tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719194713901064243.post7958573808991601824..comments2024-02-25T07:35:30.717-06:00Comments on Spell Card!: Building a strategy for converting board gamers into RPG newbiesJay Exonautshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11336829684749993354noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719194713901064243.post-34100492196318091412010-05-02T20:07:15.708-05:002010-05-02T20:07:15.708-05:00@Lord Gwyndion, that story exercise is a great ide...@Lord Gwyndion, that story exercise is a great idea--it helps them get in the mindset of the game and it helps <b>me</b> by letting me see their willingness to "go for it" and imagine their way through. <br /><br />@Andrew, I don't think your comments are too general at all--if anything I think the idea of pausing to think a bit is a great piece of advice. Too often I try to hammer a solution out before properly thinking it through. And thanks for the link--I'll check that out.<br /><br />All great ideas gentlemen, thank you!Jayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07997164906328234122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719194713901064243.post-70068314222066748242010-05-02T01:49:07.592-05:002010-05-02T01:49:07.592-05:00A) I really hope that this isn't too general a...A) I really hope that this isn't too general a thing to mention, but on the (few) occasions when I've GM'd for brand new players they've often expressed surprise at about how little the rules "got in the way". One of my recent players went from being worried about looking stupid getting different types of polyhedral dice mixed up, to afterward telling me she was happily surprised at how much "talking" (e.g. decision making, roleplaying, planning) there was. My point is that it's easy to take for granted what your players expect!<br /><br />B) Perhaps conversely, little things that push the players to make "another decision" (in play mini-games and so on) seem like a nice bridge from board gaming to RPGing as well. <br /><br />The only example I can think of that came in handy recently was Telecanters post about rolling dice on a sheet of paper to generate a place to camp for the night: http://recedingrules.blogspot.com/2010/04/pyramid-campsite.html <br /><br />It seems like a simple thing but not only can it be useful to disrupt a slow spot if you are worrying about player boredom, it could also help focus attention if people are having a bit of difficulty with the freeform nature of an RPG as opposed to boardgames.<br /><br />C)<i>I think this is the thing I worry about the most, that I'll not have a way to answer questions quick enough before the yawning commences.</i><br /><br />A bit of general advice here that has helped me with job interviews, guided tours and GMing-when you are on the spot, you'll often unintentionally be speaking faster than normal, so any pause will be a "hanging" for a fraction of the time that it seems it is to you. In fact a well placed pause is an excellent attention getter if it's not punctuated by the flipping of rulebooks or shuffling of papers. They might think it's a pause for effect, when actually you are swiftly putting together an ultra-simple 13/4-6 die roll to decide the answer to their question.<br /><br />Apologies for any unintentional patronising in the above points.<br /><br />AAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6719194713901064243.post-7127505238892395262010-04-30T01:07:18.470-05:002010-04-30T01:07:18.470-05:00One thing that helped me to get our Korean friends...One thing that helped me to get our Korean friends to try out RPGs in addition to our board gaming was to sit down one on one with each of them and tell them this little story:<br /><br />"It's a dark and stormy night. You see an old house that everyone says is haunted. What do you do?"<br /><br />Of course the 'dark and stormy night' thing is cliche, but that's why it works. It's easy to understand. It got them to think of the situation and what they would do to cope. They all gave me good answers, and I would string out the improv RP a bit for each depending on their answers. And in their game play, they tend to think about the situation, rather than think about game mechanics (which they don't fully understand, and don't need to).<br /><br />The other thing is that we don't play RPGs all the time. We still mainly play board games together, just breaking out the RPGs every now and then (although I'm hoping to do more and more, it keeps not working out...)<br /><br />Good luck!Dennis Laffeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com