changes in the player-roster

Hey gang,
2 questions for ya:

- There seem to be some Moves in the Advanced Fuckery section that relate to bringing new players into the game once it's started. Has anyone intro'd new people and have any insights or suggestions on how to do it?
- Also, I can't quite find any text on what to do if someone can't make it. I've run plenty of games before, so I can deal; I'm interested, though, in the AW solution for this problem. Polaris, f'rex, has it right there in the rulebook that you should cancel the session and play something else if some people can't make it. Again, thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks, y'all!

Just go ahead and play, and next session, give the player who couldn't make it a bigger love-letter to give their character something to have done while the player was out and to keep them involved in the game.

The game works just fine if some of the players don't show up; the PCs all have their own shit to do, so it's not hard at all to handwave some reason why the Battlebabe isn't around today or something.

There sometimes can be problems if the last session ended on a cliffhanger. Though it should be a fairly rare event.

^ All that is true. Also, if you are adding a new player, it's good to start with love letters all around, maybe about how that PC is connected to the others or how the current PCs react to the new PC arriving. Then when it's the first session with a new player, be sure you take time to have your players go around and introduce/describe their PCs, so they can set Hx properly with the new PC.

When we did this recently (not with a new player, but with new secondary PCs, so it pretty much applies) I started off the session with a series of flash-back scenes that I timed with my phone. You can read all about it http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=608.msg11454#msg11454

I said "Ok, Barbecue (established PC=ePC), you and Dollarhyde (secondary PC=sPC) know each other from way back. Let's see how things were with you before Barbecue split. [10 mins] Ok, Hazel (sPC), before you came to the Warrens, where were you and what made you leave? [10 mins] October (ePC), what were you doing while this was happening? [10 mins] Burroughs (ePC), you were up here when Hooch (ePC) scouted this place out and Barbecue moved up - what was that meeting like? [10 mins] THEN we figured out Hx between the PCs that knew each other at all.

Margolotte,
My reply was going to be, in essence, "But what if it makes more sense to have him just be the new guy in town?"
And then I thought about how boring it usually is, how cliched things get, when a new character is introduced to a cast of a show that prides itself on having tough, violent, angry characters - - everyone is "ha! We'll see how tough you are" and "Fresh meat, huh?"
House, MD has done good things with mid-season character introductions, but many shows do not. So yeah, once our new guy, Jackson, has gotten his character up and running, I think we'll follow your suggestions.
Provided that he (especially he, but this applies to anyone) has no particular interest in being the new guy in town, that is. I'll give both options and see what they want to do.

Secondarily, I ended up managing to get all my usual players on board this weekend, but I much appreciate the suggestions for the future, y'all! :)
Lastly, I wrote my first Love Letter today. It went over amazingly well - we got our first taste of combat, there were some nice dramatic reversals and lots of blood spatter, and the Angel, Boo, got some more screen time in hir quest to become a sort of spirit-healer (zhe brought one of the villagers back from a nasty head wound). Such a cool thing, Love Letters.