A Fly on the Wall for a Brand New Player

[innerdude]

So let me tell you a story.

Around a month ago, I casually mentioned to a friend and his wife that I would really enjoy running a "light" roleplaying campaign with them. A little background about them--This is a couple that are SERIOUS WoW (and board game) players--both have multiple level 80 WoW characters--but the combined number of times either has tried pen-and-paper RPGs can be counted on one hand.

So when I mentioned it to them, it was mostly on a whim. I thought they might enjoy it, and was kind of thinking it would be fun to run a short Savage Worlds game while our GURPS game was on hiatus, but I wasn't expecting anything.

Well, wouldn't you know, the wife actually took me up on it. A couple of weeks later, my wife and I were sitting down to watch a movie with them, and my friend's wife turns to me and asks, "Hey, did you bring that game book (Savage Worlds) you were talking about before?"

I usually keep my $10 Explorer's Edition in my laptop bag at all times, for those random moments of "GM inspiration," so I handed it to her and said "Sure!" For the next 2 hours while watching the movie, she flipped through its pages, not really "absorbing" the rules, per se, but just daydreaming / brainstorming about a character she might want to play.

So this past weekend, we got back together and they made their first Savage Worlds characters.

And I wish to heaven I had a video camera set up to record the experience to send it to Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Green Ronin, Pinnacle, and everyone else. After an hour of the wife struggling to "make something interesting," her husband turns to her and says, "Just think of a character you'd enjoy playing. Think of their personality, what they're like, their quirks and traits. Don't just think about what they're good at, but why they'd choose to be good at it. Don't worry about trying to find every little detail in the book."

And this small light bulb goes off behind her eyes, as she realizes that she doesn't have to pick the "perfect" edge, or the perfect set of attributes, or maximize every last skill point to have fun with this character, and this game.

About half an hour later (and now 90% of the way through the character generation process), she says, "You know, in the two or three times I played D&D, I never really felt comfortable doing it, and a lot of it was because of the way the other players talked about it. There was never any discussion of why I would want to play a character. It was always about why I would want to take this option, or that option, and how it would make my character 'better,' or more powerful or whatever. And maybe I was letting my World of Warcraft background get in the way, because your character build is everything in WoW. Don't get me wrong, I want a character that kicks butt. But having a character that fits the picture in my head is just as important as the butt-kicking."

And somewhere in all of this, I think, is a commentary on rules mastery, the differences between rules "lite" and rules "heavy," and the unconscious expectations we carry around with us from our experiences. Now having more experience with Savage Worlds and FATE-based systems, I appreciate D&D for what it does, but am now keenly aware that D&D is very much colored by a set of expectations of how an RPG "should work." And that expectation of how an RPG "works" doesn't always jive with every player.

(I also think this phenomenon is ultimately going to be problematic for D&D Next . . . but that's a thread for another day. )

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Nice story!

I have to say, though, that I come to a slightly different conclusion. The first 10 years of gaming, I played only D&D, Traveller, TFT:ITL, and Champions (aka HERO), and I played each in distinct ways, but system mastery was always a driving force.

I picked up a few more games in the next 5 or so years...and then, in the 1990s, I played in about 80 more systems...and about halfway through that period, I had an epiphany about gaming. Inspired by DC's & Marvel's series centsring around tales of alternative versions of popular characters (like Batman in Gotham By Gaslight), I realized that a character concept could be "setting neutral", and modeled in a wide variety of games.

Since that point, while system mastery was still key, it was no longer the driving force. Like your player's husband, I put PC concept first, and the only reason for achieving system mastery became the facilitation of modeling the concept in my head.

I can even pinpoint the event: I decided to stat out the PC Slapstick (a clown themed, sociopathic mercenary) in HERO, GURPS, Torg, RIFTS, D&D and another 8 or so systems. (I still have several of the sheets for him, too.)

I think that once you get into a "concept first" mindset as your predominant design method, the mental shackles of rules light/rules heavy kind of fall off. I no longer care about assumptions about how a RPG assumes things should work. All that matters is that the PC makes sense within the context of the game, whether or not he is "powerful" or "optimized."

 

[amerigoV]

So let me tell you a story.

...

I usually keep my $10 Explorer's Edition in my laptop bag at all times, for those random moments of "GM inspiration," so I handed it to her and said "Sure!" For the next 2 hours while watching the movie, she flipped through its pages, not really "absorbing" the rules, per se, but just daydreaming / brainstorming about a character she might want to play.

So this past weekend, we got back together and they made their first Savage Worlds characters.

And I wish to heaven I had a video camera set up to record the experience to send it to Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Green Ronin, Pinnacle, and everyone else. After an hour of the wife struggling to "make something interesting," her husband turns to her and says, "Just think of a character you'd enjoy playing. Think of their personality, what they're like, their quirks and traits. Don't just think about what they're good at, but why they'd choose to be good at it. Don't worry about trying to find every little detail in the book."

I could not xp ya, but yea! Savage Worlds and the $10 core book!

Great insight into character building.

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

I have a similar dilemma in our ongoing campaign. I have one player who is solely, only about the build. Nothing else matters. It's all about the right feats/skills/classes taken in the correct order to maximize offense and defense. Each of his characters from game to game, campaign to campaign end up being closes of one another 0 we even joke around at how he tries to change the names - sexes, but they all act, talk and fight... the same.

I am trying to get my gaming group to embrace the idea it's the improvisational acting, the reacting and the exploring of the adventure which makes it magical, not dpr or build or kit etc. Interstingly enough it's the newer players that are more receptive to actually (gasp) having shortcomings; and differences in their characters. The old guard are the ones stubbornly clinging to build.

 

[WizarDru]

And somewhere in all of this, I think, is a commentary on rules mastery, the differences between rules "lite" and rules "heavy," and the unconscious expectations we carry around with us from our experiences. Now having more experience with Savage Worlds and FATE-based systems, I appreciate D&D for what it does, but am now keenly aware that D&D is very much colored by a set of expectations of how an RPG "should work." And that expectation of how an RPG "works" doesn't always jive with every player.

I think that's true...for a certain type of player. The issue for WotC (and for every game developer) is that there are different kinds of players. Writing a book that appeals to all of them is no mean feat. Some players really, REALLY like working the numbers, building a character the way some folks would once build a hot-rod or solder a motherboard. Other people are all about the artistic endeavor, carefully crafting a character like an impressionist painting, a poem or a journal entry. Others are in the middle, choosing to create a rounded whole...like someone who wants to bake their own pizza, but they maybe they buy store bought ingredients and a pre-made crust.

The point I'm driving at is that multiple approaches are likely needed and it's very hard to appeal to one audience and the other in the same material. I'd wager that part of the problem for a player like you're friend and his wife is that the material is dense and intimidating in appearance. If they've managed to level characters to 80 in WoW, they certainly aren't afraid of a system about as complicated as D&D in execution...but in presentation, it's different. I have no doubt they've spent large amounts of time poring over websites, engaging in guild forums and scanning faqs and web articles for the best way to build their characters or approach raids...but would find similar material in a D&D book off-putting. This has, unfortunately, always been a problem for D&D. 4E was, arguably, an attempt to address this (how successful it was is unknown to me, though I suspect not very).

This also brings up the topic of new players versus veterans. How many players roll their eyes at the obligatory 'what is thing you earthmen call...roleplaying?' section of every RPG book? Not because they think it's dumb, but because after 30 years, it's just sort of there. This is one reason the whole basic/advanced dichotomy worked so well, back in the day. One thing that would really make D&D Next a winner is if they can crack that nut. Ideally they could produce a 'welcome to D&D' light edition for new players and a 'all the fixins' version for the vets that is fully compatible with the lighter edition. But I have no idea how actionable that would be in the real world.

Honestly, the truth is that the only real way for this game to spread is exactly the way you describe: by someone else who is invested and experienced in the game introducing a new player carefully. Note that she was having this disconnect with Savage Worlds, which is a pretty rules-light, 'dream it/do it' kind of system. D&D is on the other end of the spectrum, so far worse in theory. A lot of the D&D books have very good sections describing the material in the way you suggest, IMHO. 4E has a lot of 'if you like this kind of play, then this character is for you' material...but it requires diving into the book to get it. No new player is going to find that if they're intimidated by a 300 page rulebook. A 24 page primer might be the best way...3E had this, even if veterans turned their noses up at it. Perhaps a newer try is worth it.

Either way, I'd really like new players to join and perpetuate the hobby. So I hope someone can crack that nut. But I suspect the only thing that ever truly will push the hobby are goodwill ambassadors of the game.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Either way, I'd really like new players to join and perpetuate the hobby. So I hope someone can crack that nut. But I suspect the only thing that ever truly will push the hobby are goodwill ambassadors of the game.

How I do that depends upon how much time I have.

My preferred method is to sit with each player and ask them what kind of character they dream about playing in this fantasy world. If there are multiple newbies, I try to get other veterans to use the same method while helping me.

If its all newbies, I make a bunch of pregens. I then ask the question, and hand them a pregen based on their responses...then I ask them how much like their concept the pregen is, and help them tweak it.

So far, it's worked well for me.