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Explain the problem and offer to meet half way by making them 2nd level. Do you know what OCC's they might want to play?

All the books haven't come out yet for the Dimensional Outbreak storyline and if Palladium is true to form they won't release Megaverse In Flames for another year so plan for a long story arc to last until it's release.

This is the easiest fix, suprised nobody else mentioned it. Start them at level one.... Use power creep to your advantage. Depending on their character concepts. TW items can be given to starting characters. Some characters start powerful, dragons, full conversion borg, power armor pilot, mega heroes, there are many choices.
Your other option is LET them play first level characters. Try not to throw too much at them. If a villian is in combat it is unlikely he will kill the guy doing 4mdc with a laser pistol when there is another character doing 60mdc with a powerful brightly colored psi-sword. If the villian catches them alone it is far more useful....and fun to capture and torture them, or use them as leverage. He might put them in a prison cell and slowly starve them to death.

you could do what i sometimes do. If the player starts at level 1 give them a free level after your intro game.

I don't think that's the kind of level difference that matters.
A guy with a gun is a guy with a gun, and that's all you need to be effective in combat.

If you want to pump up the new players' stats, give them some above-average gear or something, if you feel it's necessary.

yeah, the level 1 characters will catch up fairly quickly i bet. especially if you remember that a major challenge for one person can be a minor challenge for another; a level 3 cyber-knight is not nearly as challenged by a fight vs a heavy combat 'borg as a 1st level ley line walker or even a 1st level headhunter... and the exp for a difficult challenge is different from the exp for a simple challenge.

It would be great to play, but so few games where I live.

There's not really all THAT much difference between lvl 1 and 4, depending on OCC.

Certainly not for some classes such as mages (mystic, for example), juicers and crazies.

I mean, YES, there's a difference, but they would also be able to fight alongside without going 'splat'.

EASY

New Player = Level One Character, NEW To the Setting on a Whole. Fish Out Water Story Arch for them.
This Character will be learning Everything as You Go. This is a great chance to use this to your advantage in Fact. I Suggest ... A Modern Era Human (Beyond the SUpernatural, System Failure, Nightbane, Ninja & Superspies, or HU2 characters for them) However new to Rifts/Phase World or whatever, they are Rifted away from what they know. THINK FARSCAPE here folks. John Cratain's character more or less.

The 10 years out of touch Player ... New Level One character from the Setting your using. They know the setting itself, but the character is inexperised this time around.

The 4th level Cyber-Knight, the 3rd level Mind Melter ... Are Fine. The are under 6th Level so they will not be too experienced. They know the current setting, might know of another setting or two, but they can guild the "rookies" in matters maybe. The Rookies will catch up sooner or later trust me.

TechnoGothic wrote: THINK FARSCAPE here folks. John Crichton's character more or less.

Even being Australian, I simply cannot take that show seriously. Largely because the lead character's name is pronounced 'Kryten'. I keep expecting him to say "Well, I've saved your sorry butts for one day. Now I've got laundry to do!"

Re: the rest of what you said, I agree wholeheartedly.

SamtheDagger wrote:Well maybe I was not entirely clear on what I meant. Personally, I have no problem introducing a new character into an existing campaign at level 1. I know that there really is not that big of a difference in power between a 1st level character and a 4th level character, especially since there can be so many different types of OCCs. The problem here seems to be player perception. The new players are concerned that they will be overshadowed by the existing players and I want to know the best way to reassure them that Rifts is not the kind of game where level makes that big of a difference.

oh, that's fairly simple. take their characters, level them up to 4th, and show them the difference. if they're anything like me, they'll probably feel quite underwhelmed that their "tie shoelaces" skill went from 40% to 55% and that their bonus to "completely useless melee combat maneuver v1.7" gets a +2 bonus to the chance of success which the other guy can still completely block without using any action at all.

then show them the exp tables, and the exp rewards chart. i'd be surprised if they didn't figure it out fairly quickly.

i suppose it would be more of a difference if they were choosing magical or psionic classes, but even then they should still level up pretty quickly.

SamtheDagger wrote:Well maybe I was not entirely clear on what I meant. Personally, I have no problem introducing a new character into an existing campaign at level 1. I know that there really is not that big of a difference in power between a 1st level character and a 4th level character, especially since there can be so many different types of OCCs. The problem here seems to be player perception. The new players are concerned that they will be overshadowed by the existing players and I want to know the best way to reassure them that Rifts is not the kind of game where level makes that big of a difference.

Explain that the classes are mostly front-loaded, and that there isn't all that much difference between a 1st level character and a 10th level character for many of the OCCs, even though it should take years of steady gaming to get to 10th level.

I have had level one characters in with level 5's. It doesn't hurt much because advancing in level in this system doesn't start hitting warp speed until level 7.

SamtheDagger wrote: The new players are concerned that they will be overshadowed by the existing players and I want to know the best way to reassure them that Rifts is not the kind of game where level makes that big of a difference.

That comes down to role-playing and creative GMing. Make certain that the more experienced players have something fun to do (or they will get bored and eat all your doritos), but at the same time, make certain that you include the new players in the story wholeheartedly.

Don't be "well, here we are again, after saving the world from the horrible menace from beyond the rifts, you prepare once again to do battle with horror and evil, a task you dislike, but know all too well.... oh, and here is Sarah and Bob, two new guys who don't know the system so well. They can stay and guard the base and just watch the first couple of combats".

Be more like "Sarah and Bob, welcome to the group. We've had a need for a good spell-thrower and a crazy's unique talents for a while now, and you guys just fit the bill. Let's swing round the table and introduce everyone's characters then get rolling on stomping some vampire arse".

Crucible wrote:I have had level one characters in with level 5's. It doesn't hurt much because advancing in level in this system doesn't start hitting warp speed until level 7.

This system hits warp speed at level 6. I've seen it.

I have found lvl 1 to 6 sometimes even up to 8 goes quickly. Then progression is slow as heck depending on character in question.

Levels 1-6 is like a Wormhole. Quick and over in little time.
Levels 7-10 is like Warp-Speed. Cant be fast, but takes awhile.
Levels 10+ is like Lightspeed. Its still going to take you years to get any place interesting. LOL