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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zappo" data-source="post: 1417295" data-attributes="member: 633">I wonder if one of the main problems here is how alien RPGs are to someone who hasn't had any experience with them. I can always easily explain what a new sport is, because everyone knows what a sport is. Same thing with card games and board games. And fruits, cars, computers, paintings, whatever; when you have a category, you can understand easily. With RPGs... not so easy. You start with "it's a game", and then the problems begin.  Yes, you could just get people to buy the PHB without telling them what the game is about - you can get people to buy anything. But then the vsat majority of them will say, "whoa! this is, like, 200 pages of rules, and there is no board, card or pieces, just a book? wtf?", and goodbye potential new player. No chance of telling them that of those 200 pages of rules the ones you actually have to memorize before starting are maybe a handful. No chance of demonstrating how the imagination works better than a board, cards and pieces.  If you had 30 seconds to explain what an RPG is to someone who has only seen a friend playing Baldur's Gate once or twice while chatting about this cool new disco that has opened in town, what would you say?</blockquote>