Introducing new characters

[Darklone]

Hello, you seem greedy and prone to violence, want to go camping together for the rest of our lives?

Sigged!

 

[sniffles]

Ok, some details that'll help:

The group travels the world in a flying ship (however, countries are really separated from each other)
One group member is from 130ish years in the past, so no real friend or relative tie there
Another is a mysterious elf who has become a friend of the cleric (shadowdancer with a cleric of a sun god?)
The cleric worships the god of sun/travel/light (most likely candidate of being a friend of his)

The gnome (time-distressed person) is the most distrusting of the bunch, but they're all pretty much paranoid. We're currently traveling to the Island of Time in order to see if it's possible for the gnome to go back to his own time (also, a previous character went missing and they have evidence that he went back in time and died, so they're hoping to catch him before he dies).

The campaign has become very convoluted. I was hoping instead of a specific way to go about it, instead to just glean general tricks that more experienced players have discovered over the years.

Remind the other players that although it's very nice for them to roleplay their characters' suspicions of strangers, if they don't accept your new character you won't get to play.
Roleplaying games sometimes require players to let go of the roleplaying long enough for the "game" part of the equation to come into play. It's not any fun for you if the other PCs are so suspicious you can't introduce a new character.

How about another time-lost character? Or one who's got some partial amnesia, but finds one of the other PCs strangely familiar? Talk to your GM and see what he can suggest.

 

[Kestrel]

New PC: "Could you untie me? The blood is rushing to my head from being tied upside down. And toss me those clothes? Oh and don't bother that pile of gear over there. Its mine"

Old PCs: "Sure, nice to meet ya"