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D&D 5E Teaching the game

There's a phenomenal Youtube series on a channel called "Don't stop Thinking" about learning to play 5e D&D; the link to the first video is:
https://youtu.be/OoW2CDgztKY

I think it might give you a great overview on the process of teaching the basics, and make sure you have all bases covered. I hihgly recommend it.
 

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Just got a message from the trainee DM. They had their first home session this evening and it went well. Phew :) But That was quick! I guess the contagion has spread! :D
 

[MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] has a good series of posts on adjudicating actions. Good enough I copied it and saved it to a Word doc.
 

[Quote Jester David] I like beginning with a carnival/ fair with events. Archery and wrestling contests for attack rolls, pie eating for saving throws, races for ability checks, etc. Maybe an obstacle course. [/QUOTE]

If you're a very nice dm. Most of my adventures start in an arena, dungeon jail, slave deck on a galley, clapped in irons and dragged before a noble, awakening to the sound of your village on fire... I would love to just eat pies to learn a lesson.
 
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Okay, for something like this where you're going to introduce the game to new people who are then, presumably, going to go off an play themselves, this is what I would do:

First, play the game. Play half of an adventure where they just worry about learning how to play. A nice introductory experience with some player choices and all three pillars. Do that for 2-3 hours. At least.
Teach them how to use their character. Teach them the dice. Teach them ability checks, and attack rolls, and saving throws.
Personally, I like beginning with a carnival/ fair with events. Archery and wrestling contests for attack rolls, pie eating for saving throws, races for ability checks, etc. Maybe an obstacle course.
Then have that move into an actual adventure. There's a problem. Have a small dungeon with actual combat and hit point loss. Something simple.

However, DON'T stop the game to continually explain things. Keep things moving and fun. Make it enjoyable first and foremost. Don't break the flow with constant corrections and the like.

About halfway through pause and explain what happened. Show your notes and explain how you made the story and adjudicated their actions and responded to their choices. Take a half hour to look behind the screen at the game. How you adjudicated and such. When you knew the rules, when you didn't.
Maybe some small suggestions and bits of advice. Like the importance of paying attention & thinking ahead for players, and managing the table & keeping things moving for the DM.

Then, after the break, maybe wrap up the game. Big climax. Maybe a nice cliffhanger. Make them want to come back.
And then explain how you would plan what happens next. How you prepped for the session and how you'd prep for the next.


Also, pregens are nice, but I'd say leave the background absent. Pick class, race, etc. But let them pick their background from a list.
Maybe include backgrounds on separate lists of paper (a half-page at MOST), with a couple skill choices and a couple personality traits. So they can just mark off the skills on their sheet. (The feature and details don't matter.)
That allows them to personalise their character slightly and you can show them where the skills are.

Excellent advice!

I was late to the thread but I was also going to suggest "no introduction, just start playing!" as the best way with beginners. Players don't need to know the rules until they actually come into play.

Using pregens is essential for this. For a beginner it is interesting enough to be able to pick "Wizard" and have everything else ready. Personally I wouldn't even bother with the races... mostly because all 5e races (except Human) have baggage that increases complexity and is only marginally useful. Just have all pregens be humans, or let the players pick a race only for narrative purposes (but no mechanical difference).

So create pregens (try to make no-brainer, traditional and low-complexity choices), put the character sheets down on the table and ask the players to agree on who plays who. Then only let players fill in the name and gender (and optionally the race).

Honestly, I only think that the challenging part is finding good character sheets, because nearly all of them have way more stuff than really needed, which will only confuse beginners. You really only need the 6 ability scores, list of proficiencies, HP, AC, equipment (keep it minimal!) and special abilities (e.g. spell).

edit: I just made up a beginner's character sheet here > http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1415
 
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Yep - I just gave the basic description of the game conversation:

1 DM describes the scene
2 Players state their actions (goal & approach)
3 DM adjudicates the results of their actions

And with that we just got stuck into the first adventure in SKT. The mechanics of the game were taught as we encountered different situations. And occasionally we paused to discuss some of the reasoning behind some things (no PvP, don't ask to roll a check, etc)

It really went quite well, much better than I'd hoped but I think much of that was because they were eager to learn.
 

[MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] has a good series of posts on adjudicating actions. Good enough I copied it and saved it to a Word doc.

Absolutely, [MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] knows how often I plug it with just the slightest reason :) it's wonderful stuff and i also made a PDF of it.

Hmm are you vying for my position as champion of his post?! I demand satisfaction! ;)
 

I haven't directly seen this stated, but worth stating, let the players know any option is possible but may not always succeed. Let the players try every action no matter how silly and find a way to make it work. Both DMs and Players need to know this as video games make so little matter. That is what makes d&d different and special, everything matters and nothing matters, both equally and wonderfully. Enjoy the ride and forget about the goal, that's when the magic happens��
 

Just got a message from the trainee DM. They had their first home session this evening and it went well. Phew :) But That was quick! I guess the contagion has spread! :D
Congratulations! It's like Walking Dead, but with Cheetos and Mountain Dew. :)
 

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