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Message no. 1
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Pepe Barbe)
Subject: Demo Games < Was Re: [Alternate Rules] Dice Pools>
Date: Sun May 6 14:35:01 2001
At 12:11 p.m. 06/05/2001, Gurth wrote:
> > I hope you didn't have to to explain rigging at a demo...
>
>I left them out, plain and simple :) I figure that, at a demo game, the GM
>brings along simple to understand characters, like street sams and mages.
>The deckers and riggers can be left out until someone who liked the demo
>game wants to play in your regular game.

I was wondering. What do you do to incorporate in a SR game to complete
neophyte ppl to the world of RPGs? I have a friend who really wants to
play, but he has never played RPG, or at least he thinks that a RPG is
Final Fantasy VII. What should I do? Give him a Character I've made, give
him an Archetype? Let him choose whatever appeal more to him?

Pepe
Message no. 2
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Lars Wagner Hansen)
Subject: Demo Games < Was Re: [Alternate Rules] Dice Pools>
Date: Sun May 6 18:40:01 2001
From: "Pepe Barbe" <a19960615@****.edu.pe>
> I was wondering. What do you do to incorporate in a SR game to
complete
> neophyte ppl to the world of RPGs? I have a friend who really wants
to
> play, but he has never played RPG, or at least he thinks that a RPG
is
> Final Fantasy VII. What should I do? Give him a Character I've made,
give
> him an Archetype? Let him choose whatever appeal more to him?

I would do the following:

Best: Make a character together with him, but stick with the basic
rules. You make sure he dosn't miss any item you should have, and make
sure he dosn't make a useless character. Make a character that you
know will be able to survive, and that will be able to do things in
the scenario that you will run, but also let your friend have his say
in how the character is developed. But it takes quite a while, and can
be boring for some ppl that don't know squat about RPG.

Next: You make the same character, and give it to him.

Worst: Give him an archtype.

Worst of all: Don't let him play :-)

When I introduce ppl to RPG, I usually play a con-scenario, with
premade characters and backgrounds. They always fit the scenario, they
usualy have good background, everybody can do something in the
scenario, and the scenario can usually be run in a fair amount of time
(4-8 hours). And I usualy introduce them to a system that is less
complicated than SR, and with a world that is not so complicated,
usualy CoC, unless the ppl wants something else.

Lars
--
Lars Wagner Hansen, Jagtvej 11, 4180 Sorø
l-hansen@*****.tele.dk http://home4.inte.tele.dk/l-hansen
Message no. 3
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Sebastian Wiers)
Subject: Demo Games < Was Re: [Alternate Rules] Dice Pools>
Date: Mon May 7 00:55:05 2001
>I was wondering. What do you do to incorporate in a SR game to complete
>neophyte ppl to the world of RPGs? I have a friend who really wants to
>play, but he has never played RPG, or at least he thinks that a RPG is
>Final Fantasy VII. What should I do? Give him a Character I've made, give
>him an Archetype? Let him choose whatever appeal more to him?
>
>Pepe

I'd let him pick an architype- you want him to play a character that he
thinks will be fun. Then kill the character off after a few games, unless
the player really does still think that character is fun, and seems to be
playing it well. 9 times in 10, neither of those is true- people often pick
architypes very usuited to them.
IMO, After you see how they play, you can try and guide them in making a
character that fits them better. Some players apreciate that, some don't,
so how much guidance you use at that stage is up to you, but most people
will need a great deal, if they have not played an RPG before.

-Mongoose
Message no. 4
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Gurth)
Subject: Demo Games < Was Re: [Alternate Rules] Dice Pools>
Date: Mon May 7 06:25:01 2001
According to Pepe Barbe, on Sun, 06 May 2001 the word on the street was...

> I was wondering. What do you do to incorporate in a SR game to complete
> neophyte ppl to the world of RPGs? I have a friend who really wants to
> play, but he has never played RPG, or at least he thinks that a RPG is
> Final Fantasy VII. What should I do? Give him a Character I've made, give
> him an Archetype? Let him choose whatever appeal more to him?

My advice would be to ask your friend sometime before the game what kind of
character he'd like to play. Explain to him in short what an RPG actually
is and do the same for the SR setting, but don't go into too much detail for
either, because experience has taught me that saying too much will scare
people away.

If you want, you can explain the basic character types (street sam, mage,
decker, rigger, etc. and be sure to mention which are easy and which are
difficult to play) as well as the different races, then see which
combination of archetype and race he says he likes. However, my choice
would be to simply ask him what he'd like to be without making him see the
sample characters, because you could very well make him feel limited. He'll
most likely go for "someone who can shoot well," "someone who's a martial
artists," or "someone who can cast spells" anyway. Be prepared to have him
pick an elf even before you mention any of the possible races...

Before the next game session, create a character who fits the player's
wishes (or just copy a sample character onto a character sheet, if he's
picked something that's basically the same as one of those), and don't
forget to give him the Common Sense edge. This lets you, as the GM, give
him hints when he does things that may not be such a great idea in the SR
world. You can, of course, also do this when he doesn't have this edge, but
this way you've got a legitimate reason :)

At the game session, before you start to actually play, go over the
character sheet with him and explain roughly what each thing is and does
(as in, "Stealth skill lets you sneak around; you've got it at 4 which
means you're pretty good at it."), and if possible, show him pictures of
his equipment from the appropriate sourcebooks or SRTCG cards -- he'll find
it much easier to visualize an Ingram Smartgun if you open the Street
Samurai Catalog on page 31 than if you say "It's a common submachine gun."
If you've got High Tech & Low Life, take it along as well and let him look
through it to get an impression of the world (this is the only use I've
found for this book :)

Also give _short_ explanation of the basic rules. He doesn't really need to
know more than how to roll skill tests, as all the rest can be explained
when it comes up in the game. Finally, if he has any questions, be sure to
answer them.

Be sure to mention that he is not "stuck" using this character -- that if
he wants to keep playing but doesn't want to use this character, he can
create his own. That, in fact, you would encourage him to create his own
character.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
If there are vegetarian hamburgers, why isn't there beef lettuce?
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Triangle Virtuoso <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://plastic.dumpshock.com <-

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