Who says D&D is hard to learn?

[Jeph]

Two days ago I taught two people how to play DnD. One had done a lot of WH40K, the other a good deal of LotR cards. It was incredibly easy. Took maybe a minute for the basics, another four or five or skills. Neither had a spellcasting character, but they picked that up mighty quickly from the others during play.

They caught on like fire on an alcahol drenched rag.

However, I did make the charactor for each of them, and I have a feeling that that's where 90% of the confusion for a "newbie" would come from. With one, we had a very lengthy AIM conversation about character background, choices, goals, etc, and came up with a Ranger with favored enemies of Demons and Devils and ungodly Listen and Spot bonuses. The other I made a character for when he got to my house, a bit before the actual session. He ended up with the chief retainer of the local duchess, using the Samurai class from OA to simulate this. The two extra skill points per level that came from that were spent on Intimidate and Diplomacy, which proved to be perhaps the most used skill of the session (second only to maybe Knowledge [Religion]).

They were level 8 characters, but seemed to have no problem at all starting at a high power level. In fact, the biggest problem I had came not from one of the beginners, but the step-brother of the player with the chief retainer. He was a semi-experienced player, and this was his first session with me as GM. However, I think he'd been in hack and slash games before and nothing else, and not only that but relatively poorly run ones with GMs who took a "Me Vs. The Players" stance. However, by the end of the session, I think he had begun to realize that I don't run a kick-in-the-door game.

There was only one combat of the game, and that against a dozen dretches. Which are CR 2, so no problem for a level 8 group. A lot of detective and resource-gathering work was done, though, and next session they'll be facing an awakened fiendish dire tiger, half fiend half human umbral roge/sorcerer, and an advanced Retriever. We'll see how they react to a little more combat-heavy session, which both are looking forward too.

So, does anyone else have stories about introducing people for the game? Maybe advice on long-term play for the inexperienced?

Thanks,
--Jeff

 

[Desdichado]

Teaching the basics of play is easy. Expecting them to digest three core books and who knows how many others is not. It depends on the personality of the gamer.

My wife is a bit of a perfectionist. She doesn't want to play unless she understands all the rules of the game and is making optimal choices at every point. Therefore, she simply takes one look at my gaming shelf and says (paraphrasing) "there's no way in all the Nine Hells I'm gonna go through all that material and play that game."

 

[Mystery Man]

DnD is easy! Any edition, no problem.

I bought my son a couple of those Yu-gi-oh starter decks.

I just don't get it.

 

[Thanee]

With all those computer games around, the basics are really easy to get from there.

Bye
Thanee

 

[bret]

Our group has two 'newbie' players -- people who have never played a RPG before but are familiar with various fantasy source material.

The problems are always pretty much the same:
* They want the character to do something that crosses class boundaries. The request isn't necessarily unreasonable, it is just that the DnD classes as written would require multiclassing and then you get into the whole XP penalty situation.
* Attacks of Opportunity
* Which dice am I supposed to use again?
* What damage gets increased on a critical?
* Questions about how to achieve a certain tactical effect within the rules. Things like called shots or dirty tricks.
* Questions on what skill should be used for something.

Switching dice all the time is a pain. FIguring criticals when someone has sneak attack or a weapon with bonus dice of damage is also a pain.

 

[Macbeth]

Somehow, I have always good experiences with new players in my games, I even taught 4 people GURPS, INCLUDING characters creation, in a single nights game, and still had time to run a fairly long adventure. If I ever think of a way to communicate how I do it, I'll be sure to post it.

 

[Wormwood]

I've had similar experiences, in that it's easier to teach D&D to a newbie if you keep to the very basics and only instruct them in things of immediate concern.

I've found it's usually a bad idea to just hand over the PHB to an RPG novice and tell them to read it.

 

[Ferret]

I taught in the "Crossing Bridge Technique", You say what you want to do, I say how.

Then I introduce dice rolls (something I'd do at first) then show them how I'm doing it. Luckily they asked if they could roll the dice, so no problems weening them off of DM relience. I work well, the worst thiings I got was a sorcerer deciding he liked melee alot more and finding things on the character sheet. They all liked the fantasy genre and knew like weapon names but not to any actual Degree, or the read LotR etc. Apart from that Newbies.

I, myself am self taught, got familiar with the rules by diving in head first at monster creation. Then I found the SRD, and eventually half way through my first game baught the phb.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Teaching the basics of play is easy. Expecting them to digest three core books and who knows how many others is not.

All that a new player needs to understand is the few pages that consitute their character class, the basics of the combat chapter, and perhaps spells if they are a caster.

Even the combat chapter is optional, so long as the DM is very comfortable with it himself and can take the player's desires and translate them effectively into combat actions.

 

[Wombat]

I have more problems with cross-gamers than with newbies.

Two of my current gamers are kicking the World-o-Darkness habit (remember: vampires are just leeches with legs) and they think of things they want to or can do under that system that they can't exactly map under D&D3.whatever. When this happens they get a bit grumpy.

Rifts players are even worse that way...

But be all that as may be, it is possible to learn the rudiments of any system pretty simply.

For teaching a system, though, I still find Over The Edge the easiest.