Game WISH #93
Don’t know much about history…but when has that ever stopped me?
Does joining a game with a lot of background thrill or intimidate you? What do you do to try to learn the background, or to compensate for not having it? If you GM, how do you help newcomers to a background-heavy game? What has worked for you as a player/GM, and what hasn?t?
I haven’t joined a long-running campaign as newbie in so long that I don’t know if I can even address this question. The idea is both thrilling and intimidating, I must admit. My feeling is that the situation requires an exceptionally competent GM and an exceptionally competent player. The GM has to avoid the appearance of deus ex machina (unless, of course, it would enhance the plot) while the player has to accept the fact that she’s always going to be on the outside of most of the in-jokes and such, especially at the beginning.
Like Ginger, I love the smell of a long-running story. Lots and lots of yummy plotline goodness. However, I have a huge amount of sympathy for anyone who has to walk into the group as the new person. My Thursday-night group recently brought on board a couple of new players. They’re both experienced gamers, and a fun couple of guys as well, but they’re new to the way my long-established group does things. We’ve got twelve years (or more) of jokes, gossip, and dirt on each other. A couple of us have known the “new guys” socially for some time, but not everyone in the group does. None of us have deliberately tried to be exclusive–quite the opposite–and as far as I can tell, our new guys fit right in…but they’re still the new guys. Stories are always changing and progressing, but when new people join (or established players leave) the players’ interpersonal dynamic changes. In my limited experience, it’s been for the good, so far.
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