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D&D Older Editions
Raiders of Oakhurst: A 4E Fan Playtest Adventure
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<blockquote data-quote="Ebon Shar" data-source="post: 4085583" data-attributes="member: 50400"><p><strong>Teaching 4e to non-gamers</strong></p><p></p><p>Tonight I attempted to teach my kids to play 4e. For the most part, they are not familiar with D&D or roleplaying in general. My 14 year old, however, is an avid player and participant in the RPGA. She is well versed in 3.5. My boys, 11 and 12, and my other daughter, also 12, have played the 3.5 intro game a few times, but are not at all familiar with the rules. In addition, my 11 year old boy has ADD and his medication had long worn off.</p><p></p><p>Sooooo....</p><p></p><p>It didn't really go well. I started the game by trying to explain the basics. I had assumed from their past experience that they would at least be familiar with the basic concepts. That proved not to be the case. As a result, I had a hard time explaining any of the new 4e concepts, such as at-will powers, etc. The experienced 14 year old was dismayed at the drastic changes to the game, but was enthusiastic to get started.</p><p></p><p>We only got through the first cavern, and just barely. Before all the kobolds and Varkaze fell, two of the players had asked to be excused from boredom. Of course, one was the lad with ADD who really struggled to focus on anything when it was not his turn. That was not the fault of the game, of course. The 12 year old girl also quit, but D&D for her is just something she does to humor her geeky old dad.</p><p></p><p>The interesting thing, I found, was that my 14 year old kept trying to help her siblings by making tactical suggestions, all using 3.5 rules. I had to constantly remind her there was no such thing as Precise Shot anymore, nor was there 1-2-1 movement. Also, the kids could not really grasp the use of their at-will powers, and kept trying to default to their standard attacks. Due to the complexity of record keeping that they seemed to have no interest in, we didn't use any of the "marking" abilities of the PC's. The wizard ended up using MM almost constantly, but was able to use Scorching Blast effectively when the Kobolds grouped. The Ranger used Careful Attack during every round. The Fighter, my ADD afflicted 11 year old, just wanted to smach skulls and did not have the patience to learn about or use his at-will abilities. Only the Cleric, of course played by my experienced child, made careful use of her at-will and per-encounter abilities.</p><p></p><p>I'm not sure what conclusions can be drawn from this brief game, other than that half my kids have little to no interest in the game. The inexperienced child that was interested did well, but required constant reminders of his character's powers. It seemed to me that the amount of choice and the varying tactics that he could have employed was a bit confusing for him. He was just a bit overwhelmed. My experienced daughter picked up everything pretty quickly, but she had a hard time discarding ingrained 3.5 rules. Again, constant reminders were needed to get across to her that the rules were completely different and that she should just let go of all those 3.5 artifacts she was dragging around. She is looking forward to future games and had an overall positive experience with the new rules.</p><p></p><p>Bottom line: I expected the kids to pick up the rules and concepts easier than they did. Teaching them the 3.5 basic games was less stressful and was more easily accomplished. Perhaps, as I've heard others state, streamlined does not necessarily mean easier.</p><p></p><p>I look forward to playing with more experienced gamers to get a better grasp of the game myself, but I enjoyed it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ebon Shar, post: 4085583, member: 50400"] [b]Teaching 4e to non-gamers[/b] Tonight I attempted to teach my kids to play 4e. For the most part, they are not familiar with D&D or roleplaying in general. My 14 year old, however, is an avid player and participant in the RPGA. She is well versed in 3.5. My boys, 11 and 12, and my other daughter, also 12, have played the 3.5 intro game a few times, but are not at all familiar with the rules. In addition, my 11 year old boy has ADD and his medication had long worn off. Sooooo.... It didn't really go well. I started the game by trying to explain the basics. I had assumed from their past experience that they would at least be familiar with the basic concepts. That proved not to be the case. As a result, I had a hard time explaining any of the new 4e concepts, such as at-will powers, etc. The experienced 14 year old was dismayed at the drastic changes to the game, but was enthusiastic to get started. We only got through the first cavern, and just barely. Before all the kobolds and Varkaze fell, two of the players had asked to be excused from boredom. Of course, one was the lad with ADD who really struggled to focus on anything when it was not his turn. That was not the fault of the game, of course. The 12 year old girl also quit, but D&D for her is just something she does to humor her geeky old dad. The interesting thing, I found, was that my 14 year old kept trying to help her siblings by making tactical suggestions, all using 3.5 rules. I had to constantly remind her there was no such thing as Precise Shot anymore, nor was there 1-2-1 movement. Also, the kids could not really grasp the use of their at-will powers, and kept trying to default to their standard attacks. Due to the complexity of record keeping that they seemed to have no interest in, we didn't use any of the "marking" abilities of the PC's. The wizard ended up using MM almost constantly, but was able to use Scorching Blast effectively when the Kobolds grouped. The Ranger used Careful Attack during every round. The Fighter, my ADD afflicted 11 year old, just wanted to smach skulls and did not have the patience to learn about or use his at-will abilities. Only the Cleric, of course played by my experienced child, made careful use of her at-will and per-encounter abilities. I'm not sure what conclusions can be drawn from this brief game, other than that half my kids have little to no interest in the game. The inexperienced child that was interested did well, but required constant reminders of his character's powers. It seemed to me that the amount of choice and the varying tactics that he could have employed was a bit confusing for him. He was just a bit overwhelmed. My experienced daughter picked up everything pretty quickly, but she had a hard time discarding ingrained 3.5 rules. Again, constant reminders were needed to get across to her that the rules were completely different and that she should just let go of all those 3.5 artifacts she was dragging around. She is looking forward to future games and had an overall positive experience with the new rules. Bottom line: I expected the kids to pick up the rules and concepts easier than they did. Teaching them the 3.5 basic games was less stressful and was more easily accomplished. Perhaps, as I've heard others state, streamlined does not necessarily mean easier. I look forward to playing with more experienced gamers to get a better grasp of the game myself, but I enjoyed it. [/QUOTE]
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