How to introduce a pen-and-paper RPG to family?

Question

My brother and I have dabbled in D&D when we were younger. Also, at the last place where I worked, we had a weekly Pathfinder game session, which was fun.

Usually at our family get-togethers my brother brings a ton of board games to play, like Carcassone, Puerto Rico, etc. We'll be meeting for Thanksgiving and I asked my brother if he thinks we'll be able to get everyone to play some D&D, or some other, easier pen-and-paper RPG. He thinks it will be overly complicated and people will not enjoy it. He mentioned there is a D&D board game which could be a nice introduction.

Is an RPG board game a viable option? Is it / can it be as immersive as pen-and-paper? If we try the pen-and-paper version, is there a particular campaign we should try? We both have no major GM experience, so should we stick to the board game to retain the fun factor?

Answer 1

Does it have to be D&D?

My go-to game for introducing anyone to roleplaying is Fiasco, a game in which you create and play out a Coen Brothers-esque scenario.

You’ll play ordinary people with powerful ambition and poor impulse control. There will be big dreams and flawed execution. It won’t go well for them, to put it mildly, and in the end it will probably collapse into a glorious heap of jealousy, murder, and recrimination. Lives and reputations will be lost, painful wisdom will be gained, and if you are really lucky, your guy just might end up back where he started.

It's for three-to-five players, GM-less, has no character sheets, and games last about 2-3 hours.

Answer 2

I think it depends on whether your family members have the interest and attention span required. Neither of my parents would play an RPG, but my brother would. I think there are several important factors for this - especially if you don't want to ruin your holidays!

1. It's got to be a fast game. You have to have a short, simple scenario ready to go.
2. You have to tailor it to your family. What will captivate them? Puzzles? Fights? Negotiations? A known property that they can relate to might make things easier.
3. I think a simple ruleset is probably in order. You've got what - A day? A weekend? You can't expect them to absorb everything you've spent years learning in that span.

So with those factors in mind, I think you might find one of these games a good fit:

• Primetime Adventures. PtA is the game of making the best TV series that never was. It uses a simple deck-of-cards mechanic, is very character oriented, and can be adapted to a wide variety of genres. I think if you can come up with a few series pitches, you can play it all in one day. And you'll have fun putting your series together no matter what!

• Leverage. This is one of those "known property" games I was talking about. It is licensed from the TV show of the same name, where a bunch of thieves and criminals and con-men band together to help people. Yeah, I know. Just think of it as a caper movie every week. The system is designed to represent these hyper-competent folks - every member of a crew is among the best in the world at his or her specialty. There's no PC death and it allows you to replace, "Darn! I wish we had thought of that before!" with a flashback showing how your super-smooth crew did think of it before. If your family likes this show, I would recommend trying this game out. Similar recommendations may apply to other licensed games, but Leverage is the best example I could come up with, due to the combination of simple system, mainstream property, and story emphasis.

• Savage Worlds. Savage Worlds is another die-size-for-rating like the Leverage game where a d8 in Strength is better than a d6, etc.. But SW is a much more conventional multi-genre RPG. I don't know if the $10 Explorer's Edition book is still available, but it's one of the best deals there ever was in gaming. With the core book and a little creativity, not to mention the fan-created resources on the net, you can be ready to go in whatever genre piques your family's interest in just a couple of hours. Something like "Great! So, we all want to play in a Mad-Max sort of wasteland where the apocalypse was magical instead of nuclear. I'll get some stuff ready while you make gravy..."

• Gamma World. I actually just thought of this after writing up the Savage Worlds entry. But my awesome wife just bought me this cool game, and I think it would be a good fit, provided your family can dig the wacky setting. It looks like character creation is very fast. And there are lots of online character generators!

Good luck, happy holidays, and I hope it works out great!

Answer 3

A few thoughts to help you get started:

• Pregenerated characters with limited options to customize (does the fighter want plate or chain armor? Sword, axe, spear, or bow? Who does the Cleric worship?
• Run just the core rules (or as simplify the rules as much as possible). As a somewhat newbie GM, those rules sometimes are hard to remember unless/until you GM for a while.
• The adventure should be simple, straight-forward, with limited plot-twists. Set up a simple scenario, a band of orcs abducted the Belle of the town and plans to execute her in part of their religious rituals in 3 days. Players go to the Orc lair, free the girl, kill the orcs, and get back to the village before the festival of the gods in a week. Think simple Summer Popcorn movie, instead of psychological thriller or intricate heist drama.
• Let folks walk away if they get bored/uninterested (and either continue them as NPCs, or be able to explain why they leave).

Answer 4

Consider a Hybrid: D&D Boardgames

There are boardgame versions of D&D - everything is self contained in the box: Map tiles, minis, vastly simplified 4e-derived rules, power/item cards, pregenerated characters and scenarios. The monsters are tightly scripted and controlled by the players, so there is no DM - everyone gets to play a character.

Castle Ravenloft

Wrath of Ashardalon

Compared to 4eDnD

The main downside (for some) is that there is no role playing. It's all rolling d20s to fight, disarm, and make saving throws...

The upsides are a much quicker setup and simplified play. Most games I've played lasted about an hour. One (where we lost) took closer to 2 hours.

Answer 5

That's a tough call. Getting my family to play role-playing games is usually like pulling teeth. However, whenever I can pull it off everyone who participates has a load of fun.

Have you considered a basic D&D game? set up is usually pretty quick. Savage Worlds is a fairly fast system but it's too miniatures orientated for my taste. If you can get a board game/rpg game that might work well, but they rarely play out as well as a traditional pen and paper game.

If you GM, you might be able to 'whip up' something. I remember playing with a younger kid who I just knew was going to lose interest if I didn't keep things fast: so I simplified. One skill, one starting special ability, one class, one race and adventure ho! He ended up having a blast and designing his own monsters and such. He kept coming back for more until his character reached level 31 and he decided he wanted to start over. :)