Getting new/young players into RPGs.
Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 2:20 pm
And by new, I mean... neeeeeeew. Mind you, in the age of MMORPGs and open roleplaying decay there aren't as many people completely unfamiliar to the concept of roleplaying, but there are still more than a few.
When I think back to my formative experiences, I can't help but think of a few things to get people interested in the game.
1) You have to stroke the player's ego during character generation. I really don't think this is hard. c/jRPGs have accustomed us to thinking that RPG protagonists are gormless halfwits who get led around the nose. One easy way for RPGs to get a leg up on other mediums is to make them feel IMPORTANT.
This means that your RPG should immediately throw people towards doing badass challenges, whether it's Saxon slicing open the belly of a snake or Fastjack Prime pulling off an O11's-worthy heist.
2) You have to immediately emotionally invest players into their characters. While experienced RPers don't really need this, it's completely incomprehensible to me that character sheets for 'beginner' RPGs don't immediately come with blanks for Family, Mentor, and Badass Establishing Moment. People for these RPs shouldn't be allowed to make a Rogue who just emerged from the thieves' guild. They should be fleeing the law in another country for fucking the Duchess' husband and daughter after stealing their Staff of the Magi, they should be tracking down war criminals who dishonored the Corellan guard, etc..
3) Character creation should be initially simple but provide people with easily attainable options. The carrot-and-stick approach, while gauche, does easily work its magic. People LIKE anticipating the badass things that they want to be doing no matter how experienced they are in the actual rules. Honestly, 4E's system of starting people off with a racial encounter power, class features two At-Wills, an encounter and a daily is actually a really good idea. But like with 3E, what they failed to anticipate is that people can actually handle an increased workload over time. If people like their characters then they can get a handle on what they can do really fast.
4) Characters new to the game should have an protected schtick. This is not negotiable under any circumstance. While your mileage may vary on whether combat roles are needed (I think they're also good for beginners, but not mandatory) the fact that the Warlord should have the lion's share of tactical- and morale-based stunts is not negotiable. In my experience with running both 3E and 4E that one of the surest ways to cause new players to lose interest is to have two players play similar characters.
When I think back to my formative experiences, I can't help but think of a few things to get people interested in the game.
1) You have to stroke the player's ego during character generation. I really don't think this is hard. c/jRPGs have accustomed us to thinking that RPG protagonists are gormless halfwits who get led around the nose. One easy way for RPGs to get a leg up on other mediums is to make them feel IMPORTANT.
This means that your RPG should immediately throw people towards doing badass challenges, whether it's Saxon slicing open the belly of a snake or Fastjack Prime pulling off an O11's-worthy heist.
2) You have to immediately emotionally invest players into their characters. While experienced RPers don't really need this, it's completely incomprehensible to me that character sheets for 'beginner' RPGs don't immediately come with blanks for Family, Mentor, and Badass Establishing Moment. People for these RPs shouldn't be allowed to make a Rogue who just emerged from the thieves' guild. They should be fleeing the law in another country for fucking the Duchess' husband and daughter after stealing their Staff of the Magi, they should be tracking down war criminals who dishonored the Corellan guard, etc..
3) Character creation should be initially simple but provide people with easily attainable options. The carrot-and-stick approach, while gauche, does easily work its magic. People LIKE anticipating the badass things that they want to be doing no matter how experienced they are in the actual rules. Honestly, 4E's system of starting people off with a racial encounter power, class features two At-Wills, an encounter and a daily is actually a really good idea. But like with 3E, what they failed to anticipate is that people can actually handle an increased workload over time. If people like their characters then they can get a handle on what they can do really fast.
4) Characters new to the game should have an protected schtick. This is not negotiable under any circumstance. While your mileage may vary on whether combat roles are needed (I think they're also good for beginners, but not mandatory) the fact that the Warlord should have the lion's share of tactical- and morale-based stunts is not negotiable. In my experience with running both 3E and 4E that one of the surest ways to cause new players to lose interest is to have two players play similar characters.