Game WISH 25: New PCs

Turn of a Friendly Die: WISH 25: New PCs, Existing Party

I haven't posted anything to the last couple of WISHes, because I couldn't think of anything much to say. However:

How do you introduce a new PC to an existing group? Is it best if the GM takes special measures of some kind to integrate the new and existing characters, or should the GM just allow them to meet and let the players put it all together? Does it matter whether the game is oriented towards character cooperation or character competition?

I've tried both approaches. In one of my current on-line Kalyr games I've dropped two new PCs into the game just after the climactic battle of previous "chapter" of the game. The existing party had accidentally switched on an interplanar portal device which warped two people from 21st century Earth (the two new PCs) into Kalyr.

Previously I've started new PCs in their own threads, and had them meet up with other PCs when the plotlines called for it to happen. In another Kalyr game I don't really have party as such at all; each PC has their own agenda and plotline, and PCs tend to meet up and split up, sometimes just passing 'as ships in the night'.

In some ways, the 'party' is an artificial construct necessary for face-to-face gaming, that doesn't always apply to gaming on-line. On the other hand, an on-line game without much PC-to-PC interaction can rapidly turn into half-a-dozen semi-independent one-to-one games.