Running "Intro to D&D" at Library --Suggestions?

[thejc]

I too support pre gen characters. One thing I always thought was cool. My local game store ran intro to 4e sessions for a month or so on Tues. and Thurs. One of the coolest things I thought they did was in character creation. Sort of. They had the premade 4e characters laminated and they had a few customizable things that you could swap out. So for your powers there were little velcro(sp?) dots that you put your powers on over the power section of the sheet.

I would also survey your crowd beforehand. If anyone has any rpg experience or even better 4e experience I would split them up amongst the tables. One thing I would push during the intro is D&D is NOT an Online RPG. Our teen culture(or maybe just the ones I have dealt with) has huge problems with this. Online everything is goal orientated. D&D is experience orientated and not what you dish out after encounters either. The role playing the task the story the mood the combat the jokes, it is the experience of playing table top D&D that makes it unique.

Final thought. A short video to pump them up might help. A montage of well known fantasy action movies. like this

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwSdzX8uvqs]YouTube - Movie Fight Scenes 2 (Audiomachine, James Dooley and Globus)[/ame]

Good luck

 

[Neonchameleon]

First, get a red box. And Pregens should mostly be Essentials classes - they are probably easier to understand. So that gives you ten pregens (I don't think you want an e-Assassin in there). Simple scenario with interesting terrain (pushing people into the cess-pit is always fun). I'd make it two fights - one against goblins on the edge of the lair (or kobolds) and one against a dragon (L1 Fledgeling White from Monster Vault) to rescue children from being breakfast.

 

[BluSponge]

Here's what I've learned from the last couple of years of running games at the library:

1) Get the kids playing ASAP! They are there to play a game, not take a masters course in the history of RPGs, DnD, or whatever. That sort of stuff can come later if they enjoy playing.

2) Stick with Pre-gens when you can. Same principle as above. You can always let the players develop the pre-gens as they play and level up.

3) It's better to throw hordes of minions at the players than properly mixed encounters. Kids have more fun when the story moves along – and unfortunately 4e combat does not always do that. Depending on the number of players, 1 "properly designed" encounter can easily eat up your entire game session.

4) Break out the bells and whistles! Whether its poster map grids, minis, whatever, put it out on the table.

5) Try to make the rules as transparent as possible. Ask what they want to do, and tell them what to roll to do it. Don't get bogged down in the details unless the details make the game more fun.

6) Give em what they want. Some kids want story, others want puzzles, and some won't look up from their manga until initiative is thrown. Learn who wants what and indulge them.

Tom

 

[OnlineDM]

First, get a red box. And Pregens should mostly be Essentials classes - they are probably easier to understand. So that gives you ten pregens (I don't think you want an e-Assassin in there). Simple scenario with interesting terrain (pushing people into the cess-pit is always fun). I'd make it two fights - one against goblins on the edge of the lair (or kobolds) and one against a dragon (L1 Fledgeling White from Monster Vault) to rescue children from being breakfast.

I like the adventure suggestion and the idea that the characters should be Essentials builds. However, I disagree on the Red Box. Wizards has basically come out and said that the Red Box was intended as a hook for long-lapsed players to try out D&D again, most likely with their kids. If you want to give something to someone so that they can learn D&D completely on their own, the Red Box is a fine choice. If you're going to be there to actually teach people how to play, don't bother with the Red Box; the Essentials books are all you need.

Also, and this is probably obvious, let the players keep their character sheets at the end of the adventure. Giving them something that becomes their own is great for helping them to feel invested in the game. If you have the resources to let them take a cheap d20 and whatever damage die they use as well, so much the better (but that's optional).

 

[Ahnehnois]

I seem to be in the minority but I would advise walking them through making characters. I would suggest having laughably easy combat encounters (everyone's got to kill some rats when they're learning, right?). Make sure the end of the game includes some kind of rewarding payoff.

If you want to have time to do any sort of rewarding gameplay, use pregenerated characters. Character generation is only interesting if you already know the goal, and what the choices they get to make might mean. They'll get bored, lose focus and interest.

My opinion is that it's important for even beginners to take ownership of their own characters. A good DM can explain the rules choices and narrow it down to a few simple options. Personally, I didn't find it boring trying to figure out what the character creation rules were going to mean in play, that's what got my imagination going.

 

[NewJeffCT]

so, how did the game go yesterday?

 

[SquareKnot]

so, how did the game go yesterday?

The game was this past Saturday (22 Jan). The library predicted around 40 people (based on their showing at an anime event they recently ran) and the game store owner predicted 10 people. Reality split the difference with 21 people in attendance. Most were 12-14, with a few older kids. Interestingly, 9 were girls, 12 were boys. The boys had mostly read fantasy books while several of the girls were writing their own vampire fiction.

As people arrived at the event, they picked characters from the pre-gens. The FLGS owner brought a ton of pre-gen cards from some Encounters seasons and game days. This really saved time.

The FLGS gave away 4 D&D 4E hardbacks (PHB1 and Forgotten Realms Players Guides were what I could see). Everyone else got a copy of the D&D Comic Book -- with a game store label on it.

The intro took about 10 minutes and hit on the key mechanics and mentioned D&D Encounters, then the games started. The game store owner had each DM run their own adventure, but suggested that they focus on undead enemies. Apparently, moral ambiguity over killing the enemies is something he wanted to avoid. That, and angry parents.

My adventure featured a ghost that appeared in the center of an isolated mountain town. It demanded that its idol be returned before a magic hourglass (filling with snowflakes) ran out. It then disappeared, leaving the huge glowing hourglass in the town square.

The party had to figure out where the idol was as a skill challenge, then fight their way into an icy crypt, facing Chillborn, a Spectre with cold powers, and some skeleton archers. There was a trap that caused an ice wall to appear in front of the party. It slowly filled foot by foot but I ran it real time, so if they hesitated, the wall filled one foot higher. By that time, they knew what the characters could do mostly, but I wanted someone to yell out what to do rather than stare at the character sheets. In a moment of panic, the rogue jammed something into the water spigot and the warlock tried to magically counteract the freezing magic. They ended up with a big ice slick, but were able to continue on.

I used tiles (including 3D), minis, and maps (the town was the one from Essentials Monster Vault). I also used props (a bag full of coins with a tiny jade idol hidden in it).

My best idea was to use Knowledge Check cards. I went through the adventure and figured out what knowledge checks were likely to occur. I then wrote down what the character would learn on the back of some old business cards. For example, when fighting the Chillborn, I had a card that mentioned when a Chillborn dies, it explodes in an icy blast. When a character made a successful check, I would hand the player the card. This way, the character had to explain to the party what was going on, rather than me just telling the player while everyone else listened. It gets away from the "I tell everyone what the DM just said" kinds of moments. This worked really well to draw out some role-play and let each character shine for a moment. The player would read the card, then say something like "Oh &*%&^" Every other character would immediately know something bad was coming, but it wasn't until the character explained the hideous curse/overwhelming monster power/hidden trap/whatever that the party knew what was going on. I also had cards that said "You don't know anything about this." I only used the failure card once, but the party was sure the player was holding out on them. I highly recommend this approach for beginning role players.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. It will be interesting to see if any of these people show up at the game store for Encounters or to buy stuff.

Thanks to everyone for your helpful ideas and encouragement.