On the "supporting character" as a new player option

General
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I have sometimes said that one of the best ways for a new player to get into the game is through interaction and association with an existing, veteran* player.

And I contend that while “hey just come along and hang at our camp” can and does work fine for some, a little more integration can be more fun.

(It is how I jumped deep into fest larp: my friend was playing an IC ambassador, and I entered play as her scribe. Position, duty, structure and an “in” to the ongoing stories….)

This can be as simple as “be my distant cousin I’m bringing to Anvil for the first time” to perhaps “You be my apprentice and I’ll show you how this bit of the game, artisan say, works.”

This provides a good bit of reason and structure to the new players first event, but it does need a bit of discussion. You don’t want to dump “I must look after this newbie” on someone who can’t cope, as much as you don’t want to dump “follow X around and listen carefully” on a newbie happy to explore on their own.

For those looking to jump into bigger games (Senate, Conclave, Bourse…) from the outset, advice sometimes suggested is to find someone with a “hat”** and ask what they can do to help. Of course, this has the same problems as above.

To use one example, the “ambassadors assistant” may be an extra headache than a painkiller :stuck_out_tongue: In this case, perhaps, shadowing someone might be the simplest. “Can I follow you around and see how you play, and maybe help if needed”, can be instructive and useful, from the simple (aargh, can you get me a drink, I can’t leave this) to the contributive (“that guy, in the hat, can you carry this message to him, quick!”) beyond the occasional rubber ducking***.

Basically, tying the new character to the old character on arrival CAN be useful and fun, can be done to various degrees, but takes a bit of thought and OOC communication if it’s going to work.

Any thoughts? Examples where this has worked, or has not?

(many of these ideas and caveats courtesy of my wife)

*which can, of course, be only one more event than the newbie :slight_smile:
**position of IC authority and responsibility
*** explaining a complex situation to a mute observer to better articulate and understand it.

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My first character was built in the phrase “I want a group to join me, you want to be my pocket healer?”

Needless to say. character was created, COVID happened, my character hit play at a player event without the friend who wanted the pocket healer for combat…and when it eventually came to E1 2022, I had a completely different network of characters Tiresias knew and the basic understanding that I was faster than the person who went “yeah, come on into my group as a healer". (Which meant, I fought in a different maniple to them and was better suited for first response as a physick)

HOWEVER

The IC group that was built from the original trip of “Let’s build a standard three character support build set” has outlasted the initial tie in of “characters grew up in same spire.”

Now, my current character came in accidentally tied to the former Strategos for Navarr (as the initial IC letter exchange was a combo of grief counselling and gently smacking them behind the head re: making a choice on Nation swap) and the Summer Archmage (turns out they’re a very draughir-changeling, which threw my character)….but that was because we’d all talked around us all still wanting to play opposite each other, despite my first character becoming a pile of dust and floating off into the Labyrinth

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