Always Room For More: Family and RPGs

[Stormborn]

(possibly off topic, not sure, mods please forgive me if its in the wrong place)

I have occasionally wondered about exposing my non-RPGing family and friends to the game as a way of explaining it to them. This first came up when I published my first article in Dragon (which makes it sound like there have been tons, but alas not (yet)) and I showed it to my mother. Who of course understood none of it, but was very motherly congradulatory (actually she said "oh the art is beautiful" but thats mama for you). I started thinking it would be easier to show it than explain it.

Recently, a friend's mother had one of those self-modifying memories and claimed that she was worried about her daughter playing DnD. (Said friend is well and away old enough to be consider an adult and has been playing off and on since the 70s when she was in High School.) Apparently the subject came up at T-giving again but her mother has again altered her memory and no longer has a problem with it, but her brother who played back when wanted to role up a character for old times sake as a way to explain it to his wife (who my friend's husband described as a "straight" and "normal" but,a s we pointed out, she is an actress so how normal can she be.) She can tell you more, she posts here and will find this thread soon enough.

So, my question for discussion is: have you ever run a game for non-gamers just to show them what it was like? If so how did it go? Got any advice? Horror stories? Great Victories? or even.....converts?

 

[Kilmore]

Never got the opportunity. My Freak Magnet has always guaranteed me at least a somewhat veteran group.

 

[pogre]

My mom played with my brother and I when we were kids. There was only the three of us and so she played a character alongside my younger brother. I just grew up playing and most of my family knew.

When we hit highschool the guys in my D&D group were all football players. Friday night was for football, Saturday was for girlfriends, but Sunday night was always reserved for gaming. It was not until a bunch of us went to GenCon in the early 80's that we realized we were a bit of an atypical group.

In college I dragged girlfriends, roommates, football teammates, professors and lots of others to the table. All were great experiences.

When I was in law school I used to hang out at a certain bar shooting darts. A bartender asked me what else I did for fun and I explained I played Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay - remember this was back in the 2nd ed. days I tried to explain it and a few moments another bartender and a couple of cooks were out talking about the game. SO looking around I said, "Hey, we got enough for a group right here. Why don't you all come over to my place at close and play a session?"

2:20 AM on Tuesday night two bartenders, three cooks, and a fellow patron come over to my "afterhour." Everybody shows up with tons of booze, smokes, and lots of food from the cooks. We played until 7:00 AM when I announced I had to quit. I ran and grabbed some breakfast and went to my 8:00 AM class! The group stayed together for the remainder of my three years in law school and we had a great time. The things we do when we're young!

These folks were super-addicted to the game. It was all fresh and exciting to them and they were folks I liked before we started playing. I recommend trying it - some of them will amaze you with the fresh ideas they bring to the table!

 

[exile]

I never had that kind of success bringing non-gamers into the group, but back in junior high, I was in a special program for gifted and talented students. We met evey other Tuesday (or something like that) and had lots of time for nontraditional academic pursuits. One day one of my fellow game-geek friends and I ran a game for the smart athletic types that were in the program. They seemed to have a fabulous time; one of them kept relating it to some movie called "Seven Magnificent Gladiators". I still ahven't seen that movie.

Chad

 

[Teflon Billy]

My oldest daughter and her friends play D& at school at lunch, and...get this--they are the pretty, popular girls

I'm baffled. Has the world turned upside down?

Geeky, socially-retarded boys play D&D, not pretty, socially-dominant girls.

Anyway, since they ased, I started running HARP for them weekly (they seemd to do better with the one rulebook, even though it's rules are very extensive.

A few of the girls parents have expressed an interest in playing instead of the reaction I expected: having me arrested.

I may run something for them as well (time permitting. It will likely be HARP as well.

 

[Crothian]

My oldest daughter and her friends play D& at school at lunch, and...get this--they are the pretty, popular girls

Come on TB, all parents like to think their kids are the pretty and popular ones but really.....

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I would like to try and teach people who are non-Gamers how to play but have very little patience for it. Now, if I heard people were actually interested, I would be there to help in a heartbeat.

 

[Caius]

when i first started playing my mother sort of made fun of me (long story short she was always doing that, bitch) but I didn't care cause it was a way I could have friends being a socially outcast young lady, even if they were only one or two friends.

later on though as my sister got older she sort of took an interest in what was going on and it was about the time that I was taking an interest in trying to DM. so I would make up adventures and test them on my sister without my group so she could learn the game. since that time so many years ago my sister has become so much of the group we changed gaming nights so it would fit in with her work schedual (she's the only one that worked on saturday nights)

it worked pretty well I'd say

 

[IronWolf]

As a kid my parents played a few sessions of Basic D&D (some 20+ years ago). They didn't really get it though, but at least they have some understanding of what I do.

These days I have started to DM my wife (non-gamer) and one of my gaming friends through Sunless Citadel. My wife mainly did it just to see exactly what we did when we headed off to game.

My recommendation would be to have the initial gaming sessions be a bit shorter than normal or I think the non-gamer gets a little overwhelmed. One short sessions for character generation, followed by a couple of 2-3 hour sessions for gaming. These time chunks seem to have been best for my wife, much longer than that and she got a little restless.

 

[Rafael Ceurdepyr]

Apparently the subject came up at T-giving again but her mother has again altered her memory and no longer has a problem with it, but her brother who played back when wanted to role up a character for old times sake as a way to explain it to his wife (who my friend's husband described as a "straight" and "normal" but,a s we pointed out, she is an actress so how normal can she be.) She can tell you more, she posts here and will find this thread soon enough.

Yep, that's me he's talking about. Back in the day (oh so many days ago, before cell phones and personal computers), my brother surprised me by wanting to play D&D. He rolled up Derrick, the Chaotic Evil Cleric. Lately, I've kept him updated on my mom's sudden retconning of her memory ("Just reassure me that you're not into witchcraft or anything"), which may be why he asked me to explain what an RPG is to my sis-in-law. My brother (Rick) actually rolled up a new character, after I assured him that playing a chaotic evil cleric might not be a good idea in a group of newbies, this time a ranger named... (wait for it) Ranger Rick. (anyone remember that magazine?)

Anyway, sad to say we only got as far as his character. I got online and downloaded a level 1 adventure and pertinent monster stats from the WotC site (gotta love having the SRD online!), and spent spare time over the holiday rolling up 4 more characters. We never did get a chance to play.

In retrospect, what would've been a good idea would be to get that D&D basic set that comes complete. That way I could've jumped in while the interest was there.

I think my next project is to introduce my 15-year-old, Magic: the Gathering-playing nephew to D&D at Christmas.