Question about aspect creation

[Ghsdkgb]

So, as I understand the rules, you have your Phase 3 story, and then for the Phase 4 story, someone else jumps on your Phase 3 and adds their character to it. Then for Phase 5, someone else jumps on to someone's Phase 4 and adds to that, so everyone's Phase 5 should have 3 story parts, yeah?

How would you handle this if, say, you had another player join in two months down the line? Would his character's Phase 4 still piggyback off someone's Phase 3, or would you use some more recent story threads that came up in the sessions? Personally, it seems kind of silly to say "Yeah, you totally knew all these guys way back when, but you just haven't been with the party the last couple months for some reason and nobody's mentioned you." Sure, you could work that in, but that's dependent on the character and the campaign. So do you guys have your ways of handling this?

[devonapple]

I had a couple of new folks join after campaign creation. We went through their guest star phases, creating three new stories that involved different members of the existing group, taking place as short stories between the other cases they had worked. We did not retroactively insert the new guys into the original gangs' stories. So the new stories focused more on the new guys, but that was alright.

[Richard_Chilton]

Alternatively, if you can get some of the players together on another night you can do a short "here's what happened a few weeks ago" bits - mostly narrated - to handle those stories.

Richard

[DFJunkie]

I agree, trying to shoe horn the new PCs into the existing stories would be more work than it's worth.

[Sanctaphrax]

The stories aren't really necessary, ignoring them or doing them wrong won't do any serious harm.

I've only ever done the stories properly once, and that game died very quickly.

(You still need to get a good character concept somehow, though. If it's not from the stories, it should be from something else.)

[UmbraLux]

How would you handle this if, say, you had another player join in two months down the line?

Aspects aren't permanent.  With the exception of the High Concept they're very changeable - by six sessions in you could have changed every aspect except High Concept.  So don't worry too much about what character creation uses as the source for aspects - they won't last.  Or at least shouldn't.*

As for bringing new guys in, I suggest leaving a couple aspects open for writing in something to do with introduction and first adventure with the group.  Mostly to provide an initial link between the character an the group. 

*Aspects should describe your character.  As the character changes or grows, so should the aspects.  They're also good for highlighting what is important to the character at the time. 

[Praxidicae]

As for bringing new guys in, I suggest leaving a couple aspects open for writing in something to do with introduction and first adventure with the group.  Mostly to provide an initial link between the character an the group. 

This.
I'd have them write up their High Concept, Trouble and the first 3 phase aspects, and leave the phase 4 and 5 aspects open.
Then as in "on the fly character creation" I'd allow the character to declare the remaining aspects during play.