Saturday, November 5, 2016

DM's, Help Newbies and Help Yourself

As an incorrigible homebrewer, I have a lot on my plate as a DM.  You know, the whole, "Roleplaying NPC's, Adjudcating gameplay, Game Manager" dillema.

One thing I have learned over the years is that one of the best ways to get new Players "into" playing the game is not to toss them headfirst into everything all at once.  Let them get their feet wet with the most fun part of the game first so as to really engage them and catch their interest to keep them coming back to the table.

Consequently, I ask new people to take over the roleplaying of the already created major NPC's in the game for me.  When I create my NPC's I like to go the whole route and roll on the NPC character creation tables found on page 237 of the AD&D 1E DMG.  I will roll out their whole personality to give the newbie all the information they need to take that character on to it's fullest potential.

The newbie doesn't have to sit through the tediousness of character creation immediately, they get to play characters and really get into the spirit of things.  It helps to catch and keep their interest.  It also helps that I am a VERY roleplay oriented DM.

So hopefully, the new person or people get to have fun from the word "Go" and I get to focus on game management and adjuducation for the most part.  Lighten my load a little bit.  Of course, if it's an NPC I happen to take a particular shine to, I'll roleplay that one myself, turning over other NPC's instead to the newbies.  I LOVE to RP the especially mean and nasties.

It's just a suggestion, something that has worked in my games more often than not to get and keep Players and give myself a lighter load to bear in the process.  Of course, I had to do extra footwork up front in the NPC creation process but that's alright too because if nothing else, it gives me a mostly fleshed out character to draw on for the stories I like to write.

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