Introducing Players into a Group

Adding players to a group is a great way to mix things up. New players bring new viewpoints and ideas on how things should be done, perhaps injecting new life into your group. I'm not going to go over how you meet people to game with, that's a topic all on its own; I'm going to be discussing how to introduce them into your game without disrupting the flow.

The first step, before you even consider how to bring them into your game, is to consider the others players. You can't just insert someone into a group without notice or consent; you need to let the group know that someone is interested in joining and make sure everyone is ok with it. If they're not, you won't be able to do the following.

So once everyone is ok with the idea of adding a new person, check where you are in the story of the game. If you're a few sessions away from ending, it would probably be better to wait until the next campaign starts; otherwise the story may become disjointed at the climax.

If you're at a point in the story where adding someone is worth it, you need to look at what the party has done so far. If they've already had a few adventures they most likely have some ties with NPCs they've encountered in your world. One option is to have the new player play one of the NPCs; that way they already have a tie and relationship to the party. The downside to this is the new player may not get to play something they're interested in. Alternatively, they could have a tie to that NPC somehow and be introduced into the party that way. 

Having the current and new players cross paths with similar goals is another good plan. If the PCs are investigating a murder, the new player could have a tie to the victim or someone unrelated but interested in bringing down the villain.

Depending on the setting, you can present the players with a problem that they aren't equipped to handle, and present the new player as someone that the party can hire or work with to solve their problem.

If you work in the player as an aspect of the story, everything will flow together much better. The characters will have a reason to interact with each other in a meaningful fashion and they'll have reasons to bond beyond that adventure.

The key thing to consider is to try and make the introduction in game as organic as possible. Otherwise the players will suffer a disconnect from the story and you will lose some momentum. For an excellent example of how not to introduce a new character or player, see The Gamers.