D&D General How long do new players get before they're expected to know the rules?

[Gilladian]

Since I play with my 83 year old mother, who struggles to remember which dice to roll when, I give other players a LOT of leeway. We have a new player, who hasn't played since 1e; she's doing really well with picking up the big rules, and is even taking time to read details about skills, etc... so I think she'll know some things better than I do, soon.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Since I play with my 83 year old mother, who struggles to remember which dice to roll when, I give other players a LOT of leeway. We have a new player, who hasn't played since 1e; she's doing really well with picking up the big rules, and is even taking time to read details about skills, etc... so I think she'll know some things better than I do, soon.

How did your 83 year old mother come to join your gaming group?

 

[Coroc]

Some of my players have difficulties with English material, since we all are no native speakers. For them it might take a little longer to decide e.g. what spell to use. But I do not mind, it is recreation time not work.
All of them are experienced in RPGs and some of them DM themselves. So I can rely on that they know what their character can do.
I tended to analyse things in advance, e.g. the spellcaster has this and that and that which can lead to an unexpected twist. I do not do this any longer. Instead for some campaigns I houserule e.g. no flight or no teleport or no both of it sometimes I do not. And then I let myself be surprised -after all that is the challenge for the DM so that is my fun part.
It is a great relief though that I do not have to track someone's spells memorized and slots used, they all do that themselves without willful cheating of course.

 

[akr71]

Usually when I have new players, I try to have a few seasoned players at the table too. It give new players more than one player to ask, and the option to confirm things before play comes around to them. I do hope that after 2 or 3 levels, they can take care of leveling up and managing their character themselves.

However, we are all adults with careers, children, pets, etc, so game night is sometimes infrequent at best. I'm pretty tolerant when players knowledge of the rules is lacking, they are rusty, or whatever. We get together for fun, snacks and a few adult beverages.

 

[5ekyu]

One of my best players really never did.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I am not too worried about players taking time to learn the rules. I think slowly gaining rules mastery over the course of play (rather than through studying the book) is fine, and even preferable to a degree. What I do discourage is players who are unfamiliar with the rules from playing characters that could be slow in the hands of a player who is not fully familiar with the system. Classic example in D&D would be a wizard where the player takes too long picking or reading over spell descriptions during combat. That kind of slow-down can be frustrating if it keeps happening. But I do keep things pretty laid back and easy going in my games

 

[Prakriti]

I lock my players in a bare room with nothing but the PHB for 15 minutes. If they can't recite all of Chapters 5 and 11 from memory after that, then they're gone.

 

[Mistwell]

I never expect the players to learn the rules. It's nice when they do, but... meh.

They tell me what they want to do. I tell them what to roll.

What's FAR more important to me is: Are they fun to be around?

Yeah what Doc Klueless said, who is anything but clueless. I just don't expect players to learn the rules. If they do, that's helpful. But the game is ultimately players saying what their PCs do and me adjudicating it as best I can using the rules as a guideline. Them having fun is the most important issue.

 

[Larnievc]

One of my guys still gets huffy when I have to again tell her she has disadvantage if she uses her long bow in melee or will take an OA if she does not use the disengage action after over a year of being an archery ranger

 

[Ulfgeir]

One of my guys still gets huffy when I have to again tell her she has disadvantage if she uses her long bow in melee or will take an OA if she does not use the disengage action after over a year of being an archery ranger

As someone who shoots a longbow, and has done HEMA, I definitively agree that you should get disadvantage or be the victim of an opportunity attack if you are that close and shoot with a longbow. Of course, you can use the bow to wack someone over the head with it as an improvised staff, but I do NOT recommend it.