Help with teaching someone the game


Advice


I would like some help with teaching someone the game from scratch

I have played variants of 3rd edition D&D for 15 or so year off and on. And most people I have played with have some form of prior experience

So the idea of trying to teach someone to play and give them the best chance of enjoying it seems really daunting to me

What are some useful tips? Are there any well respected articles or posts on this ?
Should I find pregens ? Should i just let them play what they want or extract the more “simple” classes. And numerous other questions

Also I normally run pre-written Paizo material when GMing just because of the time (and to an extent creativity ) requirements of homebrew. I also enjoy the setting

What are good pre-written beginner options? Ideally something that could fit in one session (just in case they don’t like the game) but also has some kind of sense of achievement at the end ?

Would a PFS scenario be best ? And if so which ?

I have recently played through We Be Goblins and the Confirmation with the people who are fairly likely to be fellow players so they are probably not the best options. Also silly Goblins may not give the accurate / best impression for a first time adult player

I appreciate any help!


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PREGEN CHARACTERS

For a beginner I'd go with a pre-gen character, but maybe cull some of the more complicated classes out of the pack before letting them pick. The pre-gen casters aren't too hard, but gunslinger/magus/etc might be challenging with their weird action economy and things.

The main thing I'd think about when introducing a new player is how much you want them to ROLL-play vs ROLE-play.
Just so you know these 2 things aren't mutually exclusive, but they are different things and some people prefer one over the other. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but making sure your new player fits in with the rest of your group will probably mean encouraging them to go with whatever your group is used to ... or encouraging your group to try something new if you think you're up to it.
If you want to encourage ROLE-play you could ask people to act out their diplomacy/bluff/intimidate/etc checks before they roll. If they perform well then you can give them a bonus to their roll, if they perform poorly you can give them a penalty to their roll. This kind of thing encourages your players to start thinking and playing in-character. It will help your characters become real people. On the flip-side it will de-value some skills and abilities. If someone has to role-play their bluff, but not their sense-motive then it can unbalance the game. You may also have a shy player at the table who's playing the charismatic bard. This kind of thing might severely damage their tabletop-gaming experience. Just something to think about.
One fun way to get around some of these problems is to roll the dice and THEN get them to act out the results of the dice, eg: Someone rolls a 4 on their intimidate check: "You stand over the guard, flexing your muscles, but the effect is hampered somewhat when you start hiccoughing." ... Then try to get your players thinking of things like this themselves.

Sorry that was a longer paragraph than I meant it to be, the short version is: Encourage the kind of gaming you want to see at your table. There is no better time than their first session to set their expectations for your group.

I'll leave it there for now and hope someone else sees this and helps out too.

Goodluck!


Start them off with a Fighter until they get the hang of the game. Fighters are straight forward and there are plenty of archetypes to boot to even go a little crazy in regards to variety.

Also use the Beginner Box dungeon "Skeleton King's Crypt" (it's in the Hero's Handbook). It's a little cheesy, but it will give them a good idea of how it works. It also provides way too much loot compared to any 1st level modules published. But at least they will have a good weapon to start out. After that do Blackfang's Dungeon (it's in the Game Master's Guide) to get them full plate armor and more ridiculous loot.

Read the Pathfinder comic "Dark Waters Rising" Volume I for some additional smaller adventures in the Sandpoint region, before reading Volume II "Of Tooth and Claw" to finish killing off Blackfang. That adventure is Ruins of Raven's Watch (also in the Game Master's Guide). There is also a mine adventure in the Beginner Box - GM Kit, but it is an incomplete adventure.


I just started a new campaign a few months ago with a new player. 1: Make sure they fit in with the group, both in terms of inter-personal dynamics, and character choices. If the group plays hyper-optimized characters, it may not be the best place for a new player to start, especially if they are filling in a key roll.
2: On that note, Fighters make good starting characters, with the caveat that the group is not expecting fully optimized damage. I started off our new player with a fighter, our group was ok with having a fighter who may not do the most damage any time. One thing about fighters though is there is a lot of feat choices, so it can be daunting for a new player to look through the books and try and pick what is the best feat for them. I talked to my player to get a feel of what kind of fighter he wanted to play, did he want to use 1 weapon, weapon and shield, 2 weapons, 2 handed weapon, ranged, then gave him a few feats to choose from that would bring about that and explain the feats to them. And be prepared to do this for multiple levels.

Let the other players help him out as well, but limit the meta-gaming.

On that note, accept a little meta-gaming from the new player, but let them know and what the limits are.

Be prepared for longer turns as they try to remember what everything is and does.


Thanks for the tips

So what about short adventure options?

Are the beginners box ones best? What about any particular PFS scenarios that give the eighth idea about how the game usually works ?


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Lanathar wrote:

Thanks for the tips

So what about short adventure options?

Are the beginners box ones best? What about any particular PFS scenarios that give the eighth idea about how the game usually works ?

One of the best things about the "Black Fang's Dungeon" in the Beginner Box is that it is designed to teach players and GMs how the game works.

Each room has a different point to make, and a different type of problem to overcome. And the text that goes with the adventure is explicitly written to explain new stuff to the GM.

"Crypt Of The Everflame" has a similar design philosophy.


Another good module is Master of the Fallen Fortress. I'm also fond of The Lost Lands: Stoneheart Valley, from Frog God Games, which has pre-gen characters for players and reminders for GM'ing. If you haven't GM'd much, it's definitely worth taking a look at.


I have GM’d quite a lot. I wouldn’t consider myself great at it but I have done it a lot

My point was that I have never had an utter newbie that I want to both teach and try to make sure they really enjoy it

Black Fang’s does look good and I was really considering the fallen fortress as a follow up.
Both would be wrapped up in one session each with a tangible victory at the end as well so probably fit my needs

Thanks


Mm, Fallen Fortress is explicitly a tutorial adventure. XD It's got a little of almost everything (traps, environmental effects, passive monster abilities, consumable magic items, climbing, etc.), generally introduced one at a time so you can explain how they work in any level of detail the player needs.


Skeleton King's Crypt is also created for utter newbies (that's why it feels so cheesy to experienced players). It also serves as a good background starter as the first adventure that starts the adventurer's career.

Also, get the 8 free Beginner Box Bash adventures on the Paizo website. They all start in Sandpoint, for some you go on a ship cruise to other places, and then return. But these can be worked in as being hirelings rather than becoming full Pathfinder members. If you want to shift to Absalom and have your newbie become a Pathfinder and turn this political, then, yes, by all means, Fallen Fortress is THE tutorial adventure for that.


For brand new players, I like the "throw them in the deep water with floaties" approach. I show them some of my old characters I used to play and explain what my concept/goal was for creating them. I'll ask them if they've played any video games or other pen and paper games before that might be similar to how Pathfinder/D&D is played, if so, it makes this much easier.

After I have a good cursory outline of what they've done and they've seen some of my characters, I'll ask them if they have a concept in mind that they would like to play... like a favorite character from a book/movie or if they have something else in mind already? If not, I go through something I call a Playstyle Matrix:

  • Where do you see yourself on a battlefield or a social encounter? For both, ask Front/Middle/Back/Nowhere?

  • What would you like to do in battle? Weapons&Shields/Offensive or Defensive Magic/Psionics/Support/Have an Animal Companion or Mount?

  • When you're not in battle, what would you like to do? Stealthy & Sneaky/Intimidating or Diplomatic/Drink at the Tavern/non-talkative/Find a Library or Wizard's Hall?

    Once they've answered these three questions, I can usually suggest about 2-3 classes, and even 2 off-shoot class/archetype combos that can generally fit what they'd like to do. We'll create a backstory for them using a Character Creation recipe (obligations, goals, mysteries, etc.)

    I'll have a ~6month to 1year long campaign ready for the party, but I'll make this new player play out something in their new character's backstory in a short 30min-1hr 1v1 session with me so they can get a feel for them. If they aren't feeling this particular character, we'll reroll and try again. If they like the character and want to press forward, we start the campaign. I'll typically plan to level quickly, about once per 3-4 weeks, so that at the end of a year (even if you miss a session or two due to scheduling, the players are roughly lvl 12-16ish.

    The "Deep water with floaties" portion of this is that during the campaign, the threat of death is present (I won't *try* to kill anyone, but I won't pull punches either), but I'll give them a story-appropriate lifeline in case an early level death occurs; once they're lvl 10-ish, they have access to resurrection or have made enough friends who could possibly resurrect.

    In the campaign I'm running right now, I have two brand-new players and I've done exactly this and it has worked wonderfully. At the beginning of their campaign, they were visited in a dream by a goddess named Destiny who placed her arcane mark upon them (this was going to be their early-game-death lifeline. They didn't use it yet, and now they're lvl 10. I figure our game will probably go until somewhere between late August and early October, or longer, who knows! :)

    I hope this was helpful, good luck ;)


In my experience, the group and social aspects matter more for a new player having fun than the game itself. If you have a good group, who are going to get along well with the new player, and the new player will get along with them I expect they will have a good time.

For the most part, I (and other players) will give advice and help in creating characters and during play. New players take a bit longer on their turns usually, but in most cases they can figure out even the most complex class with some guidance. Most of the 'experience required' stuff happens during character creation and leveling up anyway and that can all be taken care of.

Basically helping them choose classes, feats, spells known and even things like spells prepared and what to do during their turn when they need it and being patient has worked out fine. After a bit, they generally pick it up just fine.

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