How do you allow new players in to your group?

[Ice Dragon]

How do you all allow new players into your group?

Most players want their character to be the center of attention and having a new person inthe group sometimes causes infighting as people re-establish the pecking order.

As one who has joined many groups in the past, and who will have to join a new group in DC, I find it better, to sit back and watch the other characters and players for the first night and then see where my character can fit in. I have also been called the bull in the china shop at times (4 players who wanted nothing more than to kill things, in the game that I joined, we killed nothing as my character talked everything out. They then found out how much more experience they got for not killing than killing) as I assert myself in the group.

Thats a good approach

The other solution would be to ask what kind of character is need for the group (missing a healer, fighter, mage, etc.). Another question still is what kind of game the group prefere (power level, alignment).

Still one of the best approches is, if I knew one of the player, that his/her character brings my new one in (old friend, comrade-in-arms,...).

[Uncle Servo]

How do you all allow new players into your group?

Most players want their character to be the center of attention and having a new person inthe group sometimes causes infighting as people re-establish the pecking order.

As one who has joined many groups in the past, and who will have to join a new group in DC, I find it better, to sit back and watch the other characters and players for the first night and then see where my character can fit in. I have also been called the bull in the china shop at times (4 players who wanted nothing more than to kill things, in the game that I joined, we killed nothing as my character talked everything out. They then found out how much more experience they got for not killing than killing) as I assert myself in the group.

Thats a good approach

The other solution would be to ask what kind of character is need for the group (missing a healer, fighter, mage, etc.). Another question still is what kind of game the group prefere (power level, alignment).

Still one of the best approches is, if I knew one of the player, that his/her character brings my new one in (old friend, comrade-in-arms,...).

Nice ideas, all of them. I think I've used most of them in the past.

I don't think I have just one set approach though, it depends mainly on the group of players (and of characters)... though I do usually ask what the group could use OCC wise and go from there.

[Prince Artemis]

the sit back and watch effect tends to work the best with the least discomfort. I've been watching this kind of thing alot and i find it pretty interesting. In ed3's campaing i sat back and watched for several Months(we play every week) before actually getting any spotlight and even then it was unintentional. My character is now one of the main characters(the common agreement is the second main character). It makes for an interesting story too, and makes it really comming of age type of thing. meanwhile there have been quite a few people who come in and practically demand attention, and won't stop whining unless they get it. I won't name names but I'm sure they know who they are. It's these people that die out Really quickly. like two or three games tops. Mind you sitting back and watching doesn't mean that you do nothing, it just means that you take things slow, don't try to bend the plot to your will and generally follow the lead of the 'older' players. it can really make a game more interesting, and to some degree more fun, especially when you're in the spot light an can't figure out where you ended up in it

[AllMightyRCB]

On my first time playing Rifts, I was running a diabolic Elf Fire/Air Warlock. I spotted 2 members of the group (a Burster, and an Apok) leaving a town. They had some valuable stuff visable on them and the burster wasn't wearing armor (a bad mistake). So I proceeded to prowl off the trail and hide in the bushes. Then after they had passed me, I pulled out my Plasma Ejector and BAM! I shot the burster in the back, killing him instantly. The Apok was cowardly and ran away without even stopping to see who had killed his partner. I got the bursters equipment and sold it. The only bad thing was that even though nobody had seen me kill the burster, he would always unsuccessfully attack any and all of my characters from then on (he ended up loseing 6 characters from fighting my characters over a period of 2 1/2 years of playing.

[AllMightyRCB]

I'm proud to say that I didn't lose any. The only character I have ever lost was from the GM. It was a t-1000 race made by the Gm. The character was just too powerful and just had to be killed, but that was the only character I have ever lost. Another player in the group that usually ran his hatchling great horned dragon, killed 4 of that guy's characters too. The original burster was resurrected 2 times before he was gone forever.

[MADMANMIKE]

How'd you kill a burster in one shot with a plasma weapon? Plasma = fire/heat and bursters are immune to fire.

..Bad GMing.

..Welcome aboard. Manhatten, huh? I played chess there a few times back in high school.

-Mike >8]

[Prince Cherico]

In my last game every body had to say how every one knew each other
every one got two vetos, unfortantly I used up my vetos and ended up being one of the charaters B**** in prison while they were in there.

[AllMightyRCB]

Bursters take one tenth damage from MD plasma (it seys that in the main book right where it seys that Bursters are impervious to heat). The plasma ejector does 1d6x10 MD. I rolled a 5, so that is 50md, divided by the one tenth damage that bursters take is 5md, or 500sdc, The Burster was sdc so it killed him three times over.

[AllMightyRCB]

Well, the hatchling dragon in my group was diabolic too. The Burster was anarchist, and the Apok was Scrupulous. Almost all the characters I've run since then aren't diabolic. They're miscreant, with a few being anarchist.

[MADMANMIKE]

..It shouldn't surprise me that Palladium removed the eye rolling smilie from the list.

..As GM I limit the alignments characters in my games can choose. Generally selfish is the spectrum, but really good rpers can choose Aberrant. My worst gamer always tries to choose that but plays it as miscreant so I stopped allowing it for him.

..My current game is a CS squad based game circa 101PA. Since the squad needed 10 people, and I had four players, I had 6 NPC's that didn't get fleshed out too much.

..When two players couldn't make it to the next session, a new player picked up one of those two's characters, and the other got NPCed. Another new player got one of the previous NPC's.

..In the third session yet another Player came along and got one of the NPC's. By then all of the others were dead or MIA. That was a short session, but it left off in a good place.

..Last session (Tuesday) I had one of the original players and one more new player. This time the Squad's Lieutenant, who was MIA after the first session (NPC), has a CO that's come to take him down. He brings a new squad, divides the remainder of the old squad up, sending half the new squad with the old one (NPCed characters) to search for the missing Lieutenant, and the remainder off to continue the mission (check my Game Rundown's Thread for the lo-jack).

..The one player that has been consistant, and the newest player (both college students) are the only reliable players I have left. We're always looking for more, but good, consistant, devoted gamers are hard to come by.

..This was the first time the new player had been exposed to the Palladium Megaverse. Another game I've been running was PF set in the Western Empire. After the next Rifts session I'm going to introduce him to that game; Two of my former players were traveling with my consistant player and they were about to have an encounter when we left off. It's an easy place to insert a new character, "A mysterious stranger comes to your aid out of the mountains", and as good as any to drop the other two characters; "At the sight of the mob of bandits your Longbowman and soldier turn tail, leaving you with the miners and slaves to defend yourselves" heh heh heh...

-Mike >8]

[Svartalf]

I recently joined a group and had a most strange introduction : my character went to the party in search of his father... of course it's the *very* odd group that usually has the god Thoth along. I had no problem getting integrated after that... not that I'm particlarly useful, but a guy who is tech oriented and can pilot anything he lays his hands on and has the general powers of a line walker to boot is still handy to have around.

[Vrykolas2k]

I make the character I want to play, whether anyone else has a "similar" {a laughable theory, similar characters...}, and do whatever I think is appropriate... it's a pc, after all, not an npc who has to knuckle under to the wishes of another pc...
If my usual allignments {Anarchist and Aberrant} don't "suit" someone, well, too bad.
As for when I GM, other than godlings and cosmo-knights, I allow pretty much anything that's optional or whatever to play, and don't restrict player freedom by restricting allignment... after all, the Diabolic character can be played intelligently and never let the party know his/ her true allignment {until it's too late perhaps...}, but if they're stupid then i guess they get what they deserve and deserve what they get.

[Diamond Spear]

On my first time playing Rifts, I was running a diabolic Elf Fire/Air Warlock. I spotted 2 members of the group (a Burster, and an Apok) leaving a town. They had some valuable stuff visable on them and the burster wasn't wearing armor (a bad mistake). So I proceeded to prowl off the trail and hide in the bushes. Then after they had passed me, I pulled out my Plasma Ejector and BAM! I shot the burster in the back, killing him instantly. The Apok was cowardly and ran away without even stopping to see who had killed his partner. I got the bursters equipment and sold it.

Any player whose new character pulled that in my game would have been instantly invited to leave and never invited to return. Role-playing is a SOCIAL, GROUP activity. Loner/PC killer players/characters have no place in a role-playing game. This is not to say that there can never be tension or such but players who cold bloodily murder party members for no reason (as above) have no business playing in the first place. Just my humble, correct opinion.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Any player whose new character pulled that in my game would have been instantly invited to leave and never invited to return. Role-playing is a SOCIAL, GROUP activity. Loner/PC killer players/characters have no place in a role-playing game. This is not to say that there can never be tension or such but players who cold bloodily murder party members for no reason (as above) have no business playing in the first place. Just my humble, correct opinion.

whoo *sniff* ok, now that i've recovered from that bout, let's get on with this.

first, that was an exceedinly arrogant statement. your way is not the only correct way.

second, there can indeed be games where the players fight against each-other and try to kill each-other. it's it's own way of playing.

it all depends on the people involved. if you don't want to play that way, go ahead, but you have less than no business telling others their way isnt' the right way.

[Diamond Spear]

whoo *sniff* ok, now that i've recovered from that bout, let's get on with this.

first, that was an exceedinly arrogant statement. your way is not the only correct way.

second, there can indeed be games where the players fight against each-other and try to kill each-other. it's it's own way of playing.

it all depends on the people involved. if you don't want to play that way, go ahead, but you have less than no business telling others their way isnt' the right way.

Exactly, if I am role-playing and my alignment lets me do that, you better believe the GM would have to let me do it. It is my character and he did let me bring it into the game as is, alignment and all. The way characters act and react toward each other is merely development.

So let me get this straight, if a new, unknown player was to come in your game, choose an alignment and personality guaranteed to cause problems regardless of how the character was developed and then that player choose to kill off one of the two other players in the game just to get his stuff while expecting said player would not get upset about it you would have no problem with this? I find that hard to believe.

In my experience, players like the one described above are disruptive and tend to make the game less enjoyable for everyone. Yes there will be times when party members will fight with and even kill each other, but these should be few and far between and should come about from events that occur in the course of the campaign not be the way a new player introduces his character.

People who kill party members for no good reason and use the excuse "my alignment says I can" really don't get what role-playing is all about. If body count is all that matters then go play Doom or Quake or a myriad of other games where killing as often as possible is not only acceptable but is the point of the game. Character development is an important part of role playing but when you start with a cold-blooded, sociopathic, miscreant evil character you really haven't left yourself much room for role playing or character development.

Just my humble, correct opinion.

Ok I agree, that statement was a little arrogant but people like the one I was referring to really tick me off. They come into the game knowing that they will (or at least are supposed to be) joining a group of players and working with them and they go ahead and make a character who is incapable of doing so. Then they start killing, intimidating, stealing from, etc., etc., the rest of the party, use the excuse that "my alignment says I can", and then can't understand why this ticks off the people they are playing with. Of course these players are almost always the ones who whine and complain about the least little misfortune that comes their way.

So yes I allowed my annoyance to push me into making an arrogant statement and I'll apologise for that but I fully stand by the rest of my post.

[Svartalf]

oh Diamond... just think one thing : AMBER RPG !

there *are* groups where inter player competition, and even feuding, are not only allowable, but positively expected.

I can't say I care for such a style of play myself... guarding oneself against the GM's machinations can be arduous enough, without having to be careful of other players backstabbing you and to think of doing unto them before they get an opening on you... but there *are* groups that enjoy playing like that. so please can the Sir Lazarious style self righteousness.

of course, in a more typical group, where characters are supposed to be friendly to each other, it would be the GM's duty to bar a player from bringing a disruptive character in, or even to bar the disruptive player.

[Nekira Sudacne]

So let me get this straight, if a new, unknown player was to come in your game, choose an alignment and personality guaranteed to cause problems regardless of how the character was developed and then that player choose to kill off one of the two other players in the game just to get his stuff while expecting said player would not get upset about it you would have no problem with this? I find that hard to believe.

well, first of all, if they are garenteed to cause problems then I generally don't let them in, it's the GM's responicbility to screen all characters not only for content and to make sure no cheating occured, but also to make sure that the character fits in with the story, which for me includes insisting a detailed background. not only that, I also enjoy runing "prelude" games for all my characters in any system I play. it lets the GM get a feel for the personallity of the character, also to determine personality and helps the player get a good grasp on the own character. It's partly your own responcibility to ensure that the character fits your campaign and if he does something like this and you don't like it you also share some blame for it.

In my experience, players like the one described above are disruptive and tend to make the game less enjoyable for everyone. Yes there will be times when party members will fight with and even kill each other, but these should be few and far between and should come about from events that occur in the course of the campaign not be the way a new player introduces his character.

again, it all boils down to the kind of game you are running. a band of cyber/cosmo knights running around doing good deeds blah blah blah yea they would be disruptive, but I have run a few villian-orented games and yes, characters do sometimes kill each-other, but it can be fun, even if you don't think so.

People who kill party members for no good reason and use the excuse "my alignment says I can" really don't get what role-playing is all about. If body count is all that matters then go play Doom or Quake or a myriad of other games where killing as often as possible is not only acceptable but is the point of the game. Character development is an important part of role playing but when you start with a cold-blooded, sociopathic, miscreant evil character you really haven't left yourself much room for role playing or character development.

once again, they may not fit YOUR idea of roleplaying, but some people do find it fun and it's just as an acceptable way of playing as any other.

[Diamond Spear]

there *are* groups where inter player competition, and even feuding, are not only allowable, but positively expected.
........................

I can't say I care for such a style of play myself...but there *are* groups that enjoy playing like that. so please can the Sir Lazarious style self righteousness.

I wasn't commenting on groups of players who agree to play that particular style. I was commenting on people who come into a game that is NOT set up that way and make pests of themselves. See the difference?

[Nekira Sudacne]

there *are* groups where inter player competition, and even feuding, are not only allowable, but positively expected.
........................

I can't say I care for such a style of play myself...but there *are* groups that enjoy playing like that. so please can the Sir Lazarious style self righteousness.

I wasn't commenting on groups of players who agree to play that particular style. I was commenting on people who come into a game that is NOT set up that way and make pests of themselves. See the difference?

oh, no sir, you made a self-righous across the board statement.

[Greg]

Bursters take one tenth damage from MD plasma (it seys that in the main book right where it seys that Bursters are impervious to heat). The plasma ejector does 1d6x10 MD. I rolled a 5, so that is 50md, divided by the one tenth damage that bursters take is 5md, or 500sdc, The Burster was sdc so it killed him three times over.

Actually in Psyscape they change the rule a little bit. They just say plasma damage scratches them except for an ambiguous "lots" that will then do 1/10th damage. I believe it's because there's an RCC D-Bee (the one with the dragon in the chest) that's completely immune to fire as well and it probably seemed a little unfair to have the Burster, who's kind of a one-trick pony, to be less resistant than them. I don't have it in front of me, but just this weekend I was comparing the two entries.

[Syndicate]

Best way to enter a new group for me. Well, as a player, I always try to figure out just how much the GM will let me get away with. 8th level Demi-god Mystic Knight with a major pact?...SURE!! If I'm to be a potential GM for the group, I'll see how quickly they react to player death...

[Uncle Servo]

Best way to enter a new group for me. Well, as a player, I always try to figure out just how much the GM will let me get away with. 8th level Demi-god Mystic Knight with a major pact?...SURE!! If I'm to be a potential GM for the group, I'll see how quickly they react to player death...

just remember -- the GM can always out-munchkin the player. Period.