Interesting ways to introduce new players to the party.

[Sanackranib]

I have a new player bringing a character into my gaming groupe. I have planed a funny way to introduce him to the party. Its a little encounter I like to call the Owlbear incedent. It goes like this:
The party is in the process of breaking camp when a half naked guy runs right through the middle of their camp, He is being hotly prosued by an Owlbear. So the party can attack, run away (the adverage party level is 1.5) or watch in bewilderment.
now my party has 2 characters with d10 weapons, 2 arcane spellcasters, and a ranger/rogue who wields 2 kukri dagers (hobbit) + the new guy who will only have his melee weapon. He is the new priest so they will want to travel with him. An old DM of mine ran this encounter years ago and it was good not only a lot of laughs but also XP.

What are some of the "classic" incounters you guys have run?

 

[Nightfall]

Well I haven't got anything THAT interesting just yet...but who knows? I still have one player left...

 

[Balgus]

I introduced a player bathing in a pond once. It was a 6'4" orc barbarian... She got upset at them peekin at her and charged at them naked. not a pretty site...

 

[hammymchamham]

one of my charecters (a deep gnome) was introduced as he was breaking out of a Drow prison. I thought that was pretty interesting. (As well with how the deep gnome reacted to the 'pink skinned' drow)

 

[Drakmar]

my half-orc archer was introduced into a game when he was hunting a boar. The party was trundeling along in their wagon and the boar ran in front of them. I was a few seconds behind the boar. But I tripped in front of the wagon.. Oddly enough the whole party thought my dude was a threat and all drew weapons and gave me the third degree.

At axe point the conversation went something like this.

"Who are you?"
"um, Lars"
"What are you doing here"
"um... hunting"

"Hunting WHAT???"
"um.. that boar"
"O."
"um... can I go now?"

 

[Saracen]

It's been a long time since I DMed, but I like to introduce characters by putting on the opposite sides of the same issue.

My favorite example of this was when a the party was hired to protect a merchant and his caravan. The merchant had a magic ring that, unknown to him, had been stolen and sold to him by a thief.

The new party member was also a thief and was hired by the original owner of the ring to retrieve it from the person who had stolen it, or whomever it had been sold to.

The new party member was successful in getting into the merchant's tent but the ring was still on the merchant's finger. The thief tried to apply oil and slip the ring off the merchant's finger but the merchant woke up and started yelling. The three party members ran in and confronted the thief.

After a brief skirmish (one of the party members was an fighter whose motto was kill first, ask questions later,) and a lengthy conversation where the thief explained the situation he eventually convinced the party and merchant he was telling the truth.

The merchant agreed, not to give the thief the ring, but to divert his caravan to the city the original owner was from and return the ring if the story was true.

Since it was true, the ring was returned, the thief joined the party and even the merchant was happy because, as it turned out, the original owner was a master weaponsmith and the encounter added a new client to the merchant's list.

 

[Zappo]

Just recently, I introduced a new player's character to the game by killing her.

Yeah, you see, it's a Planescape game, but she knows nothing about the setting. As a matter of fact, she never played D&D before. Or any other RPG. She does read fantasy though. Unfortunately, the other campaign, set on Krynn and therefore easier to understand, is fairly high level, which means more complex rules are involved. So I had to choose between a rock and a hard place.

Since the player doesn't know a thing about the game or the setting, I figured the best thing is that the character doesn't either. So I made her start in some random prime material world, killed her in the first twenty minutes of play, and got her on the planes as a misplaced petitioner (some sort of metaphysical accident, involving a githyanki casting the wrong spell at the wrong time in the wrong place, sent her spirit to reincarnate in the wrong plane). No memories, no equipment, no place to go. She retained knowledge of skills and class levels, as well as knowledge about her god (the character's a cleric) but not how she learnt those things or where or when.

 

[beldar1215]

I have a question along the same line. I run a game at a local game store for kids and always seem to have kids want to join in the middle of a dungeon. I need to know some good ways to bring them into the game. Its hard when the group is on the lower levels of a dungeon.

Thanks
Beldar

 

[Storminator]

My son's game has them as future evil overlords. In other words, they play evil punks. So they rob a caravan and they're taking the stolen wagon back to Thay when they're stopped by the Theskan highway patrol. After much suspicious questioning and bad attitude, the leader of the patrol decides to arrest them all.

And his half-orc barbarian patrolman decides he's tired of taking orders and attacks the patrol leader. He's the new player. Of course none of the other players knew he was stepping in, tho they figured out that the patrol leader was pissing off one of his men.

So combat starts and the half orc wins init, rolls a greataxe crit, and lops the head off the patrol leader! Best entrance I ever saw.

PS

 

[arwink]

I've seen a player come flying in through the sky like a meteor, clocking one of the ogres we were fighting and running around with the majority of his clothes on fire for the next few rounds. His explanation "flaming wildmage."

One of my characters was once summoned with a summon moster spell in 2e. Considerably drunk at the time, it didn't do good things to his brain