I have an important game of D&D this weekend. I could use help.

[RSKennan]

This weekend, my wife has agreed to let me run D&D 5e for her and my son. She's historically been uninterested in gaming, but seeing my passion for 5e has gotten her mildly interested.

She's played other times but always quit before the end of a session. She loves scifi and fantasy TV and movies, but gaming never grabbed her.

I'll have all day Saturday (from waking up until bedtime- it's a family day) to make her a fan.

I'm good at improvising, but I was hoping maybe the board would have some suggestions on hooking her. I'd like to show her the wonder and magic of the game (specifically D&D 5e), and hopefully give her something that makes her want to keep playing. Any ideas for villains, hooks, quests, caveats...ANYTHING will help.

Should I start them at 1st level, or higher to give her a chance to truly be a member of her class?

Here's a bit about her and our family:

-She's a real fan of magic (she loves Charmed and Witches of East End), and will likely be playing a Tiefling Warlock or other arcane caster.

-She grew up in a cult, and hates manipulative religious figures. I might be using this for a villain.

-As a family, we all love both Avatar series on Nickelodeon, though we favor the original.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TarionzCousin]

There is a good, recent article on this topic in general here.

In short, make the game about what she and your son find fun; what exactly is it about sci fi and fantasy that she likes? Magic spells?

Could you run a freeform game without character sheets or rules set in the Nickelodeon Avatar universe? I'm not familiar with it, but it is one setting with which she already knows and likes. Playing a game like this, without rules or dice, diminishes the strange/unfamiliar aspects of gaming. That's a good thing.

In college, my friend and I introduced our girlfriends to gaming by using Star Trek, which they already knew about. It worked out well.

Honestly, I recommend staying away from character sheets and all the mechanical elements of the game. Just come up with a story, have her think of a character from that world (invented or borrowed) and let her experience the fun of discovery, creativity, and unscripted interaction. Rules and dice can come later.

I strongly recommend not having a cult or manipulative villain in your game. Try to not press her real-life buttons. You might think it would motivate her to hate that NPC, but it might just as likely make her hate and avoid the game forever.

Good luck!

 

[Herobizkit]

Modern fantasy is the easiest and most relatable version of Fantasy for newcomers to gaming. Most people can understand the modern world, but many have difficulty imagining an idyllic make-believe world...

So do both.

Take a peek at the "Lost Girl" TV series. Fantasy creatures exist in disguise and maintain a secret cabal (much like vampires) where the Fey courts (and their allies) wage war.

Maybe she doesn't realize she's a Tiefling until puberty/her 18th/her 21st birthday wherein her demonic blood takes full effect and changes her forever (aka the Mutant problem).

In a game like this, NPC's and contacts will be far more important and impressive than having her fight rats and kobolds. Try to make her character as real as possible; ask her questions about her character as you walk her through the creation process. How old is she? Does she have family? Where does she live? Is it an apartment, old family home, cabin in the woods...? What does she do for work? Does she have any friends? Do they know about her "power"?

Once she has a sense of who she is, that's when you start linking plot ideas to her character. Again, try to stay within the scope of a TV show: one issue, one (or two) difficulties along the way, maybe some character development to showcase her character's interests, one resolution. Long bouts of gaming can be draining on new players, so try and keep your sessions short - no longer than four hours.

If you're going to use dungeons, try and keep them small - no more than Five Rooms. Check out the Five-Room Model article in the link to give you an idea of the kind of areas to design.

Finally, have fun. Don't sweat trying to get her to learn all the rules at once. Just go with the flow; narrate actions that would be trivial and consult dice only when the story direction dictates two possibilities and you can't decide which one to follow.

 

[fba827]

Random thoughts in a ramble ....


... I would NOT attempt to fill morning to night, it would get tiring. A nice four hour chunk, end at a natural stopping point or cliffhanger to make them to want more trying to figure what happens next rather than an exhaustive all day thing.

... Totally center it around the type of PC that they want to play, charmed and avatar are hard to get in the same game since they are wildly different base lines, but charmed-like is broader for more easy adaptation to d&d. So if it seems to fit her character choice, maybe the plot centers around an 'accepted' religion who has a branch or priest that has kidnapped the pcs sisters, somehow wanting to harness magic from them. Likewise your sons PC might have an arcane sibling who also went missing. And the first session might just be following clues and some ruffians put in their way, with then end of the session just meeting the kidnapper and realizing that it's him but untouchable due to his standing in society

... Or if the background they want doesn't lend itself to siblings, then instead of their own sibling, it is a witch/warlock that approaches about her siblings being missing

... Or if you want to go with avatar instead, set it during aangs time just in different parts of the world and hearing rumors about the avatar returning. OR set it during the time before aang is freed, basically setting the backdrop as the war of the fire nation starting. But (a) this type of setting is a bit more limiting for d&d ( no religions, etc easily lend themselves to it, and (b) based on what you describe, a war themed story might not hook them as much

... Any clue on what your son likes to play ( either generally or in this specific instance?)

 

[Painfully]

Start the game in a happy place, and let them take some time to absorb the world around them. A festival with performers and songs, foods, fancy clothes. Feed their eyes, ears, and nose with the world around them to really pull them into the game from the start.

If your wife likes shopping, maybe her character is shopping for a fancy mask and matching gown for a masquerade that evening? Give them something to look forward to right away.

If your players like animals, give them a pet, even if it isn't a familiar. Maybe their pet doesn't get along with somebody else's pet (or maybe it does). It's a great way to start a conversation in character.

Don't forget to use suspense and timing when revealing secrets or treasures. Keep the mystery of things alive as long as you can until it's time for the big reveal. Give the players an itch they can't quite scratch so they want to keep going.

I'm horrible with voices, but if you can do them, it's always a bonus.

 

[LostSoul]

Run it like you would like to run it. You don't need to do anything out of the ordinary.

Let your wife make the PC she would like to make. Help her out here.

Make sure that your son knows how the game is played - what the rules are, even if those rules are "rule zero".

Don't pander to them by doing something "special" this first time. It's not a big deal if they don't want to join the hobby.

I don't know 5E much, but maybe start them off a 4th level? I hear that's a breakpoint.

 

[RSKennan]

Sorry for the delay, this week's been rough.

So my wife and son played this weekend. We spent a long time making characters so we didn't have much time to play on Saturday. My wife offered to play again on Sunday.

The two characters are Annaka, a Tiefling Barbarian (who will multiclass as a Warlock), she rebelled against bonds, traits, and other roleplaying elements, but I was able to get out of her that she and the other character, Dragos, were childhood friends.

She also decided that she was on the run from a church- on her own, so fears regarding that were unfounded. I created a church called "The White Flame" to serve as a main enemy for this campaign.

I'm doing my best to pretend that she's playing the character when she does this, but every time an NPC talks, she mocks him or her. She's really just not into it. She thinks the whole process of roleplaying is ridiculous.

My son's character, Dragos the Dragonborn, is a Way of the Elements Monk, and he's really, really into it. He's got a voice for his character and everything. Just a note, my son's 15, but he's got autism, so it's nice to see him get openly passionate about something other than the things he's always been passionate about.

He decided that even though his group of Dragonborn are descended from chromatic dragons, they were slaves, and seek out good dragons to serve in order to redeem his people. This told me that they were rare in the setting, and it has become his main quest. The White Flame is involved in their disappearance.

The characters had recently had a run-in with the White Flame, and escaped into a lost city. The world was coming out of a dark age, and so cities like this are just lying empty and largely unlooted. They took refuge from the rain in a library, which it turned out had a zombie and the ghost of the head librarian in it. The ghost was/is harmless unless they abuse the books, but the zombie attacked on sight. I don't think they used a single traditional weapon in the fight, starting a fire on some shelving material they had gathered (they didn't harm the books), and trying to wrestle it into the fire. Eventually, Dragos ripped the zombie in half with a creatively described unarmed attack.

They didn't grab a hook I laid out with the librarian, but they decided they needed to talk to him when he manifested the next night about something unrelated. I might be able to give it to them again.
The next day they decided to loot the city museum. The failed the door's riddle (magic mouth), and the automated system made them pay an entry fee. Annaka doesn't trust the mouth, and we left it up in the air whether they'd be going in.

The adventure went slowly, as they had to discover things like alternating watches while they slept and spent a lot of time talking these things out. I was fine with this, and tried to feed the ambiance and reinforce the spooky tone of the first game.

I'd be content to continue the game with just my son, but my wife insists on playing. I suppose this could be good news, in that I have more time to get her to engage.

Thanks for all the help everyone.

 

[Gilladian]

If your wife insists on continuing to play, there's something about the game she likes. Maybe she doesn't really think roleplaying is ridiculous - maybe she thinks HER roleplaying is ridiculous, and so she mocks things to make it less intimidating. Over time, as she gets more comfortable with it, she'll ease back on the mockery. Or she'll get bored and quit playing again.

Your son's engagement with the game, and with her, may be enough, though, to keep her going. It's wonderful to game together! I still play after 35 years of gaming, with my mother and my older brother, as well as my husband, sister-in-law, and step-niece. I'm not sure how long my sister-in-law and her daughter will want to play, but for now it is our family activity together. Some of my fondest memories of my dad are of our sessions playing 2nd edition back when I was a teen.

It sounds like your game got off to a good start - keep going! They can always find lots of things to explore in a whole city; a temple or cathedral? The city sewers? The ruler's Palace or fortress? Even just a series of shops could be fun. Gemcutter, goldsmith and silversmith; scribes, papermakers and bookbinders, a theater and costume shop, weaver, dyer and spinner, etc... What if the whole city were plagued with brief "flashes" of the lives of the original residents, either captured in their normal day-to-day activities, or in some moment of fear and disaster (or gradually altering from one to the other over several hours or days)?

 

[TarionzCousin]

I'm doing my best to pretend that she's playing the character when she does this, but every time an NPC talks, she mocks him or her. She's really just not into it. She thinks the whole process of roleplaying is ridiculous.

This sort of reaction isn't that uncommon among adults (reluctantly) playing an RPG for the first time. It's a defense mechanism.

 

[Falcon10275]

well, here is your first problem. "I have an important game of D&D this weekend" . There is no such thing as an "important" game of D&D.