Hey guys and gals, first post from a new MC.
Considering how worldbuilding and character creation are all so wrapped up in the 1st Session, how would you handle adding a player in the second session?
Do you treat it as a kind of extended 1st Session? I’m having trouble solidifying all of the threats and things from the 1st Session Proper when I have an unknown character with his own NPCs and narrative baggage on the horizon.
Thanks so much!
Give that new person some undefined parts of the world to create. Tell them what’s been created and then ask “what have we missed?” Ask some loaded questions that redefine an existing piece of information. Something like “everybody believes x is true, why is it not”. Essentially since the new player missed the agency of being part of the creation of the setting, give them agency to twist it.
Pretty much what David said, with some caveats for which pbta games you are playing. The world in unwritten, and each new player will tell you more about it.
Pretty sure the advice in the aw book is pretty much that.
They were there all along, just off-screen. Why? Have them tell you. Better for those with a place, like the Savvyhead or Maestro’D. Or they just arrived. Battlebabe walks in. Chopper or Driver cruises in. Maybe they bring trouble with them, maybe they’ve visited before. Why did they leave, and why are they back now?
When I have to add a new player to a already running campaing I wait till a “season finale” occurs.
After that, a new “season” begins and I let the players tell me what have happened in the meantime. This is a perfect spot to include a new character in the group.
I would treat it the same as if someone was replacing an old character that died. Ask the pertinent questions, who are you? Where are you from? Why are you here? Then tie that in with the existing threats. Unless of course, they introduced a new one with their backstory. e.g. “my refuge was just wiped out by an army of raiders, I think they’re just a few days behind me.”
I wouldn’t hold back on getting into the nitty gritty while they expanded the world because that would be against the principle of keeping things not boring (or however that actually worded, I don’t have the book with me).
Hey guys! It actually turned out really well. Our new player was new to our gaming group as well (though we all knew him beforehand), and he provided a nice shake-up of the dynamics from our session 1. It ended up as more of a re-Pilot, where a lot of similar themes were examined in a different context and further thrown off kilter and disrupted by the new creepy Brainer in their midst. He ended up adding a lot of great details about the world outside of the little community of holdings we’d established in the 1st Session, as well as a couple new threats! Thanks for the advice!