/tg/ - Traditional Games

Every six thousand years when the moon glows red and the sun does not rise, the dead roam the Earth, and a mortal man is changed forever when he stands in front of that shelf in a Barnes and Noble where some of these books are stocked, and thinks "Hmm… This looks cool. I've never played something like this, but it might be something fun I could do with my friends."

What >>223486 said. If no RPG explains what an RPG is, how would you learn how to RPG?

>>223477

It's obligatory. But I agree, people should keep it short.

I think there's something nice about reading a well-done version of "what's an RPG" if it's kept short and to the point. FATE fucking sucks at this I swear to god it's like 200 pages of shit I already know how to run a game you fucking faggots. Traveller does a good job. Warrior Rogue Mage says "ask your geek friends what an RPG is you fucking casual, now here are the (shitty) rules."

>>223503

>How many many of you in elegen/tg/entlemen learned to TTRPG by first buying a book then reading the "How RPG?" section?

I did worse. I bought a "D&D For Dummies" book for 4e years ago, because I didn't know of any gaming groups in my area and I was too socially inept to learn from someone outside of my immediate circle of friends. Though to be honest, it taught me jack shit and I picked up RPGs better a while later when I did meet some guys at a local store.

>>223503

If it makes you feel better, i didn't waste time explaining what an RPG was in the game I am working on, I explained what KIND of RPG it was (since it was very different from the norm, it's an RPG where there actually is winning and losing, or at least losing).

>>223508

>I explained what KIND of RPG it was

This might be the solution right here. Instead of going "what is an RPG?", you go straight to "what is THIS RPG" and already set tone and expectations.

>>223529

>Not have a patronizing introduction where you get purple prose

Write an unpatronizing, direct one. Problem solved.

>>223530

>"How RPG?" chapters

You know, this is missing. This is missing, and I think almost every rpg ever could use this.

A straight up "How do I play" character oriented to how the PCs should be playing in order to get the best experience.

And, most of all, a "How do I run this shit" section telling the GM what, how and where to use stuff. What are good hooks and ideas, how and when to use the rules for better effect, how to reinforce the themes the game was built upon and is all about - straight up "GM kinda like this way for better results" stuff.

But no, it's normally just throw rules and expect GMs and players to figure it out. And then have shit as fuck games while people are still learning what the fuck it is about and what rules to use when and how not to make it all bogged down and boring and flavorless.

>>223534

>A straight up "How do I play" character oriented to how the PCs should be playing in order to get the best experience.

These sorts of things are usually buried in the GMs section or they typically think enough is inferred during the Examples of Play sections where every player is smart, the GM only ever says the right things, and you don't spend 20 minutes arguing over whether or not a playe can have a warhorse.

I totally get what you're saying though. It always feels like the intended style of play and the actual way games play out are never congruent to each other. Like you are playing wrong or focusing on the wrong mechanics.

>>223503

Personally, I learned from friends who already played, and everyone I currently roleplay with either learned it that way or was taught be myself and my group. At this point I've seen people I taught as total noobs pass on their knowledge to even newer noobs, but I've never met anyone who was purely self-taught, as it were. Closest I've seen is people try a new system without the aid of someone who's already familiar with it, I've done that myself, in fact.

Still, I'd imagine that on rare occasion someone goes into roleplaying entirely on their own, though I'd be shocked if that were more than 3 or 4 percent of all people who have roleplayed ever. Though even then, surely those people have seen D&D references in other media, it's occasionally come up in cartoons for years, for example. Sometimes portrayed in fairly accurate detail aside from trademarked names. And that alone makes it clear one person is in charge of everything but what players decide to personally do, there are lots of rules, it's very open-ended, etc. So unless you lived in a cave or were hardcore Amish or something, I doubt really anyone goes into it with absolutely no idea how it works whatsoever. And if you have managed to avoid all popular media references to it ever, you probably aren't going to suddenly get into roleplaying anyway.

So really, the only case I can see where those intros that explain it as if the reader knows absolutely nothing would be warranted is if roleplaying books survived the total collapse of society. Otherwise, they make as much sense as selling bicycles with little pamphlets explaining that they are devices intended to be used for transportation purposes by humans, that then note what the seat and pedals are specifically for.

>>223477

You don't know what's good for you, OP, hence why we need these sections.

I can't source this, but I feel like these sections are written not only to explain what an RPG is, but to set up the expectations of what the game is.

>>223503

>waste trees

Tree use actually helps preserve trees as a whole by creating a financial incentive to produce more of them.

>>223738

Employ paper for better purposes.

>>223737

This is pretty bad, but it seems more like your DM was just plain bad and/or stupid then pure game inexperience. The guy wouldn't even let you poke the ground to test for pits? That's just no-brainer common sense stuff that absolutely should work. Any half-decent DM has let their players try far, far wackier improvised solutions than that as long as they made any sense. Being able to do so is one of the big strengths of this kind of gaming.

So yeah, pretty sure that guy would suck no matter how much the book tried to explain about how to play. No flexibility and seemed to mistake the DM and player relationship as PvP. Defeating the players is not how DMs win, we win by making a fun game.