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

[Scott Christian]

Most of my experiences, like the OP, have been extremely positive. That said, only a few have actually stuck with gaming afterward. But, for the most part, the non-gamers have had fun, with lots of laughter and happy smiles. I think the most smiles come from those light bulb moments when they realize the game is quite social and they can "do anything."
I have had two people that did not enjoy it. It was just too complex or foreign. They stayed throughout the game without any complaints, but it was obvious it wasn't their jam.

 

[Thunderfoot]

It depends. Usually, if I know I'm running for non-players I tend to give them the 69 cent version of the game. Pre-rolled characters, and a mini dungeon. Kind of like a con style game. And then do Q&A afterwards to gauge interest.

On the other hand, I was running a group of VIP wives in True Dungeon at GameHoleCon. Rich women that were more interested in shopping than slaying monsters. They thought that 'flirting with DM' would get me flustered. 10 women pushing their cleavage might fluster some, I just said, this isn't the first time I've had to satisfy 10 beautiful women at once and ran my combat. They were surprisingly well behaved after that, and a couple were actually rather engaged in the game and the hobby from that point on.

Pick your hill to die upon and then do it bravely my brethren. lmao

 

[Nebulous]

In this classic episode of The IT Crowd, Moss takes three non-gamers through a session of D&D. Hilarity ensues.

 

[Thunderfoot]

In a recent episode of 'Ghosts' they run a D&D campaign to resolve a battle between two dead Revolutionary War Officers. Hilarity and a date ensue.

 

[Asisreo]

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?

Most of the time, there's no such thing as a person that's never played a game before. They just haven't played D&D. Usually, I try to make an equivalence to a more familiar and popular game I'm certain they've played. Usually, the go-to is monopoly.

Then, I relay that it's also a story-telling game but rather than someone making absolutely everything up, the dice determines what happens. If that peaks their interest, I reference very mainstream fantasy-type tropes to expect from D&D. Sometimes GoT, LoTR, Conan, He-man, etc. Sometimes I'll reference mythical heroes like Hercules or Beowulf.

Finally, once I've finished kidnapping them, I help them make their character sheet and broadly describe the rules. I don't expect them to remember them all and I avoid making it overly complex. I tell them that their character can die and if they do, that character sheet they likely took 2-3 hours to make goes away and can't be used again, instilling the fear of death into them.

I pull out my extremely beginner friendly adventure (even more basic than the starter set), and I let them loose. Oh, but I do also set some ground-rules during session 0 about behavior and everything, but usually by time they get at my table, they've earned my trust that it's essentially redundant.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Most of the time, there's no such thing as a person that's never played a game before. They just haven't played D&D. Usually, I try to make an equivalence to a more familiar and popular game I'm certain they've played. Usually, the go-to is monopoly.

Then, I relay that it's also a story-telling game but rather than someone making absolutely everything up, the dice determines what happens. If that peaks their interest, I reference very mainstream fantasy-type tropes to expect from D&D. Sometimes GoT, LoTR, Conan, He-man, etc. Sometimes I'll reference mythical heroes like Hercules or Beowulf.

Finally, once I've finished kidnapping them, I help them make their character sheet and broadly describe the rules. I don't expect them to remember them all and I avoid making it overly complex. I tell them that their character can die and if they do, that character sheet they likely took 2-3 hours to make goes away and can't be used again, instilling the fear of death into them.

I pull out my extremely beginner friendly adventure (even more basic than the starter set), and I let them loose. Oh, but I do also set some ground-rules during session 0 about behavior and everything, but usually by time they get at my table, they've earned my trust that it's essentially redundant.

I would love a summary of your beginning adventure!

 

[Asisreo]

I would love a summary of your beginning adventure!

It's extremely generic. Most would call it boring but I try to make the overall adventure digestible so that players don't get overwhelmed early on. I've never gone through either icewind Dale or the stater set without a PC dying, which sucks because they discourages new players.

They come up with a common npc they have a connection with. Then, that npc gets kidnapped by the cult. They all get a ransom note to lure them into one spot, a tavern. They make their introductions and practice roleplay. Then, a bounty hunter kicks down the door with his posse and says they're taking the players in DOA.

The bounty hunter uses the guard statblock and the 3-4 other enemies are commoners. This is meant to ease them into how combat works and gives them a large margin of error. Also, if they somehow manage to lose, the bounty hunter takes them in alive where they'll have ample opportunity to escape or fight back. They aren't very smart.

In the adventure, there is over a hundred leads that direct them to the kidnapped NPC. There's also some sidequests and other optional stuff that both leads to the kidnapped NPC and teaches them new things. The end of the adventure leads to a elemental-based dungeon where they get the full dungeon-crawl experience. The traps are obvious and basically nonlethal. The monsters are scaled to be "easy" except for the boss fight.

Again, it's probably a snorefest to anyone with prior game knowledge, but for someone like an 8yo kid or an older person that never touched fantasy games, it gradually draws them in and prevents them from getting too confused. Early levels are the squishiest time for adventures and it's also the most likely they won't understand enough of the rules to properly defend themselves.

Later adventures usually draw from this one and are refined with more of what the party liked. They also get far more interesting and quite a bit harder.

 

[Scruffy nerf herder]

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?

Coincidentally, I'm having that very kind of experience right now. My sister in law's sister and her husband are both new players, and she had never played that kind of game before.

He helped her make a fighter and she has had a blast. In fact in the first session she made an intimidation check to try and snag some of her husband's loot, he failed, and it was amazing. She wasn't sure at first but the social aspect of interacting with my NPCs and the other players has hooked her, and they both shoot me texts throughout the week asking questions.

It warms a fella's heart, I tell ya.

 

[Scruffy nerf herder]

Most of the time, there's no such thing as a person that's never played a game before. They just haven't played D&D. Usually, I try to make an equivalence to a more familiar and popular game I'm certain they've played. Usually, the go-to is monopoly.

Then, I relay that it's also a story-telling game but rather than someone making absolutely everything up, the dice determines what happens. If that peaks their interest, I reference very mainstream fantasy-type tropes to expect from D&D. Sometimes GoT, LoTR, Conan, He-man, etc. Sometimes I'll reference mythical heroes like Hercules or Beowulf.

Finally, once I've finished kidnapping them, I help them make their character sheet and broadly describe the rules. I don't expect them to remember them all and I avoid making it overly complex. I tell them that their character can die and if they do, that character sheet they likely took 2-3 hours to make goes away and can't be used again, instilling the fear of death into them.

I pull out my extremely beginner friendly adventure (even more basic than the starter set), and I let them loose. Oh, but I do also set some ground-rules during session 0 about behavior and everything, but usually by time they get at my table, they've earned my trust that it's essentially redundant.

Yes, yes... you almost kidnapped me yourself when you got to the kidnapping part, hueh hueh hueh.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Some of my fondest moments are that moment a novice player bags their first Skeleton. My daughter wasn't really into gaming, but she would work at GenCon She got into a pre-teen only SavageWorlds game and was really quiet on the way home, (at them.time a 14hr drive) for the first 30 mins. My ex asked her, honey, how was your week (Monday to Monday typical volunteer sched). She looked up and screamed,

I KILLED A NAZI WITH A SHOTGUN!!!

She's been a gamer ever since.