If there is a totally new character starting in your group or if a character dies and a player makes a new one, do you let them start out fresh with no extra XP in character generation or let them have a little extra to keep up? If so, how much? If not, do you let them have other advantages, like gear and cybernetics, maybe an npc companion or other mechanical- or game related advantages or bonuses?

Unless I've had more to drink than I thought and I'm seeing triple, you posted this by accident thrice.

I guess it depends on you, the player and the group. I'm leaning towards start fresh but award more so he can catch up with established characters more.

Unless I've had more to drink than I thought and I'm seeing triple, you posted this by accident thrice.

I saw that, and I have NO idea how that happened! I posted it once! You can see they are all posted on the same time, 11:10.

I'm leaning towards start fresh but award more so he can catch up with established characters more.

Ok, thanks. What does that mean?

Full XP for my groups. I keep everyone at the same level anyway. We play to have fun, no need to penalize someone who already had their character die any further.

I'd also give full XP to new players. I want all my players to feel good and awesome and capable.

This has happened to me before. I just ran an adventure based on discovering the new player (I think the best was the Gand Scholar in a Clone Wars-era battleship). Other than that, it hasn't really affected my game balance or my story

Unless I've had more to drink than I thought and I'm seeing triple, you posted this by accident thrice.

I saw that, and I have NO idea how that happened! I posted it once! You can see they are all posted on the same time, 11:10.

I'm leaning towards start fresh but award more so he can catch up with established characters more.

Ok, thanks. What does that mean?

it means that you have the charcter start from scartch but give him more xp reward then the rest so he catches up faster. so if you give 20 xp each session to the new character youg ive 40 or 50.

Personally i think it depends on the player's experience: a new player may need to learn the charcter's skills and talents so acquiring them one by one, but at an accelerated pace, could work better (he might forget to use some talents if he buys them all on chargen), an experienced player should be immune from this and can start with the same xp as the rest.

Also, ask the player, maybe he wants to play an Ezra Bridger like character so needs to start less experienced.

I'm leaning towards start fresh but award more so he can catch up with established characters more.

Ok, thanks. What does that mean?

XP, but let me ask: how far along are you PCs? How much XP have they accumulated so far? Is it over, around or far beyond 150?

Full XP for my groups. I keep everyone at the same level anyway. We play to have fun, no need to penalize someone who already had their character die any further.

I'd also give full XP to new players. I want all my players to feel good and awesome and capable.

But does it really matter that much in this system? You can still be the best in a few skills in your group when you start out, advancing gets more and more expensive the further you go.

Equivalent to the existing group.

Full XP for my groups. I keep everyone at the same level anyway. We play to have fun, no need to penalize someone who already had their character die any further.

I'd also give full XP to new players. I want all my players to feel good and awesome and capable.

But does it really matter that much in this system? You can still be the best in a few skills in your group when you start out, advancing gets more and more expensive the further you go.

I would say it doesn't really matter until your players have a few hundred XP. A fresh character straight out of creation will still have an impact in a game with characters that are 100, 200, maybe even 300 XP along.

I do think it depends on the player, the group, and how far along they are ... talk to them and get their thoughts.

If the number of XP is still nominal, it could be that they found a long lost ally and the new player could simply be given the XP needed to catch up because everyone wants to be in the same ballpark. But if the group has earned quite a bit, he may need a hand to catch up such as suggested above where you give him more XP until he does.

If he's fairly new to the RPG world, or this particular SW setting ... starting him off fresh might be the better idea, if he gets too much XP at once he may never get to use the new talents, powers, skills, etc. that he purchased simply so he could catch up (this could also be a problem for the suggestion above).

It really just depends on you, the new player, the group, and the story .... just note, that if he starts off weaker than the other players, you as the GM, might need to plan ahead to find opportunities in the story for him to both have a place and to shine.

None extra.

This system really doesn't need it. Also, it kinda takes away the fun of seeing a character grow...

I might give him 5 extra from time to time to account for him/her rolling eith more experienced cats but not often and only if the narrative allows for it.

It depends. What would be your reasoning for starting him out at base XP?

My personal rule is to give them equivalent XP to the current characters. There's no need to be punitive and it the character does not feel underpowered. I also like to focus on the story rather than the crunch, and giving new characters equivalent XP does not hurt my stories.

For a brand new player to the group, I give equal to the lowest player in the group. I do award extra XP for posting game notes and recaps on my Obsidian Portal.

It's kind of like real life, you hang out and mingle with those like you. In high school, most of the time you hang out with people around your age and grade. Later in life, you tend to stick with people who are around your skill level in your job as well. The Big boss of the company doesn't run around with the new employee very often. In the military segregation is almost mandatory. Officers can not hang out with enlisted, and the NCO core typically won't run with the junior enlisted. As an NCO, you do start to migrate towards the Senior NCO area though, trying to work your up.

In Star Wars, as a professional of whatever it is you are doing, Bounty Hunting, Smuggling, whatever, you are going to be looking to bring into your group people around the same age/skill level as you. Unless your that creepy old guy hanging out with a teen boy...

Let me put it this way: I simply wouldn't play in a game, in any system, where EITHER coming in as a new player (and remember some new players are new to RPGs) or where I had died, I was further penalized for dying or was treated differently from the rest of the group for being new. I once played in a group where xp was tracked separately for every player, and I came in at level one when most other players were two or three. It was awful. It's not fun and it's simply not fair.

Also, it's awesome to be introduced to the party showing up with some flash and showing off the cool stuff you can do.

I'd say as a rule of thumb, no more than 20 to 30% less than the current group members. Any more and the new player isn't in the same league. Any less and there's no benefit to having been there for the long haul.

If a previous character died due to poor dice rolls or an impossible situation, I'd give them the same XP as the existing party. If, however, it was because of stupidity or recklessness, I'd assess the 20 to 30% penalty.

The reason for the difference is that there's not a ton of impact 20% of an XP pool gives to a particular character. It either reduces their effectiveness by one step (from rank 5 to 4 or thereabouts) or reduces their flexibility somewhat (one less specialization and associated abilities). I've seen this track up to about 800 xp or so (haven't actually gone any higher, but I'd wager the relationship scales). A 600xp character can give an 800xp character a beating in their specialization, but isn't as flexible. By that same token, a 200xp character isn't all that much better than a 140xp character.

If you do award extra XP, make sure they don't spend it on the attributes.

I like to keep people at the same "level" so to speak. I would have everybody have the same amount of XP.

Oh yeah, I totally agree. When creating a character, I always specify that character creation is in accordance with RAW. Then AFTER character creation, I will award them bonus XP with which to build up the character to match the group. We just had a new player come in to my group. He built a starting character per RAW, then he was awarded about 790 XP with which to build his character. We made for one awesome dude.

I'd also give full XP to new players. I want all my players to feel good and awesome and capable.

But does it really matter that much in this system? You can still be the best in a few skills in your group when you start out, advancing gets more and more expensive the further you go.

Point-buy systems are usually more forgiving than level-based ones in this regard, yes. I think it matters, but even if it does not, why not do it anyway? I mean, if it does not matter, it also does not matter if you do, right?

Maybe I am strange that way, but I regard playing to be the main reward. New players, or players missing a session, are already penalized, because they did not get to play. No need to rub it in by giving them less XP than the rest; they already missed all the fun.

Let me put it this way: I simply wouldn't play in a game, in any system, where EITHER coming in as a new player (and remember some new players are new to RPGs) or where I had died, I was further penalized for dying or was treated differently from the rest of the group for being new. I once played in a group where xp was tracked separately for every player, and I came in at level one when most other players were two or three. It was awful. It's not fun and it's simply not fair.

Also, it's awesome to be introduced to the party showing up with some flash and showing off the cool stuff you can do.

I guess it depends on the type of game and your fellow players. Now, mind you in lvl based systems this might not work as well as it would in this game. But you are not terrible hindered by startin afresh after getting killed or being introduced to a group that much.

If the game is a joined effort by GM and players to get the best narrative out of the game then it might in fact be a lot more fun to start inexperienced.

I'd give him the equivalent of 10 obligation without the actual obligation.

So he could choose to have either 2500 more credits, 10 more xp OR 1000 more credits plus 5 xp.

I start new players/fresh characters (making a new one after dying) at about the same XP as the lowest-XP other character in the group. That is to say, first they make the character with the appropriate amount of starting XP for their species. Then they get the XP bundle to spend on skills and talents. Once play begins they receive exactly the same amount of XP as everyone else at the table.

I used to give people bonus XP and such. Then I stopped keeping track of XP and now they get nothing, because I can't be arsed to remember how much I actually gave out. Reason being XP matters a lot less in modern systems anyway. They're insanely forgiving.

i usually keep everyone at the same amount of xp when it comes to new players. i only diverge from that forumla when i get people who show up and there isnt enough to run the game.

otherwise there is a standard earned xp for group and stand alone player xp

groupxp: 256

player x:276