Player sick for first session... best practices to integrate him later?

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I seek advice about the best way to later include a player who couldn't make it to the first session. What should I do? What should I avoid?

Thanks!


Have them do their Hx questions like normal. Ask them lots of questions, like you would in the First Session -- some open-ended ones, but also maybe some questions that tie in to other PCs' answers, and/or to your Fronts or things you are wondering about.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, if they've only missed one session. I guess I would be cautious about not making their PC seem subordinate to what the other players brought up in the previous session -- make sure to give them room to carve out their own space in the fiction, even though your impulse will be to try and fit them in to the existing world. Assuming your game is going to run for awhile, there's no rush to integrate them -- and a certain amount of tie-in stuff is going to happen automatically, just because of the questions you're likely to come up with and the scenes you're likely to frame them into.

make sure to give them room to carve out their own space in the fiction, even though your impulse will be to try and fit them in to the existing world.

That said, this really depends on what playbook they choose -- some playbooks have much weaker Hx questions, in terms of establishing immediate relationships, in which case you will have to pick up the slack.

Thanks! It turns out 2/5 of my players couldn't make it, so the rest of us decided to stop character creation just after introductions (before Hx and highlighting) and play a boardgame. We'll pick up where we left off when the others join us.

The ones that did make it chose the Brainer, the Driver, and the Gunlugger, which might devolve into homicidal transients, but they were good about coming up with realistic causes and effects for it so I'm not too worried.

It did prompt a custom move:
http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?topic=3222.msg18617#msg18617

I hope my absent players choose at least one Chopper or Operator or Hocus or Hardholder, though. Heck, even the Savvyhead.