Well, I have joined an RP, had my character die, but another person lost interest so they sorta just dumped that character in my lap so I'd just shrug and roll with it.

Oh, you mean like... oh. Yeah, I've essentially done late-join/cold-opens like that as well. Where I'd read ALL the backstory and figure out where my character was at during... [i]all of that[/i] which could've been up to a year of RPing I'd jump in on. There's a bit of nuance to making sure your character jives with the group and hits the RP at a dead sprint, since the HAVE to hit things off [i]just right[/i] or they'll feel like an out-of-place character shoehorned into the scene like a bad Scrappy-doo. They also need to bring something meaningful to the story narrative.

It's... work, but [i]highly rewarding[/i] to know you can pretty much throw any character at any plot and form any pairing and make it seem as natural as breathing... most of the time.

[quote=@Lith]
I've had a similar thought but, without permission. Which is almost assuredly wrong, bizarre, borders on harassment. Anyway imagine how cool it'd be to show up in a seven year old dormant RP uninvited but very announced.
[/quote]
*cough*

In sandbox nation RPs, wars that get "dogpiled" by literally "the entire world" tends to be this by default. I was even in an RP that chonked on for about a year after the person who started the RP passed-away and people were still joining after we'd nuked it three or four times.

We'd also have people revive the conflict in a new thread like two more times after that.