[generic] Are we doing RPGaDay this year?

Brass Jester

Brass Jester

Rune Priest
#22
#22
4 - Where would you host a first game?
At my house. I’ve always wanted to run at a convention but lack the confidence to go through with it. I quite happily run PbF Games (not real-time for same reason.)
As an aside – I may resurrect the Numenera Game now things have settled down a bit in RL
 
Altair-the-Vexed

Altair-the-Vexed

Acolyte
#23
#23
5 - Why will they like this game?
Assuming "they" is the gang of folks I said I'd introduce to RPGs (my family), and "this game" is the game I suggested would make a good introduction (BEX D&D), then -
My family will like that they are joining in with the game that I first got obsessed with as a teenage kid, and that I've stuck with and played for 40 years or so since. What was once a weird nerdy mystery that their son played would now be something they can join in. That'd be my hope anyway.
Also, it's the classic game that gets name-checked in pop culture. And I know my Mum and Dad and brother all love fantasy fiction - from LotR to Discworld - so I know the tropes and flavours will work if I can lean into those.

You know, now I'm actually thinking this might be a fun experiment.
 
steveh

steveh

Acolyte
#24
#24
5 - Why will they like this game?

I don’t know why anyone enjoys roleplaying. We all enjoy it for different reasons—perhaps to hang out with friends, be part of a story, chew scenery, kill monsters, and escape into a fantasy world. Everyone’s different.

And as the question is badly worded, I’m rephrasing it as:

How would you run an RPG session to make it likely that a new player would want to play again?

So, some principles:
  • Keep it small: no more than three or four players. That gives everyone plenty of spotlight time.
  • Keep it short: A short one-shot adventure—I wouldn’t drop a new player into a massive ongoing campaign. The ideal adventure would have some investigation and roleplaying before a bit of a fight. No longer than about three hours of play.
  • Accessible background: Make the background accessible. If you have to run a fictional universe, remember that their character knows more than they do.
  • Keep the system in the background: Don’t overwhelm them with numbers and statistics. I would probably use Fate Accelerated, which I’ve taught new players many times.
After that I hope they will enjoy sharing an adventure with their friends, and I hope that their character does cool and memorable stuff that they couldn’t do in another medium. And maybe then they’ll come back.
 
Polar Blues

Polar Blues

Acolyte
#25
#25
5 - Why will they like this game?

Sometimes they will. Sometimes they won't. I always try my best when I run a game but, while as GM I can certainly wreck a game, I can't make a game. The magic, when it happens, it comes down to how the players bond with their own and each others characters.
 
Brass Jester

Brass Jester

Rune Priest
#26
#26
5 - Why will they like this game?
I’d make it interesting and filled with excitement and wonder; things that will grab their attention. Either Savage Worlds (pulp setting ala Indiana Jones) or Numenera

6 - How would you get more people playing RPGs?
Hmm – this is difficult. The Hell’s Own Gamers (HOG) broke up during the pandemic and has never been able to reform (as yet.) It was a group of five of us, my son Ben and his friends Matt, Joe and Harry, plus myself.
We accepted another chap (I won’t name him) who wanted to GM Starfinder which we had never played. It was a total disaster. We were railroaded into his home-brew plot from the word go. We had no free-will at all (‘It’s dark in here.’ ‘I’m an Elf – I can see in near-total darkness.’ ’This is the sort of darkness you can’t see through.’ (Later, despite all our efforts to get the lights on.) ‘You see dark shapes moving towards you.’ ‘ I thought you said we couldn’t see anything?’ ‘I didn’t say that.’)
What’s worse – he took over the entire house. He wanted the dining table moved so that he could have more room (he was using figures, a battleboard, GM screen and two laptops plus three lever-arch files); he was rude to my wife and told her to eat her evening meal somewhere else so that he could use the table and he told my daughter to stop talking to her mother as it was interrupting him.
The final straw was when he told us he envisaged the whole Game lasting 3 (real) years! At this point we parted company (to be fair, we stuck with this for five weeks.)
 
First Age

First Age

D&D h@ck3r and Hopepunk
#28
#28
Day 6. How would you get more people playing RPGs?

Prepare your one shots and then run them where you can. Create small local conventions in community spaces to bring people together. Invite friends to come over and try, with food offered as part of the gathering.
 
Polar Blues

Polar Blues

Acolyte
#29
#29
Day 6. How would you get more people playing RPGs?

I don't. I mean I have run games for the odd first timer, who for one reason or other, asked to join a game, and enjoyed doing in so, but I've not gone out to recruit people to the hobby. Nor have I tried to persuade people to pick up drawing as a hobby or attempted to introduce them to the joys of prog rock.

OK, I might have tried to the spread the word of prog rock when I was younger because I was younger.
 
Altair-the-Vexed

Altair-the-Vexed

Acolyte
#31
#31
Day 6 - How would you get more people playing RPGs?
I'd definitely grant permission to a nostalgia-bait teen horror sci-fi show to extensively use D&D gaming and monsters as a reference.
And maybe I'd get a big name actor to play a goofy lead character in a Guardians-of-the-Galaxy-inspired big budget D&D movie.

D&D is the gateway drug, and the first hit is free.
 
steveh

steveh

Acolyte
#32
#32
6 - How would you get more people playing RPGs?

I’d like to see more positive depictions of roleplaying in movies and television. Stranger Things was great, except the kids were geeks and nerds. It would be nice to see RPG gamers depicted as less nerdy and more ordinary.

A harder question is how to get more BAME people playing RPGs? I remember chatting with Remi at Aircon in Harrogate a few years ago, and he noted the attendees were 99% white. I hadn’t noticed—but I’m white so it didn’t seem unusual to me. I don’t know how to fix this, although I expect positive BAME role-models in cinema and television wouldn’t hurt.
 
Guvnor

Guvnor

The Guvnor
Staff member
#33
#33
steveh said:
6 - How would you get more people playing RPGs?
A harder question is how to get more BAME people playing RPGs.
Click to expand...
It's true we don't see 13% BAME engagement at cons. I guess we might want to ask BAME folk why they don't visibly play. Do they play but keep quiet about it, or do they need better role models?
As for roleplayers being shown as nerds and geeks.. well.. we are. I am quite proud of that.
Different question, what is the class profile of roleplaying? We may be confusing a race issue for a class issue, as often happens.
 
First Age

First Age

D&D h@ck3r and Hopepunk
#34
#34
Day 7. Describe a cool part of a system that you love

In TRIPOD, aid is provided by a player checking a trait then giving a number of dice to the active player. When the pool is rolled everyone can see if the help contributed to success.
 
First Age

First Age

D&D h@ck3r and Hopepunk
#35
#35
Guvnor said:
It's true we don't see 13% BAME engagement at cons. I guess we might want to ask BAME folk why they don't visibly play. Do they play but keep quiet about it, or do they need better role models?
As for roleplayers being shown as nerds and geeks.. well.. we are. I am quite proud of that.
Different question, what is the class profile of roleplaying? We may be confusing a race issue for a class issue, as often happens.
Click to expand...
Is there another thread there @Guvnor ?
 
Brass Jester

Brass Jester

Rune Priest
#37
#37
7 - System Sunday: Describe a cool part of a system that you love.
The trigger rolls in 13th Age. Basically, during combat (mostly), when you roll certain results then different effects trigger. The effects are specific to the creature or the character ability.
Example: -
Giant Ant
Your standard rather-be-foraging-than-fighting dungeon-variety giant ant.
0 level troop [beast]
Initiative: +0
Mandibles +5 vs. AC—3 damage
Natural 16+: The target also takes 1d3 ongoing acid damage.
Wall-crawler: A giant ant can climb on ceilings and walls as easily as it moves

So, in combat the ant attacks with a bite at +5 vs AC (d20+5 => Targets AC.) If it hits then the target takes 3 damage.
However, if the d20 roll is 16+ then the target also takes 1d3 acid damage each turn until it rolls 11+ (d20, no mods, rolled AFTER it takes that Turn’s damage.)
 
steveh

steveh

Acolyte
#38
#38
7 - System Sunday: Describe a cool part of a system that you love.

I’m not sure I love Fate, but I do like Fate points. They do so much:
  • They reward good roleplaying and putting characters in peril.
  • They give permission to players to create story elements at the table.
  • You play them after you roll the dice—so you’re unlikely to waste them.
  • They’re powerful—a +2 bonus doesn’t sound like much, but on the Fate probability curve, it’s huge.
I may not love them, but I really miss them when the system I’m playing doesn’t have them.
 
Polar Blues

Polar Blues

Acolyte
#39
#39
7 - System Sunday: Describe a cool part of a system that you love.

I've only played Cartoon Action Hour once, so the label "system I love" might be an little premature, but it has a lot going for it.

The mechanic in CAH I find beautifully executed in the Setback Token. In CAH there is no concept of damage per se. What you have dramatic "Crucial" conflicts. When you fail a crucial conflict you get a Setback Token. If you get more Setback Tokens than your Star Power (you level in layman terms), you are taken out of that conflict till the next scene. In fictional terms this can be mapped to anything, not just a whole bunch of bullet holes.

It is very abstract, a bit lit Fate Stress Tracks and Consequence but a lot less cumbersome. I think secret to the abstraction is that rather than the player subtracting from the character's resource when they take damage, its the GM that gives the player a Token. Psychologically that really helps loosen the notion of defeat and physical damage.
 
Brass Jester

Brass Jester

Rune Priest
#40
#40
Altair-the-Vexed said:
Day 6 - How would you get more people playing RPGs?
I'd definitely grant permission to a nostalgia-bait teen horror sci-fi show to extensively use D&D gaming and monsters as a reference.
And maybe I'd get a big name actor to play a goofy lead character in a Guardians-of-the-Galaxy-inspired big budget D&D movie.

D&D is the gateway drug, and the first hit is free.
Click to expand...
I think the problem is now that GoT, whilst excellent (for the most part anyway) has coloured peoples expectations of fantasy - it now has to be grim, gritty, visceral, sexual and violent. I'm not sure how to pitch a media that would entice younger players (which is where we need to start) without it putting off older players.
 
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