Backfilling for Player Fatalities

[Helaman]

I figure the first few new characters could be guys who missed the funeral and whom Kendra has directed to or intro'ed to the party but after that? Without that tie to Professor Lorrimor how is it best done to tie new characters to the group and give them a sense of mission if the original PCs' do die.

[IdiotDogBrain]

I always connected the characters to the Professor and Kendra as did you described. I also tied them to the major problem the group was facing at the moment. For example: A new player joined in the midst of the Shudderwood during Broken Moon. He played an Gunslinger/Inquisitor so we discussed that his firearms where designed by Croon and the Professor and he missed the funeral since he is on a longer werewolf hunt- hunting the leader of the Deamon Wolfes.

I think you could apply this to many situations. The newcomer would just search the same object, monster, location as the existing group.

[jupistar]

I had a Elf Cleric join shortly after we started HoH: She was simply a late arrival... just missed the funeral because she didn't receive the missive until she returned from pilgrimage.

I had a Half-Orc Barbarian just join in the middle of TotB:

This one was much tougher. He decided to make it a Totem Warrior. I helped him with the background. Being close to Hold of Belkzen has both advantages and disadvantages - primarily, proximity helps background story, but also makes the Orcs a constant threat in these parts and so the Half-Orc is looked upon with great distrust. However, he rolled very high attributes and chose to put a large number of points in charisma, so that helps a lot.

Then I had him choose a Shoggoth as his tribe's totem, a fearsome creature from the depths of their primal ancestry and memories. The Shoggoth also has the benefit of being a variable form being - shown in the bestiary with tentacles.

I rode with that and we used this story -> AA had his spies out gathering information about the Face of D. He hears about two items that seem to fit the bill (being tentacled and having origins in the deep) and sends AV to procure them. The first was procured from a tribe of primitive orcs who worshipped it as a totem (our hero's tribe) and the second was the Seasage Effigy.

Of course, our hero was off escorting some human party through the land of Belkzen (his half-human, high charisma nature makes him ideal for public relations as a "Protector"), when AV and the WW arrive to make a bargain for the totem. Of course they were refused... with hostility. On his return, the tribe is decimated, AV had fled East, and just the name "Vrood" and the "Whispering Way" and "east" and "wouldn't sell, so they killed us" was whispered on the lips of a dead tribe's member.

The party came upon the barbarian picking through the wreckage of Sanctuary, at a loss of where to go now that he's come to the river and the road. Fortune smiles upon him as our band of Ravengro heroes arrive to investigate the site. They struck a deal, help the group with their task and in return, they would share what they know about the WW and perhaps even team up to track down AV and destroy him.

This gave me the added benefit of being able to drop AV's name another time, too.

Edit: Needless to say, I don't like dead and/or new PCs. It's a lot of work to integrate the character in a reasonable sort of way.