What essential rules should a neophyte player know?

[Firebeetle]

What essential rules should a neophyte player know? I'm designing adventures that will serve to teach new players the rules they need to know, and I need to know what the rules are they need to know. What rules should a player know to be able to play competently with more experienced players?

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

Jeez, where to start?

Combat Basics:

Actions & Types
AOOs
Damage
AC
Attacks
How to Calculate Attack and Damage (some people still can't do it years later)
Types of Dice (roll d20, no that's a d10, no that's a d12)
Movement
Saves
Initiative
Basic Spell Rules
How to Create Characters

The rest can be walked through in-game but these are critical.

 

[IcyCool]

How about "How to Play a Bard"?

 

[Bad Paper]

What essential rules should a neophyte player know? I'm designing adventures that will serve to teach new players the rules they need to know, and I need to know what the rules are they need to know. What rules should a player know to be able to play competently with more experienced players?

0) The Dungeon Master is always right.
1) If it's not fun, you're doing it wrong.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Actually, I think the only thing a neophyte needs to know are:

1) DM is the final adjudicator- don't argue too much, and don't take it personally.

2) Whatever rules are essential for running the PC in front of them- initiative, adding bonuses, etc.- or at least where to find the relevant numbers on a character sheet.

assuming, of course, the DM is willing to do a bit of hand-holding. After all, in the first combat, the DM can say- "OK, you roll a die like this one here to see who goes first...then roll this die here- add your BAB (its on your sheet right over there...) and then..."

A lot of stuff you can pick up during the flow of play.

With D20, the real trick I've found is guiding them through PC generation. Unlike many other systems, the future of a particular PC really can be decided by the decisions made during PC design.

 

[Destil]

Which die is which.

How to caluclate basic rolls (bonus + d20 = check result).

That's about it.

Enerything else the players should just say what they want to do. The DM can interperate this as game rules.

This dosn't work as well if some expirenced players are along for the ride. But it's great with a new group.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Actually, the last time I initiated some people into the game, I had one other experience player along for the ride.

He helped me guide the newbies through PC generation, and during the game, they were just as likely to ask him a question as me- handy when I was trying to help someone else out. I was still the DM, but he could field the stuff about "which die do I roll again?" or "where is that modifier located?" and so forth.

 

[hanniball]

0) The Dungeon Master is always right.

Wrong. What the DM says always goes. That doesn't mean she's always right.

What rules should a player know to be able to play competently with more experienced players?

How to roll a die and read. The rest can easily be picked up on as gameplay continues, as, I assume, you have a decent grip on the ruleset and can iterate to the player which modifier to add to the die roll.

Playing "competently" means "having fun" as far as I'm concerned.

 

[IanB]

I find that when teaching new players, the hardest concept for them to grasp is 'how much can I do in a round.'

So, the interaction of standard action + move action, move action + move action, full-round action, and when you can and can't take a 5' step are very important.