Teaching RPGs

[PJ Coffey]

Hasbro is moving to online only, in essence. This will mean that many new role-players won't actually ever have played a game where they've had to use pen and paper.

I thought I'd write a bit about that what with having spent time teaching adults very hard things and teaching players new games and having run a fair few convention games and a roleplaying game club.

Ease of Use -Teaching Roleplaying Games, Part I

Back on my soapbox, wanting Narrator life to be easy, and people to be able to spend time playing the games they want to rather than being miserable they can’t.

homebrewandhacking.com

 

[Umbran]

Hasbro is moving to online only, in essence.

You start with what appears to be a flawed assertion.

 

[PJ Coffey]

You start with what appears to be a flawed assertion.

Perhaps you feel that if everyone is sat around the table using their phones and laptops to run the game that is significantly different from online only?

I don't know. Only you can know what you don't know. Or can you? Difficult philosophical question.

Anyway, I work on the weekly news podcast on this site which covers the TTRPG industry. Could you let me know where the moderation policies are btw? Is it standard for moderators to be rude to posters like this? You ignored my message requesting that information after you banned me from a thread where I was mass reported by D&D fan boys.

Are you going to ban me from this one as well? Or just remove me altogether? I'd normally leave it, but you've decided to proactively be uncivil to me.

 

[Umbran]

Perhaps you feel that if everyone is sat around the table using their phones and laptops to run the game that is significantly different from online only?

No. WotC is still going to be selling hardcopy rulebooks, supplements, and adventures, such that there will be no significant barrier to traditional pencil-and-paper play.

I feel that folks have read that they are adding support for online play as "going online only*.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Hasbro is moving to online only, in essence.

That's not an accurate statement. If you think it is, and the WoTC is going to discontinue selling books (despite what they've said), you should probably provide a citation in which WoTC has announced that they are going to discontinue selling books- because that would be quite the news!

More importantly, unless this is foundational to what you want to actually discuss, you might want to consider not starting your post with the statement.

 

[PJ Coffey]

there will be no significant barrier to traditional pencil-and-paper play.

You think that players being dependent on beyond so that they are at the table on their phones is pencil and paper? And that they retain the skills? Goodness, well that's an assertion.

 

[PJ Coffey]

That's not an accurate statement. If you think it is, and the WoTC is going to discontinue selling books (despite what they've said), you should probably provide a citation in which WoTC has announced that they are going to discontinue selling books- because that would be quite the news!

More importantly, unless this is foundational to what you want to actually discuss, you might want to consider not starting your post with the statement.

Fair enough.

1. The traditional model of TTRPG is that D&D players are onboarded there and then "filter out" to other games when they get bored/discover them.

2. I follow the news quite closely. D&D has been working since mid 22 towards an online heavy presence. As referenced in the piece, (although, admittedly, a separate essay, which I won't make you read ) the "Beyond" character sheet doesn't translate at all well to paper. And by that I mean the information is there but it is extremely user-unfriendly. (Part of what I wrote about character sheet design being the user interface for the game, again a referenced but different bit of writing).

3. I am concerned that because 2 is true that D&D players who are part of the Mind Bogglingly large expansion of the hobby since 2014 and the subsequent explosions of popularity aren't learning the skills that they need to play games without using D&D Beyond. If someone wants to play D&D they are set!

4. However if someone does not want to play D&D then this is a big problem. Because they can't parse non-D&D character sheets and this increases the difficulty in getting people out of the Walled Garden that Hasbro is constructing. Unless someone is working on an app for cool indie and other games, then it becomes much harder to get people to consider playing them.

5. Therefore the non-app having, non-giant website having, part of the TTRPG community needs to stop assuming that the new players who make up the lifeblood of our community will have the correct mechanical skills to engage with unfamiliar games and improve their experience.

6. Part of this will be user experience. I wrote about that already but if people cannot navigate your games character sheets they are less likely to enjoy the game, IMO and indeed IME.

7. Part of this will be empowering players to actively learn and take an interest. The older generations of Gen X and Millennials are used to working things out. Computers were buggy, command line prompts were a thing. For many, many non-traditional gamers they have computers that just work and aren't used to the struggle to get past wonky, unintuitive interfaces. Think of it as an exercise in empathy that benefits everyone. Curb cut effect - Wikipedia backed up by the science and all.

8. I favour teaching players to learn the rules and their characters, mostly because I'm lazy and partly because that encourages them to independently run games.

But I can see you feel differently and that's OK.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

But I can see you feel differently and that's OK.

To briefly address your points.

I personally do not like on-line play. I think you have valid concerns and criticisms about the move toward on-line play. Heck, I agree that there is a qualitative difference in "rules-learning" that I have observed with kids that I teach to play the game when they use on-line character generators, as opposed to the old "pencil and paper" method.

I also believe that Hasbro is trying to get more people to play on-line, and trying to capture that sweet, sweet recurring subscription revenue in D&D Beyond.

Finally, I have my own concerns that some of the next release's rules are shaded toward the direction of making the game easier for on-line play and VTTs, as opposed to being good in-and-of-themselves.

I just would part company as to the idea that they are moving on-line only. AFAIK, they will continue to support "legacy gaming" (ugh) for the foreseeable future. Because they still make a lot of money off of that.

 

[Umbran]

You think that players being dependent on beyond so that they are at the table on their phones is pencil and paper? And that they retain the skills? Goodness, well that's an assertion.

I don't think players are, or will be, dependent on Beyond. Hardcopy books, and hardcopy sheets, will still exist and be useful. The 2024 books will maintain that.

Beyond is a good tool. Their character sheet and management are really good. But we can play without it just fine.

 

[Umbran]

I personally do not like on-line play.

I currently run an in-person game, and play in one online D&D game, and one online Fate Accelerated game. I prefer the in-person game, but the other two games wouldn't exist if they weren't online, and the lesser experience of online play is better than not playing with these friends across the country who I wouldn't see otherwise.

I also believe that Hasbro is trying to get more people to play on-line, and trying to capture that sweet, sweet recurring subscription revenue in D&D Beyond.

Also, covid has simply changed the world. However much we may like online play less, a lot of people prefer it now, and it would be a downright silly business choice for WotC to not give them suitable support.