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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8077010" data-attributes="member: 6779196">In my experience with D&D, the expectation has been that you learn the game as a player first, under an experienced DM. Then, once you’ve mastered the player role, you might ask your DM to teach you to DM, and eventually you’ll go on to start your own group and teach new players. That’s a HUGE barrier to entry, because even if you are committed to reading the whole PHB, you still need to find a DM to play. Obviously there are groups that form of entirely new players, but they seem less common, and even in those cases DMing is seen as a responsibility someone has to accept. How many DMs these days started DMing because they wanted to play, but none of their friends were willing to DM for them?I think a better model would be to not just teach the newcomer how to play, but teach them how to run the game. Instead of DMing being the next step you take after learning to play, have DMing be the first thing you teach the new player, and encourage them to recruit their friends so they can run a game for them.The starter set for the latest edition of Call of Cthulhu does this extremely well in my opinion. It’s 4 or 5 packets you work through in order, which teach you how to run the game. The first packet is a choose-your-own adventure you play through and build a character as you go, teaching you the fundamental flow of the game. The second is a condensed version of the rules, with everything you need to know to create a character and run a simple game. The third is an introductory adventure for a GM and a single player. The fourth is an introductory adventure for a group of 3-5 players. And the fifth is a follow-up adventure to run for the same group. There are also 5 pregenerated characters that are well-suited to the introductory adventures, though the players can of course make their own. I think something along those lines would be excellent for D&D.</blockquote>

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