifth Blight obliterates the Grey Wardens, leaving only the protagonist, who is now the Warden-Commander of Ferelden. Half a year later, the player character is tasked with rebuilding TheOrder. The new members are an apostate, a benevolent Fade spirit, a Dalish elf mage, a dwarven Legionnaire of the Dead, a female knight, Arl Howe's rogue son, and a dwarven warrior from Orzammar.
** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'': The Breach has left the Inquisition without its leaders, so remaining members Leliana and Cassandra Pentaghast separate it from the Chantry to protect the Inquisition's future leader: the Herald of Andraste. The two women also task the Herald (or Inquisitor) with recruiting people for the newly independent Inquisition.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': Celes pretty much starts off like this in the second half of the game, though most group members are already known.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': Commander Shepard, where s/he spends the majority of the game recruiting and earning the loyalty of various mercs, criminals, and similar outcasts in order to form a BadassCrew.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'': Karol keeps joining a bunch of guilds hoping to fit in.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfHorror'': TeenIdol Mizuki is geared towards using her naturally high Charisma to secure as many Allies as possible to [[MoreFriendsMoreBenefits build up her perks]]. However, she's also seeking safety in numbers; surrounding herself with people offers some protection from a mysterious stalker who's been hounding her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'': The Light Warriors certainly fall into the more cynical side of this trope. They even have an early arc about deciding which of the applicants would be allowed to take the job.
* ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'' opens up with Misho and Marena trying to get other heroes to join them on their quest.
* ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'': While not a strong example, definitely deserves mention for title-appropriateness. Cale would be that hero.
* ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': The prequel book ''On the Origin of [=PCs=]'' explores the backstories of the members of the Order of the Stick, and how Roy Greenhilt wound up assembling them into a RagtagBunchOfMisfits.
* ''Webcomic/RPGWorld'' has this as the early joke, as Hero was looking for new party members for... no apparent reason, it seems.
* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': Undine looks for a new group at Tessa's request after Tessa [[spoiler:gets depowered saving Undine's life and the rest of their team is killed in action]]. The first half of chapter five is dedicated to Undine's hunt for a new team. By chapter eight, while she doesn't join or form a proper team, she enters into a more informal duo with Heartful Punch and befriends HP's Magical Girl Power Training Club to get stronger.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'': Kion's first task as leader of the Lion Guard is to select his subordinates according to being outstanding in a particular trait--the Fiercest, the Keenest of Sight, the Bravest, the Strongest, and the Fastest. In an attempt to cleanse [[HerosEvilPredecessor Scar's tainted legacy]], Kion picks cubs from various animal species, not just lions. Their job is to be the Pride Lands' PraetorianGuard and preserve the balance of the Circle of Life. Later on, Kion passes on the torch to Vitani, who picks her companions among the Outsider lionesses.
[[/folder]]
----