This article is part of a series where I give you three tips for your D&D game that you can read in three minutes or less. In this piece, I’ll give you three ideas for how to integrate a new player into your existing D&D group.
#1: The first method is a classic, and it works no matter where the current party is exploring, whether it’s in the wilderness or nine levels deep inside a mega-dungeon. You have the party come upon the new character who is held captive. The premise is they were out exploring solo and got captured by the monsters and the party finds them and hopefully releases them.
They might be tied to a tree out in the wilderness, or held in a cell or cage inside a dungeon. The party rescues them, and bob’s your uncle.
#2: The second idea takes place during combat. The party begins a fight against some monsters, then they notice an arrow fly into the beasts from the opposite side of the combat area, or maybe it’s a spell. This goes on for a round or two before they discover another adventurer happens to be there too. Perhaps they got cornered, or were fighting the monsters when the party arrived, effectively saving them from perishing against really bad odds.
The premise for why the lone adventurer was there is typically they set out on their own looking for something in the dungeon or wilderness area, or they were part of another group that got wiped out, leaving them as the sole survivor.
#3: This third idea is all about looking at the new character’s backstory and mining it for inspiration. Actually discuss your ideas with the player off-line and figure out your introduction before their first session with the established group. This takes a bit more thought, but it works really well because it makes the player feel even more invested in their character, and makes the other players more invested and interested as well. If the newbie’s character was formerly a soldier, you can say they were a deserter. Maybe they grew up as a spoiled child of rich merchants or royalty and wanted to rebel, so they sought out the local adventuring group with a growing reputation.
