I have taught dozens of people the game. I have moved alot. I am challanging every one here to teach one new person the game and write about it here.
The last two saturdays i taught two newbies how to play D&D. One was a 31 year old computer tech, married no kids, the other a 29 year old elementary teacher married no kids. Both responded like i had asked them to come to an amway meeting.
Trent (the teacher) asked about 25 questions before coming, made sure i knew he had to leave early (by 8 or 9 pm), stayed till 1:30 am, left, woke his wife up and told her all about his character and the minutia of the evenings game while she tried to remmember why she let him go.
Evan (the tech) made fun of one of my other players for 5 years because he spent his weekends "slaying the dragon", came for an hour, stayed for 6, bought the phb the next day, was heard defending D&D to a hot chic over lunch and blew off his wifes birthday the next week to attend...
If you can't find one new person to show the game to you are not trying. Millions of people languish in terrible MMORPG games waiting patiently for someone to show them a real game - D&D. Anyone you know that plays computer RPG's or MMOPRGS will LOVE D&D - gets some balls and invite them.
Showing the game is fun - it invigorates your old game, everyone likes to meet new people. Tell your successes and failure (failures are more fun to read anyway) here:
About 3 months ago introduced 2 new persons to the game, both around their twenties, one of them just loved the game, a girl that was a great half-orc fighter.
blew off his wifes birthday the next week to attend...
Bad move, bad move--gotta keep the wife happy...if the wife ain't happy, nobody's happy.
In the last six months I got three new people to play D&D. My sister-in-law (married, 36 years old, middle school math teacher and high school basketball coach--does turning a jock into a D&D player count as a double conversion??), a 17 year old navy enlistee and an 18 year old high school student (female, friend of 17 year old).
My sister-in-law drives 120 miles twice a month to play D&D at our house. The other two are running a game in their hometown and have about 6-8 new players, I understand.
FAILURES: My brother in law--loves to hunt, shoot guns, 35 year old Army MP turned Border Patrol agent....wasn't a total failure, as he does like to play Settlers of Catan (which is not a game conducive to family unity!) He'll come down occasionally with his wife and hang out while we game. He usually watches TV and helps watch the kids--the D&D game seems too much like an 8 hour long argument interrupted by occasional dice rolling than anything else, he told me. I think he's very much on the mark with that one.
Our group includes 3 players new to RPGs that we introduced about 2 months ago (see my "new players are fun" thread). The primary one we invited likes Harry Potter books and Tomb Raider games, but that's the extent of her Fantasy / Sci Fi interest. After hearing my husband and I talk about it for years, she expressed an interest in learing more. About 4 months after the first invitation to come play with us, she took us up on it. Two of her friends (who my husband and I also knew) wanted to try if she was going to. One of them saw the LoTR movies. That's about it for the three of them in terms of fantasy / sci fi / medieval knowledge, interest, or background.
They have no concept of many things I just grew up being aware of, thanks to a mother with a love of mythology and fantasy. We had to describe what a crossbow was, what a quarterstaff was (Robin Hood references just got us blank stares). At 5 years old, I knew silver was bad for werewolves. They had no clue.
We've had to be very inventive with things. First off was a suggestion of some movies. Second was a tour of my husband's weapons collection. Third was about 15 minutes of them watching us play Soul Calibur III with 8 different characters to give them a frame of reference for different weapons and how they work.
2 months later, they're having a blast. It still amazes me that people with no previous interest in anything to do with fantasy are enjoying the game so much. It's also fun to see them experiencing with new eyes a world that is so familiar to the rest of us.
I got a new player into our group just last session. He (and I, and everyone in my group) is a high school senior, playing a druid/master of many forms (from the complete adventurer). Unfortunately, the group is 8th level, making teaching him very difficult. Right now, he's just rolling with it, enjoying the group atmosphere and story and action, and letting the more experience players take care of the rules.
That's the first new player I've brought in since I started playing D&D about 2 years ago- when I brought in my entire group. One of them had played Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, another had seen those and like them, but otherwise, they were totally new to the whole experience. All of us are total addicts to the One True Game, now.
I'm a senior at Elmira (a small liberal arts college in New York) and I've been trying to introduce new players to The Game since freshman year. Didn't have much success until last year (I'm sure this success was thanks to a friend with much better people-skills than I) when I was finally able to get a consistant group together. Consistant, that is, until this year when everything just kind of spontaneously fell apart (Really, people need to learn to hide their pot better even if it is rediculous for it to be illegal). Now I'm running a game for 4 newbies who seem to like it, though one won't be coming back next year like me and another just can't remember to buy dice of his own.
I can't wait to graduate and be done with school this spring but I'm dreading the prostpect of finding gamers to Game with wherever I end up living.
Last summer I introduced a friend to D&D. Just two months ago there were two more people brought in to the Eberron game I'm playing in that are new too.
|
When I was in the Air Force finding gamers wasn't to hard, only problem is everyone kept getting sent on deployment (I had a fairly stationary job), so I convinced a bunch of my friends that were lets say not in any danger of deployment (pretty much more stationary jobs) and began teaching a group of seven newbies, from what I understand eight years later my boys are all still going strong and are all DMs with groups of their own, all be it spread out all over the US, and at least on over seas.
|
Last week, after 5 years, i finally talked a friend into playing in my D&D campaign. He gave me every excuse why he would have to leave early due to commitments. 8 hours later he was still playing. We would have went longer except for the fact that a power outage at 2am sent us home. The next day he volunteered to host the next game and made it clear to us all that he was up for a 20 hour round. Of course, we are always cool with this.
When he spoke to me the next day after his first game, he stated he woke his wife up and kept her up for over 2 hours telling her of his grand adventures. Needless to say, he is hooked for life. His wife on the other hand, is not. ...laughing...
The tough part is getting people to play for the first time. After their initial experience, they are hooked for life. I have never had an exception to this rule-ever. Game on!!
Thoth-Amon the Atlantian Mindflayerian
A good tip on this is to keep a descent character of about the right level around. I use a cleric that I level up when the party does. Clerics always useful - has some neat abilities (but choose the spells for the cleric yourself - neophyte does not need to learn that part until later) and can fight as well. Try and come up with a name that could be either male or female - I use Visel - That way their characters gender can be whatever is needed - generally speaking I'd stay away from swapping genders for first time players.
Pretty much the idea is to be prepared should a newbie happen to show up - usually the girl friend/boy friend of a regular in my experience but there are all sorts of reasons why a player might suddenly make an appearance.
(Really, people need to learn to hide their pot better even if it is rediculous for it to be illegal)
That's just terrible!
...Both responded like i had asked them to come to an amway meeting....
...If you can't find one new person to show the game to you are not trying...
Amway, multilevel marketing, evil cults, politics... Did D&D become some sort of devil worshipping "take over the world" cult when I wasn't looking? What's with the push to recruit?
^_-
...Both responded like i had asked them to come to an amway meeting....
...If you can't find one new person to show the game to you are not trying...
Amway, multilevel marketing, evil cults, politics... Did D&D become some sort of devil worshipping "take over the world" cult when I wasn't looking? What's with the push to recruit?
^_-
Nothing - i wondered if peoples experience introducing newbies to the game was the same as mine. I also hear a lot of people say their present group is small or losing players or lack of people to play with (here and on other boards) and think teaching D&D is fun and wanted to encourage people to try and teach someone new.
Amway, multilevel marketing, evil cults, politics... Did D&D become some sort of devil worshipping "take over the world" cult when I wasn't looking? What's with the push to recruit?^_-
There is always a push for new blood. New players are a great part of a game, even if they don't last. I would have never played at all had my friends not all but forced me to my first game. It's not about recruiting it's about introducing a great game to people that would love to play if they only knew it existed.
Plus the game is about as addictive as cherry flavored crack and it is amusing to see a skeptical stranger turn into a D&D junkie overnight
Had a new player show up today.(The others are helping him flesh out his character) His girlfriend showed up with him. When asked if she was interested in any of this "D&D stuff"....
"Oh yes, but I'd like to play an EVIL character."
(Shudder)
All but one of my new Eberron game are new to paper RPGs, D&D, and Eberron. They all love it. And I love the fact that they have yet to learn the Min/Maxing and munchkin stuff.
...Both responded like i had asked them to come to an amway meeting....
...If you can't find one new person to show the game to you are not trying...
Amway, multilevel marketing, evil cults, politics... Did D&D become some sort of devil worshipping "take over the world" cult when I wasn't looking? What's with the push to recruit?
^_-
Tkae over the world, no. Open up a few minds and teach people books aren't Kryptonite, yes! The United States sufferes from a lack of imagination and intellect brought on by years of bad TV and a social stigma to learning and knowledge. If this is a cult, it is a cult built to take the world away from stupid people.
I guess no one got my joke. Bah. Poor thing. I didn't even get to watch it flop about on the floor, gasping for air like a fish out of water.
If this is a cult, it is a cult built to take the world away from stupid people.
I dunno about that. I've met some stupid gamers in my time.
In any case, last time I recruited someone was a few months back. My daughter now plays in my campaign. :)
|
In my current group two players were new to D&D when they joined. One of them was about age of 25 and is by now the most fervent D&D fan in it. The other one is about age 45. He was interested in board games, dark ages, but never played a rpg. Both he and my other players cause "roling eyes" in their environment when they talk about our D&D evenings. Still they would never dispense with them.
The misses: my gf. She does not have any interest in fantasy and sf, therefore D&D (especially the money spent for the books) just causes frowns. A player's gf used to play in the group. By now she is also just a spectator. She enjoys the buzz in their appartment, but she wouldn't join again.
So in short: D&D's greatest advantage and it greatest shortcoming is its connection to fantasy.
Guenther