What advice would you give for someone who has just gotten into the hobby?
Advice for new players
Lincoln Adams
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Nolan Hall
Depends on the system
Jackson Garcia
There's something for everyone. Try to find your niche, and help other people to find theirs.
It may take some time and courage to discover what you love, so don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and explore options.
David Morris
Go to somewhere other than Veeky Forums for advice. A large chunk of people on Veeky Forums don't play roleplaying games. In addition, you get some really stupid ideas floating around here which have quite a bit of credence. The cult of the Roll is probably the worst of that.
Grayson Perry
Stay away from Veeky Forums
Robert Morgan
It's not too late, get out while you still can, kid.
Aiden Williams
1- If possible, dont DM unless you have to. Learn the rules and mechanics. If you are interested, work with the DM to design a basic encounter and run it. It can be a very basic dungeon crawl. For example:
>"our cemetary keeps being disturbed, find the culprit"
>investigate
>follow the trail of fresh dirt or whatever
>goes to a cave guarded by a zombie or something
>low-level necromancer is experimenting
That type of quest is easily self-contained and wouldnt interrupt the main DMs story or DM NPCs.
2- if you are a player, make sure you know what you CAN do. There are many players who waste their characters potential by not doing their homework. Learn your abilities well and how they can interact, as well as combos with the greater party.
3- "to the squeaky wheel goes the grease". Basically, you have to make your character present. Dont sit in silence for 4 hours only to ask why no-one asks your opinion, player dialogue is integral to advancing the story and characterization.
4- DMs want a backstory they can work with, not a Tolkein-tier tome. A backstory can be functional and still be a single double-spaced page with 12-point font. Just make sure key parts are exploitable. Dont copy-paste from Anime for the love of all that is holy, because I know you browse Veeky Forums Trevor and I'm not accepting a character synopsis copy-pasted from the Bleach wiki.
5-Melee builds in any RPG tend to be easy to make with straightforward abilities.. but hard to put together right, especially if a caster-type class outshines you and you really need to power-game to keep up.
6- make sure you understand how initiative, damage, and defense work. Those are the things that tend to lead to arguements. Does the Defender win a tie? KNOW THAT ANSWER.
7- Know what the DM expects in terms of tone, ideally negotiated with you guys. Dont be "that guy" aka "lmao so RANDOM xD" if the table expects a serious tone. If it's light hearted romps a la a Saturday morning cartoon, relax.
Isaac Reed
Start with GURPS before you lower your RPG tastes with trite like D&D.
Robert Nelson
>he's new
>start him with GURPS
I mean, I don't think D&D is ideal to start, but I really don't thing GURPS is much better. It's okay, but a rules-light RPG game may be better, or even just a straight-up starter pre-baked Module just to get his feet wet before he jumps into the whole thing.
Luis White
Bit late for that, my group runs Pathfinder and Paranoia.
Thanks.