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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 1051438" data-attributes="member: 99">It is always cool to introduce new people into the hobby.  I've got a friend of mine who will be gaming for the very first time at the upcoming NC Game Day II.I tend to start out with character creation because I think it helps folks start getting used to how the rules are based and looking things up in the PHB.  But you know these people and we don't so I completely trust your judgement on the pregen characters.The pre-gaming get together so everyone can meet and greet is a great idea.  I would definately try and break out the characters at that meeting and, at very least, introduce each person in the role they'll be playing in the game ("Everyone, this is Bob the Geologist.  He'll be playing Bragg the dwarven warrior with a mighty hammer and a heart of gold.").I can't believe that I'm disagreeing with Piratecat about any facet of DMing, but I'm not sure I'd go along wholeheartedly with the "tell me what you want to do and I'll show you how it is handled in the rules" method.  After a few sessions, I think that is a great idea and a good way to introduce more intricate rules like Grappling, Bull Rush, Tripping or Sunder.  But I think that for the first couple of sessions or so, the players will be having a lot to absorb with just reading their character sheets, getting used to the "acting" that comes with NPC interaction and understanding the basics of combat like initiative, attack rolls, armor class, to hit bonuses and all the spells.  Your best bet may be to tell them up front that the game accomodates a lot of complex actions but that, since everybody is new, it might be best to keep things as simple as possible early on.The only other thing that I'd recommend is to stop the game well before the end of the "session".  This will give you time for everyone to talk about what they liked/didn't like, any rules questions they have or other questions that are bound to crop up for beginner gamers.  I know that for too many of the folks who I've introduced to gaming, the toughest thing was that they weren't used to doing anything that required their attention for 5 or 6 hours in a row.  Shorter sessions would have been easier to deal with as well as allowed time for them to ask questions.Good luck and please let us know how it turns out.  You too, Morrus.Do I smell fresh meat over at the Story Hour forums? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Edit:  I almost forgot one other important suggestion.  I recently read Robin Laws' Robins Laws of Good Gamemastering and I can't recommend it highly enough, especially for this type of situation.  In particular, try to find out what makes each player tick as a gamer.  Are they there for the action?  The chance to be an actor?  To challenge themselves tactically?  Just because they want a chance to socialize with the group?The answer to that question for each player will give you the knowledge of what will make them a happy player and how you can weave that into the story you present them with.  I've been DMing for over 20 years now and that one part of the book is going to make me a much better GM now that I understand and have codified for me, something that I've been doing a somewhat haphazard job of for a long time.</blockquote>

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