Jürgen Hubert
First Post
I've never run a game for complete RPG newbies before. Until this wek, that is.
I've started a WFRP adventure for four co-workers, three of whom had never played an RPG before. And I must say, the adventure is off to a rocky start.
And it was supposed to be such a simple scenario, too - the PCs hear rumors of a big, nasty monster in a copper mine, the mine overseer hires them to act the part of big, tough monster slayers by emerging from the mine with the corpse of a goblin they have slain the night before because there is no such thing as a monster living in the mine, they descend into the mine and the mine overseer betrays them by collapsing a mine shaft with explosives behind them so that he can claim they died fighting the "terrible monster", and the PCs find an exit through some Skaven tunnels and then try to find out what actually happened and why, hopefully without getting any bounty on their heads in the process.
But no, one of the PCs had to get a bounty on his head before they even get hired. On one hand, this is rather typical of Warhammer, but he did that by stealing the backpack of another PC!
And as it happened, this backpack had a Very Important Package which the original owner of the backpack was supposed to deliver to the mine overseer - a small pouch of arsenic with which the mine overseer wanted to poison the mayor. Of course, none of the PCs know that (since they don't have any knowledge of alchemy), but the mine overseer is understandably upset about this, and has put a bounty on the thief.
Now I will have to see how I can salvage this mess...
But all in all, I think it went reasonably well - if not from a story, then at least from an introductory point of view. The newbies still had some trouble separating character and player knowledge, but they got into "acting in character" relatively quick, and I think they all had fun.
What are your best "newbie moments"?
I've started a WFRP adventure for four co-workers, three of whom had never played an RPG before. And I must say, the adventure is off to a rocky start.
And it was supposed to be such a simple scenario, too - the PCs hear rumors of a big, nasty monster in a copper mine, the mine overseer hires them to act the part of big, tough monster slayers by emerging from the mine with the corpse of a goblin they have slain the night before because there is no such thing as a monster living in the mine, they descend into the mine and the mine overseer betrays them by collapsing a mine shaft with explosives behind them so that he can claim they died fighting the "terrible monster", and the PCs find an exit through some Skaven tunnels and then try to find out what actually happened and why, hopefully without getting any bounty on their heads in the process.
But no, one of the PCs had to get a bounty on his head before they even get hired. On one hand, this is rather typical of Warhammer, but he did that by stealing the backpack of another PC!
And as it happened, this backpack had a Very Important Package which the original owner of the backpack was supposed to deliver to the mine overseer - a small pouch of arsenic with which the mine overseer wanted to poison the mayor. Of course, none of the PCs know that (since they don't have any knowledge of alchemy), but the mine overseer is understandably upset about this, and has put a bounty on the thief.
Now I will have to see how I can salvage this mess...
But all in all, I think it went reasonably well - if not from a story, then at least from an introductory point of view. The newbies still had some trouble separating character and player knowledge, but they got into "acting in character" relatively quick, and I think they all had fun.
What are your best "newbie moments"?
Later, when a diversion was needed at a secret drug lab in the Amazon, she rammed a fishing boat into a pier, touching off explosives on the pier, and jumping off with a Motorcycle simultaneously, SMG blazing one-handed! She made a bunch of jaded cautious spy-roleplayers sit up and take notice, and she was voted "MVP" of our game.
