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<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7085514" data-attributes="member: 37579">They may never have played a Tabletop RPG before, but even odds most &quot;new players&quot; will have played some kind of RPG before. Years of videogames have made elements of D&amp;D almost ubiquitous. Terms like &quot;ability scores&quot; and &quot;hit points&quot; will already be known, as will the concept of derived stats. This is the paradox of modern &quot;new players&quot;. They may never have played D&amp;D before, but they might have watched a video or two, and have experience with something like World of Warcraft.As for ability modifiers vs scores, the 5e character sheets can help. You can have the modifier in the big box and include the actual ability score in the small box. If asked, you can explain (that's your ability score which doesn't have any mechanical impact, but exists for flavour. It's a nod to earlier versions of the game). Which is fair and a neat little project.This makes this game a little like Basic D&amp;D from the early 1980s (opposed to Advanced D&amp;D). The funny thing is, historically, new players rejected starting with Basic and jumped right to advanced. Because they wanted to play the real game. Young players especially, who didn't want to play the simplified version dismissing that as the &quot;kiddie version&quot;. (Unsurprising for teenagers really, who always want to take the more &quot;adult&quot; option.) BECMI was more popular with experienced players who wanted a more simple ruleset (basically OSR/ rules lite players).Haven't had much trouble getting people to try. But different experiences and such. Most new players I've introduced have already been sold on the game by other people or curious about the game. I tend to focus my efforts on the adventure less than the rules. Designing the adventure in such a way as to introduce various aspects of the rules in a controlled fashion. &quot;This is an ability check/ this is an attack roll/ this is a saving throw.&quot; And then introducing bits of roleplaying and exploration before a combat. Because new players are only new players for a finite length of time. Two or three sessions. At most. Having to change the rules after a single session is funky.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 7085514, member: 37579"] They may never have played a Tabletop RPG before, but even odds most "new players" will have played some kind of RPG before. Years of videogames have made elements of D&D almost ubiquitous. Terms like "ability scores" and "hit points" will already be known, as will the concept of derived stats. This is the paradox of modern "new players". They may never have played D&D before, but they might have watched a video or two, and have experience with something like World of Warcraft. As for ability modifiers vs scores, the 5e character sheets can help. You can have the modifier in the big box and include the actual ability score in the small box. If asked, you can explain (that's your ability [i]score[/i] which doesn't have any mechanical impact, but exists for flavour. It's a nod to earlier versions of the game). Which is fair and a neat little project. This makes this game a little like Basic D&D from the early 1980s (opposed to Advanced D&D). The funny thing is, historically, new players rejected starting with Basic and jumped right to advanced. Because they wanted to play the [i]real[/i] game. Young players especially, who didn't want to play the simplified version dismissing that as the "kiddie version". (Unsurprising for teenagers really, who always want to take the more "adult" option.) BECMI was more popular with experienced players who wanted a more simple ruleset (basically OSR/ rules lite players). Haven't had much trouble getting people to try. But different experiences and such. Most new players I've introduced have already been sold on the game by other people or curious about the game. I tend to focus my efforts on the adventure less than the rules. Designing the adventure in such a way as to introduce various aspects of the rules in a controlled fashion. "This is an ability check/ this is an attack roll/ this is a saving throw." And then introducing bits of roleplaying and exploration before a combat. Because new players are only new players for a finite length of time. Two or three sessions. At most. Having to change the rules after a single session is funky. [/QUOTE]

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