Well I will trow a bit of twocent in.

I think we shouldnt go switching dimension. Stay in the real world, with threats appearing there. And something that will force us to be in a group. Like some of those gaming mangas, where we have for example 6 people be a kingdom, and have to stay together work together to be strong.

Simple saying that the group has to stay together. 
And I think a NPC character that is sort of a mentor, who appears and goes or just annoys the character could be fun.
 
Another idea is a trip, maybe a celebration trip and they pass somewhere a shop/-insert interesting location- where they get those items maybe as a present, not knowing what it actually is. And then we can see what to do.

Another idea is not to have fighting involved much. Maybe it just happens out of the blue, they try to manage their life with sudden -abilities magic etc- and then someone just appears. Could be a mix up plot for the group. Like. '' Um sorry but the magic wasnt supposed for you but for the well trained -insert organisation race something interesting- heroes. By mistake it went to you.

And either make them work, of flee from them. A flee plot could be interesting especially if curses are getting involved like: They hide out in a old hospital, and the one who are going after them makes it a puzzle/labyrinth to keep them trapped until something happens.

and so on. 

Hope I made some sense when my plot bunnies start jumping I think too fast to manage to type everything on my mind, heheh