How To Trick Folks New To DnD Into Playing D&D! [Ep. 25]

If you just hand someone new to DnD a stack of rule books, you’re just gonna freak them out. 💥More below!⬇
So what can we tabletop gamers learn from slick salesmen and women and the retail and commercial service industries? One tip we can take from them is that our goal should be to make the process as smooth and speed bump-free as possible. And you do that by removing speed bumps. Duh.
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#dnd #howgetnewplayers #newdndplayers #dnd5e

[@frog8220]

Giving players paper sheets is such a neat trick. I try to not show new players DnDBeyond because once they get hooked into the ease of staring at their phone they've already lost part of the magic before they ever had a chance to experience it.

[@tabletopalchemy]

100% agreed!

[@ionminiatures]

I think we are often overly consumed by the digital age. There is some application for it in a D&D game (mainly for the DM) but putting those phones/tablets away and engaging in the game is more rewarding IMHO. I know when I played AD&D back in the 80s (told you I was an old fart…Maybe I will start that YT channel) we only had the character sheets, and often just wrote our own. We didn’t even have/use minis. We just sat around a room and played and had lots of fun.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Yep, when I first played 2nd Edition, I didn’t even know minis existed (as part of the game) lol. Wasn’t until ‘91 that I encountered game specific miniatures.

[@sutekh233]

@@tabletopalchemy WHAT!! No hero quest, talisman or Dungeon in your past dude?!? 🤣🤣

[@filiformis]

I have tried this and I can verify that it works, even for games far crunchier than D&D. Another thing I like to do is introduce rules as they are needed. You don't need to explain the falling rules to someone until they fall, the mounted combat rules until someone tries mounted combat, the grappling rules until someone starts grappling.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Yes excellent practical point🍻

[@artistpoet5253]

Having some common ground to reference to is indeed clutch. Most everyone is familiar with LOTR, GoT and Conan the Barbarian. If they're your family/friends, it's easy enough. But if they're your office/school mate, having a pop culture touch stone is a great gateway.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Excellent point!

[@3nertia]

Did you cast a scrying spell on me? I was just thinking about making my own half-sized character sheet after having tried a few different designs and found them wanting. This is *EXACTLY* what I've been needing for NPCs!

[@tabletopalchemy]

Ah nice lol! Let me know if u have any issues with the download link. 🍻

[@3nertia]

@@tabletopalchemy No issues - saved for later printing; thank you!

[@tabletopalchemy]

🤙

[@bradcraig6676]

I've introduced a few brand new players to the game. In each case I made them a character sheet, and in each case they instead wanted to roll up their own character, and all ignored my advice to play a simple class, opting instead for one of the more complicated classes. One time my wife was starting a game for some friends who had never played, and somehow I forgot to roll up my character until like 15 mins before game time. I made a champion fighter thinking it would be a one-off... still playing him over a year later haha.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Lol yep there really is no such thing as a “true standard”! That’s what makes life fun I suppose. 🏴‍☠️🍻

[@stevenwilson3368]

You may find this hard to believe but we played D&D in our dorm in the early 1980s. I'm now in my early 60s. Who remembers Gary Gygax??

[@tabletopalchemy]

I played late 80s/early 90s in the barracks in Germany lol. GaryCon is a thing too! 🍻

[@keithpogue6080]

I like to use a small colorful character sheet very similar to your half sheet.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Nice! It never occurred to me to use color because I only have a black and white laser printer lol

[@sirguy6678]

Great video! You might even go more basic and give them a blank 3x5 card - they only need name / race / class / weapons - (secretly you already rolled up the characters - you have the sheets hidden) start play - tell them what they need to roll as them accomplish feats - slowly they will want to have that sheet you are reading from

[@tabletopalchemy]

3x5 card is definitely a great idea!

[@timhollier6633]

Dnd beyond is such a blessing and a curse. I still love the old school paper touch.

[@tabletopalchemy]

I agree lol

[@sutekh233]

One additional thing to note, do NOT limit your game system to just D&D!! Sure if it's all you know, you will be somewhat restricted in choice, but not everyone who is into gaming is a fantasy buff. The group at work who talk about the Mandalorian and can't wait to get home to watch it on a Wednesday night may not be the best target audience for your fantasy pitch, even though they may be interested in gaming. The group who waxes lyrical about Lovecraft, King, Koontz and Lumley may be more interested in Call of Cthulhu (or some other horror RPG) rather than fantasy as well. The used car salesman tailors the choice of car to the buyer and doesn't try to force the person looking for a SUV to buy a mini!! Tailor your choice of system to what the actual people you are looking to recruit are interested in, not just what you happen to know, and you as GM might even find a system you like more than D&D with a TON of background work already done for you. Even just taking those 3 examples into account, in the 3.0/3.5 days of D&D, there were excellent D20 systems for Star Wars and Call of Cthulhu so you as the GM will know the base rules covering all 3 genres, and for new players, well they will know them as well. Going from Fantasy to Space will not feel mechanically unfamiliar to the players as it is more a setting change than a rules change. Now I could argue that there are other systems that handle SW and CoC far better than D20, but at this point, as you say, it's speed bump removal, and if it works, well, it works. Using the dice at the early stage is also VITALLY important because as you say, it prepares the players for what will very soon be coming down the pike but more importantly, it creates player agency. Point buy may create a "fairer" set of PC's, but it's an abstract concept based on flattening mathematical probability in the game, and I almost fell asleep typing that!! I would still go with 4D6, drop lowest simply because the numbers tend to produce characters far more on the heroic end of the scale, and when people are getting into games, they don't want to be joe average, they want to be the hero's or villains. Lastly, if you ARE using a level based system, I would suggest one thing for starting players that people might find a little odd, don't start at lvl 1. Lvl 1 and 2 are essentially boring in D&D, you have little to no choice and minimal area for personalization of a character. Start at MECHANICALLY lvl 3 and after the first adventure or session, let the players choose their Lvl 3 path once they have gotten the feel for the basic mechanics. This way, you reward the players almost immediately with agency and choice, and they can go away and think about what path they may want to take before the next session. TL:DR: Give the customer what they want, not what YOU think they might want or even need.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Excellent point about game systems! And great additional points as well. 🍻

[@db5823]

K.I.S. Often it helps to really keep it simple. Tell them what they'll be doing, walk them through _how_ they'll be doing it, and go light on the rules. Pre-made character sheets (tailored formatted to be simple and have all the important stuff bullet-pointed and up front), with nice/cool profile pictures, and descriptions for the characters -- some personality traits, some backstory, some motivations (maybe some cohesion baked-in), etc. Give them lots of flavor text to grab onto. New players want training-wheels. Sort of like adventure/RPG board games with character cards, just spoon-feed them the complicated free-form stuff and let them just try to get the hang of "role playing". Have a _VERY_ simple "adventure" to run, too simple (like maybe just a location/city to move around in), because you mostly want the players to explore being their own characters -- they'll likely be just trying to get comfortable with speaking as role players. Don't worry about it being too short or too simple, they're new players and will take an extra long time to get started and find their way (or they'll be easily derailed and side-tracked). Give each character an adventure hook that they can all follow and help with, let those be the actual adventures. Let each person get a chance to feel like they're important, and that they can contribute, and that they get to take center stage for a bit, and they can get the feeling of getting things done. They're new players, they will appreciate some hand-holding, some guidance, some set-up -- unlike experienced players who might feel like you're infringing on them, new players want some help, some queues to follow, you have to pull out the bumper rails for them. And then you just let them have fun. Let them try stupid crap, have a laugh, and maybe get them to want to try it all again. The next time ... maybe then let them make their own characters, explore the books more, etc. Once they're personally interested it's easier for them to focus and seek/sort out info. But everyone is different. And now days people actually _watch_ other people play role playing games ... that still boggles my mind.

[@tabletopalchemy]

lol yep watching other people play ttrpgs is definitely never something I saw coming. All good advice, some specific points I’ll be getting into in the follow up vid too! 🍻

[@grimmtales503]

This is a fantastic video but... YES... i really do want to know what you do for your Very First Campaign Ever. Also, i shudder at the first time player that rolls all stats below eight. Ugh. Cold wet noodles dropped on your face in the dark are less haunting. Yes, oddly specific.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Lol there’s probably a scientific word for the phobia of “cold wet noodles” - the inverse of trypophobia! And we shall cover the “first adventure” idea in the first video of May 😎

[@timothyyoung2962]

"What, is this a tax form?" LOL, that's what my fiance thought about D&D and Mutants & Masterminds the first time she watched me filling out a character sheet. Her exact words were "I thought you were roleplaying, not filling out medical forms?" My group tends not to play D&D, but sci-fi games, things like M&M, or horror games. When I'm getting players into the hobby I tend to focus more on if they like the concept of roleplaying more than what game we'll play. A lot of times, in my experience, it was the IDEA of roleplaying that some people felt odd about. So I try and get that out of the way with a rules light game of one kind or another. Sometimes I'll run my homebrewed, rules light horror game They Came from the B-Movie. I'll tell them the types of characters (stars) that are appropriate for the particular game (script) I'm running, have them choose who they want to play, and talk them through the character creation process. The game is super simple to create characters (so they can be easily replaced when they inevitably die), and most people have seen horror films so everyone has an idea of what's going to happen. I make the games more or less serious depending on the group (I've run everything from a horror comedy to slasher games and Lovecraftian sci-fi games) and go from there. They get to experience roleplaying in a genre most people know a little about, and the rules are easy enough to learn in the first 10 minutes of play (and it only uses D6). If they enjoyed roleplaying then I might move on to different, more in-depth games after a few more sessions of the easy game (whatever game that might be).

[@tabletopalchemy]

This sounds great! And yeah medical forms lol. Have u heard of or played the skirmish game Don’t Look Back from black site studios? I haven’t played it myself yet but it looks like a skirmish game version of your rules light horror movie setup!

[@timothyyoung2962]

@@tabletopalchemy Yes. I've watched Ash from Guerrilla Miniature Games play several games of it. I've always wanted to buy it, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. Maybe a holiday gift for myself. They have a 2nd Edition coming out soon.

[@jshud3]

That sounds like a good time to me! Now, I just need that adventure and wash up on shore! 😂Looking forward to it... can you tell!

[@tabletopalchemy]

Right on, coming soon! 🏴‍☠️

[@davidmankin4985]

“Is this like . . . a tax form?” 😂. That was my reaction when creating Pathfinder characters to introduce my son and his friends to D&D. All my previous RPG experience had been playing Advanced Dungeon and Dragons years ago. AD&D character creation was definitely the short form.

[@tabletopalchemy]

lol yeah pathfinder is definitely the crunchy peanut butter variation!

[@frog8220]

Rolling stats: Everyone rolls 4d6 drop the lowest ONCE. We share one array of stats, but everyone rolls at least one of them.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Ah interesting! Keeps a bit of a lid on the possible number of OP stats I imagine.

[@frog8220]

@@tabletopalchemy my description was unclear (but that’s also a good idea). I mean there is just one array for the whole table for each campaign, characters can’t have different arrays. This campaign it’s 8,8,9,13,16,17. A player once chose to roll 1d20 instead of the 3d6 and that’s how we got a warlord who couldn’t tie his shoes with 3 Intelligence.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Ah I see - one array but custom configurations, that’s actually a very cool idea for streamlining the process! Notated!

[@bubbadoom1837]

Cynar... I believe I'll stick with the Old Crow.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Kentucky bourbon! While I don’t typically care for whiskey (too much Beam in the Army lol) I’ve come to appreciate a good rye from time to time. 🍻

[@NefariousKoel]

In the past I would create numerous pre-mades with no name, give a general description of what each specializes in or does (based on the system), and let them choose which ones they want. Then we're off after a very brief character review and naming round. After seeing this video, I may try to adjust that to a semi-premade, if possible. Perhaps writing part on each sheet such as classes, skills, whatnot (again system dependent), but still allow them to roll/choose their own stats. That has potential to be a mess but, fortunately, they're more likely to listen to your suggestions as newbies. Also - numerous premade equipment package options to round it out. Getting bogged in a session-long shopping spree to start off isn't ideal. TL;DR - Aiming for four relatively short decisions for new players: choosing premade type/class, name, stats, and equipment package. Hopefully those are enough to provide some player investment without taking too long and boring them before their first game ever starts. An important balance to hit if you barely managed to wrangle them in for a try.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Yep good ideas! I’d totally make the equipment package a pre-planned thing, just to speed up that bit too.

[@frog8220]

Do you recommend spell cards? I've never tried that, nor have I tried cards for the items. Should I try that?

[@tabletopalchemy]

I actually do like spell cards in general. If nothing else it saves page-flipping time. Now if you’re players use dndbeyond it’s kind a moot point I guess.

[@frog8220]

@@tabletopalchemy honestly last game a relatively new guy tried finding his spell in the app and I should have gone get snacks at the store instead of waiting.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Oh lol jeez! I don’t use dndbeyond myself yet I just kinda figured there’s be a simple word search function lol

[@paulaneary7877]

Sounds like you have considered a lot of details to ensure your new players have a good time. I would want to have someone like you running my first few games. Especially the part of not being on your cell phone etc. to figure out a live game. To me, that would kind of defeat the purpose overall. Great video.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Brand new players are so fun to get into a game lol. But yeah, the phone thing can be pretty tough sometimes. Maybe one day I’ll try to put together an online game for folks who haven’t played but would like to try it out (going in the idea pile lol).

[@paulaneary7877]

@@tabletopalchemy Count me in on that one. I Vaguely remember going to my boyfriend's friend's house to play in the uh...early 80's on a Friday night. We were18 and doing things 18 year old's do on Friday night away from parents. I remember rolling the dice a couple of times and the other players were jealous of my high numbers for strength or power or something. Then I had my second drink and couldn't function or remember much after that, such a lightweight. That's my one and only experience with it. I think my brother used to play for days on end. I went to the beach. Seems to me there were a lot of rules I didn't really understand. The rum and cokes probably didn't help that. Anyways, TMI, I would be up for trying again sometime. Might be fun!

[@tabletopalchemy]

Lol def different from (but not entirely dissimilar to) my own introduction to dnd! I shall tell that story again one day in a vid 😉

[@mikibabic8187]

This should work nicely to attract new players. Or you can do what I did. Spend a year going out with and then marry her, introduce her to your friend who is a DnD player, when he comes over to cook something called ''kotlic'' (I'll let you google it, trust me it's worth it), which she'll love because she a foody. They when we got on her good side by providing ample food we low key start chatting about playing DnD and weird & wonderful stuff that can happen while you do so. Combination of good time and food coma and we get her to sign up for a ''test'' game. Aaaand, about a year later I am married to a ex-criminal turned monk who gambles, buys drinks to a whole tavern, delivered in buckets and can't resist trying every cave-mushroom we run into perpetually forcing me to figure out what sort of an effect would that bluish, gloving, slightly sickly sweet smelling mushroom have, if you make tea out of it... I would highly recommend everyone to try this 9 out of 10 stars :D

[@tabletopalchemy]

Lol that all sounds like a perfect 9 outta 10! Or what some might call “the long con”! Highly approved lol

[@fbobmosdal]

Ooooh! Can I pretend I've never played before in order to get the dark chocolate?

[@tabletopalchemy]

The classic reverse con! 😂

[@andrewluchsinger]

If you invited me I would not only bring the pizza, but a veggie plate and dip. Not to mention all of my game music CD's and some Sound FX CD's. I will personally beat the living crap out of anyone who pulls out a Cell Phone and starts texting during the game.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Lol - sometimes I think there’d be a market for tabletop gaming spaces featuring walk-in Faraday cages 😂

[@andrewluchsinger]

@@tabletopalchemy That would be rather interesting to watch people trying to find out why they just cant get a signal. You had a better idea then I did. I was going to resort to violence.

[@tabletopalchemy]

Lol - violence is always that ace up the sleeve I suppose 😈

[@andrewluchsinger]

@@tabletopalchemy I am not a violent person. but I do hate cell phones during game play. I have seen too many game sessions ruined because somebody decided to text and face time during a good game. When I DM No cell phones is a rule.

[@tabletopalchemy]

It’s an excellent rule! Jeez, facetime? That’s a bit much lol.

[@deepseastonecore3017]

Is Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet a Golem or a contract?

[@tabletopalchemy]

That’s an interesting question lol. Another would be once Pinocchio is animated, is he a golem or a construct? I actually think both characters are probably golems. 🍻

[@Heartwing37]

Who has friends?

[@tabletopalchemy]

I suppose soon we can all build our own with ai 😅

[@shaunhall960]

What character would you like to play? I like crushing skulls and healing my friends. Ah! A Dwarven Cleric would be perfect for you. This is me. ;)

[@tabletopalchemy]

Lol, perfect execution!

[@antigrav6004]

The simpler the game the better. Get them involved in the roleplaying aspect first and include some simple mechanics. They will like it much more. ICRPG is the best thing I've found. They have only q few decisions to make and they have a character ready and are essentially playing DND without all the BS (and without supporting WOTC)

[@tabletopalchemy]

I love Hankerin’s game philosophies!

[@TranscendStream]

I know I’ve been saying this for a while, but I feel like I’m getting closer to being duped by your continued flow of RPG propaganda. It’s going down this Summer! 🧙‍♂️💜🔥

[@tabletopalchemy]

lol - it’s working! 🏴‍☠️

[@MarinaPacowski]

🦕 🔥 🏰 😮👏

[@justarandomname420]

The first step is to play GURPS instead.

[@mightychilster6215]

I've never been asked to play D&D ?1? (I'm looking at you, son of mine) 🙂

[@tabletopalchemy]

Sometimes… you gotta forge your own invites lol

[@meatbyproducts]

Keep pen and paper no DnD beyond

[@hoffmanactual]

Those trendy guys are the worst... Lmao.

[@tabletopalchemy]

😆

[@tabletop-mini-showcase]

first :P

[@tabletopalchemy]

🏴‍☠️

[@tabletop-mini-showcase]

@@tabletopalchemy argh

[@robot7759]

Remind me to never ever play with you.

[@tabletopalchemy]

😈