Something for beginners

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The Rookie
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Something for beginners

#1 Post by The Rookie »

Hey guys

So I've kind of been kind of interested in role playing games for a while now, but I don't really want to jump in with too many experience players to start off with in case things don't work out.

So I was wondering if there would be anyone be interested in organising an introductory RP for new players ? Something simple enough for new guys to learn the ropes, but engaging to keep them coming back.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

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y7h65
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Re: Something for beginners

#2 Post by y7h65 »

Well, see, the senior RPers are completely fine with playing with people who are news. IMO, the best way to learn the ropes is to join one that has some veterans in it and learn the ropes by observing what they do and adding your own spin to it. This is especially important in most of the RPs on this forum since whether or not the RP is viable is more or less determined by the mettle of the GM. So its pretty important to have at least one experienced person in the RP.

Moving on to other parts, there aren't really that many ropes to learn when it comes to RPing. You create a character with a personality and set of motivations that, preferably, fits in the setting and world of the RP organically and doesn't feel like you ripped a character out of another work and then forced it into the RP. Then you read the posts that happened before you post and react as if your character would. It's a bit like method acting or improv, if you've ever done either.

Finally, a majority of the RPs on the forum rarely survive more than a few months and the story is unlikely to advance that much. It's an unfortunate fact of this board. The focus of this forum is not on RPing but on talking about TwoKinds or general chatter. This means that not a lot of energy gets put into this board compared to the others. So you should be prepared for that.

Of course, if you're talking about Tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, or 40KRPG then that is a completely different story that will require another post.
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MrFlyingAmoeba
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Re: Something for beginners

#3 Post by MrFlyingAmoeba »

Arguably, you can setup a RP that's newbie-friendly by being more lax about continuity, justifications, backstory, etc. For instance, (And this isn't necessarily a bad thing, mind) MainEventMan's "From Misfits to Rebels" RP could be considered newbie-friendly because not only is the GM relatively new to the whole thing, the RP didn't setup the need to have more intricate reasons for characters to be where they were, or doing what they were.

Setting plays a role in making something easier: a pre-established work like Eragon is self-contained, rather simple and easily grasped compared to an RP made entirely in the GM's mind, since the latter requires a ton more backstory and so on to really get chugging, especially if the players want to make complicated characters with deep ties to that RP's lore. However, as in Optix's "The Organization", you can base your world off something everyone knows (In that case, it was roughly comparable to a world like Marvel, just our world+metahumans and the supernatural) and keep the narrative tight, no open-world exploration, everything is within a set box.

So if you wanted to make an RP like you're suggesting, picking a well-known setting that most people know the basics of (Or can be easily explained) would probably be a good step, unless the original setting you make up is also simple enough.

Just...don't make it zombies. We've had enough of that.
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The Rookie
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Re: Something for beginners

#4 Post by The Rookie »

Cheers guys, you've given me a bit to think about.

What I was hoping for was an experienced GM and a few newbies to have run through with, but if you reccon it's best to go straight in with experienced players I'll definitely give it some thought.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

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