Hi sages and sundry,
After playing with my group for many years now, we've had a player leave us for work and are looking to introduce a new player to the established group.
Do any of you have tips or stories about things you've done in a similar situation that worked well or fell flat? I intend to roll with it once we're all together, but I thought it would be nice to make the new player's first day as smooth and inviting as possible.
Staring off, as the DM you know what your group enjoys best so recruit them yourself.
AKA a Min/maxer does not mix well with a story driven character design group.
Have them build their character into the campaign and bring their character in. I wouldn't force the new person too much on their IRL. The players will get to know one another in the down time so putting them into the game right away helps with the transition as the group will be focused on the game as well.
That is what has worked in my experience.
(Run for a weekly group for 3 years just lost 2 players and brought in a new one.)
I joined a party that saved me from being grey render snack cakes. That was my first dnd character and session ever... Ah the memories... Seriously though, it's all about back story. Did the PCs save a relative of the new character? Or maybe through their actions, the new guy was able to become an adventurer. Maybe it's an old friendly rival who lost his own group and is seeking to join forces. Then there is the converted bad guy angle, or the secret spy... It just depends on the story.
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I think a major thing is letting the player figure out how you play the game, before he sets down his new character in stone.
Are you playing a relaxed, beer and pretzels, whimsical game, not taking stuff too seriously? Or are you into deep roleplay, anything you say is IC unless explicitly OOC, and everyone's totally immersed all the time? If everyone basically good, or is the party a shades of grey kind of bunch? Is morality even an issue?
And so on. So many possible differences. So when a new player joins and make a character, but after the first couple of sessions he wants to make some changes, cut him some slack :P
Try introducing him in a one-shot or side adventure, so you can get a feel for each other before you change up your camapaign.
Thanks all! I like the idea of trying him in a one-shot first to see how he gels with the other players. Assuming it clicks, it will be easier to build his back story to find hooks to the other PCs. And I'll take to heart the idea of letting him make changes after the first few sessions if he finds that our style of play is not what he's used to, but is what he's interested in.
I'd rather try him out and decide after 4-5 sessions that he just doesn't fit than say no from the get-go. I suppose I should feel grateful that I've got a surplus of players rather than the opposite.
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Definitely make it clear to him what kind of campaign you're running. Is it a dungeon crawl, a typical hack 'n slash, a political intrigue, an investigation, or so on?
How serious of a game is it? How humorous? Are pop culture references acceptable?
And the one that the rest of your players are going to want you to tell him: what roles do your party already have filled and what needs to be filled? Do you already have a lot of melee characters? A lot of archers? Do you have any characters with alignment restrictions? Is he going to be okay with playing an alignment that doesn't cause him to butt heads with the paladin/monk/cleric/druid? Do you have a party face? A healer? What Knowledge skills do you have covered?
Mind you, this new guy is NOT going to appreciate it if you tell him the party needs a cleric/rogue/fighter/whatevs. If you tell him up-front what the party already has, he'll decide for himself what role he thinks needs to be filled. Maybe he doesn't think a party needs a healing cleric as much as it needs a trapfinder, and he'll throw a few skill ranks in UMD and pick up a wand of CLW along the way. This'll also give you some insight as to what he feels a party's priorities are.
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Seeing for yourself is also significant; people's descriptions of their group may be a bit skewed. For example, I joined a group and got the impression they were weak in melee and strong in casters, but the GM was making monsters very tough because there was one very strong melee PC.
So I made a pretty feral druid. Imagine my surprise when the casters turned out to be fairly incompetent (a Fire wizard player who didn't feel like reading spells; still using Burning Hands at level 5), and the monsters weren't all that tough. Inadvertently my druid may be more powerful in melee than the cavalier (without wildshape), while I was just trying to be on par with him.