Challenger Approaching
Hello! Sorry for the skipped week, but hey, holidays.
Anyway, today I'm going to talk a bit about something new that's coming up: I'm going to start up a new D&D game, specifically geared toward offering a space for new players. That's right, in the new year I will be running an all-newbie campaign.
This is something that's been in the back of my mind for a while now as something that I'd like to try for various reasons. One reason is that lately, particularly over the course of the past six months or so, I've found myself with an increasing desire to take care of people. My life isn't going great right now (if nothing changes, I'll be homeless in less than a year), which leaves me thinking, "If I can't help myself, then maybe I can at least help someone else."
Of course, since I'm poor, my options for offering that care are very limited. However, people can get something of value from gaming, and if I run a game, then maybe some people can get started on that path who wouldn't otherwise have gotten the chance. Basically, the world is on fire but at least maybe I can give somebody a safe place to have fun (and equip them to spread it around for others).
Also I just like D&D, so there's that.
So after having put out a feeler to a couple of Facebook groups I'm in to see if there would be interest in such a game (spoiler alert: VERY YES), I now find myself needing a premise for the game, so I'll be thinking out loud here. (And if you like, I'll report back occasionally as the adventure unfolds.)
So, what do you run when literally every player is going to be a total newbie? Well, if you're familiar with 5th Edition D&D, you may have already thought of The Lost Mine of Phandelver. It's designed for exactly this purpose, it's beloved among reviewers, and it (as one would want for newbies) starts at 1st level. Even so, I'm going to make life harder for myself and say that I don't want to run a published adventure, for a few reasons.
First, I want to practice my homebrew DMing skills. I'm decent at running a game, but I want to get better, and I don't think published adventures are as helpful as creating something of my own. Second, I think a homebrew game could offer some value toward my worldbuilding endeavors. Maybe not a lot (at least not inherently, especially if I don't want too many houserules as I teach newbies) but probably more than a published adventure. Third, I still (somehow) haven't gotten to play LMoP myself and don't want it spoiled.
Okay, so I need a homebrew premise that would start at 1st level and offer some exposure to the basics of D&D. I guess that means I need to decide what those basics are so I can make sure I cover them. I'm not too worried about things like the core mechanics or combat. The latter is a given for anything remotely resembling a typical D&D game, and the former will come up on its own (plus I've already published a free guide that I'll share with the players).
One thing that I think doesn't often get explained (and is sometimes missed even by veteran players) but is central to the experience is an understanding of what it means that the PCs are adventurers. These are not normal people anymore. Their backgrounds don't describe who they are right now, they describe who they used to be in the past. By the time they gained their first class level, a PC has already decided they would no longer live the life of their background and would instead live the life of an adventurer.
I want these new players' first experience to make it very clear that playing D&D means that your character is not a sage or a sailor or a soldier, but rather your character is an adventurer who used to be a sage or a sailor or a soldier. To do that, I'm thinking of pitching the premise of the campaign thusly:
"The small frontier town of [TOWNNAME] has put out a call for adventurers to solve a variety of problems. You have recently decided to leave your old life behind, and believe this will be a perfect opportunity for you to launch your new career as an adventurer. Our story begins as you arrive in town late one summer evening."
How's that? It exposes the player to the idea that being "an adventurer" is a thing, and gets everybody on the same page that they're intentionally seeking this type of lifestyle. It helps them know what the game is about so that they can make a character to fit that premise, rather than getting that "deer in the headlights" look that I've seen before when I tried to offer total freedom to someone who doesn't know what's going on.
I also like the idea of explicitly making all of the characters newcomers to the town, as I think (hope?) that it debunks any assumptions the players might have that they need to know more than they do. That is, it's okay for them to be ignorant, because their characters — who are new to adventuring and new to the town they're in — are just as ignorant (and potentially lost and overwhelmed) as the players are, and it's expected and normal and okay for that to be the case.
Now I need to develop this premise. Who put out the call? Was it a local noble or mayor on behalf of the city itself, making this a local government affair? Are the citizens putting up job notices and word has spread that there's a lot of them lately? Is there a literal adventurer's guild that has announced opening a new chapter office in this town? When I figure that out, I'll be able to amend the pitch to include a contact person, which will give these players a very clear and manageable goal right from the start: talk to this person. That seems like a plus!
Then I need to figure out why there's suddenly a spike in adventuring work in this town. I need to populate the town with some classic NPCs: the owner of the tavern, the smith who sells equipment, the sage who can identify magic items or answer arcane questions, the priest who can offer some healing services, and so forth. And, of course, I need to figure out what all this adventuring work is, since that will be the actual content of the game. I have some noodlings about that, but I think I'll let those thoughts percolate a bit and discuss them in a future post.
Here's hoping I can offer something of value to some fresh-faced recruits. In the meantime, take care of each other, okay?
Anyway, today I'm going to talk a bit about something new that's coming up: I'm going to start up a new D&D game, specifically geared toward offering a space for new players. That's right, in the new year I will be running an all-newbie campaign.
This is something that's been in the back of my mind for a while now as something that I'd like to try for various reasons. One reason is that lately, particularly over the course of the past six months or so, I've found myself with an increasing desire to take care of people. My life isn't going great right now (if nothing changes, I'll be homeless in less than a year), which leaves me thinking, "If I can't help myself, then maybe I can at least help someone else."
Of course, since I'm poor, my options for offering that care are very limited. However, people can get something of value from gaming, and if I run a game, then maybe some people can get started on that path who wouldn't otherwise have gotten the chance. Basically, the world is on fire but at least maybe I can give somebody a safe place to have fun (and equip them to spread it around for others).
Also I just like D&D, so there's that.
So after having put out a feeler to a couple of Facebook groups I'm in to see if there would be interest in such a game (spoiler alert: VERY YES), I now find myself needing a premise for the game, so I'll be thinking out loud here. (And if you like, I'll report back occasionally as the adventure unfolds.)
So, what do you run when literally every player is going to be a total newbie? Well, if you're familiar with 5th Edition D&D, you may have already thought of The Lost Mine of Phandelver. It's designed for exactly this purpose, it's beloved among reviewers, and it (as one would want for newbies) starts at 1st level. Even so, I'm going to make life harder for myself and say that I don't want to run a published adventure, for a few reasons.
First, I want to practice my homebrew DMing skills. I'm decent at running a game, but I want to get better, and I don't think published adventures are as helpful as creating something of my own. Second, I think a homebrew game could offer some value toward my worldbuilding endeavors. Maybe not a lot (at least not inherently, especially if I don't want too many houserules as I teach newbies) but probably more than a published adventure. Third, I still (somehow) haven't gotten to play LMoP myself and don't want it spoiled.
Okay, so I need a homebrew premise that would start at 1st level and offer some exposure to the basics of D&D. I guess that means I need to decide what those basics are so I can make sure I cover them. I'm not too worried about things like the core mechanics or combat. The latter is a given for anything remotely resembling a typical D&D game, and the former will come up on its own (plus I've already published a free guide that I'll share with the players).
One thing that I think doesn't often get explained (and is sometimes missed even by veteran players) but is central to the experience is an understanding of what it means that the PCs are adventurers. These are not normal people anymore. Their backgrounds don't describe who they are right now, they describe who they used to be in the past. By the time they gained their first class level, a PC has already decided they would no longer live the life of their background and would instead live the life of an adventurer.
I want these new players' first experience to make it very clear that playing D&D means that your character is not a sage or a sailor or a soldier, but rather your character is an adventurer who used to be a sage or a sailor or a soldier. To do that, I'm thinking of pitching the premise of the campaign thusly:
"The small frontier town of [TOWNNAME] has put out a call for adventurers to solve a variety of problems. You have recently decided to leave your old life behind, and believe this will be a perfect opportunity for you to launch your new career as an adventurer. Our story begins as you arrive in town late one summer evening."
How's that? It exposes the player to the idea that being "an adventurer" is a thing, and gets everybody on the same page that they're intentionally seeking this type of lifestyle. It helps them know what the game is about so that they can make a character to fit that premise, rather than getting that "deer in the headlights" look that I've seen before when I tried to offer total freedom to someone who doesn't know what's going on.
I also like the idea of explicitly making all of the characters newcomers to the town, as I think (hope?) that it debunks any assumptions the players might have that they need to know more than they do. That is, it's okay for them to be ignorant, because their characters — who are new to adventuring and new to the town they're in — are just as ignorant (and potentially lost and overwhelmed) as the players are, and it's expected and normal and okay for that to be the case.
Now I need to develop this premise. Who put out the call? Was it a local noble or mayor on behalf of the city itself, making this a local government affair? Are the citizens putting up job notices and word has spread that there's a lot of them lately? Is there a literal adventurer's guild that has announced opening a new chapter office in this town? When I figure that out, I'll be able to amend the pitch to include a contact person, which will give these players a very clear and manageable goal right from the start: talk to this person. That seems like a plus!
Then I need to figure out why there's suddenly a spike in adventuring work in this town. I need to populate the town with some classic NPCs: the owner of the tavern, the smith who sells equipment, the sage who can identify magic items or answer arcane questions, the priest who can offer some healing services, and so forth. And, of course, I need to figure out what all this adventuring work is, since that will be the actual content of the game. I have some noodlings about that, but I think I'll let those thoughts percolate a bit and discuss them in a future post.
Here's hoping I can offer something of value to some fresh-faced recruits. In the meantime, take care of each other, okay?
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