Role playing Games and newbie friendliness
May. 5th, 2017 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luckykaaI went to the Traders' hall at the Rolepaying event. One of the tables had a lot of roleplaying books. I was tempted by a Star Trek game, but it turned out it was the Player's Handbook. It has the rules to play but possibly not enough to run a game. You also need the narrators handbook.
That seems like quite an investment.
Too many games are aimed at people who already play RPGs. And these are hefty books. There's a lot to read before you can start having fun and actually playing the game.
They're not all that newbie friendly. Especially for a newbie GM.
You should be able to pick up a book, having never played an rpg before, get a group of friends together and just play. And some systems are good for this. Spirit of the Century came with example characters, lots of examples and a scenario. And mentioned how to play with ordinary dice. Cthuhlu is a little dense perhaps, but does come with everything you need in a single volume. Plus the rules are pretty simple anyway. With something like D&D; it requires a lot of work and effert to get started, and the rules can be pretty complex (although later editions have improved this). The target market is people who have played the previous games. I think nobody, except those few who bought the early boxed editions back in the 70's and early 80's, ever played without someone else introducing them to the game.
Something I was somewhat impressed with was Challenger RPG. It actually does give a lot of genuine advice for a newbie! I have certain issues with the dice mechanics (see earlier post - I'm not that keen on d20 systems) and it does seem a little heavy on jargon but I am quite pleased and it's well worth the £0.00 I spent on it. It even came in e-book flavour!
I quite like the idea of running a game but it frightens me. It should be fun and easy, not frightening and a chore! Too many games seem to forget this.
That seems like quite an investment.
Too many games are aimed at people who already play RPGs. And these are hefty books. There's a lot to read before you can start having fun and actually playing the game.
They're not all that newbie friendly. Especially for a newbie GM.
You should be able to pick up a book, having never played an rpg before, get a group of friends together and just play. And some systems are good for this. Spirit of the Century came with example characters, lots of examples and a scenario. And mentioned how to play with ordinary dice. Cthuhlu is a little dense perhaps, but does come with everything you need in a single volume. Plus the rules are pretty simple anyway. With something like D&D; it requires a lot of work and effert to get started, and the rules can be pretty complex (although later editions have improved this). The target market is people who have played the previous games. I think nobody, except those few who bought the early boxed editions back in the 70's and early 80's, ever played without someone else introducing them to the game.
Something I was somewhat impressed with was Challenger RPG. It actually does give a lot of genuine advice for a newbie! I have certain issues with the dice mechanics (see earlier post - I'm not that keen on d20 systems) and it does seem a little heavy on jargon but I am quite pleased and it's well worth the £0.00 I spent on it. It even came in e-book flavour!
I quite like the idea of running a game but it frightens me. It should be fun and easy, not frightening and a chore! Too many games seem to forget this.
