PC Introductions

[Urbek]

What are some of the unique ways DMs have introduced PC's into a game?

[Pharaoh's Fist]

"I notice that your party lacks a mage. May I join?"

"You seem like a trustworthy fellow. You are welcome to come with us in our quest."

[Yukitsu]

"I notice that your party lacks a mage. May I join?"

"You seem like a trustworthy fellow. You are welcome to come with us in our quest."

I see your group watches the internet.

Half the time a player in my group makes a new character, they're some treacherous weasel that's trying to kill the rest of the party for "backstory" purposes, so some of the more novel introductions involved us killing off their character within the first few minutes, simply because most of our group isn't subtle.

One time, a player introduced a general style character, who demanded we turn in our followers to his army, so the party (an artificer and my warlock) opened up and nuked him, along with 150 magic missiles from our combined followers.

Another time, a players tried to convince some sea trolls into attacking the party. I wound up knocking him down to 0 charisma, and strung him up over a vat of oil with a lit torch tied around his face while asking why he was trying to kill us. Since he didn't actually have a legit backstory reason, that character died.

An interesting one that didn't involve immediate PVP and death (sort of) was my paladin rogue's (insert 6 other classes here) introduction. The party encountered a shiny noble type person fiddling with a trap, when they called out to him. Surprised by the sudden intrusion, he fumbled his trap checking, and was burned, melted by acid, frozen then crushed. At that point, he dimension doored out of hiding, and put his arm around the party leader's shoulder, and complained that that had been a "bloody waste. I'd nearly done that trap." My character had trickery devotion, and thus was disabling the trap via his simulacrum. The real him was hiding behind some rocks, so as to avoid the traps.

[drengnikrafe]

"You see a shadowy figure step out from behind a bush..."
"I FIREBALL IT!!!"
"What? No! You can't do that! She was your new party member!"
"Then don't make her sound like a random encounter!!"
"Fine. You see a shadowy figure POLITELY, AND NONTHREATENINGLY step out from behind a bush. In one hand is a shining dagger, in the other, a lute."
"A lute.... She's a bard.... I FIREBALL IT!"

But all goofing off aside, I once had my PCs rescue their new party member from a prison. The theme of the prison was it was a 20x20 room with lots and lots of illusions to make it seem like a cavern of infinite length, and ways to prevent the PCs from moving, and all sorts of other weird things like that. And the trapped new PC was on the other side of a locked door, staring out at them, laughing hysterically. They couldn't hear him, of course, but...

[Optimystik]

"There are some who call me... Tim?"

[Guinea Anubis]

"Hi, I'm here about the help wanted add"

[Rhiannon87]

Seeing as our party is currently employed by a government, we get ordered to take on new party members.

"This is Gwyrn, a half-orc barbarian who has been serving as an ambassador from his tribe. He will be going with you."
"Why?"
"Because I am your sovereign lord and I said so. Now shoo."

[Urbek]

"I notice that your party lacks a mage. May I join?"

"You seem like a trustworthy fellow. You are welcome to come with us in our quest."

My last group used this one all too much.

A DM from many groups ago, had us each in a one on one session where we were from a kingdom that was being attacked by a large army, so every able bodied male was conscripted into the service of the kindgom, unless of course they had the appropriate waiver, ie. student of academia. We were each involved in a one off roleplaying/combat session specific to each PC, then ended up in a convoy as a new recruit to our post. Once all the PC's were assigned to the convoy, we had our first group session. We weren't allowed to describe our character, but the DM would describe several members of the convoy to include the other PC's. As each of us took turns chatting up with our neighbors in the wagon, if we happened to talk to one belonging to a member of the group, it would initiate the roleplaying to "band together". After the first stop for the night, our group was sent on a mission by the convoy leader. Upon our return, we deiscovered that convoy had been attacked and everyone was killed. Thus began our adventure.

[IvanGS]

In an evil campaign our DM was running a while back. We were all held up in a prison, but the city we were in was under siege by Naga. Eventually, we teamed up to avoid the raiding parties and wardens as we made our escape on a stolen airship.

...and then we actually introduced ourselves.

[oxybe]

"why yes, i am a doppelganger, need a rogue?"

this is effectively how one pc introduced himself in our current 4th ed FR game. after he stole the tip jar in the bar we had just been in. while making threats to the patrons. then trailing us. into the dark and scary woods.

it didn't go over too well with that PC.

[dsmiles]

Seeing as our party is currently employed by a government, we get ordered to take on new party members.

"This is Gwyrn, a half-orc barbarian who has been serving as an ambassador from his tribe. He will be going with you."
"Why?"
"Because I am your sovereign lord and I said so. Now shoo."

This has also happened in my groups. But if the party is all starting at the same time, my players tend to sit down ahead of time and write each other into their backstories. It makes life so convieninent for me as a DM. It allows me to get almost all of them on the same plot hook.

Introducing a character later in the campaign usually works out this way:

New Character: "Hello, I'm, (insert name here), a wandering (insert race here) (insert vague class description here). I seem to be a little down on my luck, at the moment. Do you think you can find it in your hearts to hire me?"
Old Character: "Ummmmm...maybe...."
New character rebuts with abilities, etc.
Old character usually says yes, etc.

[Dienekes]

"I notice that your party lacks a mage. May I join?"

"You seem like a trustworthy fellow. You are welcome to come with us in our quest."

You see I always tried to avoid that by giving my player's actual converging storylines. It takes a bit longer to get started (a lot longer) but my group tells me they think it adds more depth to their characters.

Personally I'd just as well have them all appear in the plot-dungeon-encounter together randomly.

[Giegue]

A fun one I did was to have a new PC in a game that WAS single player until we got somebody else into it was to have the new PC save the original one from death at the hands of a BBEG. It was interesting, to say the least. Introducing the PC right into the thick of things can be many times rewarding and interesting. Imagine the party is fighting a dragon and they have done a lot of dammage to it but their fighter is about to drop and their cleric is all out of heals. All of the sudden out of nowhere comes an Isac's greater missile storm, finishing off the dragon and saving the fighter. Vola, new party member introduced.

In an evil game, this is harder to do, since an evil PC would not go out of their way to save the party. For evil games, you can have the smooth manipulator type who wesals his/her way into the party. Or if it's a low int low charisma type, just have them offer their services, after all, everybody loves to have a meat she.....err tank for the team.

[dsmiles]

I've also used the following cheap introduction:

"You wake up in a barn. There are several other prople around you. (Describe other characters.) The only thing you can remember is a bright flash of white light." (Ready...GO!)

[Choco]

A fun one I did was to have a new PC in a game that WAS single player until we got somebody else into it was to have the new PC save the original one from death at the hands of a BBEG. It was interesting, to say the least. Introducing the PC right into the thick of things can be many times rewarding and interesting. Imagine the party is fighting a dragon and they have done a lot of dammage to it but their fighter is about to drop and their cleric is all out of heals. All of the sudden out of nowhere comes an Isac's greater missile storm, finishing off the dragon and saving the fighter. Vola, new party member introduced.

Thats how my most recent character that I played got introduced. The fight between the PC's and a huge demon of some sort was taking place just a little bit off the road that we decided my char was travelling down, so after some short interrogation after the fight the party has a new member! Plus it helped that I wrote into his backstory that he happens to be on the same quest as the other PC's.

In an evil game, this is harder to do, since an evil PC would not go out of their way to save the party. For evil games, you can have the smooth manipulator type who wesals his/her way into the party. Or if it's a low int low charisma type, just have them offer their services, after all, everybody loves to have a meat she.....err tank for the team.

Not always. All you need to get 2 evil people who hate eachother to work together is a common enemy they both hate/fear more than eachother.

[Nehh]

One of my favorite games was a few months ago when the new Ranger//Rogue PC quite literally dropped in on us as we were climbing down a cliff. Our recurring villain who was chasing us (he was about 8 levels higher than any of us, so we ended up legging it away from his mountain hideout) threatens to drop some other hostages on us from the top of the cliff unless we surrender to him. We refuse, and he drops this guy off a cliff. I just casted Feather Fall on him when he got close enough. Simple.

[Temet Nosce]

Heh, my favorite was back in an evil game where my character had her own dungeon and a propensity for sexually twisting and tormenting major NPCs. Well, a new player joined the game while my character was busy (was burning the head of an order of Paladin's family alive by sending them a "gift" of distilled alcohol with an explosive rune concealed inside then dispelling it from far off), and the new guy decided to get uppity and righteous with the other two party members. So, they tossed him in my dungeon and neglected to tell my character he was sent there to assist her, and instead told her that they'd left her a new toy...

After that the DM stopped trying to recruit more players.

[Rhiannon87]

This has also happened in my groups. But if the party is all starting at the same time, my players tend to sit down ahead of time and write each other into their backstories. It makes life so convieninent for me as a DM. It allows me to get almost all of them on the same plot hook.

It's an unofficial rule when we're starting new campaigns that your character should probably know at least one other member of the party. Makes roleplay that much easier (especially in a large-ish group like ours).

One of our players is planning on starting a new campaign in a few weeks... my character is going to have been kidnapped before the game starts, and rescuing me is the plot hook for most people. One person is playing my character's best friend, and another is playing the private investigator hired to find me. (No one else has come up with character ideas yet. All I know is we probably won't have an arcane caster or a cleric. Sob.)

[Hzurr]

In my current 4E game, at level 1 one of the PCs (who was playing d&d for the first time) randomly sketched a family tree onto his character sheet. And thus the Rex family was born; and has taken control of our entire campaign.

After the first leg of the campaign was finished, 5/7 PCs decided to try a new character (3 because of death, two from just wanting to experiment); and we ended up with a Rex family brother, the family adviser (a cleric), a paladin of the cleric's order who was asked by the church to accompany him, another brother, and the drow warlock that the 2nd brother was doing part-time work for.

Since then, we've had the house wizard, the house scout, the house alchemist, and two mercenaries that the Rex family has hired join the party at some point or another; as well as a cousin.

There have been a few others that have joined the party that haven't been part of the Rex family (currently, we have a Warforged that the party found and repaired who is up to all sorts of amusing Hijinx); but family connections have made bringing in new party members very easy.

[pffh]

In my current 4E game, at level 1 one of the PCs (who was playing d&d for the first time) randomly sketched a family tree onto his character sheet. And thus the Rex family was born; and has taken control of our entire campaign.

After the first leg of the campaign was finished, 5/7 PCs decided to try a new character (3 because of death, two from just wanting to experiment); and we ended up with a Rex family brother, the family adviser (a cleric), a paladin of the cleric's order who was asked by the church to accompany him, another brother, and the drow warlock that the 2nd brother was doing part-time work for.

Since then, we've had the house wizard, the house scout, the house alchemist, and two mercenaries that the Rex family has hired join the party at some point or another; as well as a cousin.

There have been a few others that have joined the party that haven't been part of the Rex family (currently, we have a Warforged that the party found and repaired who is up to all sorts of amusing Hijinx); but family connections have made bringing in new party members very easy.

Please tell me someone had a character called Thomas (or any other name that starts with t) that introduced himself as Mr T. Rex.

[Tyndmyr]

As a barbarian, I introduced myself to the party wearing nothing but a loincloth, a greatsword, and a sign that said "Will work for fud".

Why wait for the DM to come up with something?

[Hzurr]

Please tell me someone had a character called Thomas (or any other name that starts with t) that introduced himself as Mr T. Rex.

Actually, the rule with members of the Rex family has been that names have to end with the "-ous," sound and vaguely relate to what they do (again, this was all invited by a guy who was playing d&d for the first time, and later other PCs decided to play some of the siblings that he had already named)

So far we've had
Murderous Rex (Fighter)
Tyrannous Rex (Cleric)
Furious Rex (Barbarian)
Torturous Rex (Ranger)

who are the sons of
Tacitus Rex (NPC)

and cousin of
Tzartorious Rex (Sorcerer)

As well as the bastard son
Oedipus Rex (NPC villain - and yes, he did murder the father (but no, nothing happened with the mother))

there are also rumors of a sister called "Sensuous Rex"

I admit that it's cheesy, but we've gotten so much mileage out of the Rex family in our campaign. The longest running PC is the former Rex house wizard named Berry; whose adventures with the Rex brothers have caused him an addiction to anti-depressants and a standing appointment with a psychiatrist.

[starwoof]

I played in an oriental adventures game a while back where every single party member was introduced with combat. The main one that comes to mind was my monk running from the lord's guards when he gets yanked into an upper story window by the ninja. We exchanged blows while we introduced ourselves, then I got him into a headlock and he called for a truce.

[Temotei]

"There are some who call me... Tim?"

I hope that's your real name, and not just a reference to Monty Python. You know...OpTIMystik. Temotei is Japanese by the way.

[Mahtobedis]

Every time a new party member has been introduced to party I am already in they always pick a rogue of ninja, and then try to steal my stuff. This naturally means that I eventually just kill their character and they accuse me of meta gaming. In my defense I play a dread necromancer or an archivist who is heavily tainted, not the characters you want to mess with.

Now days I just put all of my stuff in an adamantine chest that has 5 DC 40 locks and several permanent arcane locks.

Of course the new players still usually find some way to tick off the party in the first ten minutes and get stomped into the ground on their first attempt to join.

[DabblerWizard]

"You see a shadowy figure step out from behind a bush..."
"I FIREBALL IT!!!"
"What? No! You can't do that! She was your new party member!"
"Then don't make her sound like a random encounter!!"
"Fine. You see a shadowy figure POLITELY, AND NONTHREATENINGLY step out from behind a bush. In one hand is a shining dagger, in the other, a lute."
"A lute.... She's a bard.... I FIREBALL IT!"

^^ This made me laugh.

This is an adventure where I wasn't the one DMing. 4e.

Two of the players decide that they want to kill a key plot-centered npc. This would have caused various issues in-game, and the other two players (not including me) were not fond of this turn of events. Personally (meta-game wise) I found that move hilarious. Anyway, the DM was having none of it. Instead of playing along, he ended up putting their two characters in jail when the police caught them in a lie. Then he tells them to roll up new characters. Admittedly this did get them to roll up characters that were less chaotic stupid.

We, the three original players, including myself, are now in a new city. We (the characters) are feeling vulnerable because the BBEG got away and threatened us with his even more powerful master.

We ended up casually looking around the bar for people that seemed as though they'd be able to help us in our quest. It just so happens that the people we found most interesting were being acted out by our two previously characterless players.

Such meta-gaming is necessary.

[Fayd]

My first (and current...and only) campaign started with the standard "Party meets in a Tavern" bit that we really brought upon ourselves

Our Orc Barbarian, named Fluffy, introduced himself by throwing a local guard through the window into my stew. Our Assassin was then nearly captured for "protection" (she's got a 20 CHA...you can bet what the guards were thinking) but before the guard could make a move, he was punched, nearly knifed, and then split in half by Fluffy.

We decided to leave. Quickly.

[Lioness]

We've had quite a few new characters need to be introduced. Most have been sole survivors of attacks, and such.

New wizard (me!): We (they) found her and her shipwrecked vessel on a rocky outcrop. She was shivering inside the captains cabin, hoping that her food wouldn't run out before help came.

Duskblade: We found a city that had just been burnt and ransacked, etc.. We explored the castle/fortress thing, and he was hiding in one of the rooms, ready to kill intruders. Naturally, we didn't trust him for a bit.

(Though I must say they didn't trust my wizard for a bit. +12 to sail and crashed her boat? Don't make us laugh)

New Paladin (We found him last session!): We're currently in a stage where we're fortifying a city in preparation for 50 pirate ships attacking it...
...Anyway...
We went to one of the local tribes for help (Olman), and they sent him along, as well as many many random soldiers and some convenient magic items (noms)

Our DM is pretty good with introducing new characters, and stuff like that.

[Urbek]

My first (and current...and only) campaign started with the standard "Party meets in a Tavern" bit that we really brought upon ourselves

Our Orc Barbarian, named Fluffy, introduced himself by throwing a local guard through the window into my stew. Our Assassin was then nearly captured for "protection" (she's got a 20 CHA...you can bet what the guards were thinking) but before the guard could make a move, he was punched, nearly knifed, and then split in half by Fluffy.

We decided to leave. Quickly.

Well, that is a change of pace for "meeting in a tavern". I like it.

I just recalled a way a characted of mine was introduced from my last campaign:
I was in an group playing evil dwarves with a female drow wizard. I had just joined the group and had been out of gaming for quite a while. Well, after a few sessions, we had a bit of a turnover in PC's and the one I rolled up was not quite what I had expected so I talked the the DM about a new PC and he was cool with it. Being that the party was't being "evil" enough in their ways, we decided to come up with a plan to get wild and crazy. So I rolled up a new character and let the DM come up with the debut scene. The cleric in the party started seeing visions. He was told that the one that would lead them to infamy is being held captive nearby and needed to be rescued. This led them to a cavern system that was previously occupied by a kobold clan. What they found was my PC and a couple of demons having an exchange of words. The BBEG demon saw the party and pointed to my "old" PC and said "I want THAT one. He looks tasty!" All of the party members took a step back and looked at each other and watched in horror as my "old" PC was ripped to shreds and devoured right in front of them. The demons then laughed, danced, made merry then disappeared. Then my new PC made his debut. The guys at the table were unaware of the situation until after the session was over. It was a beautiful thing to watch.