New players? Use premade characters.

Dominic Matte

After years of introducing people to D&D and seeing where people want to engage and struggle to do never involve creating a character.

so, I've come to the conclusion that a person's first ever RPG session should

When you want to try something new, you want to actually try it. A new player who wants to try D&D wants to start roleplaying, experience awesome action and tense encounters and root out intrigue - not spend an hour referencing rules and copying text and doing math and cross-referencing. I ran a session for a new group recently, and even 5th edition's very simple and streamlined character creation took over an hour because none of the players had ever touched a tabletop RPG and every rule and many basic concepts were new to them. In fact I've actually watched potential players get bored and leave the table during character creation who never got to actually try the game.

When a newbie tells you they want to be a dwarf wizard who used to be in the military, it's much better to hand them a sheet and get started than it is to sit down and explain how Vancian spellcasting works and ask them to choose from a vast list of spells with no frame of reference. Handle the rules as they come up - don't say "before we get started, here's a quick overview of how combat works". Do say "you are ambushed by a foul-smelling gang of orc marauders! Roll initiative! Which means..."

In fact, new players are often more creative before they know how the rules work. When you have a list of options you tend to choose from the list, even if the list items are suggestions and not your only choices. A player who has no list of combat options is more likely to say "Can I do this crazy thing?", in which case your job as DM is to reply either "Yes, and here's how that works" or "No, because of X, but you could try Y".

This is all a long way of saying that over the years I've become a big fan of pre-made character sheets. Don't fuss over choices the new player doesn't understand and filling out numbers that have no meaning yet. Hand them a complete level 1 character (or the system equivalent) with a minimum of backstory and get started.

Introducing Aseir (Al'Farok) Aerendgast

We've started a new D&D game here at D4sign! Don't worry, we'll continue playing The Long Game, but we're also playing a game run by fellow D4sign blogger, Mike! Today's post is all about my character for the game, and how he came to be!

                                

Dallas Kasaboski

The Long Game: Intrigue with a Side of Indigestion

Greetings, fair traveler, and welcome back to D4sign! Let's continue The Long Game! When last we left our adventurers, they had barely sailed their ship to an outpost in Aes, Kalgar's home country. There, they were recuperating, and waiting to speak with Admiral Draksha concerning Kalgar's fate...

Making Magic Happen

I used to have a problem with magic in D&D. For years, I avoided playing a magic-user, and would go so far as to ignore magic in games. This has changed recently, and I'm about to tell you why.

Dallas Kasaboski

Developing Starfall: a story-first approach

Dominic Matte

When I work on a D&D game, I start with a core idea for a world or story (for example, what if dragons were secretly playing a game for the fate of the world and no one knew). Then I build the world in excessive detail, including history, politics, organizations, and characters. When I write in an event (or when the players do) I want to know how it'll affect the world, and for that I need to have the world ready in working detail. Once I'm satisfied with the expansive planning, I star play, adding more to the story and world on a session-by-session basis as the players explore and learn about what's going on.

At least, that's how I usually work on a D&D game. I've been slowly kicking out ideas for a campaign that I'm tentatively calling Starfall (after three or four rejected titles over the years), and I've been taking a different approach than I normally do. I may have mentioned it here before, earlier in the process. I've been building a framework of story in distinct arcs with specific themes around the core concept, adding and subtracting and re-organizing as I make progress.

The Medium Version of The Long Game

Hello! We here, at D4sign, have been playing many games and sometimes it is easy to lose track of things. True to its name, we have been playing The Long Game for a long time, and I thought it would be a good idea to provide a summary. If you're new to the game, this should help you catch up, and if you're very familiar with it, this should refresh your memory. I will be updating this as we play and further details can be found in earlier Long Game posts!

I also found that while this was much shorter, it was still longer than the average reader may wish to peruse. Therefore, I have written an even shorter summary here.

Dallas Kasaboski

The Short Version of The Long Game

Hello! In an effort to bring everyone, including the players, up to speed on the events of The Long Game, I strove to make a synopsis. Realizing that it was great, but maybe still a little too long, I decided to make this summary, here. Lacking most of the story and content, it may not make as much sense, but for anyone already familiar with the journals, which can be found in previous posts, this summary will help to refresh your memory of our adventures. I hope you like it and find it useful!

Dallas Kasaboski