Teaching RPGs to A Group of Beginners
There are lots of wonderful resources to help guide you in teaching yourself or a group of beginners to play RPGs. Since we usually start with D&D, the resources will focus there.
Guiding Principle - Get Them PLAYING first, and the rules can come after. The faster you can get people involved in an RPG, the better!
The very beginning - We usually start by explain DnD’s six core stats.
A totally average person would have +0 to all traits. But real people, and interesting characters, have some things that they are really good at and other things they are weak at.
In DnD, your character will have advantages and disadvantages in these areas based on the stats that make up who they are.
I’ll then give everyone a d20 to play with and roll. I’ll explain that they’ll be doing skill checks with the d20. The DM will have a minimum they will need to roll to meet to skill check, and the advantages or disadvantages will impact that.
I’ll draw a big puddle on the board and ask them to imagine that we are playing a character who needs to jump over the puddle with their dexterity to land safely on the other side. It will take us a roll of 12 to get to the other side. If we have a lot of dexterity, we might be able to add +3 to our role, and if we are wearing boots of bouncing, we might get another +2. Then I’ll have students roll, and play out the different outcomes with them. We will repeat this with a character who has a -1 to dexterity and heavy armor that gives a -1.
Doing this, and answering clarifying questions along the way usually provides the foundation people need to start to understand how to play. We do this before we look at other dice, races, classes, anything else!
Step 2 - Skill Checks Pregen Characters
Choose a character - I love fastcharacter.com. In seconds you can make all sorts of pregen characters. You have the ability to chose all sorts of features, or none at all. I like to create a variety of different races and classes for students to choose from.
They like to choose, even if they have no idea what they are choosing.
I will lay them all out, with about 5 extras, and let everyone pick.
Try out some skills checks - Then we go back to the idea of the puddle. Everyone rolls and adds or subtracts their dexterity. We try it again with things like imagining we were handling a horse, intimidating a shop keeper, being sneaky, finding forage in the woods, etc. The point is to practice finding different skills quickly, and seeing what their character especially good or bad at.
Get past the guard - We generate a list of all the ways you could get past a guard: sneak, bluff, scare, bribe, flirt, knock unconscious, do a dance, trick, etc. Then I ask everyone to look at their character sheets and choose a method that has a better chance of working, based on their skills. We take turns rolling and seeing how it went. It is important that the teacher/DM makes the failures as fun as the successes. We want players to get used to the idea that you would not succeed all the time, and that it can be even more fun!
Step Three- Getting A Visual Reference On The PreGen Character
This helpful image to the left is by AutumnArchFey at DeviantArt. Click on it to see it in its orginal setting.
The third step is introducing the players to the different races in DnD. Races is not my favorite term, which I am sure you’ll be able to read about at RollforKindness.com someday, but it is what it is atm.
I find it useful for students to see visual images of the different humanoids of DnD. They can then use their pregen character’s equipment and weapon list to draw a picture of them. While they are doing that, I usually start to talk to them a little bit about the different classes, and what they mean. Taking the time to draw out the characters and chat about them, even if they are stick figures, causes the players to look more carefully at what items they have. Sometimes we reconsider how we might have gotten past the guard using an item we didn’t notice we had before
Here is a great image with pop culture references to different classes.
This youtube channel here has some great videos about dnd, classes, how to play, etc.
Step Four - Try it!
Your players now know enough about their characters and how to play to go on a small adventure! I absolutely LOVE The Laureate Trials as a first adventure. It has three rooms, and the first one is all about skills checks. It is very engaging, silly and low stakes, but easy to get into. The second room is a puzzle, and again does not take any combat skills. Even if you do not use this adventure, let your players get good at doing skills checks and playing together. If you are using the Laureate Trials, by the time they come to the third room, it is time for combat. By then, they are ready to learn some new things.
Step Five - Combat
I like to demonstrate combat with our old friend, the long-suffering guard. Here is a pregen stat block for a guard, which you can use. If you have all level one players, feel free to make him easier to beat as well. Having one person play the guard, choose three volunteers to be the party, and go through a battle. This is a great time to explain initiative, and act out how it works.
Now, to get on my soapbox, I really don’t like adventures that are all about killing other humanoids. I think it is lazy storytelling, and not exactly what I am looking for my middle schoolers to do. This is my major complaint about the The Lost Mines of Phandelver, which is the adventure in the DnD Starter Set. I always like to explain about non-lethal combat (our poor guard deserves better!) and pick storylines that do not focus on just slaughtering cultists or goblins. But that is, of course, your prerogative. The Laureate Trials has a great battle against four warforged robot beasts, which feels high stakes, with flame shooters, etc., but meets that criteria for me.
Step Six - To Adventure!
At this point, your players have a good idea of how to play. Your spellcasters will need to learn how to do spells. You can do the same demo with the long-suffering guard, have the DMs help the spellcasters as they need it, etc. The players will make mistakes. The DMs will make mistakes. That’s okay. Remember : We’re all here to have fun!
There are so many resources online, if you have asked the question, others have. The internet is an endless source of discussion for DnD people. Have at it!