History Main / YouAllMeetInACell

Similar to a ClosedCircle, and a common way to [[JustForFun/HowToGatherCharacters Gather Characters]]. Can lead to the GreatEscape, BoxedCrook, or CondemnedContestant. May be used to justify a NoGearLevel. Compare ConvenientlyCellmates.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': This is the premise of the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E79FiveCharactersInSearchOfAnExit Five Characters in Search of an Exit]]". An Army major wakes up to find himself trapped inside in a large metal cylinder, along with a hobo, a ballet dancer, a bagpiper, and a clown. None of them have any memory of who they are or how they got there.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' opens with the player character breaking out of imprisonment on a mind flayer [[EldritchStarship nautiloid]].

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' opens with the player character breaking out of imprisonment on a mind flayer [[EldritchStarship nautloid]].

** ''Film/SawIV'''s opening trap has two men, one with his eyes sewn shut (Trevor) and the other with his mouth having the same treatment (Art), chained to a winch in a mausoleum that will pull them in and eventually break their necks. Since they can't effectively communicate to free themselves, they have to fight to the death to get a key for their collars.
** The so-called "Fatal Five" in ''Film/SawV'', who were all involved in an arson case in which eight people died, are tested in a catacomb place for their selfishness. While they were meant to work together through various hints, only two of them survive at the end because they were determined to fight each other.

** ''Film/SawIV'''s opening trap has two men, one with his eyes sewn shut (Trevor) and the other with his mouth having the same treatment (Art), chained to a winch in a mausoleum that will pull them in and eventually break their necks. Since they can't effectively communicate to free themselves, they have to fight to the death for the key.

** In ''Film/SawII'', a group of eight people wake up in a house (of which the first film's Bathroom is part of) that's slowly filling with poison gas, and have to pass various "trials" to escape with their lives. While six of them are actual victims, one (Amanda) is a Jigsaw apprentice sent in as a watchperson, and another (Daniel) is a teenager who's kept inside the house (and secured by Amanda) as part of preparations for a later test (which is also a partial purpose for the other victims).

** In ''Film/SawII'', a group of eight people wake up in a house (of which the first film's Bathroom is part of) that's slowly filling with poison gas, and have to pass various "trials" to escape with their lives. While six of them are actual victims, one (Amanda) is a Jigsaw apprentice sent in as a watchperson, and another (Daniel) is a teenager who's kept inside the house (and secured by Amanda) as part of preparations for a later test (which is also a partial purpose for the victims).

* 'The premise of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Five Characters in Search of an Exit": An Army major wakes up to find himself trapped inside in a large metal cylinder, along with a hobo, a ballet dancer, a bagpiper, and a clown. None of them have any memory of who they are or how they got there.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': the main characters all meet on a prison ship. Specifically, John Crichton meets D'Argo, Zhaan, and Rygel when they've liberated Pilot from Peacekeeper control, with Crichton warping in between the pitched battle between Moya and the Peacekeeper ships trying to re-take it. Peacekeeper Aeryn Sun's ship is accidentally caught up with Moya when it warps away. They eventually decide to work together to avoid re-capture by the Peacekeepers.

[[quoteright:350:[[Series/BlakesSeven https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/meet_in_a_cell.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The beginnings of a RagtagBunchOfMisfits]]

This is kind of like YouAllMeetInAnInn, except instead of the protagonists beginning in an inn, they start off in some form of captivity. The characters must then escape imprisonment, and explain to each other (or find out) why they were imprisoned in the first place.

* ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean]]'' starts off with Jolyne in jail and meeting her soon-to-be ally Ermes Costello in the cell right next to hers.
* In ''Roleplay/RecordOfLodossWar'', the team meets Woodchuck the thief in prison after they're arrested.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Sonic the Comic}}'', Captain Plunder escapes from prison only to discover that his whole pirate crew are now locked in after attempting to break the captain out by a different route. He starts building a new crew from then, starting by recruiting his former cellmate Simpson the Cat.

* ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', the soon-to-be Howling Commandos all meet in a HYDRA cell.

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' provides a partial example: four of the five members of the titular group encounter each other when two of the group (Rocket and Groot) try to kidnap the third (Peter Quill) for a bounty on his head, while he in turn was fighting with the fourth (Gamora) over the MacGuffin of the movie. Subsequently, all four are sent to the same prison, where they encounter their fifth member (Drax) and realize they need to work together to escape and accomplish their various objectives.

* Alec and Seregil in ''Literature/{{Nightrunner}}''.

** [[Series/Daredevil2015 Matt Murdock]] and Series/JessicaJones2015 meet when Jessica is arrested by Misty Knight and is under interrogation.

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* The ''Batman Arkham'' series begins this way:

* The intro to the first ''VideoGame/DarkSun'' game, ''Dark Sun: Shattered Lands'' states that the sorcerer-king of Draj [[AllCrimesAreEqual ordered all prisoners to fight as gladiators]], and this is how the heroes ended in the arena together. It is [[ProtagonistWithoutAPast never explained]] what their crimes were and if they knew each other before.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' you start as a prisoner aboard an Imperial ship about to be released. The first spoken words in the game are the daedra Azura speaking to you in a dream, saying: "They have taken you from the Imperial City's prison".
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'':

* ''[[http://roguelikefiction.com/ Legerdemain]]''. You start the game in "The Jails of the Doobah Boogadah II", and the beginning of the game involves breaking out.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'': As a change from the previous two games (and the eventual third), which all begin with striking out from your DoomedHometown, Black Isle's [[VideoGame/FalloutVanBuren canceled game]] was going to start out with you in a prison cell, until something makes a hole in the wall.

* The whole point of the ActionRPG ''VideoGame/LegendOfGrimrock''. Your four characters are literally tossed into the eponymous dungeon for unspecified crimes. If you can get out of the dungeon (in both meanings of the word) you are free to go. Too bad no one has done so yet...
* ''VideoGame/MysticArk'' plays with this. Every characters are trapped in some sort of wooden figurines inside an abanddoned mansion. Characters never interact with each other up until you free and put them into your team. [[HeroicMime Even then...]]
* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' and its first sequel, ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', both have a variation of this, where the protagonists wake up in an unfamiliar location and have to figure out why they're there and how to escape. Though in both games, some of the characters already knew each other prior to the events of the game. Taken to its LogicalExtreme in the third game, ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'', which starts off with its cast being locked in actual prison cells.

* Early on in ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' the main character, Yuri, is placed in the Imperial City's prison. The person in the cell next to him is a man named Raven, [[spoiler: later revealed to be Schwann, a captain of the Imperial Knights]]. He helps Yuri escape, and several hours of gameplay later he becomes a party member.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* A variation of this is played out in the first half of chapter 2 of ''Webcomic/MonsterSoup''. It starts with [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-1/ Bo the zombie sitting alone with Chickpea the (zombie) squirrel]] near a pier. Eventually, [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-2-taxicab-confession/ Amanita the gypsy/medium]], [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-6-boo/ Jacklynn the ghost]], [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-9-the-stagecoach-has-arrive/ Luke the vampire]], and [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-14-welcome/ Pepper the werewolf]] show up. They actually meet where they will embark on the boat that will take them to the prison, not in a cell, but they are clearly [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-17-hello-sol/ not]] [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-18-one-rule/ really]] [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-19-wtf/ free]] [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-21-a-challenge/ to]] [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-22-whoosh/ leave]].

* An interesting inversion happens in ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'' episode ''Promises, Promises'' which details exactly how Rex came to join Providence. Throughout most of the episode, Bobo Haha interacts with the other main characters from his cage, first meeting Rex when the latter was brought in, and later helping Doctor Holiday escape from the same cage they were both locked inside of. It is slightly averted with Agent Six; [[WeMeetAgain whom the two of have met beforehand already]].
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': In [[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS2E4TaskForceX Task Force X"]], Lawton and Flag meet in Death Row. Then they met the rest of the Suicide Squad at an Abandoned Warehouse. Lawton can believe he could do the job and leave. He is a BoxedCrook and for five years, anywhere he is, he would be in a cell.

* ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean]]'' starts off with Jolyne in jail and meeting her soon-to-be ally Ermes Costello in the cell right next to hers.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/TheUsualSuspects'' has the five main characters meet during a line-up and plot a job together while waiting in a cell. Verbal notes how artificial this situation is, since line-ups always feature a single suspect and a few decoys. Later they learn that Keyzer Soze engineered the situation specifically so that they would become a criminal unit and do a job for him.
* The original ''Film/TheIngloriousBastards'' has the heroes meeting as U.S. Army prisoners who escape and try to make their way to Switzerland.
* ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', the soon-to-be Howling Commandos all meet in a HYDRA cell.
* ''Film/TheDirtyDozen'' are all in prison for various crimes. That's why they are picked for the suicide mission, since it's their only hope to avoid a long prison term or death sentence. They don't meet each other there, but we are introduced to them there, as the commander offers each one the mission.
* The ''Film/{{Cube}}'' series has characters meeting after being mysteriously imprisoned [[OntologicalMystery for no known reason]] in a [[MalevolentArchitecture shifting death trap]].

* ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'' has a high school variant where a group of students meeting in a detention and becoming friends who otherwise would never have come together. It's practically lampshaded when one character confronts the two "popular" kids about how they will probably go back to treating the others like social outcasts again if they were to meet in the halls with their other friends around.

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' provides a partial example: four of the five members of the titular group encounter each other when two of the group (Rocket and Groot) try to kidnap the third (Peter Quill) for a bounty on his head, while he in turn was fighting with the fourth (Gamora) over the MacGuffin of the movie. Subsequently, all four are sent to the same prison, where they encounter their fifth member (Drax) and realize they need to work together to escape and accomplish their various objectives.
* In ''Film/KillBenLyk'', all of the surviving men named Ben Lyk are locked in the same fortified safehouse by the police.

* The protagonists of ''Literature/TheQuantumThief'' meet in the Archon Prison.

* Five characters wake up in the title building of Creator/WilliamSleator's ''Literature/HouseOfStairs'', which appears to have no way out.

* In ''Finder's Bane'' Joel and Holly (who already knew each other) met Walinda and Jasmine after being captured by clergy of Iyachtu Xvim and had to escape together.
* The heroes of ''Literature/TheHourBeforeMorning'' are cellmates on a starship taking them to execution.

* 'The premise of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Five Characters in Search of an Exit": An Army major wakes up to find himself trapped inside in a large metal cylinder, along with a hobo, a ballet dancer, a bagpiper, and a clown. None of them have any memory of who they are or how they got there.

* ''Series/TheDefenders2017'':
** [[Series/Daredevil2015 Matt Murdock]] and Series/JessicaJones2015 meet when Jessica is arrested by Misty Knight and is under interrogation.
** If a police precinct is considered a cell, the Hand's recent activities lead to a meeting at the 29th Precinct comprised of Matt Murdock, Karen Page, Foggy Nelson, Trish Walker, Colleen Wing, Claire Temple, Luke Cage, and Misty Knight.
[[/folder]]

* ''TabletopGame/BlackCrusade'' has the introductory adventure ''Broken Chains''. It's a fairly standard You All Meet In A Cell, except that a) The cell is part of a huge dilapidated space ship and b) the {{PC}}s entirely ''deserve'' being in a cell, as the sample characters include an extreme BloodKnight, a scheming SpaceMarine [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder that was exiled from his own legion]], a former Rogue Trader who tried to kill her brother through a daemonic assassin for the inheritance and a MadScientist experimenting with fusing daemonic flesh to mortals.
* The 3rd party TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}} adventure "Way of the Wicked" starts this way. The [=PCs=] are all convicted felons, usually sentenced to die. (It's an evil-aligned adventure.)

* ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains'' starts with the player's character being freed from a CardboardPrison by a BigBad's FacelessGoons.

* ''VideoGame/{{Exile}}''/''VideoGame/{{Avernum}}'' begins with the group being thrown into a gigantic underground prison complex together. In later games, the group apparently got together deliberately.
** You meet everyone in prison. The entire game takes place in that gigantic underground prison complex. Your party, however, was thrown in at the same time, although not necessarily because they were arrested at the same time, in the same place, or for the same reasons.
** In the second game, the [[PlayerCharacter PCs]] are part of the Avernite armed forces - whether they banded up themselves, or were assigned to each other by the military is left to imagination. In the third game, the situation is similar - only this time, they're the back-up surface explorers acting on behalf of the Avernite government.
* ''[[http://roguelikefiction.com/ Legerdemain]]''. You start the game in "The Jails of the Doobah Boogadah II", and the beginning of the game involves breaking out.
* In ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'', Emelia begins her story in Despair, a supermax prison, wrongfully accused of her fiance's murder. She breaks out accompanied by Anne and Lisa. (Ironically, in anyone else's story, Anne would help you break ''into'' Despair during the Rune Quest.)
* Early on in ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' the main character, Yuri, is placed in the Imperial City's prison. The person in the cell next to him is a man named Raven, [[spoiler: later revealed to be Schwann, a captain of the Imperial Knights]]. He helps Yuri escape, and several hours of gameplay later he becomes a party member.
** Similarly, in ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny2'' Kyle and Loni first meet Judas after he jumps down from the roof of the prison cell they're in and helps them escape.
* ''VideoGame/TheSuffering'' opens with the main character being checked into his cell on death row at Abbot Penitentiary. Then an earthquake hits, and hideous monsters emerge from the woodwork and start killing people.
* The eponymous protagonist of the ''VideoGame/{{Sonny}}'' games wakes up aboard a research vessel out in the middle of nowhere with no memory of what happened prior to that point in time. Escaping the research ship is the first zone of the first game. The second game somewhat inverts this by having the player character and his partner break into a prison after a biker steals a cassette tape from the pair and enter the prison to escape them.
* ''Videogame/DarkSouls'' has you start off locked away in the Northern Undead Asylum, where Undead such as yourself are locked away from the world, until a mysterious knight drops a corpse with a key on it into your cell.
* The whole point of the ActionRPG ''VideoGame/LegendOfGrimrock''. Your four characters are literally tossed into the eponymous dungeon for unspecified crimes. If you can get out of the dungeon (in both meanings of the word) you are free to go. Too bad no one has done so yet...
* In ''VideoGame/{{Pirate 101}}'' the player starts off in a cell aboard an Armada ship for one of five crimes which is used to determine the player's [[CharacterClassSystem character class]]. They meet and rescue their first companion here.
* ''Videogame/{{Gothic}}'' starts with the hero being thrown into a penal mining colony. The first game takes place entirely in that colony, the second and third have many [=NPCs=] you've first met in the colony.
* The intro to the first TabletopGame/DarkSun game, ''Dark Sun: Shattered Lands'' states that the sorcerer-king of Draj [[AllCrimesAreEqual ordered all prisoners to fight as gladiators]], and this is how the heroes ended in the arena together. It is [[ProtagonistWithoutAPast never explained]] what their crimes were and if they knew each other before.
* The Batman Arkham series begins this way:
** In ''Videogame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'', Batman is escorting the Joker into Arkham Asylum.
** For ''Videogame/BatmanArkhamCity'', you first get control of Batman when he is in his Bruce Wayne persona in Hugo Strange's custody at the base of Wonder Tower. However, this was all a ruse orchestrated by Batman so that he could get into Arkham City while keeping people from wondering about Wayne's whereabouts during that time; once the Penguin has brought him into the middle of the place, he [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass stops holding back against his attackers]] and gets to a place where he can have his Batsuit airdropped.
** The prequel, ''Videogame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'', begins with a riot at Blackgate Prison.
* ''Videogame/GearsOfWar'' has Marcus Fenix freed from his jail cell in the beginning of the game by his friend Dom, who also arms him for the incoming Locust.
* Cleverly used in ''Franchise/TheChroniclesOfRiddick: Videogame/EscapeFromButcherBay''. The tutorial consists of Riddick arriving at the titular prison and promptly making his escape - only to reveal that his escape plan was AllJustADream, upon which the game begins proper.
* ''Videogame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'' begins the third game with Point Man being interrogated in prison.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' is an unusual case where you start a ''level'' in prison, rather than the game itself. Just like the [[Film/{{Tron}} film it's referencing]], the "Space Paranoids" section starts with Sora, Donald, and Goofy digitized into a computer and put in its prison after an accident involving "[[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch a small, fluffy alien"]]. And just like the film, the title character is already in jail for opposing Master Control and teams up with the gang to break out.
* Del Cottonwood is captured by outlaws and thrown into the dungeon of Castle VideoGame/{{Shadowgate}}; the magician Agaar is his nearest cellmate and was similarly imprisoned for no good reason.
* ''VideoGame/MysticArk'' plays with this. Every characters are trapped in some sort of wooden figurines inside an abanddoned mansion. Characters never interact with each other up until you free and put them into your team. [[HeroicMime Even then...]]
* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'' starts off with you and all your possible companions as prisoners aboard a ship bound for the penal colony of Fort Joy, where anyone capable of using Source magic is incarcerated. Your first order of business is to escape the island, and the party bands together for that express purpose.
* After about an hour or so of prologue in Cuba, ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'' has Protagonist Edward Kenway taken prisoner and locked on a ship bound for Spain as part of the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet. He meets Adéwalé, a fellow prisoner and former slave, and together they break their bounds and use the approaching Hurricane to free a number of other prisoners, commander one of the smaller ships in the fleet and escape just before the Hurricane sinks the fleet. Adéwalé and the others become Edwards crew and the game opens up as they refit the stolen brig as a pirate ship that is used for the remainder of the game.
* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' and its first sequel, ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', both have a variation of this, where the protagonists wake up in an unfamiliar location and have to figure out why they're there and how to escape. Though in both games, some of the characters already knew each other prior to the events of the game. Taken to its LogicalExtreme in the third game, ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'', which starts off with its cast being locked in actual prison cells.
* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfPenAndPaper'': How the main campaign kicks off:
--> All you know is that you're a group of friends locked up in a Tower Prison for no reason at all and everyone's calling you assassins.

* ''Webcomic/{{Jailbreak}}'' starts off this way, not surprisingly. ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' does, too, though it's not obvious at first.
* Seems to be a trend for ''Webcomic/DubiousCompany'''s pirates. [[TheLeader Walter]] and [[TheBigGirl Tiren]] meet when she wakes up in his brig. They meet [[TheHeart Elly]] while breaking out of [[UnknownRival Barry]]'s brig. [[TheSmartGirl Sal]] introduces herself to Tiren in [[TheDragon Izor]]'s bastille. [[TheLancer Leeroy]] is introduced when he mistakes the pirates for Sal's captors, instead of her rescuers. They even meet the Sues and Stus while breaking out of the bastille.

* The party in ''WebSite/TheEscapist'''s ActualPlay series ''Adventure is Nigh'' wakes up in the back of a paddy wagon, [[BoxedCrook being driven to a Dungeon they've been sentenced to loot for one of the local nobles]].

* ''WebVideo/AdventureIsNigh'' starts with the party waking up in the back of a Paddy-Wagon, which is being driven to a [[BoxedCrook a job site, namely a dungeon which they have bern sentenced to loot as Community Service]].

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': In [[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS2E4TaskForceX Task Force X"]], Lawton and Flag meet in Death Row. Then they met the rest of the Suicide Squad at an Abandoned Warehouse. Lawton can believe he could do the job and leave. He is a BoxedCrook and for five years, anywhere he is, he would be in a cell.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'' starts off with Jolyne in jail and meeting her soon-to-be ally Ermes Costello in the cell right next to hers.

* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' and its first sequel, ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', both have a variation of this, where the protagonists wake up in an unfamiliar location and have to figure out why they're there and how to escape. Though in both games, some of the characters already knew each other prior to the events of the game. Taken [[UpToEleven to its logical extreme]] in the third game, ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'', which starts off with its cast being locked in actual prison cells.

* ''Adventure Is Nigh'' starts with the party waking up in the back of a Paddy-Wagon, which is being driven to a [[BoxedCrook a job site, namely a dungeon which they have bern sentenced to loot as Community Service]].

** In ''Film/SawII'', a group of eight people wake up in a house (of which the first film's Bathroom is part of) that's slowly filling with poison gas, and have to pass various "trials" to escape with their lives. While six of them are actual victims, one is a Jigsaw apprentice sent in as a watchperson (Amanda) and another (Daniel) is a teenager who's kept inside the house (and secured by Amanda) as part of preparations for a later test (which is also a partial purpose for the victims).

* Many times in the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' franchise.
** In [[Film/SawI the first film]], Adam and Dr. Gordon wake up chained to the wall in a dingy bathroom. Their only means of escape are a pair of hacksaws that aren't enough to cut through their chains, but ''are'' enough to [[LifeOrLimbDecision cut through the ankles those chains are attached to]].
** In [[Film/SawII the second film]], a group of people wake up in a house that is slowly filling with poison gas, and have to pass various "trials" to escape with their lives.
** [[Film/SawIV The fourth film]]'s opening trap has two men, one with his eyes sewn shut and the other with his mouth sewn shut, chained to a winch that will pull them in and eventually break their necks. Since they can't effectively communicate to free themselves, they fight to the death for the key.
** The "Fatal Five" in [[Film/SawV the fifth film]], who were all [[spoiler:linked to an arson case in which eight people died]].
** ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'' has another group of five people forced to survive Jigsaw's {{death trap}}s, the common denominator among them being that [[spoiler:they're all either murderers or otherwise got people killed]].

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' provides a partial example: four of the five members of the titular group encounter each other when two of the group (Rocket and Groot) try to kidnap the third (Peter Quill) for a bounty on his head, while he in turn was fighting with the fourth (Gamora) over the Maguffin of the movie. Subsequently, all four are sent to the same prison, where they encounter their fifth member (Drax) and realize they need to work together to escape and accomplish their various objectives.

This is kind of like YouAllMeetInAnInn, except instead of the players beginning in an inn, they start off in some form of captivity for no apparent reason. The characters must then escape imprisonment, and find out why they were imprisoned in the first place.

The theme in {{RPG}}s and writing is that imprisonment is instant motivation ("get out of here"), and that they can work out the details of why later. It also gives reason why [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits people who wouldn't normally like each other]] are [[TeethClenchedTeamwork pulling together]]. Similar to a ClosedCircle, and a common way to [[JustForFun/HowToGatherCharacters Gather Characters]].

Can lead to the GreatEscape, BoxedCrook, or CondemnedContestant. May be used to justify a NoGearLevel. In TabletopGames, This trope usually goes poorly, as the characters have no reason to stick together once they escape their confinement, and often don't. At least when YouAllMeetInAnInn, any character who isn't inclined to join up with the group will leave ''immediately'', instead of one or two sessions in. Compare ConvenientlyCellmates.

Can lead to the GreatEscape, BoxedCrook, or CondemnedContestant. May be used to justify a NoGearLevel. In TabletopGames, YouAllMeetInACell usually goes poorly, as the characters have no reason to stick together once they escape their confinement, and often don't. At least when YouAllMeetInAnInn, any character who isn't inclined to join up with the group will leave ''immediately'', instead of one or two sessions in. Compare ConvenientlyCellmates.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', your character suffered a shipwreck and found him/herself washed up in a cave that connected to a dungeon. Not technically a prisoner, but it essentially amounts to the same thing. ''Daggerfall'' also provides a biography that explains exactly ''why'' the Emperor trusted you with the mission that led to the shipwreck. To not be ''overly'' determinative, it has many, many variations depending on class and other choices during character creation.