Yeah, I'd almost say "let's bring in five new people" in one go... fully expecting three of them to drop out after like 2 weeks.
At the very least, drop a line to some of the previous people who submitted characters and just tell them "we have Sir Urik available to play... anyone want it?" Cause I get the sneaking suspicion (having seen the numerous posts and replies that happen over and over on these boards) that many players don't in fact want to actually play these games... they just want to create characters and have them accepted. That's the only reason I can think of that explains why a game advertises for something like "young characters from a rural town who go search the local mine - PH base classes only", and invariably someone asks if they can play a "psionic ex-con that's on the run from the king!"
Do they even BOTHER to read the write-up? Nope... they just have these character ideas in their heads that they want to create and make stats for... and then be vindicated in their ideas by having them be accepted into a game. But actually playing the characters after that hold no interest. It's a pain and it's stupid.
If players actually want to play the game because of the game itself (and not just because they want to create this "uber-cool roxxor character"), just advertise that we have Sir Urik, Ladreth, and three or four of the current NPCs available... and anyone who wants to play them in the game, can. We'll find out right away who wants to play the game because it's a really good thread and adventure thus far, because they're willing to step in and take a pre-established character.
And then if someone says okay and takes on one of the pre-established ones but then quits three days in, the character goes back to the barricade to await the next player who wants to play and take it over.
