101 ways to introduce a character to the party [Archive] - Wizards Community

101 ways to introduce a character to the party [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
pkrerc
05-03-05, 05:26 PM What are the best ways you can think of to introduce a character to a party? I am asking because I really stink at this. I can get a group together with a good reason at the beginning, but after that, new players usually get some half-baked "Party, you realize that this newcomer is also fighting the lich; newcomer, you realize that this party..." and it is extremely stupid.

Include humorous ones if you can think of any, but I'd find some serious ones a lot more helpful.
Dragon Master Zero
05-03-05, 05:33 PM well the originals could find the newcomer in a dungeon/forest/town place and have to save him from some creature/animal/guard
Board_Rider
05-03-05, 05:47 PM Make them a family member or, at higher levels, make them be from some outfit that the PCs have worked with/for in the past. Additionally, whomever the PCs are working for now can send along a swordsman/magic-user to help.
TheUnknownZombie
05-03-05, 05:55 PM #3)
DM:You open a chest. Make a Search roll.
Player1: Uhh... 17
DM: Inside, you find 200gp, three scrolls and a Fighter.
Player2: Hi!
Nalampus
05-03-05, 06:05 PM Newest character to our campaign:

4) A bard who has come with new information regarding the current campaign and is there to help the party achieve a new objective which is critical to the campaigns success.
Stardust
05-03-05, 06:14 PM #3)
DM:You open a chest. Make a Search roll.
Player1: Uhh... 17
DM: Inside, you find 200gp, three scrolls and a Fighter.
Player2: Hi!

Damn that was funny... Have a cookie! :cookie:
Miles Vorkosigan
05-03-05, 06:18 PM 5. Have the mysterious or not-so-mysterious patron of the adventurers introduce the new character, saying that they might be of some help in their newest adventure.

#3)
DM:You open a chest. Make a Search roll.
Player1: Uhh... 17
DM: Inside, you find 200gp, three scrolls and a Fighter.
Player2: Hi!
:D Excellent.

-MVK
urial angel of death
05-03-05, 07:33 PM have the new character be a known criminal and he has to adventer with the party for community service
gleep
05-03-05, 11:32 PM 7) "Hey, baby, want to party?"

8) Have the party walk past Ye Ol Pet Shoppe and note the adoring gazes of hopeful puppies and kittens. Then have them walk past Ye Ol Adventuerer's Bar and note the adoring gazes of hopeful wizards, fighters, monks, and paladweebs.

9) Is one of your players fond of saying he's going to "open a can o' whupass?" If so, as soon as he says it again, point to the new guy and say "you get him!"

10) Have him be out in the woods, searching for the Lost Temple of ID10T, directions for which he has on this fancy map he bought from a shifty-looking lad in an alley.

11) More seriously, tell your players they need to cooperate in involving a new PC in the party and make them come up with the good ideas. :D

--gleep
Loren Pechtel
05-03-05, 11:50 PM #3)
DM:You open a chest. Make a Search roll.
Player1: Uhh... 17
DM: Inside, you find 200gp, three scrolls and a Fighter.
Player2: Hi!

Hey, I like the idea, at least to pull once!

The fighter is trapped in some sort of magical stasis that reduces him to a small statue. Removing the statue from the chest ends the stasis.
mcnoo
05-04-05, 01:05 AM Hey, I like the idea, at least to pull once!

The fighter is trapped in some sort of magical stasis that reduces him to a small statue. Removing the statue from the chest ends the stasis.

Take a look at decorative statue (2nd item on the list) here http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030711a
Take it from your resident fey expert, these things are fun fun fun to set on dungeon.
Mirikon
05-04-05, 01:25 AM 8) If the new player is a sneaky type (peferably ninja or rogue):
DM: The guy that has been following you the whole time steps out of the shadows. No, you didn't see him. He's just that good.

9) A portal opens in front of you, and this guy comes flying out of it, landing in a crumpled heap.

10) You see this guy running towards you, fleeing something down the hall. (Really good when the players are about to face a miniboss.
mcnoo
05-04-05, 02:00 AM One I did recently

11) The players are sat in the pub (would work with any city building I suppose) when suddenly the new player drops through the skylight right onto their table, showering them with glass. Without saying a word he rolls off the tabletop and dives under it. The pub door crashes open and a heavily armed sqaud of city guards are standing in the doorway, looking out of breath like they've been running quite a long chase. One has a pair of arrows lodged in his back and seems badly wounded.
The newcomer under the table whispers. "I know this might look bad, cover for me and I'll buy you a drink"
The Wasp
05-04-05, 03:19 AM 12) A local volunteers to be a guide to a group of adventurers from another land.

13) The new character escaped a TPK that his old party suffered. He asks the new party to help him retrieve the corpses of his friends and avenge their deaths. Once tht is accomplished he joins the party.

14. ) The new party member is unemployed, so he calls on his old schoolmate/friend/co-parishioner in the party and starts taggin along.

Speaking of the fighter in a treasure chest - I once actually did something like that in a one-shot (the rest of the aprty had been playing for years).

I played a gnomish wizard that had been turned to stone and was rescued by the party.
Big Tom
05-04-05, 03:50 AM -The Powerful Figure who commishioned what ever act the Party is doing sends a personal minion along to supervise.

-Stuck in Prison together.

-Conscripted together.

-Hire new Pc as a Minion.
Sarella Starshine
05-04-05, 05:20 AM i had someone unable to make the first session, so during the second session, i pointed to him and say 'ok hes at the bar you are all at, he recognizes 2 of you, and you all recognize him'

the party member that he didnt recognize says 'hey, i bet you dont remember me, but i been though alot' (the player was a girl but appears to be a guy though a magical ritual her mother did).

i had let him get lost following directions (half-orc wizard, i was just taking a cheep pot shot at the fact half-orcs are usually brainless).
FriendoftheDork
05-04-05, 07:31 AM This is some I have recently used:

As the PCs (monk and female halfling rogue) where trapped in some extra-dimmensional plane without any light, something landed on the halfing, groping about in the darkness. After determining her sex, he introduced himself. Of course it was another halfing.

The party comes over a bloody slaughter. Searching the bodies they find that a wizard is still alive. Since they were all trapped on the small plane they decided to work towards finding the partys killer (blue dragon) and stick together for survival. Note that the bodies were actually the previous party that suffered a near TPK!

The party is appoached by the village mayor, and he asks them to look after his girl, who wants to be an adventurer... of course the party soon realized that she was a competent bard and could stop baby-sitting!

Some I have never done myself:

Ye olde bar. The PCs sits in a tavern, having coincidentally joined the same table and talking about adventuring... in comes a mysterious man that approaches their table, asking for some help with a situation...
(I never did this but it was done to me).

The PCs are asked to escort a friend's son to be married in another town. But they need to find a nice wedding present, and when they get there the familily and bride are all stoned (ahem, petrified). (the PC was mine).
fionna
05-04-05, 09:31 AM 25) the party enters a haunted house and discovers the new PC, who fell through half-rotten floor to a locked celler and couldn't get out by himself

26) the wizards's teacher accepts a new student and asks his old student (party member) to show the new guy around the town.

27) the party asks an important NPC (in our case, a golden dragon) for some information and in exchange they are to perform a quest. The NPC gives them a guide (preferably someone s/he wants to get rid of)

28) the new PC was one ot the prisoners the party freed and as a reward for the whole group he promises to follow them and protect them.

29) the party stops the BBEG from performing a ritual that was to include sacrifice of the new PC.

30) the party's patron gives them a "temporary helping hand" who decides to stay for a longer time.

God, you can see that I've had a lot of new PCs joining the campaign - 8 newbies since we started two years ago. We run a slightly paranoic campaign, so it's usually hard to include a new PC unless the others have a good reason to believe he is "clean".
Kenohki
05-04-05, 09:44 AM During the adventure the characters encounter a powerful enemy leader. They learn that this leader has been tricked into service by evil. First they battle him, but they manage to convince him to join them. He switches sides in the battle and joins the party.
Sargon
05-04-05, 10:39 AM #3
DM:You open a chest. Make a Search roll.
Player1: Uhh... 17
DM: Inside, you find 200gp, three scrolls and a Fighter.
Player2: Hi!

No seriously I had this happen once... it was a nutty thing but Board Rider will tell you i do nutty things some times (BTW BR this was a diffrent game)

I tribe of racialy strong bear warriors had captured a halfling who prided himself in acrobatics. The Bear Warriors stuffted the little guy in a chest.<the halfing was a PC>

Days later an injitsu master cuts open the tent and properly kills the two bear warriors in the tent. Kinjo (the injitsu master) didn't know that a halfing was trapped in the chest all he heard was screaming from inside. He lifted the chest lid alittle to peek inside and the halfling rolls a 20 to jump out of the chest and land behind Kinjo. Kinjo hasn't been on this content very long he is from an oriental world and the customs here are very strange... (he belives stupid too but thats mostly my fault.)
To wrap up tthe story Kinjo makes use of quick draw and his ability as a Samuari and injistu master to Cut the new PC in half.. vertically.

it was the :censored:est thing i have ever seen
Kenohki
05-04-05, 11:43 AM Safety in Numbers: Party being attacked / hunted by a powerful enemy. While fleeing / battling they encounter someone who helps them. Perhaps this person is also fleeing enemies. Big battle ensues. Hints are dropped about how they are much stronger together.

Shared Resources: Joining fighter is really ill. Needs a cleric to heal his disease. Maybe someone has been polymophed and needs a dispel from a mage.

Hired together: Your party is hired for a task, but the employer adds in some extra muscle.
Board_Rider
05-04-05, 11:58 AM No seriously I had this happen once... it was a nutty thing but Board Rider will tell you i do nutty things some times (BTW BR this was a diffrent game)

He is indeed nutty....in now two games that I have read about.

Good times.
Noria Merfolk Mage
05-04-05, 12:02 PM 35) The PCs need transportation: The new guy is the captain of the boat.
Ryoohki
05-04-05, 05:12 PM I've found the best way to include someone and make sure the party will be willing to let this new PC join is to have the PC be a family member or an old associate/friend of one of the current party members. For example, in a campaign I'm in, we've had:

36) A Fighter type who worked together with one of the NPCs in our party for a few years on missions to kill illithid finds us to help on our current mission to go and kill illithid.
37) A sorcerer/rogue type who is an old friend of another NPC from a while back and is running from the law. As it turns out, we're also running from the law, so he stays with us for a while since we've been able to avoid them thus far. More safety in numbers.
38) A cousin of one of the PCs is kidnapped. After rescuing her, she doesn't want to return home right away or can't, so she travels with them.

If the above don't work, or your party isn't that paranoid about newcomers, you can always try:

39) Some do-gooder happens to see a problem the party is facing and isn't doing anything else right now, so decides to join. We had a monk who had been kicked out of his monestary to experience the world who had been walking around on his island. He happened to come across and some bad people trying to capture one of the PCs in the party and decided to help out.

40) A wizard/cleric type who has a lot of knowledge information that can help the party with what they're currently trying to do. We had one join us who had a lot of information to help us. Of course, the player had to leave, so the PC went evil and turned on us. He had been looking into this item we got from the illithid. Too bad it took control of him :(

Anyway, lots of ways to get new people to join. But you really have to come up with one that the party is willing to accept. If you have a paranoid party, being familiy or old friends/companions is best. Or maybe even make them the object of their current quest.

Kyle
Ibbins
05-04-05, 08:17 PM Hey, I like the idea, at least to pull once!

The fighter is trapped in some sort of magical stasis that reduces him to a small statue. Removing the statue from the chest ends the stasis.

Ah, but the beauty of it is that it need not be explained.
Player1: How'd you get stuck in that chest?
Player2: I... don't... know....

41) A Summon monster spell(cast by the party wizard) goes horribly wrong and summons up a planar traveler instead of a monster, then just leaves said traveler as is when the spell duration ends.
JabberWocky
05-04-05, 09:46 PM <DM> Make a Listen check.
<PC> 19.
<DM> doooooooooooopplllllllleeeEEEEEEERRRRR!! *CRASH!*
<PC> What in the?!
<DM> You see a gnomish artificer lying face-down in a crater where your barstool was.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
pkrerc 05-03-05, 05:26 PM	What are the best ways you can think of to introduce a character to a party? I am asking because I really stink at this. I can get a group together with a good reason at the beginning, but after that, new players usually get some half-baked "Party, you realize that this newcomer is also fighting the lich; newcomer, you realize that this party..." and it is extremely stupid. Include humorous ones if you can think of any, but I'd find some serious ones a lot more helpful.
Dragon Master Zero 05-03-05, 05:33 PM	well the originals could find the newcomer in a dungeon/forest/town place and have to save him from some creature/animal/guard
Board_Rider 05-03-05, 05:47 PM	Make them a family member or, at higher levels, make them be from some outfit that the PCs have worked with/for in the past. Additionally, whomever the PCs are working for now can send along a swordsman/magic-user to help.
TheUnknownZombie 05-03-05, 05:55 PM	#3) DM:You open a chest. Make a Search roll. Player1: Uhh... 17 DM: Inside, you find 200gp, three scrolls and a Fighter. Player2: Hi!
Nalampus 05-03-05, 06:05 PM	Newest character to our campaign: 4) A bard who has come with new information regarding the current campaign and is there to help the party achieve a new objective which is critical to the campaigns success.
Stardust 05-03-05, 06:14 PM	#3) DM:You open a chest. Make a Search roll. Player1: Uhh... 17 DM: Inside, you find 200gp, three scrolls and a Fighter. Player2: Hi! Damn that was funny... Have a cookie! :cookie:
Miles Vorkosigan 05-03-05, 06:18 PM	5. Have the mysterious or not-so-mysterious patron of the adventurers introduce the new character, saying that they might be of some help in their newest adventure. #3) DM:You open a chest. Make a Search roll. Player1: Uhh... 17 DM: Inside, you find 200gp, three scrolls and a Fighter. Player2: Hi! :D Excellent. -MVK
urial angel of death 05-03-05, 07:33 PM	have the new character be a known criminal and he has to adventer with the party for community service
gleep 05-03-05, 11:32 PM	7) "Hey, baby, want to party?" 8) Have the party walk past Ye Ol Pet Shoppe and note the adoring gazes of hopeful puppies and kittens. Then have them walk past Ye Ol Adventuerer's Bar and note the adoring gazes of hopeful wizards, fighters, monks, and paladweebs. 9) Is one of your players fond of saying he's going to "open a can o' whupass?" If so, as soon as he says it again, point to the new guy and say "you get him!" 10) Have him be out in the woods, searching for the Lost Temple of ID10T, directions for which he has on this fancy map he bought from a shifty-looking lad in an alley. 11) More seriously, tell your players they need to cooperate in involving a new PC in the party and make them come up with the good ideas. :D --gleep
Loren Pechtel 05-03-05, 11:50 PM	#3) DM:You open a chest. Make a Search roll. Player1: Uhh... 17 DM: Inside, you find 200gp, three scrolls and a Fighter. Player2: Hi! Hey, I like the idea, at least to pull once! The fighter is trapped in some sort of magical stasis that reduces him to a small statue. Removing the statue from the chest ends the stasis.
mcnoo 05-04-05, 01:05 AM	Hey, I like the idea, at least to pull once! The fighter is trapped in some sort of magical stasis that reduces him to a small statue. Removing the statue from the chest ends the stasis. Take a look at decorative statue (2nd item on the list) here http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030711a Take it from your resident fey expert, these things are fun fun fun to set on dungeon.
Mirikon 05-04-05, 01:25 AM	8) If the new player is a sneaky type (peferably ninja or rogue): DM: The guy that has been following you the whole time steps out of the shadows. No, you didn't see him. He's just that good. 9) A portal opens in front of you, and this guy comes flying out of it, landing in a crumpled heap. 10) You see this guy running towards you, fleeing something down the hall. (Really good when the players are about to face a miniboss.
mcnoo 05-04-05, 02:00 AM	One I did recently 11) The players are sat in the pub (would work with any city building I suppose) when suddenly the new player drops through the skylight right onto their table, showering them with glass. Without saying a word he rolls off the tabletop and dives under it. The pub door crashes open and a heavily armed sqaud of city guards are standing in the doorway, looking out of breath like they've been running quite a long chase. One has a pair of arrows lodged in his back and seems badly wounded. The newcomer under the table whispers. "I know this might look bad, cover for me and I'll buy you a drink"
The Wasp 05-04-05, 03:19 AM	12) A local volunteers to be a guide to a group of adventurers from another land. 13) The new character escaped a TPK that his old party suffered. He asks the new party to help him retrieve the corpses of his friends and avenge their deaths. Once tht is accomplished he joins the party. 14. ) The new party member is unemployed, so he calls on his old schoolmate/friend/co-parishioner in the party and starts taggin along. Speaking of the fighter in a treasure chest - I once actually did something like that in a one-shot (the rest of the aprty had been playing for years). I played a gnomish wizard that had been turned to stone and was rescued by the party.
Big Tom 05-04-05, 03:50 AM	-The Powerful Figure who commishioned what ever act the Party is doing sends a personal minion along to supervise. -Stuck in Prison together. -Conscripted together. -Hire new Pc as a Minion.
Sarella Starshine 05-04-05, 05:20 AM	i had someone unable to make the first session, so during the second session, i pointed to him and say 'ok hes at the bar you are all at, he recognizes 2 of you, and you all recognize him' the party member that he didnt recognize says 'hey, i bet you dont remember me, but i been though alot' (the player was a girl but appears to be a guy though a magical ritual her mother did). i had let him get lost following directions (half-orc wizard, i was just taking a cheep pot shot at the fact half-orcs are usually brainless).
FriendoftheDork 05-04-05, 07:31 AM	This is some I have recently used: As the PCs (monk and female halfling rogue) where trapped in some extra-dimmensional plane without any light, something landed on the halfing, groping about in the darkness. After determining her sex, he introduced himself. Of course it was another halfing. The party comes over a bloody slaughter. Searching the bodies they find that a wizard is still alive. Since they were all trapped on the small plane they decided to work towards finding the partys killer (blue dragon) and stick together for survival. Note that the bodies were actually the previous party that suffered a near TPK! The party is appoached by the village mayor, and he asks them to look after his girl, who wants to be an adventurer... of course the party soon realized that she was a competent bard and could stop baby-sitting! Some I have never done myself: Ye olde bar. The PCs sits in a tavern, having coincidentally joined the same table and talking about adventuring... in comes a mysterious man that approaches their table, asking for some help with a situation... (I never did this but it was done to me). The PCs are asked to escort a friend's son to be married in another town. But they need to find a nice wedding present, and when they get there the familily and bride are all stoned (ahem, petrified). (the PC was mine).
fionna 05-04-05, 09:31 AM	25) the party enters a haunted house and discovers the new PC, who fell through half-rotten floor to a locked celler and couldn't get out by himself 26) the wizards's teacher accepts a new student and asks his old student (party member) to show the new guy around the town. 27) the party asks an important NPC (in our case, a golden dragon) for some information and in exchange they are to perform a quest. The NPC gives them a guide (preferably someone s/he wants to get rid of) 28) the new PC was one ot the prisoners the party freed and as a reward for the whole group he promises to follow them and protect them. 29) the party stops the BBEG from performing a ritual that was to include sacrifice of the new PC. 30) the party's patron gives them a "temporary helping hand" who decides to stay for a longer time. God, you can see that I've had a lot of new PCs joining the campaign - 8 newbies since we started two years ago. We run a slightly paranoic campaign, so it's usually hard to include a new PC unless the others have a good reason to believe he is "clean".
Kenohki 05-04-05, 09:44 AM	During the adventure the characters encounter a powerful enemy leader. They learn that this leader has been tricked into service by evil. First they battle him, but they manage to convince him to join them. He switches sides in the battle and joins the party.
Sargon 05-04-05, 10:39 AM	#3 DM:You open a chest. Make a Search roll. Player1: Uhh... 17 DM: Inside, you find 200gp, three scrolls and a Fighter. Player2: Hi! No seriously I had this happen once... it was a nutty thing but Board Rider will tell you i do nutty things some times (BTW BR this was a diffrent game) I tribe of racialy strong bear warriors had captured a halfling who prided himself in acrobatics. The Bear Warriors stuffted the little guy in a chest.<the halfing was a PC> Days later an injitsu master cuts open the tent and properly kills the two bear warriors in the tent. Kinjo (the injitsu master) didn't know that a halfing was trapped in the chest all he heard was screaming from inside. He lifted the chest lid alittle to peek inside and the halfling rolls a 20 to jump out of the chest and land behind Kinjo. Kinjo hasn't been on this content very long he is from an oriental world and the customs here are very strange... (he belives stupid too but thats mostly my fault.) To wrap up tthe story Kinjo makes use of quick draw and his ability as a Samuari and injistu master to Cut the new PC in half.. vertically. it was the :censored:est thing i have ever seen
Kenohki 05-04-05, 11:43 AM	Safety in Numbers: Party being attacked / hunted by a powerful enemy. While fleeing / battling they encounter someone who helps them. Perhaps this person is also fleeing enemies. Big battle ensues. Hints are dropped about how they are much stronger together. Shared Resources: Joining fighter is really ill. Needs a cleric to heal his disease. Maybe someone has been polymophed and needs a dispel from a mage. Hired together: Your party is hired for a task, but the employer adds in some extra muscle.
Board_Rider 05-04-05, 11:58 AM	No seriously I had this happen once... it was a nutty thing but Board Rider will tell you i do nutty things some times (BTW BR this was a diffrent game) He is indeed nutty....in now two games that I have read about. Good times.
Noria Merfolk Mage 05-04-05, 12:02 PM	35) The PCs need transportation: The new guy is the captain of the boat.
Ryoohki 05-04-05, 05:12 PM	I've found the best way to include someone and make sure the party will be willing to let this new PC join is to have the PC be a family member or an old associate/friend of one of the current party members. For example, in a campaign I'm in, we've had: 36) A Fighter type who worked together with one of the NPCs in our party for a few years on missions to kill illithid finds us to help on our current mission to go and kill illithid. 37) A sorcerer/rogue type who is an old friend of another NPC from a while back and is running from the law. As it turns out, we're also running from the law, so he stays with us for a while since we've been able to avoid them thus far. More safety in numbers. 38) A cousin of one of the PCs is kidnapped. After rescuing her, she doesn't want to return home right away or can't, so she travels with them. If the above don't work, or your party isn't that paranoid about newcomers, you can always try: 39) Some do-gooder happens to see a problem the party is facing and isn't doing anything else right now, so decides to join. We had a monk who had been kicked out of his monestary to experience the world who had been walking around on his island. He happened to come across and some bad people trying to capture one of the PCs in the party and decided to help out. 40) A wizard/cleric type who has a lot of knowledge information that can help the party with what they're currently trying to do. We had one join us who had a lot of information to help us. Of course, the player had to leave, so the PC went evil and turned on us. He had been looking into this item we got from the illithid. Too bad it took control of him :( Anyway, lots of ways to get new people to join. But you really have to come up with one that the party is willing to accept. If you have a paranoid party, being familiy or old friends/companions is best. Or maybe even make them the object of their current quest. Kyle
Ibbins 05-04-05, 08:17 PM	Hey, I like the idea, at least to pull once! The fighter is trapped in some sort of magical stasis that reduces him to a small statue. Removing the statue from the chest ends the stasis. Ah, but the beauty of it is that it need not be explained. Player1: How'd you get stuck in that chest? Player2: I... don't... know.... 41) A Summon monster spell(cast by the party wizard) goes horribly wrong and summons up a planar traveler instead of a monster, then just leaves said traveler as is when the spell duration ends.
JabberWocky 05-04-05, 09:46 PM	<DM> Make a Listen check. <PC> 19. <DM> doooooooooooopplllllllleeeEEEEEEERRRRR!! CRASH! <PC> What in the?! <DM> You see a gnomish artificer lying face-down in a crater where your barstool was.