|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Untitled Document
Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #65
How To Introduce New People To Roleplaying
Contents:
This Week's Tips Summarized
How To Introduce New People To Roleplaying
- Send Out Invitations
- Chat About Your Hobby
- Invite Spouses & Girl/Boyfriends
- Organize An "Introduction To RPGs" Workshop
- Invite People To Watch
- Spread The Word Using The Internet
- Be Open To Answering Questions
- Hook Them With The Story -- Not The Dice
- It's a Cooperative Game
- Reminisce About Great Campaigns
Readers' Tips Summarized
- Using Miniatures/Props To Enhance Cinematic Gameplay
- Multi-Tasking Through Non-Linear Play
- Tips For Converting A Fantasy Novel Into A Campaign
Return to Contents
A Brief Word From Johnn
Thanks For the Great Tips!
I thought this would be a tricky issue to write because I was stumped for ideas
on introducing new people to our favorite hobby. But, through last week's Tip
Request, we have enough great tips now to fill two issues! Thanks, you guys and
gals are awesome.
I decided to split your tips up into two categories/issues:
- How to introduce new people to roleplaying (this week's issue)
- How to get new people hooked on roleplaying (next week's issue)
Through Thick & Thin
My group is finally gaming again tonight after a few consecutive cancelled sessions.
I was getting pretty frustrated coordinating schedules and game dates only to
have them cancelled last-minute. The solution for me was a player, Dan M. (thanks
Dan!), stepping up and getting the job done.
So I urge you, if your campaign is going through a bumpy period right now, stick
with it. Look for alternate solutions and enlist your players' help--they want
to play as much as you do.
Warm regards,
Johnn Four johnn@roleplayingtips.com
Return to Contents
A Word From Our Sponsor: FunUSA.com
Attention Gamers!
For Low Prices and Huge Selection
From AD&D to Z obmondo!
Fun N' Games is Great Games and More!
Hard-to-find Items? We Special Order!
www.funUSA.com toll-free
1-877-810-9596
Return to Contents
How To Introduce New People To Roleplaying
- Send Out Invitations
From: Ian M.
Hi Johnn,
I have been part of a fairly insular group for 20+ years, but my wife bought
me the new Star Wars RPG for Valentine's Day, and I am thinking of running
a game with all new players.
I identified several people who might want to give it a try, and I have made
up a flyer with several pics from the movies and made up my own captions,
e.g. the scene where Luke first gets his hands on a lightsaber with the caption
"hey, Hey, WATCH it with that thing!".
The text of the flyer is really an invitation. It starts out "YOU ARE INVITED
..." with all the time and place stuff.
And then it goes on: "Okay, don't freak out on me here. This isn't a Star
Wars party--it's much worse than that. You're being invited to play a game.
Ever hear of Dungeons and Dragons? Good. We're not playing that. But we are
going to play a role playing game; the Star Wars Role Playing Game. Now, you
might be thinking "role playing games are NOT for me." Relax! No offense taken.
Just RSVP by saying "No way, man!" Or you might be thinking "well, maybe I
could try it, but I don't expect to LIKE it." Great! If you don't like it,
there is no obligation to keep playing in later game sessions. (Though that
IS how these games work--if enough people are interested, we would schedule
another session and pick up where we left off.) It's also okay to ask questions.
There, now was that so bad? If you decide to come, please bring a snack or
soft drink to share."
One more thing: I don't expect to get everybody I send the invitation to...[but]
if you can educate people in a non-threatening way, they will be that much
more open to trying it.
Johnn's 2 cents:
An invitation is a great idea! Paper or email based. It allows you to ask
people in a safe way. And people can digest the information privately as they
read it, there's no peer pressure to judge things.
I like Ian's use of humour in his invitation as well. If you can laugh at
yourself it shows confidence, which new players will pick up on and feel good
about.
Return to Contents
- Chat About Your Hobby
From: Markus W.
Keep talking about your favourite hobby. Use every possible opportunity to
tell the people you know of your exploits in the world of role-playing. Emphasize
the stories and the adventures and the characters, not rules or systems.
Johnn:
If someone asks what you did last night, tell them you were playing a game
with some friends. The person will probably ask "what game?" and you then
have the option to chat about your hobby.
When chatting about roleplaying, leave out game-lingo. Adding to Markus' tip,
also emphasize the fun everyone had at the table. Tell the person if anyone
laughed 'till pop came out of their nose, or if anyone got so excited they
fell off their chair type of stories. People respond well to "fun and games"
conversation.
Return to Contents
- Invite Spouses & Girl/Boyfriends
From: Markus W.
Now this is a risky one: make your players bring their girl/boyfriends, wives
or husbands. Admittedly many people in relationships have problems differentiating
between player and character, and consequentially cause atmospheric disturbances.
If, however, both can take pleasure in role-playing together, you've won a
new player who will certainly be a regular! The advantage is that no partner
will ever moan about the other spending too much time role-playing anymore.
I introduced my wife to role-playing myself and now she is as hooked as I
am, with no damage done to our relationship.
Johnn:
If your group doesn't mind, try to invite spouses and friends to watch for
a little while so that they better understand what you do and why you like
it. They'll feel more comfortable about spreading the word for you too.
Return to Contents
- Organize An "Introduction To RPGs" Workshop
From: Maarten van B.
I GM'ed for several years in high school, but stopped when I went to study
abroad. A year or two after I came back, I wanted to get started again, but
I wasn't acquainted with any roleplayers at that time. I knew a few friends
who played RPGs on the computer, or who had read Lord of the Rings, but none
of them had ever heard of roleplaying games such as we discuss here.
So what I did was actually quite simple: I designed a nice flyer, with a small
but varied selection of fantasy pictures (battle, magic, elves etc.), added
a few hopefully inspiring lines of text in the spirit of "Ever wanted to know
what it would be like to..." (fill in the blank: live the life of an elf,
beat a powerful dragon, save a captured princess from an evil sorcerer etc.)
and announced that I would be holding a Roleplaying Game Day two weeks from
then. The programme for that day was quite simple:
10:00-11:00 |
Welcome drinks and a chance to ask preliminary questions |
11:00-11:30 |
Introduction to RPG by the GM (that would be me) |
11:30-13:30 |
Workshop 1: Creating a fantasy character (simplified
system) |
14:00-16:00 |
Workshop 2: Living in a fantasy world (a shorty introductory
adventure with the earlier created or a pre-made character). |
16:00- 18:00 |
Movie (which in my case, we never got around to) |
7 people showed up: a few of my friends, and a few of their friends as well;
they really enjoyed making characters and they enjoyed the following adventure
even more.
I hope this works for others as well.
(Tip: it's also important to gear your flyer and your workshops towards the
type of campaign you intend to run.)
Return to Contents
- Invite People To Watch
From: Samir
When my gaming group gets low due to attrition (people moving away) I usually
ask the players to ask around their work place for new players. Most of the
time they come in with a new person or two and about 1/2 the time the person
stays with the group.
99% of the time a new person will state that they are only there to watch.
However, having been a GM/player for over 20 years I have determined that
being a spectator of a tabletop game is boring. I try to have a character
ready for any visitor to play.
Johnn:
This is a *great* way to get new people involved with your favorite hobby.
Asking them to watch is a safe way for them to learn what it's all about.
It's "try before you buy".
I have started many watchers off by asking them to play a minor NPC an hour
or two in the game--an NPC I've specifically planted for the purpose. I kept
the NPC simple yet interesting (i.e. a strong character hook) and gave them
a quiet personality to help the player feel comfortable.
Please ask your players before inviting people to watch though. Some groups
may feel uncomfortable roleplaying in front of spectators. If this is the
case, try having a "test" watcher--someone the whole group knows and feels
comfortable with. Ask the players after the session if having a spectator
bothered them at all. If not, ask them if you can invite a newbie.
It also really helps to seat watchers beside good roleplayers, or players
who have a lot of fun at games-- their enthusiasm will be contagious.
Return to Contents
- Spread The Word Using The Internet
From: Joel M.
Use those handy online resources. My situation came about because I was unable
to find a role-playing group in the area and I used a message board that I
take part in to recruit players. Since we're scattered around the world we
play over IRC once a week. I specifically mentioned in my recruitment that
no experience with the game was needed to play. The advantage to doing it
this way is that you can get your message out to a lot of people who do not
typically play role-playing games and it beats hassling the people you know
who don't play or random strangers trying to recruit new players.
Return to Contents
- Be Open To Answering Questions
From: Heather Grove
http://www.burningvoid.com
An excerpt, with permission, from The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter,
Volume 1, Issue 6, Make the New Guy Welcome:
If someone asks you about roleplaying, take a few minutes to answer her questions.
We roleplayers can get defensive sometimes (with good reason, admittedly),
and we can confuse a genuinely interested party with someone who just wants
to ridicule us. Not to mention that some of the people who think they just
want to ridicule us actually find the hobby interesting once they know more
about it. Reacting badly doesn't make other people want to learn more.
Try to be polite to people who show an interest in your hobby. You don't have
to game with every one of them. You don't have to spend all of your time explaining
things to them. Just don't make them think of all roleplayers as snobbish
and irritating. You might collect a few links to web pages that you think
explain things well, and give those to people who ask you questions you don't
have time to answer.
If you're interested and have free time, make yourself available to answer
people's questions.
Return to Contents
- Hook Them With The Story -- Not The Dice
From: Benedira
http://www.sanguinus.com
Hook them with a piece of a story, just like book jackets and movie trailers
do. Don't talk about dice or numbers or character sheets. [For example, on
an invitation]...give them a short but catchy cliff-hanger and then ask what
they'd do. People buy books to see what happens next, and trailers get them
to the movies to see what happens next - it will work the same way with RPG's.
Some friends and I tried this at a sci-con one year, to recruit players for
a LARP game that wasn't exactly science fiction. We knew we wouldn't have
enough players, and that we'd need to recruit more. We got a package of business
card stock from a local office supply house, then proceeded to type up 40
blurbs about potential characters. Every one that stopped by our table got
handed one of these cards, with an invitation to play. Of the forty we handed
out, 28 came to play. Only two of them asked for different cards.
The secret (I think) was that we didn't use role-playing words, or terms the
people wouldn't understand. We used common words just like authors would on
the back of a book cover, and always ended it with the question 'What do you
do now?' It worked great, and a lot of the new players were asking where they
could find out more about the game.
Return to Contents
- It's a Cooperative Game
From: Suní M.
Recently me and some of my friends heard about D&D. We unfortunately only
had the source books and had no-one who had experience to help. I am the DM
and I have never played before now. But, I know one of the things you really
need to show someone who's just starting is that this is not a game you "Win".
Try and show them how the game is a lot like real life without a final big
boss to beat and the like.
Johnn: this is a great point because many people specifically enjoy
party or group games vs. winner-takes-all games. And many people do not realize
that you can make roleplaying a 100% co-operative and social game to enjoy
with friends.
Return to Contents
- Reminisce About Great Campaigns
From: Michael
Have fun reminiscing like we roleplayers always do, but around your non-playing
friends. When they hear a story or two, and the cheer in your voices, they
are going to want to know more.
If they are a fantasy or sci-fi fan tell them the story of your whole campaign.
Sure this may take a few hours, so this is especially good to do during long
car rides, but start where the campaign really got exciting and tell it up
to the present or all the way to the end.
After hearing the whole amazing story from a veteran player they will be primed
to join in if they have any interest at all. Otherwise your game probably
isn't for them. If possible, have the player tell the story since they are
more likely to present it like a good book because they only remember the
exciting parts. Gamemasters tend to be bogged down in details and are full
of stories about what the players missed, or couldn't figure out.
Return to Contents
Next Week's Tip Request:
"Character Questionnaires"
Next week will be part II of the new roleplayers' series, as mentioned in the
Brief Word From Johnn section. Any more tips on "How To Get New People Hooked
On Roleplaying" are welcome!
I thought I'd also skip ahead and request tips for Issue #67: Character Questionnaires.
Background and personality type questions:
- Sample questions
- Links to web pages with questions
- How do you use these kinds of questions in your campaigns?
Send your tips and ideas to: johnnn@roleplayingtips.com
Thanks!
Return to Contents
Readers' Tips Of The Week:
- Using Miniatures/Props To Enhance Cinematic Gameplay
From: KahnB
www.rollenspiel-club.de
Hi Johnn!
Once more I tip my hat to you for the great work you do on the roleplaying
tips weekly! They are great!
A little anecdote about how miniatures or tokens can enhance game play, not
only for tactical, but also cinematic reasons:
During a session we played, my player went into a large chamber, with a firepit
in the center of the room. A huge flame was burning in the pit. We put a burning
candle (like the ones you put in the little lanterns on graves) in the middle
of the floorplan to show where the pit was.
In fact, the flame was a fire elemental that attacked the group when they
opened a treasure chest (I think this was a Dungeon Magazine Adventure by
Jeff Grubb). A fight broke out and finally the players killed the elemental.
When the player landed his deadly blow, I didn't tell them, the fire elemental's
dead, I just got up and extinguished the candle... Cool effect! At first,
they needed a second to realize, what's up, then I heard a relieved sigh and
one player's voice: "It's dead, we extinguished it...." And after that, everyone
burst into laughter. It was a close fight, and the ritual act of extinguishing
the candle really gave it the final, cinematic touch.....
- Multi-Tasking Through Non-Linear Play
From: Damien W.
Thanks for the newsletter. Great work!
On topic now. I'd like to mention an aspect of multitasking that people might
not have noticed. The real world isn't linear! Things don't happen in order,
and they don't line up for your attention. This is a particularly useful insight
for cinematic combat.
Think about an action movie. In an exciting scene, where the heroes are beset
by numerous perils at once, we have only a single viewpoint - but we still
manage to observe all the significant action. How? Because the camera skips
the bits we don't need to see. It's an idea that can apply to gaming, particularly
in a game where the rules are loose enough that the player's aren't in full
control. The GM can focus player attention from one crisis to another, partially
resolving one situation or leaving a cliffhanger to shift to a different character
or action.
Imagine a group of (fantasy) heroes in combat on a mountainside chock full
of cliffs and chasms and bad guys. [The GM]...breaks down the action, using
the 'movie viewpoint' idea. The GM describes the scene for all the players,
and gets their initial reactions.
At this point he picks one player and deals with their actions - not for a
single 'turn', but for two or three or five turns, or as long as is appropriate.
If the action is likely to be resolved without needing input from other players,
don't shift attention until the action is completed. Instead, make the other
players the audience, get them to share the excitement that the acting player
feels.
First, the players see the bad guys on the cliff path. Warrior types charge,
the thief type climbs and sneaks around the flank, the wizard type starts
to cast a spell. Bad guys prepare weapons and shoot arrows. At this point,
focus attention on the two PC warriors, and fight a few rounds of combat.
Ignore the other PCs until something changes - such as the enemy thief-type
preparing to jump the warriors from above. Here's your cliffhanger - tell
the warrior players about the threat, but don't let them act on it, because
their characters haven't been warned. Now it's the rogue PC's turn. Run some
rounds of climbing and sneaking checks, then have him discover the enemy ambusher
at the pivotal moment. You can bet that the fighter PCs will be cheering the
thief PC on as he out-sneaks the enemy sneaker.
It's a balancing act. Player actions will affect each other, so one player
can't get too far ahead in time. Also, you can't spend too long on one person,
or attention will wane. And it's a multitasking challenge. But properly handled,
this system can add a lot of unpredictability and excitement to combat. It
works best in a system with inbuilt flexibility (or with fluffy combat rules),
or in a systemless game.
Return to Contents
- Tips For Converting A Fantasy Novel Into A Campaign
From: Cayne
cayneblackhand@zdnetonebox.com
http://www.angelfire.com/bc/cayneblackhand
For those people that are so inclined, here is a 'novel' way to run a campaign:
take your favorite novel and run it in your favorite game system.
Running a campaign based as closely as possible to the novel can be VERY challenging
though. I do not suggest that first time GM's try this technique. Hopefully,
I can assist in smoothing out some rough spots in the mechanics and planning.
- Select the story that you want to run carefully. Not every novel/story
is going to work for this task. You want to choose a fast-paced novel
with plenty of adventure.
For short campaigns, a stand alone novel may be the best choice. If a
large campaign is what you are after, then I suggest a series of novels
no less than three in number.
The largest factors in this process, in my opinion, is your excitement
level regarding the story and your familiarity with the storyline. The
single most important question one must ask themselves is this: Am I interested
enough in this storyline to see it through to the end? If the answer is
yes, then away you go.
One piece of advice that I would like to stress. Whatever you do, do not
let any of your players read the storybook(s) as you play them. Speaking
from experience, there was a fair amount of negative EXPs handed out to
the player with the big mouth in my campaign. Even a knowing grin from
the player can ruin a suspenseful moment for the other people involved.
- Something that really helped me when I ran a story as a campaign was
note taking. What I did when I had selected my story was to begin re-reading
it. As I read the story over again, I had on the table in front of me
a large pad of paper. As I read crucial points in the story, I made very
detailed notes on the circumstances.
Things that you might want to consider noting are:
- setting: where did the event occur?
- characters: who were the major characters involved?
- buildup: what lead to the occurrence? (refer to previous notes for
continuity)
- outcome: what important changes were brought about by the situation?
- potential hooks: what factors work to allow you to leave the game
suspenseful?
Another thing that I did was to read a set limit of chapters (depending
on the author's choice of chapter length). This enabled me to save my
writing hand and also made it easier to manage running the campaign.
As I planned to run the game once a week, I had a large space of time
to plan in advance. If you plan on running a game more than once a week,
prepare to spend a lot of time reading.
Taking care as to where/when to stop the game night is very important,
as the author most likely leaves hooks at the end of the chapters. Leave
the Half-elf hanging by his fingernails on the edge of a crumbling precipice
while his Gem of Godlike Powers falls out of his pocket and down into
the abyss. This will get your players foaming at the mouth for the next
game.
- Know your game system like the back of your hand. If you plan to incorporate
magic from the novel into your game, knowing the system of choice could
serve you very well in a tight spot where you need to make an out of the
blue amendment/decision.
I alleviated that problem by not allowing any magic-users in the party
(which was all for the better since the main magic-using character was
the antagonist of the story).
Converting magic items is equally important in that certain characters
in your story may well own or receive a special item throughout the course
of the game.
Remember that if one character receives the lion's share of items, it
is due to the storyline and not favouritism. If there are certain rivalries
in the group (rivalries not being a bad thing in themselves), you might
want to compensate for that by creating some minor items that would not
interrupt the continuity of the story.
Tip: If he does not get it in the story, do not give the Half-elf the
Gem of Godlike Powers unless you are prepared to deal with it.
- Try to match your players' playing techniques with the major qualities
of the characters in the story. Make a list with four columns. In the
first column, place the character's name. Column two is for the positive
character traits. Column three is for the negative aspects of the character.
The last column is for the player that best suits that character.
For now, I hope that this will give you some helpful suggestions to begin
converting your favorite story into a game that will run smoothly and
keep both you and your players excited. If you have any questions that
you would like to pose to me personally, you can send me an email.
For those that are curious, the story that I ran was Tad William's 'Green
Angel Tower' series. It was one of the most amazing campaigns that I have
ever run.
Happy gaming, Cayne
Return to Contents
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|