Playing Dungeons & Dragons and similar tabletop role-playing games for the first time is a bewildering but never-to-be-forgotten experience. Whether it’s also a good experience is up to you, the Game Master.

So how do we stack the odds in the beginner’s favor? I have some tricks.

Adding a Beginner to an Existing Group

When introducing a beginner into an existing gaming group, I give them a warrior character to play, one at least as high-level as the best fighter in the party.

Then I give them the pitch: “You’re playing a big, stupid, fearless, reckless warrior. You’re at least as powerful as any other warrior in the group. You get along with your friends and love destroying your enemies. With any luck, you’ll die a glorious death and save the lives of your friends by the end of the evening.”

Beginners love this! The role is within their range, they’ll likely get a blaze of glory, and they don’t have to think about the long-term implications of anything. And they usually have a wonderful time, much better than the usual practice of making them run a Level One character who can’t do anything useful except die pointlessly after being dropped into a higher-level party.

Then, of course, I arrange the evening’s adventure so things work as advertised by throwing extra foes at the party until the newcomer’s character dies heroically.

For simplicity, I’ve been known to declare this to be a practice run that doesn’t really count so other players can pull out characters they want to play or do other unusual things that woudn’t fit a playing-for-keeps session. Alternatively, we can declare it’s all for keeps unless someone other than the new warrior dies. Getting newcomers up to speed is worth straining canonical play somewhat, but not infinitely.

Groups of Beginners, Especially Children

Running a session for kids is as much fun as a barrel of monkeys, which it will resemble in other ways as well. The following tips will help, and aren’t inappropriate even with adults, at least one of whom always turns out to be poorly socialized:

• Use pre-rolled characters. This can save hours; you have no idea.  You don’t have to explain everything on the character sheet, either. Let the campaign go on for two or three sessions before introducing character creation.
• Provide a list of possessions everyone is carrying (knife, small sums of money, handkerchief, backpack, blanket, whatever). Put the special things individuals are carrying (wand, sword, chain mail, helmet, etc.) on their character sheets. “If it’s not listed, you don’t have it.”
• Simplify the character choices. For example, with D&D, having human fighters and magic-users as the only options will simplify the all-important first sessions. In this example, all the fighters could have identical character sheets and it wouldn’t make any difference. That sort of thing is for later.
• Have clearly stated and firmly repeated ground rules. No touching the other players. No touching the other player’s stuff. No touching any miniature figures but your own, and only when it’s your turn. Don’t talk over me. Don’t talk over the other players when it’s their turn. If you’re not in your seat or paying attention when it’s your turn, you lose it and your character does nothing. If you’re not good at sounding stern, learn fast.
• Plunge into the action. Don’t explain game mechanics more than you possibly can. Declare that the player characters have all known each other for a while to avoid role-playing how they met. Have the players introduce their characters and then begin. Start the adventure at the mouth of the dungeon (or whatever), not in town. In short, avoid preliminaries.
• Keep an eye on the quieter players. They’ll be drowned out otherwise.
• Go around the table in a fixed order to ensure everyone gets their turn.
• Expect kids to become wildly excited. They won’t be able to keep their voices down, but keep telling them to stop shouting anyway. A certain amount of chatter is inevitable, too.
• Remind them to speak in character. This reduces the amount of chatter and makes the next point funnier.
• Keep it moving. If the players start to dither or otherwise waste time, ostentatiously roll dice for wandering monsters. Tell them what the roll is for. If the characters are being noisy, remind them that this attracts monsters. Concealed rolls so you can declare a wandering monster encounter once the players get on your nerves, whether the dice call for one or not, is an option.
• If any players want to argue, tell them they have sixty seconds to make their case, listen, and render a quick decision. Don’t hesitate to say, “My game, my rules, and anyway we’re using simplified rules right now for speed and simplicity.”
• Don’t worry too much about the outcome. Having a new character die in battle is almost a victory to most beginners, so don’t pull your punches too much.
• Consider improvising a near-repetition when it turns out the players think something is the coolest thing ever. If they adored killing skeletons for some reason, more skeletons can be provided later on.
• Don’t let the session last too long. I figure ninety minutes is the absolute limit. An hour is better. Initial sessions are exhausting, especially for you. This is one reason why we want to dispense with the preliminaries.
• Be available for questions after the official end. They’ll have plenty.
• Arm yourself with vast numbers of additional tips by reading my book, Through Dungeons Deep: A Fantasy Gamer’s Handbook.

 

The New Yorker just published an article, The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons & Dragons. Apparently even trendy people are playing role-playing games now!

 

In the years after I wrote Through Dungeons Deep: A Fantasy Gamers’ Handbook, one thing that’s surprised me is how well the old-school role-playing games have held up, and how few important changes have been made in the newer editions. One thing that surprises me is that tabletop role-playing games are still done almost entirely by hand, with little in the way of apps to assist with the mechanics, dice, and table lookups. It’s still 1980 that way. But that’s okay. 1980 is a great vintage for role-playing games.

In the New Yorker article, it mentions that some people are using role-playing games therapeutically, especially with kids, building a variety of skills more or less incidentally to the fascinating play. I’ve actually done a little of this, hosting several sessions at Corvallis’ Social Communications Clinic, with a group of middle-school kids. It was exactly as much fun as a barrel of monkeys!

Though dating from the early Eighties, Through Dungeons Deep is back in print, through the miracle of, “it’s my company and I can publish what I want.” But it still gets excellent reviews. So check out Dungeons & Dragons, Through Dungeons Deep, or both!

 

Robert Plamondon, author of Through Dungeons Deep: A Fantasy Gamers’ Handbook, shares ten DM’ing tips.

How can you make your role-playing campaign run more smoothly and be more fun for everyone? Here are ten quick dungeon mastering tips for any campaign:

1. Supply paper, pencils, and dice.

Counting on the players to provide even their most basic requirements doesn’t work, so don’t try. Always have more sharpened pencils available than players. Bring lots of paper. Have more dice than you can possibly use.

2. Enforce a “No touching” rule.

Some players can’t keep their hands off the other players. This is disgusting and must be stopped before the other players abandon your campaign just to get away from the offenders. Declare a “no touching” rule and enforce it. Come down hard on even minor infractions, or when the game gets exciting, the offenders won’t be able to control themselves and will be pawing and pummeling the other players like six-armed monkeys on acid. (“No touching” also includes “No pretending to touch, no brandishing, no looming over the other players.” They need to stay out of each other’s personal space.)

3. Enforce a “Hands off other people’s stuff” rule.

Players are not allowed to touch other people’s possessions without permission, or read their notes, or use their laptops, or anything like that. In particular, anyone who knocks around someone else’s lovingly painted miniatures should be taken out and shot.

4. Side conversations are okay, but should be done away from the gaming table.

Suppose there are five players but you’re DMing a situation that involves only two of them. What do the other players do? Well, frankly, if they aren’t fascinated by the action involving the other two players, you’re better off without them. If they can go off somewhere (not too far) and amuse themselves until it’s their turn to role-play again, that’s great. Better than having bored and fidgety players annoying everyone else. If the other players go off and have a conversation, or watch TV, or play video games, fine. It relieves you of the burden of entertaining all of the players, all of the time.

5. Keep notes in a spiral notebook.

Or use some other method to keep your notes from scattered to the four winds. Loose sheets are horrible. Three-ring binders take up more than twice as much precious table space as a spiral notebook. Laptop computers are okay. Smartphones and tablets usually don’t allow a fast enough typing speed.

6. If you use a laptop for notes, set your editor to autosave very frequently.

You won’t like it if your computer crashes and you lose an hour’s worth of notes. I’d set autosave to five minutes if I were you.

7. Have a break every hour.

It helps. A lot. A 5-10 minute break adds a lot of pep back into the players and yourself.

8. Watch out for super-sized drinks.

A single giant soda can destroy multiple laptops and a lot of expensive gaming books if spilled, and you can count on it happening eventually. Use a separate table for DM materials or ban large drinks from the gaming area. This can save you a lot of grief.

9. End the session before you’re exhausted.

When a gaming session runs late, I gradually take fewer and fewer notes, and the next day I can neither find any notes nor remember anything from the last hour or so of play. I guess I’m running on autopilot. Apparently my unconscious mind is okay at dungeon mastering but not at keeping me informed. This isn’t good for me and it’s not good for the players. Wrap things up before your performance (or theirs) falls off too much. Do something else if it’s not time to go home yet. There’s no law that says the whole session has to be devoted to D&D.

10. When in doubt, ask the players.

Have you forgotten what happened in a long-ago session? Ask the players. Probably no one will remember the events exactly, but as soon as one player remembers something, anything, another will remember another detail, and in a few minutes, the whole sequence of events will be recovered. Works like magic.

Bonus Tip: Read My Book

If you like these tips, there are hundreds more in my old-school RPG book, Through Dungeons Deep: A Fantasy Gamers’ Handbook. Check it out!

Available in paperback and Kindle editions.