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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arcane Runes Press" data-source="post: 270276" data-attributes="member: 402">Three bits of recommendation.1) Don't Shorthand Anything- The longer a gamer games, the more he begins to handwave over certain elements of the game. What gets handwoven changes from player to player and game to game, but it always seems to be there. For example: "You stop at the inn for the night. It costs two gold but the beds are comfortable" or "You cast detect magic and the ring glows blue". I'm not advocating that  every little thing get the full descriptive treatment everytime, but remember that the first time she sits down in the inn's commons is the first time she has ever sat down in an inn's commons. It's the same with everything else. The first time she casts a spell, it should be given the full movie treatment. The first time she opens a dungeon door, it should be a full cinematic moment.2) Emphasize the wonder- This ties in to #1, but is more far reaching. Plan for a few truly fantastic moments/visuals in her first session and adventure. Give her something equivalent to the dining room in Hogwarts, or the moment when Gandalf's staff banishes the darkness in Moria, revealing a chamber of truly mammoth scope. Now, it doesn't need to be so grand, but it should be wonderous. That, to me, does more to show the possibilities of role-playing than anything else.3) Minimize the combat and bookkeeping- 3E is a great system, but it, like any rpg, can be a bit overwhelming at first. Keep combat and other "bookkeeping" elements of the game at a bare minimum. When your wife makes a character, ask her to describe it, then do the work for her- that's what I do with any first timer. Then, when it's done,  I sit down and go over the basics of the completed character, showing places where the game mechanics are used to represent the character they wanted. For example: "Ok. You said you wanted to make a scruffy con man who could creep through the alleyways in absolute silence, so I focused your skills that way. You have Hide and Move Silently skill checks of +8 each. That's  really  good."Patrick Y.</blockquote>

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