[RPG] How to introduce a new PC into the party after character death

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In the D&D 4e campaign that I am running, there has recently been lots of character death. The death itself is not the problem, because the players seem perfectly fine generating new characters (I give new PCs the same level and same amount of XP as the existing party). The problem that I encounter comes from introducing those new PCs naturally into the story. It often feels hamfisted ("And you happen to encounter this fantastic elf on the way through the dungeon, and yes, she will join you on your quest!"). I could wait until a natural time, but that would force the player with the dead character to sit around longer than necessary.

To add some more details, this is not a super plot-driven campaign. The characters do have different motivations/approaches to conflict, but there are not necessarily long, detailed character backstories. When I introduced a new character most recently, the characters happened to be going to a tavern, which is, of course, always a good place to meet new adventurers. But it is still awkward, because the characters do not necessarily have a good motive for joining the party, other than the player wanting to get back in the fun.

How can I introduce a new PC after character death in a way that makes the death meaningful, rather than just, "you died but you magically and immediately reappear as a different character"?

Best Answer

Don't

I would suggest to you to just accept the new character without a lot of fuss. The dead character is not really related story-wise to the new character (except in special cases). The thing that connects them is that they are played by the same player, a metagaming connection, not an in-game one.

Therefore, I feel that making a player jump through hoops so he can continue to have fun with his friends does not seem to be the optimal way to increase enjoyment for everyone.

A bit of background

In the past, I put too much time and work into making new characters fit into the story

My campaigns are usually quite deadly, so people dying is a regular occurrence. When I started out as a DM, I put quite a bit of time into this, making sure each characters backstory is deeply integrated into the campaign plot, etc. These days, I rather look forward than back:

I stopped doing that. New characters just join the party. Why?

The basic issue is:

What do you want to spend your time on?

I have found that, at least in my group, it's more fun for everyone to just continue playing and letting the character grow into the campaign more naturally. Instead of preparing and investing lots of time into the backstory, I'd rather invest the same time into hooks and options for the new character to be fleshed out in play, to do the integration at the table.

The final point:

The meaningfulness of the character death lies in the story, in-game

You are free to flesh this out as you want. But it's not related to the new character at all. And some character deaths are meaningless. A fluke, a series of mistakes, whatever. Not every death can be a heroic sacrifice to save the world.

Since the connection between the death of the old character and the appearance of the new character is a metagaming one, I think that the new character does not and cannot really affect the meaningfulness of the death.

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