D&D General How to Start a New Player?

[Tigris]

Start with 5.5e a good starting adventure and a good group.

 

[Stormonu]

Unfortunately I don't really know anyone. I live in a small town in the Bible Belt of the U.S. South. There's not a lot of players here. There's the occasional RPG day event at the comic store, but there's no promise that they're any better.

I will say there's more of us here in the deep south than you may think. We just tend to keep low profiles because of the ol' Satanic Panic. I myself am in Hattiesburg in Mississippi.

 

[Reynard]

Of all the things wrong in the world, folks are going to worry about other folks pretending to be elves while doing math...

 

[plecostomus]

My players routinely forgot their initial class abilities and species abilities while playing through the early levels. Don't believe the Level 3 hype!

 

[VashVet]

After that preamble, the only advice I can offer is pick the game that you feel interests both of you the most and play that. If you pick a game you dislike, it’ll show. But you’ll also have to consider what this player may enjoy as well. Hopefully you find the center of that Venn diagram.

 

[Reynard]

My players routinely forgot their initial class abilities and species abilities while playing through the early levels. Don't believe the Level 3 hype!

That's because those abilities are boring and often useless. No one forgets they can Misty Step. They forget they can speak to badgers.

 

[abazaba]

That's because those abilities are boring and often useless. No one forgets they can Misty Step. They forget they can speak to badgers.

Untrue. In our current campaign, I am a 5th level barbarian, and still often forget my resistances while raging I got at level 1. That's not because I find it uninteresting, but because I just cannot keep track of all the class features.

 

[Retreater]

I'd suggest somebody who likes TTRPGs.

Ouch.
I do appreciate the honesty from our site owner (and others) who have suggested I leave the hobby.
Thanks for all the suggestions, folks, but this might be the main takeaway.

 

[Whisper-Kitten]

5.5, level 3, let her build her own character, pick a fun one shot or a few session long game to let her ease into it.

 

[Tigris]

To write maybe a bit more: I would normally never start level 1, but a complete new player this is exactly when the tutorial levels are used/needed.


I personally did not like the lost mines of phandelver at all starting with the stupid ambush, and many other old dndisms.


I liked the Dragon heist adventure which also starts level 1 a lot more, but thats also much more work for the GM.

But both adventurers in the end have really bad encounters so maybe a 5.5 level 1 starting adventure is better since the encounter building improved so much. And if possible levels 1 and 2 should be over with fast, and tell the person level 1 and 2 are only tutorial, because they are not really fun. So ideally level 1 only lasts 1 session. Level 2 maybe 2 sessions. Anything longer than that is just a pain.


I dont think shadowdark or other OSR is a good start for people coming into D&D through critical role since you want this heroic feeling.


But I really think having 2-3 other people which are fun to play with makes a bigger difference. And I think having a smaller group is better since more time for players. I would say ideally 4 players total.


I am now introducing a new player to RPGs and she started with daggerheart and liked it and that worked well so far, but she had no idea what D&D is and we played first at conventions.


I do think using spell cards and also item cards (which are not only in the beginning adventure but you csn get else as well), are really really good for starting people.


We had this in the last dnd campaign with 3 beginners. And our gm uses this with beginners and especially with children.

New players will not have a problem with "this is not how you noemally play DnD" this aversion to physical material comes more from old dnd players.

New people are played to boardgames and good material so also showing that you can use this does help. (Same in shadowdark the cards helped the beginners soo much).


I dont think you liking DnD or not mstters too much. Just dont show thst you dont like it, snd care for the players enjoyment over yours like a good GM.


I think many other GMs like here in the forum who "enjoy" dnd, would be way worse since they feel for me so much anti player.