It all depends on the campaign, to be honest. If it is a campaign with a lot of NPC interactions, I try to bring the new PC in by way of an NPC already connected with the PC group.
As far as death penalties, if the PC died due to an obviously bad decision by the player, then I assess a penalty. If they died due to bad luck or other typical ways of dying, then I don't assess a penalty.
Character intro can be very tricky since it can usuqlly set the tone for how the group treats that character for the rest of the game. You will probably want to introduce a character from a point of strength. You want the party to want to take the PC with them, and you want the new character to have a chance to impress other PCs.
Last time I joined an ongoing campaign, the others found my character chained in a dungeon being . . . tended . . . by quicklings. The other members of his previous party already had been dispatched. He was pretty happy to see someone come along.
A relation of one of the PCs track them down.
One of the best RP experiences I've ever had was a new player that came in as my angry ex-betrothed that wanted blood and/or answers on why I'd screwed up the arrangements with the party's actions.
I've also seen the little sibling chasing after their sempai, or protective parent or hired bodyguard coming after their runaway.
The rescued PC thing is usually easy to work in.
The competition. PC is found from another group in the area on the same or related mission, rival adventurer, government agent/soldier. Whether last survivor or assigned to liason the party or fed up with or by their old group..
Displaced PC can work. Basically the new guy falls out of thin air in front of the party, like from a portal trap or malfunction, a teleportation mishap, or plane shift bad roll. Can take more doing to get their motivation in line with the party.
A PC has died, or a new player wants to join your gaming group.
How do you get that new PC (in either case) linked up with the group in a way that makes "some" sense?
How have you done it in a game session?
Any feedback from your players, or do they really just want to get on with the game and not ask too many questions about "how long was this rogue wound up in that spider-web before we got here and killed it anyway?? And what was she doing -way out here alone-???
I have done it once - a NPC introduced the new player's character as potential help for the upcoming expedition. The players wanted to play together, so nobody questioned that a new character joined the group.
Well, if you count the gathering at the beginning, I also let three of them meet in the local tavern and together they convinced the guards of the prison to let the fourth one join.
So, here is a quick list how someone could join the party:
* recruited by them (with money or promises)
* recruited them (with a hopefully interesting quest)
* saved by them (from a pursuit, prison or upcoming danger)
* convinced them at a tavern talk
* introduced as official escort by a powerful NPC (king, guard chief etc.)
Do you make them start a level down, same level, or something different?
I use the same experience for all players, and I try to keep them at roughly the same wealth. Everything else feels unfair to me.
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I'm doing the "introduced by NPCs" method for a player joining my current campaign next session. Since the party is just entering a new city to deal with a fugitive, I'm introducing the new PC as someone with an interest in the criminal case. The party will meet him when they show up in the city and introduce themselves to local law enforcement. When that plot is over the new PC will continue on with the party, with some encouragement by the higher-ups involved.
We've also had two campaigns so far in which new PCs flowed in fairly regularly by showing up at the party's home base and saying "I hear you do the adventuring thing here." This obviously works best if the party has a home base that they return to regularly at least every session or two.
We start new PCs at the same level and wealth as current PCs.
I generally try to avoid the new PC is a prisoner in the dungeon you are in type of scenario. I find more often then not it is actually more jarring to continuity than just having the new PC be there. The problem lies in that the other PCs (and the other players) really have no choice but to accept the new character as a party member so playing that out often doesn't make sense to me.
I do try to make sure that the new character has a background that will mesh in some way with the ongoing story. Friend or relative of a known NPC or something, some way to have ties with whatever is going on and continue the story line.
I don't believe in 'punishment' for death or even just retiring and playing a new character. While I certainly prefer continuity of keeping original character, that doesn't trump a player having fun, and if the character is the problem, then by all means switch. If it were ever to become a serious problem (say a new character a week or something) that disrupted the game, I'd talk to the player about it, but so far changing characters is more the exception than the rule.
I would probably just have the player describe the new character in broad strokes and then leave it to the players to work out where they might know this new character from and why they just happened to turn up at the party's current location.
In my current game, I created an NPC traveling companion who conveniently left the party and quit adventuring just before the campaign started. She settled down in Greengold in Kyonin and sends anyone who seems competent and trustworthy to her to seek out and assist her cousin (my player character). All the player of a new character has to do is come up with a reason for that character to pass through Greengold and meet my character's cousin to get a referral from her.
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I would probably just have the player describe the new character in broad strokes and then leave it to the players to work out where they might know this new character from and why they just happened to turn up at the party's current location.
While you certainly can do that, I like the opportunity as a GM to work with a player to weave their character into the story and potentially deliver some plot. The new PC joining my party's investigation gets some information that otherwise I'd have to get an NPC to deliver.
I would probably just have the player describe the new character in broad strokes and then leave it to the players to work out where they might know this new character from and why they just happened to turn up at the party's current location.
In my current game, I created an NPC traveling companion who conveniently left the party and quit adventuring just before the campaign started. She settled down in Greengold in Kyonin and sends anyone who seems competent and trustworthy to her to seek out and assist her cousin (my player character). All the player of a new character has to do is come up with a reason for that character to pass through Greengold and meet my character's cousin to get a referral from her.
I did this even simpler, in one game I had the players be members of the Pathfinder Society, and if someone died that would be about the time a new agent would appear to ask "What's taking so long to finish this business and get your report in? Oh... well that... that's gruesome... tell you what, I'll stick around and help you finish."
I once joined a crew in a town/city setting by providing a letter of introduction from DM referenced off-screen important person. This meant I was an unknown, but vouched for by someone trusted.
My current crew usually handwave the needed retcon to say the new char was around already, but now steps up. Or there is a random encounter that turns up to be someone meets us. Since we have a large group, and several like to change characters for whatever reason and others have new characters due to a party death, we are used to it. We are so used to it, it barely suspends disbelief for more than a few minutes to come up with the specific intro. Since everyone wants to make it work, it does.
/cevah
I've added new characters twice; the first time a character had died, so we had that players new character be his uncle, coming to check up on his nephew. the second time I actually added a new player, so I had his character be wandering around near the PCs and be drawn to the sounds of combat.
when adding new or replacement characters, I have them start at the same level as the rest of the party, but they have to bear up from the party's existing gear.
Ok fellow GMs, once again a chance to share your collective wisdom with each other as well as new GMs who may search the forums for something like this.
The situation:
A PC has died, or a new player wants to join your gaming group.
How do you get that new PC (in either case) linked up with the group in a way that makes "some" sense?
How have you done it in a game session?
Any feedback from your players, or do they really just want to get on with the game and not ask too many questions about "how long was this rogue wound up in that spider-web before we got here and killed it anyway?? And what was she doing -way out here alone-???
Do you make them start a level down, same level, or something different?
Lots of ways to do it... and it's pretty much unique to each time.
If they're in the town... if they're in a dungeon... if they're on another plane... different situations will change the difficulties.
My personal reccomendations... don't drag it out too long. The point of the game is to PLAY. If you want the new guy to join at the tavern... and it takes them 6 hours to GET to that tavern... then the new guy isn't playing for 6 hours. A little bit of 'not making sense' is worth it to keep the game going and keeping everyone involved.
Especially for a new player.
If a character died and the same player is bringing in a new character... it gets a bit easier. Make HIM do the work. He already knows the plot and where the characters are and how they got there... It should be on him to explain why he wants to join up and how he got there. If it's really inaccessible work with him to explain it (FYI, I always like 'Hit with prismatic spray' to bounce someone to a different plane to join up with a new party...)
There is always a bit of metagaminess to it. 1) The players all know what is happening. 2) Unless they are jerks, the players are going to accept the new party members... because it's a PC. 3)They all know this character would NOT be in that spider web if there wasn't a player joining in... So it's best to just keep it going. Unless they really want to RP out the backstory of course.
As for level down?? Nope.. never. Death is enough of a penalty no need to add salt to the wound. The game is based around the idea of leveling up everyone at the same time (unlike 2E) so why create a penalty if the rules themselves don't indicate one. That kind of thing detracts fun not adds to it.
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There is always a bit of metagaminess to it. 1) The players all know what is happening. 2) Unless they are jerks, the players are going to accept the new party members... because it's a PC. 3)They all know this character would NOT be in that...
Saw a wonderful example of how this can go wrong in a live role-playing game once.
One player was to the game and walks up behind the party, starting to say 'the guys at the town sent me to help you'.
Unfortunately he's playing a dark elf. The party have just fought four rooms full of dark elves. Someone says 'yeah, yeah a likely story mate!' and the new character dies in a flurry of sword blows.
Because this is a live role-play event in a cave, rather than sitting around a table, we didn't have the meta-game information that the new person is a player, not one of the monster crew.
There is always a bit of metagaminess to it. 1) The players all know what is happening. 2) Unless they are jerks, the players are going to accept the new party members... because it's a PC. 3)They all know this character would NOT be in that...Saw a wonderful example of how this can go wrong in a live role-playing game once.
One player was to the game and walks up behind the party, starting to say 'the guys at the town sent me to help you'.
Unfortunately he's playing a dark elf. The party have just fought four rooms full of dark elves. Someone says 'yeah, yeah a likely story mate!' and the new character dies in a flurry of sword blows.
Because this is a live role-play event in a cave, rather than sitting around a table, we didn't have the meta-game information that the new person is a player, not one of the monster crew.
They should have known that was not going to go well. This is a case where special circumstances would be needed to get him into the group. Maybe he joins mid-combat, and starts helping the party, or maybe the party walks in as he is about to be sacrificed or have him vetted for by an NPC the party trust. I wish I could have seen it though. :)
There is always a bit of metagaminess to it. 1) The players all know what is happening. 2) Unless they are jerks, the players are going to accept the new party members... because it's a PC. 3)They all know this character would NOT be in that...Saw a wonderful example of how this can go wrong in a live role-playing game once.
One player was to the game and walks up behind the party, starting to say 'the guys at the town sent me to help you'.
Unfortunately he's playing a dark elf. The party have just fought four rooms full of dark elves. Someone says 'yeah, yeah a likely story mate!' and the new character dies in a flurry of sword blows.
Because this is a live role-play event in a cave, rather than sitting around a table, we didn't have the meta-game information that the new person is a player, not one of the monster crew.
Yep!! That's precisely what 'realisticly' would happen in any tabletop game too. All these players who like their goblins, drow, orcs etc... The rest of the party accepts them because they are players... not because it's logical for normal 'good' characters to befriend normal 'bad' characters. It's just part of that social contract.
Never seen a live role-play in a cave... While not a LARPer myself.. that sounds FUN!
Just do it. It is a game and everyone wants to have fun playing.
My go-to method is to have the existing PCs and the new one(s) meet up in a situation where both are fighting a common enemy. I sometimes also use the same fight to eliminate the PC of an outgoing player.
Example: The PCs hear word that there's a group of brigands preying on merchants on the road to the next town. They go to investigate and find a fight already in progress: the brigands are waylaying a merchant wagon, and appear to be winning. The new PC(s) are part of the merchant group under attack, and are putting up a good fight but are outnumbered and outgunned. The old PCs join the fight against the brigands, thus forming an instant bond with the new PCs.
If the PC of an outgoing player is still around, this is a good opportunity for that character to go out in a blaze of glory.
Another thing I've done with an outgoing player—if the new player is amenable to it—is to have the new player make a version of the outgoing player's PC as their own. For example, the outgoing player's PC was Radgar the Fighter, a sword-and-board character who also used a bow. The new player wanted to play an archery-focused ranger. I had the new player redesign Radgar as an archery-focused ranger. The new player essentially took over the existing character, even though the stats changed somewhat drastically. We just retconned that Radgar has always been an accomplished archer. Thus, new player, new character statblock, but no in-game reason to switch the actual character.
If there's a need to replace a character after a death, there are a lot of ways to do it. For example, if the PCs are working for a regular quest-giver, then the quest-giver assigns a new member of the team. Or, I'll introduce the new PC as someone who had been on the same or an overlapping quest/investigation as the old PCs, and they happen to come across each other and decide to join forces.
Of course, I expect the players to be amenable to letting a new PC join their ranks in the name of keeping the game moving forward. If this requires a suspension of logic or the PCs becomming unrealistically trusting of the new guy, then so be it.
We're playing Skulls and Shackles and there've been quite a few areas which have been rather deadly. Being pirates, it gives us natural areas for characters to join. Some things that occurred:
Character was a prisoner of some baddies and the PCs encountered and rescued the character while they were attacking the baddies.
Shipwreck on the island the characters were moored next to.
Character was a member of a crew which the characters captured during pirating and then joined the crew.
Character was a Gillman who was drawn to the crew by his deep-seated domination by the Aboleths.
A large part of this comes down to the social contract that comes with playing the game. Everyone knows that however you do it, you really need to accept the new character so everyone can have fun, so the sensible thing to do is do what makes the most sense at the time that doesn't put a huge burden on the players to accept something too off the wall.
I think the big thing to avoid is anything that fits into the "antagonist who turns out good" introduction. I saw an example above about a good dark elf after party had been fighting nothing but dark elves. I second all the opinions about making it obvious that the new party member is a friend.
Honestly, any scenario where you can establish that the new person is a friend is enough for the players (and their characters) to just go with it and move the story along.
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In a game like Pathfinder, this can be trickier than in some other formats.
But in any format, it really depends on the situation.
When I got new players starting in Chapter 2 of CotCT, I had a friendly and trusted NPC (Vencarlo Orsini, for those familiar with the AP) introduce the new characters and ask the PCs to take them along on a mission. Trust sorta built from there. At the same time, an old player left, and a new player just took over the character. I made him keep the same Class and weapon (for thematic consistency...he was a Black Blade Magus), but let him remake the character as much as he wanted otherwise.
When I was doing Legacy of Fire, one of the players was looking for their sister (who'd vanished). The new PC was coming in about the same time she was likely to be found, so I talked it over with the player...and she had a boyfriend when the PCs found her. The PC was less than happy with the guy who was dating his sister, but what was he gonna do?
When I was running a rebellion game that was mostly about coalition-building among a tribal culture, I had the new PC be someone they met as part of that, since he was enthusiastic about their little rebellion, and he just volunteered to help.
My undirected game that was basically 'PCs run around the River Kingdoms as mercenaries having adventures' new PCs were just part of the semi-rotating mercenary band the PCs were.
As a general suggestion, when a character who serves an essential role in the group (the only healer, for example) dies and the player is willing to play another character who can serve that role (or the new player), if they're anywhere near civilization, you could just have them do a series of interviews, with the prospective PC being the most qualified (or only) applicant. The same can be done no matter what the new player is playing if the PCs just think they need more people in the group for any reason.
But really, tailoring the particular introduction to the situation is by far the best choice. Though personally, I try very hard to avoid straining plausibility, and give the PCs sound in-character reasons for trusting that the new PC isn't likely to betray them.
Sven: Hey Jeb, How did you get here? We've been in this dungeon for 2 weeks and are miles below the surface.
Jeb: I went looking for you guys and fell down a chute. Pretty weird it spit me out here.
Sven: Yes it is. All right, let's keep moving.
We rotate DMs and we all just hand wave new/returning PCs. Most of us ignore XP so the missing/new PC just shows up ready to go, the same level as everyone else. Nobody wants to sit around for hours waiting for the narrative to make sense to add a new character, so as long as there isn't a battle raging, they just show up.
It is convenient and is the most fun option so everyone ignores that it makes little sense and just rolls with it.
"I was feeling purposeless, so I went into a temple of my patron deity and prayed to be shown what I should be doing with my life. Suddenly I was here with you guys, all geared up! So, what are we doing?"
One subversive purpose you can achieve by offering ready made associations with existing player character is to reign in some of the more jerkish character concepts. "If you character is a vicious evil SOB and has always been one, I can't see how he could have been a close childhood friend of my character."
At least with the other setup I described, the NPC has a good Sense Motive ability but no supernatural ability to detect evil, so the new character just has to be capable of presenting himself in a positive light for a few days.
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Obviously you try to make it fit seamlessly into the narrative if you can, but then there are just days when you have to throw up your hands because there is NO good way to introduce a PC that doesn't involve some kind of ridiculous hand-waving.
My most recent example: the party is stranded a thousand miles from civilization, in an arctic wasteland, populated solely by mutants and horrors. I have one player who's character has suffered a baleful polymorph and one who's current PC is just NOT working for him. Both want to bring in new PCs. (actually one would like to bring back a previous PC who has been dead for a while!)
I want my players to have fun. While I never shy away from throwing setbacks at them or putting the whole party in deadly danger, I'm not going to ask a player to use a PC that he or she is not enjoying. What's the point?
So one PC is summoned back from beyond the grave by an almost literal Deus Ex Machina, and the other ends up joining the party via random teleportation accident. It's kludgy, inelegant, and offensive to my sense of narrative, but now two of my players are happier and more involved in the story, and the other players just take it in stride.
I had them rescue the new player's character from a group of brigands who were about to hang him.
It worked out great! The new player wanted to be a wizard, and so I was able to extend his intro into a new adventure. After they saved his life, the group needed to track down his spell book, which had been taken by the BBEG. He was grateful for their assistance, and they were glad to bring someone so powerful along.