I don't know if there's a standardized method for recruiting from World One. Zug was recruited because he managed to defile a nonexistent canon (chess) and came into contact with the PPC as part of their efforts to fix what he'd broken.

I have a World One agent who walked in on a "do you REALLY want to do this?" chat between a gaming friend (and backsliding OFU grad) and said friend's OFU roomie, who had joined the PPC after graduation.

And yes, I know I need to get her agent page up. I've had some RL distractions, like my stepfather's death Monday night.

... who was recruited directly because of her PPC-useful skills (love/respect/knowledge of canon and insanity). The PPC has a well-documented understaffing problem; generally, anyone they can get, they will take, no matter how they wound up in HQ.

I agree that the "falling-into-plothole" explanation is getting a little overused, but there are plenty of other ways for an agent to get into HQ - maybe they have friends who are agents, and on said agents' vacation home they heard about the PPC and decided to tag along and join; maybe they have friends who are agents and said friends invite them in because it's the greatest job ever, you would totally love it, no really it's SO COOL; maybe they saw some suspicious-looking people exorcizing a celebrity on a real-person fic mission, and followed them back to HQ; maybe they're a new agey mystery-lover person who heard about a lot of strange things happening in New Caledonia, went to investigate, and found the entrance to HQ; maybe they saw a really weird ad in the local paper, answered it, and realized they had no idea what they were getting into... pretty much anything goes!

My two were - they kept the PPC's contact info from their OFU days and joined up later.

There have been other methods of recruitment; it's been hinted at that the PPC sometimes puts adverts out in local papers and the like, and some people have met Agents on holiday and been recruited that way.

Hope that helps!

There's no rule for how Agents from any world can be recruited. As long as it makes sense, or at least as much sense as the PPC can manage.