New answers tagged new-players
0
You can help the new player in many ways, but first I will try to relate to his current experiences.
Does he plays CRPG, MMORPG, RTS or are into collectible card games etc?
Those are games, which if you want to enjoy them, will require time in reading up builds, strategies, walkthroughs and practises. Depending on the style of game you play, tell the ...
0
I've done the "meet up with guys beforehand" thing, and to be honest it did feel like a job interview. And the thing of it was, there was one really bad seed in that group who simply did not make himself known as a bad seed until we started RPing. My suggestion is this: start small and always be on the lookout for fresh blood. If you have 3 or 4 guys you ...
1
One of the neater things (I think, anyway) that the designers of 4E did was define a bunch of player archetypes for DMs to understand. The whole point of archetyping, of course, isn't to lump every player of yours into one of those pre-defined groups, but to recognize them - sometimes a player is several archetypes at once - and respond accordingly. And ...
7
"Homework" for RPG's is traditionally the near-exclusive provenance of the GM, not the other players.
What a player truly needs to know for Pathfinder (or other d20 system games) can mostly be learned in play.
As a 32+ year GM, I can say honestly that few of my players put in much "homework" once they have the basics of a game. And the ones who memorize ...
3
Decide What Kind Of Game You're Running
It's totally cool to run "seat of the pants" D&D. You can also choose a different RPG, there are many that are rules light, but (shhh - don't tell the rules wonks!) you can run Pathfinder as low rules and loosey-goosey as you want. My first D&D game was run in a car on the way to Scout camps at night - no ...
13
He doesn't need to pick up the books in the first place. RPG's are a recreational activity. If he doesn't want to spend time reading gaming books, then he really has no obligation to do so. Maybe tabletop RPG's just aren't for him. Perhaps he's just going along with everyone because he wants to hang out with the group or doesn't want to be the wet ...
2
This has always been a problem for one of my groups-they view the rules as something that the GM tells them whenever things come up. Fortunately, they're usually pretty understanding when I say that I'm not going to run through every last possibility they could consider when giving them options, but I still wind up babysitting them a lot. (For instance, in ...
7
You may want to focus your efforts on making the necessary materials available for him at game time, because once the game starts he'll hopefully realize the value of knowing more of the rules. Once he sees the other players making their characters do exciting things and doesn't know how to do the same with his character, hand him a short list of page ...
4
As already mentioned, just treat her like another player. Any kid of special treatment/protection really isn't needed, and has the potential to cause issues in it's own right.
If your other players do end up causing a problem, deal with it head on. It's up to you if you want to talk to them in the middle of the game, or later, but do it. It's likely your ...
7
I've run games in high school, college, and after college in which girls or women were invited after the campaign had started.
In the high school game two girls joined because they wanted to get closer to two of the guys in the group. They wound up playing in my RuneQuest campaign for several months, until we graduated and the game died as we all scattered ...
-4
I can remember some really good column that talked about this. While I can't find it (I guess it was somewhere here, it's full of interesting articles on related matters and I suggest you to get a culture on the argument) I can recall some of the focal points.
The main problem is that this new woman is probably going to be separated from the rest of the ...
-6
I really see this as a problem engendered by 4e and by people introduced to RPGs through MMORGs, although one could argue that it started back when skills were first invented. The principle of "first decide what you want to do narratively and then figure out how to model it mechanically" isn't unique to FATE--it's how all RPGs used to work. Matthew Finch's ...
16
It really depends on your players.
What I've found is that the women who have joined my groups tend to prefer if they're just treated as another player, and the gender question is entirely ignored. If your players are sophisticated enough that this isn't a problem, then it won't be.
However, if you have a problem table; here are some things to consider.
...
3
Definitely elevator pitch your game.
"It's a Lovecraftian cyberpunk game that focuses more on action than horror, with the good guys thwarting sinister incursions left and right."
If nobody bites, they're not interested. Include the genre and feel, as well as, if necessary, hints about the type of game. If they're veteran roleplayers, this is probably only ...
5
I've been in a very similar situation with a Savage Worlds zombie game I wanted to run, and there were several things I did that helped.
Make it really, really clear in your 'sales pitch' what you are expecting from players in the game
Be explicit here. The more detail you can give the better, and it will mean everyone starts the game on the same page ...
5
However, how can I make sure the players I pick are players I want in my campaign? I want this to be a more serious, mature game than other games I've played in and I need players that can handle this while also being respectful to each other.
So how can I screen potential players without making them feel like it's a job interview?
To me, this ...
5
"how can I make sure the players I pick are players I want in my campaign"
As with all group games, it will become more "our campaign" than "my campaign" as it goes on.
Attending the RPG meetup and asking people what they want from a game and why they play RPGs in casual conversation will give you a good idea of whether them playing is likely to evolve ...
17
On the one occasion we started a new group from scratch, we all went out to dinner together, during which we talked about what we were looking for in a game and did some basic worldbuilding. Also, it meant hanging out in a social situation and just getting to know each other. If it didn't end up working out, I believe it would be a softer rejection this way, ...
3
I’m not super-familiar with Savage Worlds so I don’t know how feasible this is, but what I have usually done is requested characters from all interested players, and then chosen the characters who best fit the intended campaign, or picked the characters whose backstories have indicated that their players have had the appropriate mindset for the ...
3
I have started people in a couple of fiction-driven "story games" and the greatest issue they have is being unable to choose an action.
To help them with this I generally start the game in medias res which means that they have to respond to an imminent threat of some kind.
With my last group I started by saying "OK, you are pelting down the steep hillside ...
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