D&D General Best pregens and Character sheets?

[Weiley31]

Ladies, gentleman, and good Tabaxi of the courts of Enworld, I have a simple question:

Next Thurs I will be showing a Co-Worker, her Fiance, and two friends of theirs how to play DND for the VERY first time. A small conversation with said co-worker mentioned that they would like to try DND out, but mentioned the social anxiety from never playing it is high. So, I offered to show said group how to play.

For now, the decision has been made that Pre-gens would be a good starting point. Does anybody have any suggestions on where I can find some pregens (or recommended ones) and which character sheets would be the easiest? (So far I'm probably gonna go with the official 5.5E character sheet since it puts the abilities/skills together for ease of finding/use. If anybody else has some recommendations, plop em here if ya want).

 

[djotaku]

WotC has (had?) some good ones on their own site.

Kobold Press' Tales of the Valiant (another 5e) also has some good ones with their Valiant Six.

 

[djotaku]

Let me also add that I introduced 2 coworkers to D&D last year. They had never played any TTRPGs. We just rolled our characters there in the moment, including using one of the AI art generators to create their character. They LOVED it. Obv your mileage may vary, but I just kept it real chill - this is what these numbers mean. I also made a lot of reference to LoTR and other fantasy media - think of your favorite movies - do you want to be a dwarf? An elf? Do you want to be able to use magic? They felt ownership over their characters.

One more key thing - I told them "it's a one-shot. Don't stress your character. This is the only time you're ever going to play this character. So there's no such thing as messing up"

Again, I don't know - you mentioned anxiety and I don't know if you mean literally or causally - but for my group this worked. They keep asking me every week when we're going to play again.

 

[Weiley31]

Again, I don't know - you mentioned anxiety and I don't know if you mean literally or causally -

I can only go by what my co-worker said when she mentioned the Social Anxiety part. She didn't specify if it was literally or casually.

 

[aco175]

I see this sheet on this site. It looks a bit more for younger people- to me. I do like the color-coded parts to help explain to everyone. I do find most sheets too cluttered trying to get everything on the sheet.

I have the sheet I use in the downloads page that I try to keep simple. You would need to fill them out to get things started.

The more official pregens tend to be on the Wizards sheet.

 

[Koloth]

Probably should find out more about the anxiety thing. Is it from fear of being tagged a nerd for playing D&D, being the only one that hasn't played, having grown up in a family where D&D = Satan was a thing, or ???. Knowing gives you a better chance of addressing the anxiety.

Suggest the initial setting be in a tavern. Cliche but if the bar has a 'check your weapons at the door' policy, largely avoids the "My first character died a horrible death on the first die roll!" fate. The tavern setting also provides for some social interaction. Maybe a social interaction going wrong leads to the classic bar brawl. A bar brawl will get you through many of the combat basics without mass death. Even if a PC goes down, it is just knocked out instead of trying to avoid dying.

If you can, get some minis that sort of match the pre-gen characters. "So that's what my character looks like..."

 

[djotaku]

I see this sheet on this site. It looks a bit more for younger people- to me. I do like the color-coded parts to help explain to everyone. I do find most sheets too cluttered trying to get everything on the sheet.

View attachment 431226

I have the sheet I use in the downloads page that I try to keep simple. You would need to fill them out to get things started.

The more official pregens tend to be on the Wizards sheet.

OMG, this made me remember some of the best possible pregens you could get!

Characters — DnD Adventure Club

dndadventureclub.com

Yeah, it's geared towards kids, but it boils down the character sheet to the absolute minimum you need to run the character. Running this for my kids is what taught me how to play D&D way better than the D&D Starter set at the time (the Dragon Isle one)

 

[djotaku]

Probably should find out more about the anxiety thing. Is it from fear of being tagged a nerd for playing D&D, being the only one that hasn't played, having grown up in a family where D&D = Satan was a thing, or ???. Knowing gives you a better chance of addressing the anxiety.

So true! A lot of it often stems from the fact that we stopped playing pretend some time around 10 years old or so. The way I introduce TTRPGs to new players is with this phrasing:

"[D&D or Pathfinder or ... insert TTRPG] is just adult play pretend. We have rules to avoid that thing that happened when you were a kid where you said 'I shot you!' and then the other kid said, "nah-uh, I totally ducked!'. The dice are here to represent the element of chance. Maybe you hit the other guy with your sword or maybe you miss or he parries. Just narrate what your character is doing. If you feel comfortable saying 'I do this I do that', that's fine. If you feel more comfortable saying, 'Grog the barbarian does this or that', that's also fine! Whatever you want your character to do, just say it. I will let you know if the action requires a roll or just succeeds. We're all telling a story together - even though I control the baddies, I'm not against you. I don't want you to die or fail - I want us to tell an awesome story together"

After that, especially with strangers or coworkers I go over Lines/Veils to make sure they'll be comfortable with the content and to know when to avoid certain topics.