Due to personal commitments, my prep time for my group is going to be extremely lessened. Part of the problem is that our current theme is "heists", and I've advised the group that we'll be changing this for something easier for me to prep for and improvise on.

Since our last session was about a month ago, in which we only just managed to finish off the current adventure, I've asked if they want to start new characters or continue with the current. I've had one player strongly in each camp, with the other two "easy" with the decision.

As I'm a reasonably inexperienced GM, I'd love some advice on what to do.

Since only one player really wants a new character, should I let everyone else keep their current, and have the new player switch?

And how would I manage that session, if one player has to create a new character and the others are waiting? I was thinking I'd allow her to do character creation on the fly, but not sure exactly how I'd handle this...

If a player comes to me expression interest in switching characters, I usually allow them to. It's not a huge problem for me since it doesn't happen often.

I keep track of how much XP I have awarded my players thus far, so it's an easy ting to just give the new character that much XP. After that, I find a good way in the story to make the character switch.

Thanks for the advice, kaosoe, much appreciated.

I've had to deal with this a little in the past 7 months. I basically let them build a new character, then I grant them XP appropriate to level up with the rest of the characters. At no point do I allow them to build a new PC with the XP total.

These are good ideas, I've used them. I'm a long-time GM of different games, and normally GM for our group, but in EotE, I'm primarily a player. Our group's GM has just run a fairly epic adventure and he wants a break, no big deal, I'm filling in.

We play weekly, there's 5 of us. We have also been keeping track of total XP (ignoring what you got a creation), specifically we keep it documented in that bottom-left corner box on the character sheet.

For our GM, I let him roll a character with equivalent XP to the rest of the party (but he had to create the character as normal first, with creation RAW).

One of our players, who's been with the group from the getgo, hasn't missed a session, has also expressed interest in rolling a new PC to try a different role. He will not be getting the same XP on his character #2 as the rest of the party. My call here is not to punish them for rolling a different character, it is instead my intention to discourage frequent character-swapping by PCs, mostly for storyline and adventure reasons (character-focused adventures don't grow on trees y'know.. they take time to write).

In the case of a new GM, even just one that's filling in for a few sessions every once and a while so the main GM can have a break, I'd have everyone make new characters. This is for a few reasons: new GM new world and style of play, so characters necessarily develop in different ways, potentially with different skills being important. The new GM shouldn't have to feel constrained by what's happened in the other GMs storyline. The resting GM shouldn't have to feel constrained by his own future plans for the group when he returns to the GM role.

In the case of a new GM, even just one that's filling in for a few sessions every once and a while so the main GM can have a break, I'd have everyone make new characters. This is for a few reasons: new GM new world and style of play, so characters necessarily develop in different ways, potentially with different skills being important. The new GM shouldn't have to feel constrained by what's happened in the other GMs storyline. The resting GM shouldn't have to feel constrained by his own future plans for the group when he returns to the GM role.

I hadn't even considered this, but I kind of like it. Usually our players are fairly attached to their PCs and try very hard not to fall into the trope of "the game never lasts long enough to hit level 10". But this is an elegant solution.

One of our players, who's been with the group from the getgo, hasn't missed a session, has also expressed interest in rolling a new PC to try a different role. He will not be getting the same XP on his character #2 as the rest of the party. My call here is not to punish them for rolling a different character, it is instead my intention to discourage frequent character-swapping by PCs, mostly for storyline and adventure reasons (character-focused adventures don't grow on trees y'know.. they take time to write).

I can see why you might do that, but tend to disagree with the method. At least as you've described it. You've got someone who shows up all the time and as a result may have spent sigificantly more time with his character than other players. Maybe the character is at a point where it's time to hang up his hat and retire. That's a perfectly okay thing. Your method comes off as almost penalizing him for being really commited to the game and the group. If anything I'd consider tossing him an extra 5XP for that commitment. I really appreciate it when I can count on other group members to show up ready to play.

Ask yourself a few questions about your player before lowing his XP

- Do you want a player in the game who is not really excited about his character?

I'd rather have players excited and interested in their characters. I think that's better for buy-in and for roleplay. Especially early in a campaign. I might play a couple sessions with Cletus Calrissian, decide he's a piece of ****, and want to reroll someone who works better with the group.

- Is the swap happening at an appropriate place in the story?

Did he just pay off his debt to Jabba and is ready to get out of the game whie he has his chance? Did you last session end with John Doe clinging to life? Sometimes it makes sense for the story if a character retires/dies.

- Is the character swapping frequent enough to disturb the group mechanic and story?

The caveat with the above point, I guess. If your player is rolling new characters up every other session, it's probably time to figure something out. That's not a lot of time for Obligations to play out and it's hard to establish that character as a part of the group if he's only there for a session or two before showing up as someone new.

Also: A player retiring a character is potentially giving you a great NPC. Change the name, add a couple ranks of Adversary and you've provided a Rival/Nemesis with almost no work on your part. You might even bring the exact character back (if your player would be mature enough to roll with that). Everyone thought Billy died when the space station blew up, but he made it out alive. Now he is back for revenge.