Okay, a new tabletop/miniatures store opened up a few months ago, and a 4ed group has moved in and started to play Pathfinder. After meeting them, their current GM explained to me that near half the group had never played pen and paper roleplaying before, but loved the last 6 sessions he had run them through. The other half of the group haven't played since 2nd Edition D&D, but they were also loving the new feel to the game.
I, seeing the GM's reluctance to run the game, he being new to the rules and Golarion as a whole, offered to GM alternate weeks for him, and have selected Rise of the Runelords and Curse of the Crimson Throne, as I managed to pick it up fairly cheap.
I am not a very experienced GM, 2-3 years experience in mainly 3.5 and Pathfinder, but I have played Pathfinder since the beta playtest, and can probably name off spell effects, duration, level, components, etc. at will.
My conundrum is this, after seeing the way they game, roleplaying isn't an issue, how do I as a GM get the half of the group, whose entire experience with RPGs is World of Warcraft, to utterly fall in love with the game.
Pretty much in a nutshell, I am asking this;
How do I get the less experienced of the group to like the game system?
How should I portray NPCs (funny accents, acting out their int score as printed)?
have you ever had this problem yourself, and if so, how did you overcome the barrier and what was the outcome?
Thank you in advance for any advice given.
Ekeebe :D
How do I get the less experienced of the group to like the game system?
Stress the freedom of the system - more importantly, the freedom of their characters. In WoW, you can't do 1/1000th of the stuff you can do in PF, because ultimately, it's not a human back there, it's a machine. If there's no button for it, you can't do it. In PF, if you can dream of it, you can do it (or at least try).
How should I portray NPCs (funny accents, acting out their int score as printed)?
If it's an important NPC, they probably have goals, agendas, etc, to derive a personality from. If it's not - throw them for a loop. If you have D&D 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide II, it has a table for "100 instant NPC agendas". I have used it to great success before, creating a paranoid shopkeeper the party had a blast with. If not, try and find some sort of table like that online, and maybe throw in some more of your own with flavor. You shouldn't do this with every NPC, but eventually players might go to visit a useless NPC because they remember him so well..."Remember that scottish Dwarf who freaked out and thought we were devils until the Paladin used Lay on Hands? Let's go see him again!"
have you ever had this problem yourself, and if so, how did you overcome the barrier and what was the outcome?
I have had the problem of running a group for people who had never played pencil and paper RPGs before. I tried to follow the advice from WoTC DMG - remember the wanderlust of your first dungeon delve, the first time a mystery was afoot, the first goblins you ever fought. I tried to remember when I first started (about 5 years before) and recalled the experiences and feelings I had then. I brought them back while teaching the players the game (in 2 little "tutorial sessions" that brought them up to level 2). I then sent them into the real campaign, and began to weave the plot. Everyone loved playing, but we eventually broke up for other reasons.
I got a guy in my group who spent a lot of time on Neverwinter Nights, which is more along the lines of how 4e runs and another who has some minor experience with 3.5 but mostly plays 4e. The trick that worked for me was simply providing them with a description of what was going on and asking "what do you do?" Sure they surprised me with their actions and I had to make up DC's on the fly, but they thoroughly enjoyed it. However, YMMV.
I got a guy in my group who spent a lot of time on Neverwinter Nights, which is more along the lines of how 4e runs and another who has some minor experience with 3.5 but mostly plays 4e. The trick that worked for me was simply providing them with a description of what was going on and asking "what do you do?" Sure they surprised me with their actions and I had to make up DC's on the fly, but they thoroughly enjoyed it. However, YMMV.
That's odd. Neverwinter Nights one is 3.0 (almost to the letter), and NWN2 is 3.5 (again, almost to the letter).
I suppose in the sense of "activating powers" and such it's closer to 4.0, but all the same, the rules are 3.5 (made worse for computer gaming of course).
Ugh. 4.0. I didn't care for that system at ALL. Feels too...video game-like.
I got a guy in my group who spent a lot of time on Neverwinter Nights, which is more along the lines of how 4e runs and another who has some minor experience with 3.5 but mostly plays 4e. The trick that worked for me was simply providing them with a description of what was going on and asking "what do you do?" Sure they surprised me with their actions and I had to make up DC's on the fly, but they thoroughly enjoyed it. However, YMMV.That's odd. Neverwinter Nights one is 3.0 (almost to the letter), and NWN2 is 3.5 (again, almost to the letter).
I suppose in the sense of "activating powers" and such it's closer to 4.0, but all the same, the rules are 3.5 (made worse for computer gaming of course).
Ugh. 4.0. I didn't care for that system at ALL. Feels too...video game-like.
My experience with NWN was admittedly limited, but I know you really can't do things like good 'ole silent image. But yes, NWN does have that video game feels because it still is one. The rule set may be 3.x but it still has that 4e feel.
How do I get the less experienced of the group to like the game system?Stress the freedom of the system - more importantly, the freedom of their characters. In WoW, you can't do 1/1000th of the stuff you can do in PF,
Were they playing WoW, you might have a shot with that argument.