Li Shenron
Legend
I can bring my experience of teaching D&D 5e to our own kids, and also both 3e and 5e to many adult beginners/casual gamers, but I'll focus on the purpose of teaching a 10yrs (my youngest were actually younger when we started playing).
You are absolutely right to avoid excessive rules explanations at all costs. In fact, I suggest you teach nothing about the rules before starting. It's not easy to avoid, because as soon as they will see the character sheet, they will start asking what's the meaning of this and that. Resist telling them the details... stay generic and respond in a single sentence: "What's AC?" "A number that tells how good is your defense in combat". Promise you'll explain the rules when they will actually come into play.
And about telling the "basics of roleplaying"... what's that? Just tell the kid(s) they will be playing a character in a fantasy story full of monsters, traps and battles! The only "basics" to know is that you can't always get what you want, you decide what you want to do, and the rules + dice rolls will tell you what you get.
Even though character generation is a huge part of RPGing, I strongly agree with you that pregens are better for the first session ever, unless you already have the strong feeling that the players are interested in a long-term hobby. Even with 5e fast generation of characters, it will still take the kid a long time making decisions. It's better that you create a few pregens, and you only let them choose which one to play. Let them fill some non-mechanical details if they want to (e.g. appearance, personality) but don't force them to... this is stuff that can be added later or just emerges from playing. Ask them to pick a name, and start the story immediately.
Yes, but don't go too far in the first session. A map and a bunch of minis is enough to engage the players.
Yes and no... I think it's a good thing to teach them that the game has boundaries, but of course it should not frustrate them.
Up to you. I am biased because I don't like Eberron, but in general I would rather go with the most "classical" fantasy world possible, so that their first experience is the most largely shared with other players in history. Hence, I'd go with a "vanilla D&D setting" that has humans/elves/dwarves/halflings on the good side, and orcs/undead/dragons and other iconic monsters on the evil side.
Sounds great, but it might be hard to fit everything on a single session.
I think it might be better to make sure your first session will be self-contained, such as a single mini-dungeon to explore, as a "coming-of-age" adventure for the main character. IMHO it gives a good feeling to a beginner to "complete" their first quest on day 1. If he likes the game, you can then have the real adventure with all its parts start on session 2, and then not worry about taking a break, because if he's up to session 2 then he'll also be up to session 3 and 4 and...
This is the only part that worries me. The absolute best feature of RPGs is that they are cooperative games. If he's playing alone, he'll be missing this key feature. Playing multiple characters won't make up for it, and it can even be a bad idea for a beginner. Try the best you can to find someone else to play together (at least 3 players)!
You are absolutely right to avoid excessive rules explanations at all costs. In fact, I suggest you teach nothing about the rules before starting. It's not easy to avoid, because as soon as they will see the character sheet, they will start asking what's the meaning of this and that. Resist telling them the details... stay generic and respond in a single sentence: "What's AC?" "A number that tells how good is your defense in combat". Promise you'll explain the rules when they will actually come into play.
And about telling the "basics of roleplaying"... what's that? Just tell the kid(s) they will be playing a character in a fantasy story full of monsters, traps and battles! The only "basics" to know is that you can't always get what you want, you decide what you want to do, and the rules + dice rolls will tell you what you get.
Even though character generation is a huge part of RPGing, I strongly agree with you that pregens are better for the first session ever, unless you already have the strong feeling that the players are interested in a long-term hobby. Even with 5e fast generation of characters, it will still take the kid a long time making decisions. It's better that you create a few pregens, and you only let them choose which one to play. Let them fill some non-mechanical details if they want to (e.g. appearance, personality) but don't force them to... this is stuff that can be added later or just emerges from playing. Ask them to pick a name, and start the story immediately.
Yes, but don't go too far in the first session. A map and a bunch of minis is enough to engage the players.
Yes and no... I think it's a good thing to teach them that the game has boundaries, but of course it should not frustrate them.
Up to you. I am biased because I don't like Eberron, but in general I would rather go with the most "classical" fantasy world possible, so that their first experience is the most largely shared with other players in history. Hence, I'd go with a "vanilla D&D setting" that has humans/elves/dwarves/halflings on the good side, and orcs/undead/dragons and other iconic monsters on the evil side.
Sounds great, but it might be hard to fit everything on a single session.
I think it might be better to make sure your first session will be self-contained, such as a single mini-dungeon to explore, as a "coming-of-age" adventure for the main character. IMHO it gives a good feeling to a beginner to "complete" their first quest on day 1. If he likes the game, you can then have the real adventure with all its parts start on session 2, and then not worry about taking a break, because if he's up to session 2 then he'll also be up to session 3 and 4 and...
This is the only part that worries me. The absolute best feature of RPGs is that they are cooperative games. If he's playing alone, he'll be missing this key feature. Playing multiple characters won't make up for it, and it can even be a bad idea for a beginner. Try the best you can to find someone else to play together (at least 3 players)!
