Episodic Adventuring and Special Guest Stars

Reading through the Spirit of 77 brought the idea up to me. They suggested using celebrity guest stars from the era as NPCs to randomly show up in adventures for more of that funky 77 flavor. What adventure wouldn't be improved by Don Knotts showing up?

The Harlem Globe Trotters for instance had a hobby of showing up at abandoned amusement parks and creepy swamp castles to hang out with Scooby Doo and the Gang. Although maybe I'm confused and the Harlem Globe Trotters are fictional too. Is there a league that encourages their brand of in game shenanigans someplace? Probably.

Linda Blair, and Bosom Buddies era Tom Hanks just happened to use the same cruise line and on the same boat known for it's hilarious romantic encounters among it's passengers? Of course, because it's 1970s Aaron Spelling so fuck it, why not?

While the execution was questionable at times, the idea was good: unexpected  can shake things up and add a new dynamic to the game to keep things from getting stagnant or repetitive. 

That's what I want for my games of Spirit of 77, people to join sessions that aren't necessarily involved in the overall story of the campaign, but can help out for a game or two. If I frame the game play in an episodic way, self contained adventures strung together, rather than a narrative story way, each session picks up where the last left off. Keeping the TV show theme in mind, I could do a "story episode" every so often where we advanced the players background stories they came up with.

This will give my regular players a more dynamic game, while letting new players (or old players with janky schedules) join in a random game or two without worrying about screwing up the story for the regulars.

Plus, and this is key, it will keep the regulars from getting annoyed with me for getting enthusiastic people involved in the game that can't/won't commit to a regular schedule thus causing a campaign to fizzle after only a session or two.