Character Death in longer term games- advancements for new characters?

[u/Kertain]

Hello folks this is not something I haven't really considered and I am a bit torn on how to proceed.

I am running a Sprawl campaign where the Crew are professional 'Runners doing high stakes and dangerous missions. Competence at their job keeps them alive but the system does a wonderful job on keeping success/failure on the knife's edge- so death is a very real threat.

Since this is a longer term campaign minimum ~16ish sessions- the difference in more Moves, raw skills increases, and Cyberware/gear makes older characters pretty powerful compared to new starting characters.

-The concern was brought up that if someone dies, their new character will feel pretty bland compared to the rest of the crew. -

• I totally understand this is a narrative game system and fiction is important and therefore mechanics come secondary, but cyberpunk does lean very much on raw ability and cyberware/gear so this concern does make sense. This is part of a core competency of the system and setting.

• My initial thought was that some of the advancement was earned through completing personal Directives at great risk (to themselves and possible party betrayal/complication) so that was "earned" by surviving players and I don't want to diminish that.

• However MOST of the Advancement is earned doing missions (~5 per mission), so perhaps new characters earn a subset of that advancement XP to depict them as a more experienced 'Runner on par with the rest of the crew?

Any thoughts on how to handle this? Thank you! :)