Player Primers

[steeldragons]

Are there Dunedain Rangers in Arnor?

Well, not really the point...

Again, hate to overstate the horse is dead, but shorter is better. I would strive for 5 pages...if you need 6, your need 6.

While I've never really done a formal one myself...for a "Player Primer", I am inclined to think the following layout is a good one/does what you need it to:

Page 1...seriously, ONE, cuz we all know the players won't be interested past that..."recent" history that everyone will know.
---1a: a secondary page...I would strive here for another HALF page, actually...of "Ancient history highlights" that you can give/add for mage and bard PCs, et al. (scholarly priests, maybe oral history stuff for druids or barbarians, etc...) of things not "anyman" is going to know. I would say campaign nations, specific human cultures, etc... are included here.
Page 2-3: specific campaign classes. These might be classes you will allow for the players...or/and include classes the players might encounter that are setting specific. Just a listing with short description of who/what these classes are. See 2a.
---2a: If anyone is interested in playing one of the classes presented in "2", have a SINGLE SHEET that details the features and abilities of the class.
Page 3-4: specific campaign races. If these are just the standard PHB races, no need for it. If you have a race or two that are not "standard D&D races", then, again, detailed race pages for those interested.
---3a: If anyone is interested in playing one of the races presented in "3", have a SINGLE SHEET that details the features and abilities (and fluff) of the race.

The key with both the classes and races pages, and the ancient history for that matter, are to give the players the options to invest in learning more. But they don't have to. The player who wants to go "Human Fighter" or "Elf mage" has everything they need. The person who wants the "My Campaign Elf" mage...gets an Elf page...and the Ancient/Arcane History page...etc...

Page 4-5: House "Rules". If you are not going to allow the casting of Polymorph or Disjunction or are going to allow laser pistols or psionics are everywhere, if there will be "fumble" or "critical hit" random charts [EDIT: They don't have to, nor should, know what is on those charts, but the fact they exist /EDIT], or ability scores use a different/new/variant mechanic...it goes on these pages.

I am assuming that you have MUCH more than this, as the creating DM, in mind for the specifics...as much as it pains us (cuz I've been in the sitch), leave it to the player who WANT to know more. You can always make (or alreay have prepared) all kinds of additonal details...cultures, heraldry, spells, customs and traditions, etc. etc. etc...

Then, when in play, they have only themselves to blame if they didn't take the interest in the first place. But they all have the same base to start.

 

[Kinak]

One page, even front and back, is a small enough bite that the players are likely to read it. Mostly. One page, front only (map on back) is a MUCH more realistic size than even front-and-back is.

Map on the back is a good idea.

With a little graphic design skill, you might actually be able to present information twice: once in bullets (or narrative) on the front for those who prefer to read and once integrated with the map on the back for those who are better with spatial awareness.

A lot of players, in my experience, don't read player's guides because they already know they won't absorb information that way. Having a second approach is a better use of pages than trying the same thing twice.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[steeldragons]

Ah...well, I was not, in my post, considering "front and back"...When I said "a page" I meant, one-sided. So, if you take two-sides to a page, then, I guess you could double my numbers...but I think you are more helped by keeping it/them/the pages single-sided.

 

[Quickleaf]

IME you can expect half the players to read some of a 1 or 2 page primer.

And of those who read it you can expect half of those to remember significant details.

That works out to maybe 1 player actually caring enough to read it and invested enough to remember it.

Nowadays I prefer to show not tell.

I think it has to do with memory being tied to emotion. Since the players have little investment at the beginning before play the setting details are less likely to stick in their brains. But when something happens that impacts their character or the party or has everyone shocked or laughing, those moments get remembered. Breaking the setting down into bite-sized chunks each adventure seems to facilitate this process best IMHO, so maybe session 1 you focus on the persecution of demi-humans which is a theme of your setting for example; the players will remember defending an elven warlock from a human mob moreso than reading a bulletpoint that "demi-humans are oppressed." Session 2 you focus on something else.

EDIT: I should clarify that I'm assuming the usual D&D setup where the DM makes the setting or chooses the setting. If your group is doing collaborative setting creation/choosing, then you've got a lot more buyin on the front end. Which is nice.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Make it 45 pages and hide a phrase on page 33 that, when first said by a player at the table, gives their character +2 to all stats, permanently! Reward the readers!

 

[Serendipity]

I'm a big believer in them, especially with particularly big or epic type campaigns where there's a lot of initial player buy in. I keep them to two pages, no illustrations, formatted in a manner appropriate to the players in question (some people do after all retain and absorb information differently) - which is a pain but one that's totally worth it. I keep it to player and player character centric information with one to two line descriptions of important things that may / could / will come up.
I also include, either at the beginning or the end, a basic run down list of expectations for the game collected from the table (usually in the pre-game discussion I tend to have durring the planning stages of the game). It makes for a nice handy idea of what the themes are, what kind of tone everyone is expecting and keeps everyone on the same page.

 

[Umbran]

Make it 45 pages and hide a phrase on page 33 that, when first said by a player at the table, gives their character +2 to all stats, permanently! Reward the readers!

More seriously, you can encourage the desired behavior by rewarding it. But that really calls for the reward being open for everyone who does the desired work. How you make it worth the effort, without making it more like a tax on those who don't do it is more complicated, though.

 

[Sunseeker]

Discounting maps, I don't feel a "primer" should be more than 2 pages long. Any more than that and people will zone and not read it.

Your players aren't reasonably going to know everything. People from Rohan may know Gondor exists, but little beyond that. On that note, have fun with it, give everyone a different primer!

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Something that I've done in the past is this...

Give out one general primer for all the players to look at before character creation begins. This is a single page with some interesting information on each of five or six geographic areas (that characters can choose to be from). And a paragraph on recent history (which probably has some bearing on the upcoming campaign).

Then, once the players have made up some characters, give out a few more small primers based on character race and class selection and chosen knowledge skills. This gives each player some extra information based on stuff that he has shown an interest in (by investing character resources).

This still does not guarantee that the information will be read, but breaking it into smaller chunks, and tailoring it to aspects of the game that the player has shown an interest in does seem to get more of it read, in my experience.

 

[Jester David]

The idea of a Player's Guide was a topic of my blog on Worldbuilding.

I agree with most of the suggestions here: keep it short and edit.
I'd print out copies to hand to the players directly.