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<blockquote data-quote="Keldryn" data-source="post: 5051486" data-attributes="member: 11999"><p>I'm starting up a new 4e game tomorrow night, and two of the players have never played any edition of D&D before. I seek the collective wisdom of the EN World community in asking for some ideas as to how to do everything I can to make sure these new players stay engaged in and excited about the game.</p><p></p><p>My sister and I are long-time D&D veterans (since 1987), but neither of us have actually played 4e yet. I DMed two short 4e sessions for my wife when we were camping this past summer, but we didn't use a lot of the rules since she had never played D&D before and I only had the core books and a set of dice with me (no minis or battle grids). My wife might decide to play with us tomorrow, so I would actually count her as a third player who hasn't played D&D before.</p><p></p><p>One of the players has played perhaps half a dozen sessions of 4e, but had never played any edition of D&D previously. Another player was his DM for those games (he won't be there tomorrow, but should make it for the second game), but he doesn't have much pre-4e experience (if any). I might have two more players joining in a couple of weeks, and they have played 2e and/or 3.x, but have not yet played 4e.</p><p></p><p>So most of the players and I are still going to be learning the rules of the game. Therefore, I decided to stick with the default 4e setting, rather than Eberron (as I was originally planning on using) or a re-imagined Greyhawk. I was worried about overwhelming the new players with too much stuff to learn, and I waffled for a bit, but I feel pretty confident that I made the right decision here.</p><p></p><p>I've always struggled at the beginning of a new campaign with finding the right hook for the first adventure if the players haven't given me a bit of backstory and character motivations. </p><p></p><p>While it has been strongly criticized, I'm planning to run <em>H1 Keep on the Shadowfell</em> with some modifications (I have been reading several of the threads on that module in these forums), unless I can come up with something better. Kobolds and an evil priest feel somewhat cliched to me, but I'm keeping in mind that the simple-but-iconic villains and setting may resonate more with the new players than something more original. Plus, I think it would be good for me to run some encounters crafted by the 4e design team to help me "un-learn" encounter design habits from previous editions.</p><p></p><p>So, any comments or ideas on how I can best:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">get the new players hooked within the first 20 minutes or so (I already know that I want to start the game more or less in the middle of the action, rather than spend 40 minutes establishing why the PCs are doing this)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">avoid the new players leaving the session with the impression that, to paraphrase a quote I once read on these forums, "D&D looks like it's 20 minutes of fun spread out over 4 hours."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">make sure the new players want to keep playing</li> </ul><p></p><p>Thanks!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Keldryn, post: 5051486, member: 11999"] I'm starting up a new 4e game tomorrow night, and two of the players have never played any edition of D&D before. I seek the collective wisdom of the EN World community in asking for some ideas as to how to do everything I can to make sure these new players stay engaged in and excited about the game. My sister and I are long-time D&D veterans (since 1987), but neither of us have actually played 4e yet. I DMed two short 4e sessions for my wife when we were camping this past summer, but we didn't use a lot of the rules since she had never played D&D before and I only had the core books and a set of dice with me (no minis or battle grids). My wife might decide to play with us tomorrow, so I would actually count her as a third player who hasn't played D&D before. One of the players has played perhaps half a dozen sessions of 4e, but had never played any edition of D&D previously. Another player was his DM for those games (he won't be there tomorrow, but should make it for the second game), but he doesn't have much pre-4e experience (if any). I might have two more players joining in a couple of weeks, and they have played 2e and/or 3.x, but have not yet played 4e. So most of the players and I are still going to be learning the rules of the game. Therefore, I decided to stick with the default 4e setting, rather than Eberron (as I was originally planning on using) or a re-imagined Greyhawk. I was worried about overwhelming the new players with too much stuff to learn, and I waffled for a bit, but I feel pretty confident that I made the right decision here. I've always struggled at the beginning of a new campaign with finding the right hook for the first adventure if the players haven't given me a bit of backstory and character motivations. While it has been strongly criticized, I'm planning to run [I]H1 Keep on the Shadowfell[/I] with some modifications (I have been reading several of the threads on that module in these forums), unless I can come up with something better. Kobolds and an evil priest feel somewhat cliched to me, but I'm keeping in mind that the simple-but-iconic villains and setting may resonate more with the new players than something more original. Plus, I think it would be good for me to run some encounters crafted by the 4e design team to help me "un-learn" encounter design habits from previous editions. So, any comments or ideas on how I can best: [LIST] [*]get the new players hooked within the first 20 minutes or so (I already know that I want to start the game more or less in the middle of the action, rather than spend 40 minutes establishing why the PCs are doing this) [*]avoid the new players leaving the session with the impression that, to paraphrase a quote I once read on these forums, "D&D looks like it's 20 minutes of fun spread out over 4 hours." [*]make sure the new players want to keep playing [/LIST] Thanks! [/QUOTE]
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