Introduction to Roleplaying 101: The Group
Yestarday I said that today would focus on finding the game that is ideal for a new roleplayer.
That was, in part, a lie, because before I talk about finding a published product, I want to talk a little bit about finding a table to play your game at.
One difference between roleplaying and, say, video games, is that your experience is incredibly tailored to the group that you're going to be in, and you need to think about your role and the role of the Game Master. Any product you use will direct your experiences, but not nearly as much as a good Game Master can.
Your Role as a Newbie
As a newbie joining a game, you've got some responsibilities, and the first is to have a good time, or the best time you're feeling up to having.
The second is to get a feel for the rules and standards of the group. This works two ways: if you tend to be a little bit more on the raucous side, keep in mind that others won't necessarily be comfortable with that. Even in a fairly thick-skinned group, there might be some things that aren't appropriate during roleplaying or as table-chat.
More importantly, however, you want to make sure that you've found a good, safe environment in which to roleplay. You don't need to love everyone around you, but you do want to think about whether or not dealing with the people you're around will be a problem for you. If you're not going to have a good time, find another group; I recommend trying local game shops open-table games, since they tend to be very open and inviting to newbies. My local game shop, for instance, has scheduled games every Wednesday and Friday, many of which accept walk-ins, and it's a family friendly environment.
Another thing to consider is the commitment involved in playing. Typically a game runs for about three hours once a week or every other week. Be up front; if you're not planning on returning, don't pretend to be interested further. There's nothing wrong with joining a game just once, especially if it doesn't fit, but people will plan around you returning if you insinuate that you will return.
Joining an Existing Group
There's a decent chance that once you find other people finding a game, you'll be hopping into an existing group. This means that you'll have a limited opportunity to see the beginning of a game unfold, which is typically where people do a lot of talking about what they want to see the game be like, what rules are going to exist for social decorum, and the like.
You have a couple options here; hang back and observe, or join the game immediately.
Personally, I recommend hanging back and observing.
However, that's not always feasible. There are certain group sizes that work well for certain games (typically around 4), and a group that invites a new player in may be short players and looking to replenish, or have found that they just didn't have enough players when they started play.
When joining an existing group, ask three questions.
- Is there anything I should definitely not do?
- What sort of game are we going to be playing?
- What do I need to do to prepare for the game?
The first rule is simple: figure out the group's code of conduct before you join. Some things that occasionally come up are player versus player combat, adult or sensitive content, and what is acceptable electronic device use at the table. Means of resolving conflict may not have set-in-stone rules, but in general the thrust of roleplaying tends toward cooperation rather than conflict in many cases (though there are games, like Paranoia, that twist this on its head).
On the other hand, you want to be aware of what things are considered acceptable for both in-game and out-of-game adult content. Some people have a system where people can use a card to signal that content has gotten past what they're comfortable with; my group always goes with a simple "movie rating" system. When you're playing with strangers this is a lot more important; everyone is typically enjoying some down-time when they're roleplaying, so interjecting something that causes distress or offense can get a very quick, very sharp reaction.
If you're not comfortable, don't join the group.
Some of this ties into figuring out the sort of game you're going to play. If you're going to be in a game about vampires in a gritty urban fantasy setting, you're going to expect certain things. One thing I suggest is asking for "touchstone media", or inspirations that you can brush up on (or may already be familiar with) to help set the tone for the game.
Last, but not least, you need to figure out what to bring and prepare. Typically, a newbie won't be asked to bring snacks or drinks for the group, but every group has slightly different etiquette about that. You'll need to know if you should bring a character, if you should read the rules (and if so, what rules), and other stuff. This will vary depending on whether you plan on playing or not, but typically you can pick up most things during play, at least in some systems.
The First Session
If you're observing the game, there's really not a whole lot more you need to know. Show up, watch, and if people offer you a chance to play you can make the decision about whether you're ready or not.
If you're playing in your first session right off the bat, make sure to do your introductions. A good Game Master will introduce a novice, and tell the players anything that's important. Almost every game assigns your character a special role or responsibility in the group; D&D does this through classes, but don't be surprised to hear terms like "Face", "Tank", or "Support" used to describe a character; these are similar to MMORPG parlance, and simply talk about what the character does in terms of game mechanics. You might also have setting-specific terms.
Whether you are playing or observing, never hesitate to ask questions. Because roleplaying is storytelling and getting into touch with a world, people are typically happy to explain, especially if it makes your entry to the group smoother. This applies to both rules and setting questions.
At the same time, if you're asking questions, be sure to be respectful of the group's time. You might want to take notes, or have a copy of any rulebooks or other materials handy so you don't wind up having to ask the same questions over and over.
Joining a New Group
It may also happen that you've always wanted to get into this roleplaying thing, and you have a couple other friends who also want to get into a group together, some of whom may still have more experience.
Everything from the above section applies, but you'll have more say in what's going on. Depending on whether or not the group's already been playing together and are just in-between games, or it's a bunch of people who are just now coming together and you're just part of that mix, you may or may not be the only newcomer.
The important thing to remember is that it's a group experience. There's nothing wrong with getting your own desires met, so long as you don't sacrifice the group for it. Mention what you think you'd like, and have an open communication about which rules and setting you want to use. These do not necessarily have to come from the same place, though I suggest they do if you have a lot of newcomers; roleplaying systems are typically tailored to a particular setting, and conversions can be hard.
For instance, I could run a science fiction game with the D&D rules, but it would be less confusing to use a sci-fi game for my own purposes.
The Game Master
Most roleplaying games have one person take on the special role, that of the Game Master (aka Dungeon Master, Storyteller, or any of dozens of names unique to particular games). They help set up the world that everyone else will be exploring,
When something goes wrong in roleplaying, you can usually find someone blaming the Game Master.
Of course, just because they do doesn't mean you should, and you should be wary about doing so. Most of the time, the Game Master is an expert (or the group's closest thing to an expert) trying their best to make sure everyone has their best time.
Think of the Game Master as, simultaneously, an event coordinator, film director, and referee. That's a fair amount of stuff to juggle, so give them some slack.
Making a Group
If you've gotten this far and you really want to get into roleplaying but you can't find a group to join, then you may have to make one yourself.
Don't worry, it's not that hard; I did it too, and I'm sure you're at least 80% better prepared than I was by this point.
Find a few people who you might want to play with and get them together. Be forewarned that running a game is a lot of effort, but if you're doing it right it'll be relatively simple. Think of a story you want to tell, and then start reading up on the rules and the systems.
Don't be afraid of making mistakes. If you have anyone with experience, ask them for help, if not you can always fix any mistakes later (if they even really are "mistakes" to the point that they need being fixed).
You also have an advantage I didn't have when I started: YouTube and other sites where you can watch actual examples of play. Try to find at least a tutorial or a short clip of play from the game that you wind up deciding to run.
Wrapping Up
Alright, now that you've found a "game" (in the sense that you have a table to play at), we'll talk about "games" in the system sense in a bit. If you're going to start out as a GM with a bunch of novices, you want to move on to that step, but you probably don't want to join a group and immediately ask people to change what they're playing: that's a bit of a breach of etiquette.
Tomorrow's entry will discuss systems, but the one after that will discuss making a character.
This is a very good article.
I especially like the fact that you keep focusing on the fact that while you are there to have fun, there are also others there to have fun and that you should never forget that. Tons and tons of people seem to always forget that playing a roleplaying game (or a tabletop game for that matter) is not only about you that you need not forget that you aren't there alone and if you are the only one having fun there's a good chance that the next time you will not be invited to have fun.
I personally believe that this is at least in part caused by people mostly experiencing "multiplayer" in video games where they really don't have to care about others because at worst, they will just have to find a new group by using the "find match" button instead of by real socializing.
You're on to something. I think quite often the pen & paper group is the first time where people really have to work together for a common goal, where they have to rely on each other, where there is no winner. We're too used to look out for our personal gain.
We all have heard "My character is like this" and have thought "No, YOU are like this". A char should have lumbs and bumps, quirks that make him a PC instead of an NPC, things that can be brought into play even if there's downsides to it. But only to a certain extent. You don't sabotage the group's work.
Playing the arrogant young son of high nobility who knows everything better and does everthing better than others is fun - as long as the player doesn't believe that ;)
Yeah, there's certainly a problem with bleed for a lot of characters and players. I've also had issues with people who get too attached to a particular concept and storyline; they want to be the prince who goes out and slays the dragon, for instance, but they never communicated this to the GM so they wind up upset when the story takes a different path.
One of the problems that comes into this (and I wish I remembered better who was the first person who I found to describe it really well, so I could give them credit) is that a lot of people get trained in adversarial or self-focused roleplaying by their experiences with other media.
For instance, a player doesn't say what they want their character to be able to do because their goal is to bring the world to its knees until they get what they want. Perfect in a sandbox, but not great if the GM is spending all this time preparing courtly drama and their plans get sunk by one player wanting to go and explore the lost ruins of Lemuria.
Alternatively, players get in a rut where they think that they're the only person who can move the story forward or describe their character at all, and have problems accepting the mechanics and conventions needed to keep things from going off the rails.
There's a reason I plan to devote a whole article to characters, and it's because I've seen a lot of great, and a lot of really troublesome, characters over the years.
One of the weird things about our age is the way that communication and discourse has become a largely one-sided interaction; not in the sense that it doesn't receive a reply, but in the way that it is increasingly happening via social media and digital interfaces that basically operate on a send-receive basis.
Unlike face-to-face communications, these often have a much larger focus on the response you receive rather than really communicating with people.
To get off on a tangent, while instant wireless communication is often thought of as giving us unlimited instant access, most of our communications with others happens in ways that are not instantaneous. Instead there's a time gap between when we send a communication and when we receive it. Since this is the sort of thing that we experience with our most important parts of our lives; professional e-mails, personal texts and messages, and conversations in forums/chat rooms with communities that we know, and a large number of the remaining interpersonal interactions are scripted (for instance, work interactions with subordinate-superior roles), we've forgotten in general how to actually communicate and socialize without any sort of built-in hierarchy.
In any case, though, sharing attention is very difficult. We psychologically need it, but due to the ways that we're used to interacting we've become used to sort of these small, intense bursts of attention, but we generally don't view our everyday social interactions as really involving attention paid to us. There's an element of balance here, like holding a good conversation, where you need to spend some time listening, and that's a skill that a lot of people trying to break into the hobby don't necessarily even know they need.