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Message: <blockquote data-quote="2WS-Steve" data-source="post: 2414112" data-attributes="member: 3289">I think it's likely a mistake to equate lack of mechancial complexity with newbie friendliness when it's really conceptual complexity that's the bugbear. RPGs are a unique form of game in their open-endedness; in all the other games you start playing as a kid (other than cops and robbers) you've got a defined range of choices and outcomes available to you: you roll dice and move around a board in Monopoly or Life; you move one piece at a time in well defined ways in chess or checkers.But in RPGs you can do anything. How do new players (and particularly new gamemasters) possibly resolve all the rules conflicts in a game like that when their previous model is games like Clue?D&D's thick rulesbooks are an educational tool and a crutch -- rules cover jumping, how to assign difficulty based on jump distance and conditions -- many of the other skills have fairly lengthy lists of modifiers to help adjudicate the DC. Many of the different things players will try in a fight are covered in the combat section. And the DMG even tells the DM how to determine if an encounter is too hard or too easy.Finally, the back to the dungeon model helps young DM's immensely. Players get the benefit of being able to immerse themselves in a fictional environment and make their own choices while the structure keeps them in an area where the DM has stuff already prepared to run. I thought the B1 module with its partially fill-in-the-blanks adventure did a nice job easing my young self into the game.I think a game like Over the Edge, while very easy to absorb the rules and create characters, is newbie unfriendly since you already need to know how to run and play roleplaying games to use it.</blockquote>

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