I’ve been running Torchbearer for a gaming club and designated myself as an open table so if someone is visiting the group for the first time they can join the game before they decide if they want to come back or organise to join another table.
It’s been interesting. We’ve seen characters progress, die and informally retire. All the players started out as these guests and some decided to stick around and become regulars. Once a character has earned an Epithet they belong to a player but before then a player has a couple of weeks grace period of non-contact before the character re-enters the roster. New pregens have replaced dead ones or claimed ones.
Check out the progress on the link. Adventures come from published Torchbearer, Mordite Press and Michael Prescott’s Trilemma Adventures. One adventure I designed myself, see if you can spot it!
The one challenging aspect of running a game like this is the “Living Memory” of the party. Varg’s player wants to start his own game and has my blessing but once he’s gone Yannis becomes the longest running character. We joke that the powerful spear Beren carries has been in the party longer than the party has.
Another challenging aspect is the cycle of earning and spending treasure. The party does a dungeon, the guest character has space for the loot and loads up, then the session ends and the in the next town the regulars are penniless. Then the character gets picked for a dungeon and is already loaded up with valuables! We’ve ruled that that’s on the players!