Welcoming new characters

[Desven]

This can be considered a continuation of this post. However, I don't want to muse over why you are not sticking to a single character or why you might suddenly stop playing. I get these events; I know I've had characters previously pop out only a few rounds because the concept didn't stick well enough. I know some people have a full-fleshed idea and even commission character art before playing their new character. Me, personally, I come up with a concept and test it in-game before I know if I want the character or not.

However, a big problem I've encountered with many people is that new characters don't get much of a chance to interact with others, leaving the players to scrap the concept altogether. This has only become much more of a problem in the Horizon. While paradoxically the setting is now open to the whole Spur, the ship itself is insular in nature—if you have a newcomer, it's hard to justify why would you even join a ship long after its maiden voyage, or how even they picked you up. Additionally, the already existing characters will already feel a sense of "camaraderie," maybe, and you're a big stranger.

In my experience, I've had trouble introducing new characters because no one will interact with them. Even reintroducing older characters has been hard. I'm not one to make long-term, strong friendships with everyone, but I do expect some interaction on their part. After all, I think roleplaying is useless if nobody is interacting. My concern has been that I have literally walked into rooms full of people, and made them direct questions, just to be ignored because the clique continues too busy in their conversation. Fair, but I feel that almost everyone actively ignores my new characters or old-but-returning ones. I've pushed what I think is possible for my characters to do to beg some interaction—gone my way to ask departments for fluff stuff, tried to engage with the bartender or chef, made questions in general, got involved in whatever I can put my nose in just so I can have some interaction... it has rarely helped. I have characters like Pax that are hyper-active and really extroverted, which has helped me push this even further, but with my other character concepts that aren't as open, it's hard for me to justify just why they have to go through all of these hoops just to get some interaction.

I don't think you should be punished for not talking to a new player. I don't want an official policy or anything. I also know I've been guilty of being wary of new characters in the past, particularly because I don't know if the player is in Aurora in good faith or not. You're free to even tell me this is all a me problem and I'm making it much bigger than it should. However, I want to ask you to just be a bit more welcoming with new characters. If some stranger walks in and asks you something, answer, maybe you can get some roleplay out of it! Going to cryo because nobody is willing to interact with you is the most crushing feeling in this game.

And yes, I know that in real life, this also happens. You're the new kid at school, of course you'll struggle. However, I think it's largely different because in real life you often can't escape those situations. In a game, I don't want to spend 2 or 3 hours idle because nobody will talk to me. It's demoralizing and it'll ultimately make me scrap the character or even consider not playing Aurora anymore. I'm not asking you to not have your friendships and personal arcs and relationships... just try and be more welcoming with new characters so that they stick around too, perhaps they can even grow to become friends.

[Rabid Animal]

I think the best thing to do here is remember that behind every 2d spaceman is a real person. I hardcore had this issue when coming back from an extended break, I managed to get through it but man - the first week or so was pretty unfun and I really struggled to remember why I came back at all. I can see why as a result we really hardly get new players. So be a bro, turn yourself away from that conversation you've had with the same 5 people and will continue to have with those people in many rounds to come: and see whats the deal with the new guy. You might turn their round around.

[Menroka]

What I like to do is to form more personal relations by directly talking and interacting with just one other character. I think finding reasons for your character to be platonically interested in other characters is one of the main driving forces towards getting a meaningful interaction.
Maybe we want to show off our character with 100 background stories and the coolest traits, but others want to be heard as well. A meaningful conversation needs all parties to listen actively.

The sentiment of 'stranger danger' is evolutionary valid and will not just go away, although it is engrained to differing degrees for different characters. Some are more open, some are more judging. In my experience it takes several good interactions (in seperate rounds) before any progress towards a basis of trust can be felt. The exact number of course varies wildly depending on who you are interacting with and who you are playing. Some people just dont get along and others form a bond almost instantly.
I started playing actively again for around 3 months now and I just barely get the sense, that my character is now actually part of the departmental team. Of course with the other characters swapping in and out that will probably remain a struggle for a pretty long time. Its always quite depressing to have characters you made friends with disappear into cryo and other characters, who have been on the ship for longer than you reappear in their stead.

[Omicega]

This is a pet peeve of mine as well. I feel like established players tend to try and get around this by simply introducing their new characters into their pre-existing friend group to begin with (I'm guilty too, tbh), or by signalling either explicitly or indirectly in Discord or something that you're the player behind your new spaceman. For genuine new players, I imagine the experience is even more torturous unless you get lucky enough to find someone away from their clique long enough to get any kind of mutual interest going. Aurora has a pretty harsh stance on lower playtimes on characters in general -- something I find intensely aggravating given how many I juggle at one time whenever I'm active -- and I think some voices in the community in particular would benefit from losing their fixation on the total playtime/veterancy of a character and/or player being the largest contributing factor in how 'authentic' or 'worthy' they are of anyone's time or respect. I feel like I'm an outlier sometimes in the sense that it's the newer names on the manifest that catch my interest and encourage me to seek out interaction with them, rather than trying to fawn over more established faces -- although again, like anyone else, I admit I still tend to just join up when I know my friends are around and hang around with them far more than I really should.