Thread: Newbie Gamer Advice

No, not me. My 25 yr old niece called yesterday to ask if I could teach her how to play an RPG. She has played WoW (World of Warcraft not Worlds of Wonder) a few times, but somehow got the idea she would like to try a pen and paper game. Actually, she wants to play a super hero. She has never been into comics or RPGs, but maybe the Avengers movie (or all the rest of the flood of super hero movies) got her interested.

The plan is to get together for a family dinner this coming Saturday, and find some time that evening to roll her up a character and play a quick game. My wife (who used to game back when we were dating and newly married -eons ago) is willing to play also. I might also get a brother-in-law to join us, he has played RPGs in the past. Both have some old super heros buried in a folder somewhere I could pull out.

The super hero genre is familiar, yet I think coming up with a character can be a difficult and complex process -even for veteran gamers. Should I go with a simpler genre? Since she seems to want the power levels of a supers game, I am thinking of just doing an improvised BRP version of Gamma World. Mutations = super powers, and easier character creation. A simple "fetch the artifact from those ruins" scenario? Of course she could surprise me and roll up a super hero with minimal fuss, so a "you're in the local bank when..." scenario would be a great introduction too.

Honestly, my first thought was she met some gamer guy and wanted to know more about RPGs. She says no, but I joked about those scenes from Big Bang Theory where a cute girl walks into the comic/gaming store. The niece lives just over an hour away, so I don't see this as a regular gaming thing with us, though if the wife gets interested again I guess it could be. Actually, part of this might be that she moved up from California this year and is looking to make new friends, so she might be thinking a gaming group would be a good start? I'll know more after this weekend, but in the meantime any thoughts/suggestions on what (or how) to run are welcome.

Ask her what kind of superhero she wants to plan and generate a character or two for her before the game. This will avoid the awkward situation of the newbie rolling up a "dud" character or having to explain to her why such and such a power is not really worth the point cost. Let her know that normally you get to custom craft your hero from scratch and you just cranked one out so you can get to the playing faster.

We are supposed to go shopping earlier in the day on Saturday, so she can pick up a set of dice. There are two comic/game stores in town with excellent selections of dice, so it will just be a matter of her finding the right color, etc. Which leads me to believe she wants to understand/experience the "process" of rolling up a character. I will chat with her again later today and see if she has an idea of what she wants. I might take the middleground and have most of the powers, equipment and such done in advance, but let her roll for stats and then modify with Hero points. Part of me thinks she should experience the entire process though, even if it takes and hour or so. Which is why the Gamma World character seems more attractive (roll stats, roll for some mutations, write down a bit of equipment) as it would be a quicker process and yet give much of the flavor of super gaming.

Post Apocalypse super heroes? So tempting...

Anyway, I want her to have a fun and positive experience. Our hobby could use more youthful gamers after all.

filbanto's suggestions are good. Since your niece is role-playing for the first time, she needs to be free to concentrate on being her character, not wrestling with game mechanics. Pre-gens all around might be helpful if you can't locate that old folder -- as long as your other players can also give you an idea of what kind of heroes they want to be. In addition to asking her what type of character she wants to be, try to get a feel for what she has in mind for a superhero game. Although a Gamma World-ish game is certainly doable (Superhero League of Hoboken took that approach), such a game will be different from an Adam West fun fest or a grim Dark Knight Rises saga.

I also say hold off on teaching her character generation,or even picking up her own dice until later. The first thing is probably to get her used to gaming, and seeing how it works in a general sense. How to roll dice and interpret the outcome, actions, cause & effect, playing in character (just a bit for now to get the concept across).

Greg Stafford noted long ago (in Prince Valiant) that the reason why he came up with PV was because people would often want to try one of his games, but couldn't do so on the fly, due to the time it would take to learn the game and generate a character. PV was simple enough that it didn't take very long to learn how to play or create a character.


I suggest using as simple a set of rules as you can to start. If you got your heart set on BRP (sadly, not a good choice for Superhero gaming "out of the box"), you should probably go with the Quickstart, or, if you got Worlds of Wonder, Superworld. Unfortunately, Superpowers require an added level of complexity over the core rules, and the superhero genre requires some tweaking of the BRP damage system. Work out whatever house rules you need to make thing work before hand, and get a print out that the newbies can refer to. THat way, they don;t get confused later on when they read the rules and try to figure out why it didn't work that way in play.


What you are going to need for an adventure is something fairly basic, yet fun. Basic so that it can teach the fundamentals, like skill rolls, hit points, the resistance table, whatever powers the characters have, yet fun so the players don't loose interest. New players want to play NOW, but usually don't really know enough to do so in more than a rudimentary fashion.

Honestly, if you want an easy to use game system with little or no character generation that a newbie could pick up within a few minutes and can do SuperHeroes then I would strongly suggest HeroQuest.

Forget the fancy rules, just have Super Powers as Affinities, with specific Break-Outs describing special powers and you are good to go. You only need D20s, can write a character on an index card, have a 5 minute character generation and can spend 5 minutes explaining the rules. If you want to be really fancy, you can print out a Results Matrix as well.

The rest you can wing.

Why don't you do this:

Find out what sort of character she wants to play, and build up 2-3 sample 'power packages' for the character based on the BGB "Powers" stuff.

Then, she still gets to roll up a character, but you save her the tedium and option-paralysis of having to pick powers.

You could also break up her skill points into chunks, instead of having her spend them individually. 60 points to one skill, 40 points to two skills, and 20 points to five skills for occupation skills if you're using the 240-point spread. Add a second 60-point skill if you want to go with 300 points, etc. Hobby skills can be done the same way.

I find that doing it that way, new players don't focus on spreading their skill points out among a bunch of skills, but rather look at the character in terms of "What are the core things my guy's good at".

The rest of chargen for BRP is super easy. Just rolling stats, figuring damage bonus, Hit Points, etc., and then you're off and running.

First, thanks to everyone for their input, except you soltakiss -why you got me BUYING more RPGs??? Seriously though, after talking with her she is fine with me creating 2-3 character concepts for her. Zomben, I like the way you think, and will follow along those lines. Oh, she wants her own dice, so I'll let her pick them out and then ("surprise") pay for them as her "welcome to pen and paper RPGs" gift.

I'm going to use the WoW version of Superworld, with the designer notes from Different Worlds #23, some select bits from the boxed version of Superworld, and some house rules. I thought seriously about using the old Marvel Super Heroes game, an even simpler introduction to RPGs. Or the shiny new DC Adventures based on the new Mutants & Masterminds, but I don't know the system that well and it would not be cool to have the GM stopping and looking up things every 10 minutes or so. It has been about 15 years since I gamed with a complete newbie to RPGs, I am surprised at how geeked I am to help someone learn to play. Especially when it is someone I didn't think would EVER want to try something so nerdy. Not having kids, I guess this is how you parents feel when you sit down for the first time with your children.

Okay, I'm going to very flexible when it comes to the first adventure. I might end up with just the niece playing, but if my wife's health issues don't flare up she will be there, and that leaves her brother as the most iffy. His wife had surgery a few weeks back and is doing fine, but she might have him on a short leash.

I sat down earlier today and roughed out an outline for an adventure. It starts with her character dropping by a bank, and yes, moments after she enters robbers burst through the front doors. If she is solo I will have 3-4 gang members with guns. If there are two characters (I'll have the second hero be on patrol nearby or having followed the robber's van after noticing they looked suspicious) I'll add in two minor super villians. You know that show Criminal Minds? I've always joked, "Criminal Mimes!" when I see it on. Yes, a husband and wife team of evil mimes who can mime things into reality. Mime shooting a gun? The target gets shot (well, roll to attack anyway) and they suffer damage. Try and hit that mime? They mimic being behind a brick wall, etc. Should be fun, I'm used to running talkative villians and this will be quite the change of pace. I can have the gang members talk if needed I suppose. I'll bump up the Criminal Mimes power levels if I end up with three players/heroes.

If there is time left, I'll have a 9 yr old girl give a handmade poster (thank you Google images) to the nieces character. Miss Kitty, the lovable calico cat has gone missing, can she help? By incredible coincidence of comic proportions, the gang van has a number of pet carriers in the back. Seems one of the thugs was nabbing calico cats and selling them for extra drug money. Selling to a rogue scientist of course, with a secret lab across town in the old warehouse district. The scientist was hired by very weathy old widow to recreate her beloved calico who died of old age last year. He needs various bits of DNA from an assortment of calico cats to make this work. Working in a bad neighborhood means the scientist has hired a super powered mercenary named Watchdog and a few of his men to guard the lab. If she is solo, she can take out the two guards while Watchdog needs a few moments to ready himself. If there are two or more heroes I'll have the scientist himself be a minor villain with genetic enhancements (speed, claws, etc.) and maybe throw in a mutated pet of his for good measure (human-dog hybrid, loyal and mean). "Save the cat, save the world."

Time permitting, I would like to have her do a bit more investigative work, maybe working with some police contacts for example who can trace the owner of the van who loaned it out for the robbery and is actually the one rounding up the cats for $200 each? The combat should be fun in a supers game, but some more role playing opportunities and NPC interaction should help her see the advantage of pen and paper RPGs over the computer versions (namely freedom to try what you want).

As always, thoughts and suggestion are welcomed.

We are not trying to be aggressive to your purse, ORTrail, it is just that if there is a genre that HeroQuest does way better than BRP, that is supers. For a million reasons explained around here.

We strongly believe that the time needed for you to become familiar with the HQ rules would be lower than the time needed for the players to learn BRP rules, and for both GM and players to become really familiar with how the powers work. And character generation in HQ is faster than in BRP.

I like your prospective adventure, simple and straightforward with opportunities to expand into a campaign if your niece enjoys herself. The Criminal Mimes are a hoot; make sure they run the whole mime theme into the ground with their (invisible?) tools, henchmen, costumes, transportation, choice of crime targets, and hideout. The calico cat caper is a good follow-up adventure. Hope things go smoothly and that you and your family have fun. At the end, you'll have already introduced a rogue's gallery of villains -- the Mimes, Watchdog, the Evil Geneticist, their assorted goons, and the rich little old lady (who may not like having her project interrupted). One or more of them could easily become recurring nemeses for your niece's character.