Update -- Gaming wives, the ongoing saga!

[Ds Da Man]

Have her make a character, then kill the PC quickly, and get her outta the game. Every time Ive played with a group that has the wife/husband combo, it sucked. They always become annoying, and it always becomes a competion, and generally the woman ends up with some ridiculous super-character.

Other the that, have fun!!!

 

[Thorn Trollbabe]

Just a suggestion, but if you can find a way to arrange it so that your wife's first game is either the first time the group plays a new system, or even incorporates some new aspect of the D&D system, that'll help. Alternatively, if you can arrange to have someone else new join up at the same time (difficult, I know), that would be good too. Either way.

The point is - make it so that your wife isn't the only one asking "stupid questions" and so she doesn't feel like she's dragging the rest of the party down because she can't keep up.

I considered gaming for a long time, but I finally decided to give it a try when the gaming group I was friends with decided to try out a new system. I think it helped a lot being in a group of people who were also trying to figure things out. Sure, they all had an advantage because they knew the basics of how RPGs work, but we all had to ask questions about specifics. Made the whole thing a lot less intimidating.

 

[Darraketh]

My wife won't even play cards. All see is interested in is watching football. Well that's something at least.

 

[OaxacanWarrior]

Forgive my stupidity, but I give up.

Whats LDS?

It's short for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but better known as the Mormons.

Hope that helps ya.

 

[Desdichado]

Actually, no, our church has never made a big deal (or any deal at all that I'm aware of) about D&D, RPGs or any of that.

 

[Psion]

What's with LDS and gaming? Didn't your religion ever blast Dungeons and Dragons like so many others?

Heh... mentioning the LDS thing was sort of a tangent; I just thought it was an interesting coincidence.

I'm sure there were people within the church who had problems with it, but there was never any guidance from the presidency not to play D&D (and in the LDS church, the presidency is the only body that is recongized as having the authority to make proclomations for the Church as a whole.) Some people who beleive the claims that D&D is linked to satanism might express concern, but once it becomes clear that there is no connection, it is generally not a problem.

I don't know how broad your experience is with the gaming groups in Pocatello, but when I was there, I occasionally played with an LDS family in which the whole family played. The family's name was Bailey, though the daughter Cathy is married now and I forget her married name... but she married a gamer too. When I was in high school, one of the groups I played with were people I went to seminary with. So it's not exactly common, we're out there in fair numbers.

I recall a poll back before the "where are you from" feature was turned on that showed that there were a lot of gamers from Utah. I think gaming is relatively common (well, common compared to the per capita of gamers... still pretty small) among LDS folk because it is an enternainment media that isn't laden with pop-culture values and we can put our own values too... unlike relatively brazen modern music and movies.

Of course, this is dangerously flamey territory. Someone will probably bring up other venues in which they disagree with the LDS Church... but that's off topic, so don't. When this came up before on RPGnet, someone came on insisting that the LDS church was as against gaming as the Baptist church -- of course when querried about it, it was based on the reaction of a single individual. To which I can only say, idiocy knows know creed or religion.

 

[Henry]

Thanks for the clarification. I, too, didn't want to seem stupid by not knowing what LDS was.

But good luck with the gaming.

And for Ds Da Man:

Oh, I must agree wholeheartedly. Husband and wife gamers NEVER work out. Right, KidCthulhu?

 

[Desdichado]

The only concern that the leadership of the church could potentially have (which is also my wife's concern, BTW) is that it's altogether too easy to spend way too much time and money on the hobby. But that's true of any hobby, not unique to RPGs.

Psion, if you grew up in Pocatello, I'm not too surprised that your experience with playing with church members is fairly broad, as the relative population of church members in that area blows away any place that I've ever lived.

Then again, the gaming groups I've played with that were church members are about 50%. In fact, the group that may get my wife to play are members, and it was at church that my wife overheard them talking about D&D in the first place. It helps to have other interests besides gaming in common, I think.

 

[Piratecat]

Psion, if you're running OSM for a brand new player (whoo hoo!), here are some changes to make:



SPOILERS



1. Make sure the entrance platform gives plently of warning before giving way, preferably by creaking ominously.

2. If she tries to uncover it, make the buried golem hostile long before it has enough mobility to move. That way it won't chase her.

3. Emphasize the negotiation/roleplaying encounters over the combat encounters, unless she's having a grand old time killing things. I'd probably reduce the number of Akraat's troops, and I'd possibly make the shaman less hostile. The module has the tendency to be somewhat deadly.

4. If she wants to descend the cliff face afterwards, the inhabitants of the lair have lots of ropes and rope ladders that make the descent almost safe to someone who isn't hurrying. Alternatively, the goblins have a wand of levitation with a few charges left; they must have gotten that livestock up to the cave somehow!

Other than that, have a wonderful time, and let me know how it goes! I think this is wonderful.

 

[CRG]

My wife is not really a "gamer" although she has the distinction as having played Magic: The Gathering at least once (which I never have, for a variety of reasons and now I won't out of principle...kind of like seeing the movie "Titanic" - I think I'm the last guy in America who hasn't seen it yet).

She's generally cool, but would rather "plan events" than actually play. She's managed several game day kinds of events and now jokes about going to cons. She doesn't understand that most cons, even the ones we used to put on here, scare the willies out of me. All those freaky gamer people....shudder (wink).

Maybe one day I'll get her to play. She loves card games (Plage and Pestilence, Lunch Money, Guillotine, etc.) and would probably like RPGs alot. If I can just focus her more on miniatures...hmm...