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Avatar of the Irrelevant
Diomedes
Commander
3171 Posts
    
 | | 02/27/2008 8:30 AM |  Alert | So, one of my co-workers has been begging me to throw together a D&D game as he's always been curious about playing.
He has recruited ~5 of my co-workers, and I roped my wife into it (since she's a seasoned gamer at this point and can help show them the ropes).
I've been spending my time writing long winded e-mails trying to explain what a role playing game is and how this whole bloody thing works. I think at least half of them still think they can win this game...
Anyhow, I'm looking for a suggestion (if any of you would be kind enough) of a module to run and any advise. I'd really like to give them a feel for the game, so I'm almost tempted to toss them in right by a dungeon. At the same time, the combat rules are complicated and scary to them, so maybe I shouldn't have a dungeon delving party. I guess I'm just afraid that if I dump them in a starting town, they're going to spend the entire night arguing with inn keepers and leave with the wrong impression of D&D.
Any advise? Typically I'm just dealing with old gamers now a days, or maybe just one new person (who is a significant other of an old gamer and has been taught most things ahead of time). I'm a little daunted by a large possee of blank faces who have the potential to totally derail a game. I'd rather not have them leave feeling frustrated.
Thanks,
Dio
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Shottglazz
Sergeant
831 Posts
Quinte West, Ontario, Canada
| | 02/27/2008 9:04 AM | Alert | | Maybe Return to the Keep on the Borderlands? | |
Shottglazz
"Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand;
I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me."
Completed trades ( 40 ): Pikel, Darrell, JeffDHarvey, BiggPappa001, Ghendar, Valinrook X2, Wolfgang x2, Wraithborne x4, Mr Ruffles, Anothermullen, CKissee x3, Browns_Scoundrel, Kyrin, GuJiaXian x2, Tyngfumv, Basic_Aim, Mickey Mouse, Berus316, Crisisman, Zoons, Rockfrd, Sterling40 x2, Brucemc, 2007 Magical Mystery Trade, Redskullz x2, Stephengroy, Lyus_Sleyden, Foolforthought, 2008 Magical Mystery Trade, Kilsek
Pending trades ( 2 ): Generic Fighter, Wraithborne
WotC trades ( 1 ): Red_Deceiver
Bad trades ( 2 ): LeftEyeofGruumsh, Yotebeth | |
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Oryan77
Sergeant
944 Posts
| | 02/27/2008 11:42 AM | Alert | Don't be so quick to assume how they'll react to D&D. You'll be surprised what new players do in a first session. Don't hold back either...run it exactly like you would any other game except that you should probably go easy on them. So roleplay & run combats like normal, but let them get away with more than you might normally put up with. Don't avoid roleplaying town NPCs just because you think they'll get the wrong impression. If they are spending all night arguing with inn keepers, then you're not doing your job as a DM :P If you feel like they aren't enjoying the moment, then do something to change the moment and make the session more interesting.
Don't get all complicated either. I'd stick to the traditional (overused but effective) 'you all are in a tavern' scenario to start the session off. I guarantee if you start the session immediately with a drunken bully that picks a fight with one of the PCs and initiates a bar brawl, your new players will bond very fast and get a real kick out of the game. Then when they've beaten up a few patrons and feel a close bond with each other, have a local approach them with the hook to start the first adventure, "I heard about your brawl in the tavern...word is, you guys really womped ol' Beuford & his gang. I was wondering if you might help me out...."
If you're doing 3e, I'd run Sunless Citadel. It's a classic (I get to call it a classic now that 4e is coming out) and it is built to educate new players on how to use the various rules. It provides chances for players to have to familiarize themselves with rules and it gradually delves farther into the rules options as you go. It's also a great story centered around a good town/starting point.
Another adventure that's pretty good for new players is the Dungeon Mag adventure path (Age of Worms) that starts in issue #124. The makeup is similar to Sunless Citadel but I still liked Sunless Citadel better.
The most important thing is, you don't want to overwhelm them with stupid rules. Don't be a stickler with the rules. And don't bore them by making them deal with pointless things (like getting lost in the woods and trying to figure out how to get to the dungeon, or spending an hour figuring out a puzzle). You need to hook them into D&D, so blast them with the ammo that makes D&D so fun!
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| Master of the
Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
5407 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 02/28/2008 8:54 AM | Alert | Oryan has some good ideas. I like to use Sunless citadel, or 3 days to kill (penumbra) as an icebreaker in any group. Tavern start is a great idea, it's typical, and comfortable.
Definitely use a map and minis, it makes the combat easier to grok.
Most of all, it's easiest to learn by just doing.
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Official Delegate, Wizards of the Coast
Against The Giants Called Shot: Huge Green Dragon
Icons Called Shot: Gargantuan Prismatic Dragon
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen." | |
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Avatar of the Irrelevant
Diomedes
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 02/28/2008 9:44 AM | Alert | Alright, I dusted off my Sunless Citadel. Once again the twig blights will go terrorizing cattle.
Thanks for the advise. I'll give them more freedom than I was planning to and hope that the run with it.
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| Master of the
Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
5407 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 02/29/2008 9:23 AM | Alert | Posted By Diomedes on 02/28/2008 9:44 AM
Alright, I dusted off my Sunless Citadel. Once again the twig blights will go terrorizing cattle.
Thanks for the advise. I'll give them more freedom than I was planning to and hope that the run with it.
You shoudl get a good feel for them in the first hour or so, as far as how they're going to play.
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Official Delegate, Wizards of the Coast
Against The Giants Called Shot: Huge Green Dragon
Icons Called Shot: Gargantuan Prismatic Dragon
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen." | |
| Knight of the
Round Table
Thenameless
Warlord
8004 Posts
The Fortress of Solitude
| | 02/29/2008 8:29 PM | Alert | | The good players/DM's above have given enough advice about mechanics. The only thing that I can add is for you to set the mood as the DM. Try to get the players used to speaking in character, as opposed to meta-gaming a bunch of minis around the table (often what our RPG sessions de-generate to). If everyone (including you) feels that they are immersed in an interesting and fantastic world, they will come back for more. | |
Over 270 successful online DDM trades. | |
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bshugg
Underboss
1707 Posts
| | 03/01/2008 4:23 PM | Alert | | if you can get the adventure from DnD game day this year it was fairly good and basic. Sunless citidel is really long for brand new gamers. | |
Looking for someone to cosponser a midwest DDM event. let me know if your interested!
Check out my brand new blog:
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| The Great
Choco Monster
Ghendar
Warlord
10647 Posts
In the constellation of Cygnus, or Central Connecticut
| | 03/14/2008 5:24 AM | Alert | | Did you run it yet Dio? How did it go? | |
The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner and RPG designer from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute and RPGA certified DM named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark and THAC0. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons, D&D every night. In the spring we'd make meat helmets for LARP. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag, forced to walk the walk of a thousand four siders, and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe, which was very handy for D&D. At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles for LARP. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it.
Spreading the love of the Digitus Impudicus
Champion of the Spider Eater with rider.
I actually love to be swallowed. - Posted By gss_000 on 09/04/2007 2:32 PM
How many times in life do you get to eat your own Ctulhu? - Posted By Pedro on 03/31/2008 2:29 | |
| Master of the
Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
5407 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 03/14/2008 10:26 AM | Alert | Inquiring minds (as well as I) want to know!
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Official Delegate, Wizards of the Coast
Against The Giants Called Shot: Huge Green Dragon
Icons Called Shot: Gargantuan Prismatic Dragon
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen." | |
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arbados
Underboss
1374 Posts
New York, USA
| | 03/16/2008 8:27 PM | Alert | Hey Dio: I love the idea of getting newbies into the game. We were all there at one point. Just keep this little thought in mind. Think about when we all first started playing D & D and what got us interested. The old tavern beginning is probably what we all dealt with initially. Although us seasoned players look at this start as a bit "old" for a new player it is great! The old tavern brawl to get them going, the old creepy man offering them a map with a clue to some treasure, a rumor of a powerful and dangerous guardian to the lair which is protecting this treasure all encapsulated into a dungeaon!
Go easy on the rules and fudge the dice to make then feel threatened knowing that you will ensure that they survive this first day of gaming with fear! New players will not know, nor understand the old DM dice fudging to build up the excitement! Have fun! | |
Give me more MIND FLAYERS! | |
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Avatar of the Irrelevant
Diomedes
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 03/17/2008 1:06 PM | Alert | Did you run it yet Dio? How did it go?
I'm still talking them through character creation. I think I almost scared them all off while explaining skills. I've been doing a lot of the foot work for them (summarizing key portions of the phb and helping them pick which skills/stats fit their character)... but still. It should be a week or two and they're ready to go, hopefully.
Think about when we all first started playing D & D and what got us interested.
I think I started playing at ~12. The things that interested me at the time are no longer what hold my interest :P In fact, if hard pressed, I'd have a really hard time explaining to someone just what I like about D&D. Most of the easy things I could think of could be replied to with a "well why not just play a computer MMORPG? you get your social aspect and character development". And you know, there's a certain truth to that, probably why a lot of people who I know play both D&D AND WoW (or another MMO). But there's something else too... some creative component that I have a hard time nailing down.
What worries me is that personally I start to get my first feel for that creative component when I roll a character. I see a general shape for their psyche, I start to flesh out moods, preferences, I see their potential adventures unfolding into the future and I get excited! If they're at the character creation phase right now and they're not all excited, I'm worried that I'm going to loose them. Well, maybe they'll just enjoy a different aspect in the game than what I enjoy. I think it's important that I get in some RP, some solid "adventuring", and a bit of combat to make sure that they get a taste for the different aspects of the game. Hopefully they'll find their magic "it" that draws them to the game.
Although to be honest, I expect several of them will not return for a second session. I think a lot of them are just curious what it's all about, but some won't find it to their liking. This is alright with me too... everyone can do their own thing in life, it doesn't bug me. I just want to make sure that they give the game a fair shake. And if they try it, and hate it, it's that they just don't like the game rather than I did a bad job of exposing them to it. Because it'd be a shame to miss out on a life long hobby because your first DM was bad >.>
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Shottglazz
Sergeant
831 Posts
Quinte West, Ontario, Canada
| | 03/17/2008 1:30 PM | Alert | | Dio - I'd recommend for their first characters, using the templates out of the PHB - it creates somewhat 1-dimensional characters, but they're usually effective for newbies... | |
Shottglazz
"Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand;
I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me."
Completed trades ( 40 ): Pikel, Darrell, JeffDHarvey, BiggPappa001, Ghendar, Valinrook X2, Wolfgang x2, Wraithborne x4, Mr Ruffles, Anothermullen, CKissee x3, Browns_Scoundrel, Kyrin, GuJiaXian x2, Tyngfumv, Basic_Aim, Mickey Mouse, Berus316, Crisisman, Zoons, Rockfrd, Sterling40 x2, Brucemc, 2007 Magical Mystery Trade, Redskullz x2, Stephengroy, Lyus_Sleyden, Foolforthought, 2008 Magical Mystery Trade, Kilsek
Pending trades ( 2 ): Generic Fighter, Wraithborne
WotC trades ( 1 ): Red_Deceiver
Bad trades ( 2 ): LeftEyeofGruumsh, Yotebeth | |
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dagonet
Sergeant
439 Posts
| | 03/17/2008 1:31 PM | Alert | Heya Diomedes,
I play a simplified homebrew rather than actual D&D 3.5, but
there's an awful lot of nitty-gritty,
choose-six-from-the-menu-of-one-hundred stuff going on in character
creation these days. It might be to your advantage (and help
kindle a bit more interest) for you to create a spectrum of
pre-generated characters, rather than having everyone assemble a PC
from scratch. This way, all you have to do is expain how each of
the pregens works and what their (combat/non-combat) options are (as
opposed to describing everything in the PHB), and the guy who really doesn't care
whether his new fighter's last two skill points go into Intimidate or
Spot can get right into the action.
Cheers,
Dagonet
Edit: D'oh! Scooped by Shottglazz! =)
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"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
Champion of Kyuss and his Servants of Squishy Doom | |
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Avatar of the Irrelevant
Diomedes
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 03/17/2008 1:50 PM | Alert | | Hmm, maybe I will just pop out the template then.... I'll go poll them on the subject see how they feel. I know a bunch of them are excited to do it all themselves, but maybe others would rather not fuss with it. | |
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Avatar of the Irrelevant
Diomedes
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 03/17/2008 6:00 PM | Alert | LMAO.
So I proposed that since some people really wanted to work out all of the nitty grittyness of their character, and some did not, that I could just use a template for those who didn't want to work it all out.
The characters who _did_ want to work it all out just told me it was uber-lame and if I did that I should subtract 4 from every single stat for those using a template :P yar....
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Shottglazz
Sergeant
831 Posts
Quinte West, Ontario, Canada
| | 04/14/2008 10:35 AM | Alert | | How did this work out? | |
Shottglazz
"Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand;
I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me."
Completed trades ( 40 ): Pikel, Darrell, JeffDHarvey, BiggPappa001, Ghendar, Valinrook X2, Wolfgang x2, Wraithborne x4, Mr Ruffles, Anothermullen, CKissee x3, Browns_Scoundrel, Kyrin, GuJiaXian x2, Tyngfumv, Basic_Aim, Mickey Mouse, Berus316, Crisisman, Zoons, Rockfrd, Sterling40 x2, Brucemc, 2007 Magical Mystery Trade, Redskullz x2, Stephengroy, Lyus_Sleyden, Foolforthought, 2008 Magical Mystery Trade, Kilsek
Pending trades ( 2 ): Generic Fighter, Wraithborne
WotC trades ( 1 ): Red_Deceiver
Bad trades ( 2 ): LeftEyeofGruumsh, Yotebeth | |
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Avatar of the Irrelevant
Diomedes
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 04/15/2008 2:10 PM | Alert | | Game date on the 25th. Kind of a long stall on their part, a lot of them are taking classes on the side and asked for me to give them two weeks for finals and then come back to it. The first weekend everyone had free was the 25th, so that's when it is :P They've taken to telling D&D "jokes" at lunch "ahah! you rolled a 1 on your open ketchup packet skill check!" So I'm assuming they're gravy.... | |
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Shottglazz
Sergeant
831 Posts
Quinte West, Ontario, Canada
| | 04/15/2008 2:58 PM | Alert | | Nice - when they're comfortable enough to make game-lingo jokes, they're (usually) good to go... | |
Shottglazz
"Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand;
I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me."
Completed trades ( 40 ): Pikel, Darrell, JeffDHarvey, BiggPappa001, Ghendar, Valinrook X2, Wolfgang x2, Wraithborne x4, Mr Ruffles, Anothermullen, CKissee x3, Browns_Scoundrel, Kyrin, GuJiaXian x2, Tyngfumv, Basic_Aim, Mickey Mouse, Berus316, Crisisman, Zoons, Rockfrd, Sterling40 x2, Brucemc, 2007 Magical Mystery Trade, Redskullz x2, Stephengroy, Lyus_Sleyden, Foolforthought, 2008 Magical Mystery Trade, Kilsek
Pending trades ( 2 ): Generic Fighter, Wraithborne
WotC trades ( 1 ): Red_Deceiver
Bad trades ( 2 ): LeftEyeofGruumsh, Yotebeth | |
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Jerry
Skirmisher
12 Posts
Detroit, MI
| | 04/15/2008 5:19 PM | Alert | Probably a tad too late, but "Dungeons and Dragons for Dummies" came in quite useful for a group of newbies from work. The first third of the book is enough to get a person familiar with D&D, the second third goes into a bit more detail, and the last third covers more advanced topics (character optimization, DMing, house rules). It also comes with a number of pregenerated, "ready to play" characters.
It only covers 4 classes, but its a great "how-to" for beginning and even intermediate players.
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"A computer once beat me at chess. But it was no match for me at kickboxing." | |
| Master of the
Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
5407 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 04/19/2008 4:53 AM | Alert | Posted By Jerry on 04/15/2008 5:19 PM
Probably a tad too late, but "Dungeons and Dragons for Dummies" came in quite useful for a group of newbies from work. The first third of the book is enough to get a person familiar with D&D, the second third goes into a bit more detail, and the last third covers more advanced topics (character optimization, DMing, house rules). It also comes with a number of pregenerated, "ready to play" characters.
It only covers 4 classes, but its a great "how-to" for beginning and even intermediate players.
Oh, good point. The D&D Players kit is also pretty good. (you can spirl bind the PH, which is aso wicked sweet. | |
Official Delegate, Wizards of the Coast
Against The Giants Called Shot: Huge Green Dragon
Icons Called Shot: Gargantuan Prismatic Dragon
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen." | |
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Avatar of the Irrelevant
Diomedes
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 04/25/2008 9:09 PM | Alert | We gamed tonight.... great success... I'll type more tomorrow, g'night.
-Dio | |
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Avatar of the Irrelevant
Diomedes
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 04/26/2008 8:08 AM | Alert | So the game actually went incredibly well. We only made it through the first 5 rooms of sunless citadel, but they all fell into character shockingly quickly O.o and ran with it. The game ground to an utter halt every time we ran into combat as more or less no one knew the rules so I was talking them through that each time, but people didn't seem to mind too terribly much.
A lot of them mentioned they'd be more prepared for next time. All and all, I'd count it as 5 more d&d players added to the fold :P | |
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| Master of the
Awesome Sauce
Teflon Jeff
Warlord
5407 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 04/28/2008 8:59 AM | Alert | Nice, good haul Dio.
D&D: +5
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Official Delegate, Wizards of the Coast
Against The Giants Called Shot: Huge Green Dragon
Icons Called Shot: Gargantuan Prismatic Dragon
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen." | |
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stephengroy
Underboss
1129 Posts
Gilbert, AZ
| | 04/28/2008 10:09 PM | Alert | Find out what the players as people enjoy, and cater to them. Do some like comedies? Make it funny! Do some like horror? Make it scary! Dance, Monkey, Dance! If the players like your story, they'll be back.
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I Hate you Milkman Dan | |
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