The Omnivangelist

gamefiend 24 July 2010 DnD, RPG No Comment

We didn’t have eight this week, which is good because we didn’t have an extra DM.  What we did have is a new guest:  One of our younger players convinced his father to play!  His father played D&D way back in the days, so was curious to see what the hobby looks like today.  I was eager to have him along.  I gave him a basic description of Dark Sun, some basics about the game system, and then we’re off.

No cardboard pyrotechnics this week — no time– but we’ve reached a basic middle ground of me having minis and my really cool tokens each week so it’s not too bad.

The encounter this week was actually rather simple.  Two corruption corpses, a gray ooze and a mote of cold energy that are on the other side of a weakened bridge.  The players spent a bit of time at the other end of the bridge crafty enough to examine the bridge and nervous about going below.  Once they finally got across, the combat got out of gridlock and then the corpses got cut down.

One thing that I’m considering is letting characters choose who they want to use and just treat that character as fresh each session.  A lot of players want to use encounters as a chance to try new classes, and other players are showing up for the first time and then notshowing up, so it’s almost easier to treat each encounter as standing on its own and refreshing each encounter.  It might take some serious rebalancing to do that though.  Has anyone done anything similar?

Tip: Explaining the game for new players

While I’m not convinced that the player’s father will be our regular player (and that’s totally fine) I am confident that he had a fun time. I had a sense of what I could tell him as a new player and what I could not.  Here’s a list of stuff that I keep in mind when I am playing with new players:

Keep it simple to start. I try to tell players that typically what they do is decide an action, roll a d20, add numbers and try to get as high as possible.  I don’t give them much else because there are so many elements in D&D (indeed, most RPGs) that you will only cause confusion hitting them with the RPG firehose.  Start small.

Explain when it comes up. When something becomes relevant, take a break and then explain it. That will allow you to introduce everything  gradually.

Explain the impact of choices. Explaining mechanics is good.  Explaining choices and the impacts of those choices is even better.  When a player is struck, it’s fine to explain to him a few things he or she can do and then let them choose.

Don’t play the character. It’s tempting to tell the player “do this, now roll that, now do this”  and just make their moves for them; resist this urge at all costs.  No one wants to play a game where that happens.  You have to guide but never take over for your player.

What do you do with new players in your games?

As always, I run Encounters at Myriad Game’s Salem Store.