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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormborn" data-source="post: 3560905" data-attributes="member: 14041">If you were going to introduce someone to D&D (or the like) who had never really been involved with it before where would you start? What direction would you point them in?I would invite them to a game and if he or she said yes I would help her make a 1st level character ahead of time and try to have a mix of veterans and neophytes at the game itself.  To make an appeal for the hobby I would talk about things the person might like that would be similar, such as video games, theater, or books and movies.  I would encourage the person to be familiar with her character and its abilities as well as whatever (limited) player information about the world was needed ahead of time.  I would run something that highlighted various aspects of the game including skills, combat, and role-play to give as broad an experience as possible. If possible I would try to emulate a genre of fiction she liked. Later I would try and follow up with questions as to what she may have liked and didn’t like.  If over all she didn’t like it I would try to find out specifics and see if she would be willing to give another game a shot.How would you describe yourself, your community, your level of engagement? In terms of role playing I am likely typical of the average demographic in that I am a Caucasian middle class male in my mid-30s, but like many of my peers I came to RPGs late in life and have only been playing for the last 5 years or so.  I have a master’s degree, am a religious and academic professional and am a freelance RPG writer.  I am married and my wife plays in my group, indeed that is how we met.  My interaction with the RPG community at large is limited to EnWorld and a few other message boards and professional contacts. As a freelancer, and a bit of an obsessive, I do think about and interact with RPGs and the community almost daily.  I am surrounded by piles of books for multiple games (mostly d20) and prefer to spend my discretionary income, modest that it is, on hobby materials.  I also collect comics and have an interest in board, miniature, and collectible card games. I prefer genre fiction in novels, tv, movies, and cartoons including anime. What do you love/hate about it all and what keeps you engaged with it?RPGs are a great intellectual exercise for me.  I love world building and interacting with well-detailed settings.  I love developing characters and mechanics.  For me it is all about creation. As such I rarely play or run campaigns for more than a few months, as I want to create something new.  I hate the same kind of narrow mindedness that one finds in a lot of hobbies. People who say things like “My favorite X/way of doing things is the only correct way and what you are talking about is just wrong and now I shall rant about it for an hour or two until you agree or go away.”  I hate the stereotypes, and more so that there is a justification for them, which I think leads to a ghettoization of RPGs as an activity.  The basic concept of RPGs is as adaptable to any genre, settings, and social group as video games, board games, or music but the tales of devil worship and the general perception of it has resulted in RPGs being forced to both fill and appeal to certain sterotypes in much the same way the vast majority of American comics are about superheroes and are perceived to be for children.</blockquote>

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