Rotating Cast of Characters

[Grogg of the North]

How do you, as a GM, deal with a player that is constantly bringing in new characters? Someone that makes a character, runs them for a few sessions, gets bored and then wants to bring in someone new? Either the old PC retires quietly, runs off into the dungeon by himself, or does something silly like ask the dragon to pass the hot sauce.

I find it hard to deal with because every few weeks I have to find a way to crowbar this new adventurer into the story; find a reason for them to get along with the rest of the party and find a way for them to care about what's happening. But in the back of my head there's the thought of "Oh why bother. He's probably going to jump off a cliff in a couple weeks and bring in someone new. Don't waste too much effort on PC #374".

Thoughts? Advice?

 

[Celebrim]

Sounds like a symptom of a deeper problem. Try to figure out what the deeper problem is and treat that.

Character creation is a fun little mini-game in its own right, but if the player is more into playing the character creation mini-game than he is into actually playing the rest of the RPG...

I would guess that the current game is not fulfilling any of the player's aesthetic goals of play or else that he has no aesthetic goals of play and you are going to have to help him find them.

Try to figure out why he is bored or why he continually feels the need to retool the character. In particular, it doesn't sound like your player is playing a character at all, just a stat block. He needs a character background and a reason to play.

At the very least you are making it too easy for this player to come back into play. There is no cost in his retooling. He comes back with full XP and full equipment (I would gather). He's not losing ground every time he comes back (and infuriating the rest of the party) by engaging in this behavior the way he would in my game where death has a cost. I'm not saying imposing death penalties will necessarily work for your group, but I am saying that you've made the cost of dysfunctional behavior apparently lower than the cost of functional behavior.

 

[delericho]

How do you, as a GM, deal with a player that is constantly bringing in new characters?

Thoughts? Advice?

If a player wants to bring in a new PC, I'm generally fine with that. However, if a player wants to bring in a new PC every few sessions, that quickly becomes a problem. At this point I use my standard "problem player" script - talk to the player to see if the problem can be easily resolved, if it still continues then proceed to the ultimatum, and if it's still a problem then they're uninvited from the game.