Adding a new player, even for one session, really changes play. Anyone who has been in that situation knows this to be true, but we had a super positive experience (in my opinion) with having an added player this week. Out of two new players we've onboarded during the course of the game, there have been two different but positive results, so I'm encouraged to write about that.
First, I think that players should play characters that interest them. Each of our added players were very experienced with D&D and generally with RPGs. They created characters that they wanted to play. For the first, it gave us a few challenges and rewrites. We started with 'no lady dwarf beards' and ended with 'some lady dwarf beards', which was a lot of fun.
For the second, the player asked about the party and actively made a character (that she wanted to play) that she felt fit what the party needed for balance. I appreciated this because it was a clear signal that the player wanted to be useful and support the party. She then proceeded to come up with the features like race, class and background that she wanted. We interacted a bit about backstory and were ready to go.
When we got into play, the player was actively interested in participating with the party. We've been really lucky that with both of our added players they are interested in getting involved right away, fun roleplayers and knowledgeable about the game. Those are all things that make things much easier. It isn't the case with every game and every player that comes into an established game, so I'm thankful.
New player meant a new class. This was our first party experience with an arcane spellcaster and there was some new prep needed. As a DM I saw the character sheet the night before and took the opportunity to add a few additional bad guys and scale things up based on adding a player. I also wanted to make sure that there would be some chances for area effect attacks since that was new to the party.
Spoiler: ranged combat needs to be more of a thing for us. Our initial party included a monk, a barbarian, a ranged fighter and a cleric. The typical fight was 2 ranged attackers and 2 melee attackers. With that, I focused on melee combat with monsters or a mix of 50/50 ranged and melee. Some of the most frustrating fights for the party have included flying combatants and status effects like blindness or darkness.. This week's party was a monk, a ranged fighter, a cleric and a sorcerer. I feel a lot more ranged combat, cover and quick-moving monsters coming on. Status effects can expand to include silence.
Final game note: big bads. We had a major fight with a minor villain in this session. When I say minor villain I mean someone without a long-term story effect, but still a powerful creature. The party did great, handled the fight and got what they wanted (I think) but my bad guy design had a lot of questions floating around at the break. I think this is natural when most of your game group are also DMs and know the rules well. I had an upgraded Green Hag as the big bad, giving her Sorcerer class levels to supplement her race features. She also had some supplemented abilities that reflected a dark pact made with Veyla, the mistress of the realm the party is traveling in. This was an upgrade to her racial Invisible Passage feature that allowed her to use Greater Invisibility once. I found DnD Beyond to be really helpful during this encounter. The ability to see status effects on a 'hover' was really a time saver!
First, I think that players should play characters that interest them. Each of our added players were very experienced with D&D and generally with RPGs. They created characters that they wanted to play. For the first, it gave us a few challenges and rewrites. We started with 'no lady dwarf beards' and ended with 'some lady dwarf beards', which was a lot of fun.
For the second, the player asked about the party and actively made a character (that she wanted to play) that she felt fit what the party needed for balance. I appreciated this because it was a clear signal that the player wanted to be useful and support the party. She then proceeded to come up with the features like race, class and background that she wanted. We interacted a bit about backstory and were ready to go.
When we got into play, the player was actively interested in participating with the party. We've been really lucky that with both of our added players they are interested in getting involved right away, fun roleplayers and knowledgeable about the game. Those are all things that make things much easier. It isn't the case with every game and every player that comes into an established game, so I'm thankful.
New player meant a new class. This was our first party experience with an arcane spellcaster and there was some new prep needed. As a DM I saw the character sheet the night before and took the opportunity to add a few additional bad guys and scale things up based on adding a player. I also wanted to make sure that there would be some chances for area effect attacks since that was new to the party.
Spoiler: ranged combat needs to be more of a thing for us. Our initial party included a monk, a barbarian, a ranged fighter and a cleric. The typical fight was 2 ranged attackers and 2 melee attackers. With that, I focused on melee combat with monsters or a mix of 50/50 ranged and melee. Some of the most frustrating fights for the party have included flying combatants and status effects like blindness or darkness.. This week's party was a monk, a ranged fighter, a cleric and a sorcerer. I feel a lot more ranged combat, cover and quick-moving monsters coming on. Status effects can expand to include silence.
Final game note: big bads. We had a major fight with a minor villain in this session. When I say minor villain I mean someone without a long-term story effect, but still a powerful creature. The party did great, handled the fight and got what they wanted (I think) but my bad guy design had a lot of questions floating around at the break. I think this is natural when most of your game group are also DMs and know the rules well. I had an upgraded Green Hag as the big bad, giving her Sorcerer class levels to supplement her race features. She also had some supplemented abilities that reflected a dark pact made with Veyla, the mistress of the realm the party is traveling in. This was an upgrade to her racial Invisible Passage feature that allowed her to use Greater Invisibility once. I found DnD Beyond to be really helpful during this encounter. The ability to see status effects on a 'hover' was really a time saver!
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