A Neophyte on Neophytes

My contention is that most current-day RPG rulebooks generally do a poor job of describing how the game is actually played and this poses the most significant barrier to entry for new players. I feel rather confident in the related belief, having observed, read and heard about how a rather wide array of people play RPGs, that we all essentially play them the same way in spite of this. Anybody out there who is purposefully trying to break this somewhat undefined paradigm need not describe how you’re going about things. That you’re trying to break something at all is proof enough for me that it exists. I’m also not really talking about individual systems and their rules considerations, or tone, or milieu, or whatever… I’m saying that when you sit down to play Traveller, or D&D, or Warhammer, or Palladium or whatever… you’re embarking upon what is essentially the same pursuit each time. You learned or developed this having been shown what to do at some point. Reading the books wasn’t a big help… at least not in and of themselves.


Think of two groups of musicians from any time and place. They will play different instruments with varying degrees of skill, utilize different idioms, know different chords or scales and express all sorts of emotions; but speed metal to avante garde noise making to chamber music to kiddie pop, they all sit down to achieve essentially the same thing together, and couldn’t have described what that was prior to having sat down at least once before to do the same. So it goes with RPGs.

Interestingly enough, books on music also do a poor job of describing how to play in my estimation. When learning to play the guitar, for instance, you can read about string bending, hammering on and playing with different sorts of emphasis without really knowing what any of it is until you’ve seen or heard it demonstrated. How do you explain to somebody in words what Frank Zappa did to his guitar?

I’m bringing this all up today because last evening my regular D&D group had the pleasure to share our game with some true, pure-as-the-driven-snow RPG neophytes. They were two bright, young men just beyond their high school years and preparing to embark upon their college ones. That in the first summer of their ostensible manhood they would choose to play D&D on a Sunday night with my crew says something about why they belong amongst us in the first place. But despite their obvious smarts, being steeped in so-called geek culture and their previous exposure to RPGs through computer and online play; they couldn’t make heads or tails out of what we do when they acquired the core rulebooks for D&D and tried reading them through (I’m not entirely sure with which edition between 3, 3.5 and 4 they tried this).

Their questions were both basic and directly relevant to the game. What does the DM really do? How much of the dungeon map is revealed to players? What gets described during the adventure? What’s important to know as a DM? As a player? Do I have to talk as if I’m my character? Can I talk as if I’m my character? These sorts of things end up not being explicitly described in the rulebooks. It’s easy to overlook them because once you’ve played the game and grasped the concept you sort of take it for granted. You must see it to know what it is. Once you’ve seen it, and understand it, you don’t generally do a whole lot of examining or describing it.

That recent editions of D&D and independently published games seem to be attempting to put an emphasis back on instruction is a good thing, I suppose. Maybe with a different edition of rules in their hands these guys wouldn’t have had to come so curious but clueless to our table. Maybe the sort of informal and in-process instruction they received from my group will always be necessary. In any event, it was a blast showing them the ropes and I hope that they got out of it what they were looking for. I also hope that their curiosity becomes a full-fledged interest, whether it is pursued at my table or elsewhere, because they were smart, fun people to play with. This world can always use more of those types.   That their curiosity in the game could have diminished without every getting to experience a session is a shame.  What to do?  Build RPG outreach programs?  Probbaly not.  I dunno. 

Helping them out was me doing my part.  It also got me to thinking about my own first experiences with the hobby, reinforcing my belief that most RPG books are crap for describing play. It was a hot summer night on a neighbor’s back porch. His parents were two rooms away watching a Phillies game, oblivious that we were about to embark on a dangerous excursion to ruined Mistamere, the abode of Bargle the Warlock. The DM, a kid two years our senior, was the sort of wonderfully fair prick that makes adventuring tough but worth it. I was a thief. Raven. I drew a picture of a raven on the character sheet in the event an observer didn’t understand what I precisely meant. I was cool like that as a pre-teen.

I had my own D&D red box in less than a week. As I read through it, to better understand the rules behind all of those dice I was rolling, it was with having two full sessions already under my belt. I don’t know how much sense it would have all made lacking that. The red box was, and is, a rather clear and concise introduction to the hobby of role-playing. Just grasping the idea of not necessarily having a playing board might have been a broad leap for me at that time.

Anyway, I'm not really sure what I'm trying to express here other than documenting and sharing a memorable gaming experience that occured last night, leading me into a bout of nostalgia.  (Those likewise stirred with mentions of Bargle and Mistamere may find this to be of interest.)  I suppose just think a bit on how you got introduced to gaming and whether or not the books were big help aside from being a rules reference.  Tell me about it below.  Also, if a neophyte or two bothers to ask you about what it is you do... just show them.