D&D General Running D&D Games for "Non-Gamers"... your experiences?

[BookTenTiger]

I was thinking today about times I've run D&D games for friends or acquaintances who aren't normally gamers, and how fun they have always been. I'd love to read about your experiences, too!

Way back in high school, for my birthday I ran a "Be a Nerd for a Night" party in which I invited my normally non-D&D friends to play. This was during 3e, and I created a bunch of premade characters and ran them through a small homemade dungeon. They had a blast! At a high school reunion 10 years later, one guy still remembered the crazy nonsensical name he gave his Lizardman character (something like Yrdsgth).

Then a few years ago I ran a one-shot D&D game for my coworkers, all teachers who had never played. Originally I was going to run the game for just three players, but by the time the night came I had 9 people coming over! It was so funny because everyone immediately fell into standard D&D player roles... One woman came up with an intricate backstory for her character, the school chef named his barbarian "Lizard Daddy", and the boyfriend of a teacher kind of sat back on his phone and just rolled dice when asked to (and then after told me how much fun he'd had). It was pure good D&D.

What are your experiences running games for Non-Gamers?

 

[payn]

They have not been fun. D&D is not great for folks with little interest in it. I have much more success with things like Fiasco, PbtA type games. Anything more narrative based rules and with less mechanical heft.

I have had some success with Hero Quest board game. It seems to simplify the dungeon delve and game aspects into something folks can understand and run with.

 

[Seramus]

All over the place! I've had non-gamers that froze like deer in headlights but loved it so much they are great players now. I've had some take to it from the word "Go." I've had some start as royal jerks and eventually mature into something positive. And I've seen it go the other way as well.

Probably the most tragic is inviting your Real Friends to a game and discovering they are VERY bad and disruptive, but now they want to join your main game / have you keep running.

Stories of great triumph, and others best forgotten. Haha.

 

[payn]

Probably the most tragic is inviting your Real Friends to a game and discovering they are VERY bad and disruptive, but now they want to join your main game / have you keep running.

Sometimes, your best friends make the worst gamers.

 

[GreyLord]

I've had success. Most of my players in recent years start as non-gamers and then I introduce them.

I normally look at what they are already interested in or how open they are to new things (if they are into fantasy, baseball and football stats, Avid watcher of College Football, watches a lot of sci-fi movies, and comics...that is a good example of someone who probably would have fun and might join my RPG group).

I am selective on who I try to introduce, but have had a pretty good success rate at getting "non-gamers" to become gamers, in the RPG sense.

 

[Bohandas]

The first campaign I played NONE of us had played before and it fell apart immediately.

This led indirectly into the second campaign I played (years later) where players and DM alike spent so much time on detailed character preparation that the camapign never actually started

 

[Mind of tempest]

my only three campaigns were mostly with first-timers who went to heck very quickly still never got around to learning role-playing properly only that I like a part who does not want each other dead both in and out of the game.

 

[Seramus]

Sometimes, your best friends make the worst gamers.

My ex-wife was like that. I loved that woman dearly, but she was a straight up murder-hobo with main character syndrome at the table. My existing group couldn't stand her. I wasn't about to endanger an otherwise happy marriage OR a happy gaming table, so I started a second group for her friends so she could fly her hobo flag proudly. Thus peace was restored to both kingdoms.

 

[billd91]

My ex-wife was like that. I loved that woman dearly, but she was a straight up murder-hobo with main character syndrome at the table. My existing group couldn't stand her. I wasn't about to endanger an otherwise happy marriage OR a happy gaming table, so I started a second group for her friends so she could fly her hobo flag proudly. Thus peace was restored to both kingdoms.

Yet I can’t help but notice she’s still your EX-wife. I’m guessing there’s a longer story embedded there…

 

[overgeeked]

I was thinking today about times I've run D&D games for friends or acquaintances who aren't normally gamers, and how fun they have always been. I'd love to read about your experiences, too!

What are your experiences running games for Non-Gamers?

Yeah, if non-gamers play D&D (or any other RPG) they tend to have a blast. There's usually the initial hurdle of "what can I do?" because they're more used to games with boundaries. It takes a little bit for them to grok the idea that they can try anything.

In my experience running games for non-gamers is pure joy. They simply don't know about, and therefore aren't hung up on, all the minutiae that hardcore gamers obsess over. None of the arguments about precise wording of rules. None of the nagging for an extra +1 or advantage on checks. None of the ridiculous optimization. No murderhobos. No grinding for levels. No endless arguments. Non-gamers seem to jump right in with both feet, have no fear of character loss, injury, or death. They are cavalier about what they want their character to do (once they grok the try anything mindset). Everything that makes RPGs fun is there and all the things that makes RPGs a tedious bore are absent. It is pure gaming joy.