Game Masters- have mercy on the new players.

I get it. Dungeon/Game Masters with homebrew worlds and deep campaigns love piling on the lore. We want to share all of that cool fiction and explore those complex Non Player Character relationships. We’ve spent time writing and developing all this cool backstory for these major movers and shakers and we want to share that with the world.

Then there are the Players who want to min/max their characters to the Nth degree possible. They’ve seen YouTube videos where people combined a class with a certain subclass and a different class along with this feat and that background to come up with an unbeatable killamajig that is bound to make the DM cry in the corner.

Then there are the game designers who have come up with all these amazingly cool classes and features along with magic items. They want to sell more books, so they keep putting out more cool options and subclasses. Game balance? What’s that? Who cares if the Player Characters are way too powerful at fifth level?

Last, there are the new players. They heard of this Dungeons & Dragons phenomenon and want to try it out. Maybe they’ve already made a character, but heaven help them if they haven’t yet. Imagine walking in off the street cold and having absolutely no idea what’s going on with this game. Then the DM/GM comes out and gives an hour and a half soliloquy about their world. Were we supposed to be writing this all down?

Fear not, for I have a plan.

As DM/GMs, we have to know when to back off (and possibly go write a novel after the game.) Let the lore and story come out gradually and organically. The characters can find out short, small, manageable bits of lore as the game progresses.
Most medieval peasants barely knew what the next town over was or much beyond their local hunting/fishing grounds. Few took part in national politics unless they were conscripted into military service or perhaps worked for the church. Merchants possibly had a broader perspective if they weren’t bound to the confines of their small cottage industry. We’re spoiled in fantasy TTRPG campaigns by more frequent travel and far greater education for the characters.

In realistic DM/GM terms, it’s probably best to focus on where the PCs are, who is around them, and where they might be going next. Yes, sandbox campaigns require some broader planning but be careful not to over plan everything. It might never see the light of day. Just let the group find out what they need to know about the world or remember what they know gradually.

Players just want to have fun.

It’s true, even we DM/GMs fall into the category of knowledge hungry players. There is great temptation and obsessing over new character options and loot. I love seeing new options in play and making magic items to go with them. I think there does come a point where it’s too much of a good thing, however.

If I can’t make a character and jump into the game within 15 minutes, we’re doing something wrong at least in my experience. That’s what appeals to me so much about Dragonbane and Shadowdark RPG. I feel like I’m almost writing too slow while making these characters. It takes me longer to come up with a backstory and family for my characters than it does to make them out statistically.

Dungeons & Dragons worked that way once upon a time. Ever since AD&D 2E’s waning days and all the way through 5E, things have gotten more complicated. Now it’s possible to design a character from the attributes on up to 20th level before play even begins and know exactly what the end product is going to look like. You can almost engineer an entirely new character class from the ground up using bits and bobs from other classes/subclasses. The 2024 D&D Player’s Handbook has something like 100 pages just devoted to picking a class/subclass.

The new game is deep and daunting! If I were a DM with new players, I would either start them off with a one-shot of another similar system (cough Shadowdark! cough) or sit down with them and walk them through the whole character creation process. Especially benevolent DMs might even build a starter character complete with explanations of everything and just hand it to the new player.

Personally, I truly miss when games had a basic and advanced mode of play. D&D was a perfect example of this. Games where players get to learn the basics without hundreds of character options are so pleasant. I wish Wizards of the Coast’s “Game Architects” (or whatever they’re called this week) would figure out how to make a dumbed-down basic boxed set to help new players adapt before feeding them to the wolves.

Speaking of game designers.

Okay, confession time. I’m guilty of seeing a basic game and instantly coming up with a hundred new ways to complicate it. I did it with BareBones Fantasy, ICRPG, Shadowdark, and most recently with Dragonbane. I see a very flexible, basic game and my brain automatically starts popping out new classes, spells, skills, maneuvers, etc. I think subconsciously I want every TTRPG to have about the same amount of basic options as AD&D 1E or D&D3.5E. I miss the Unearthed Arcana and Oriental Adventures with a fiery passion.

Game designers live to make more and more expansions to their favorite game. I get bitten by that bug at least once per day, sometimes more. I can’t help it. However, that makes life way complicated for DM/GMs and new players because there’s almost too much going on. My advice is: Keep making the awesomeness but include full-fledged examples of all the character options, skills, feats, etc in action and be as clear as possible about those rules.

New Players don’t despair.

We’ve all started somewhere. Please take comfort in knowing that most DM/GMs have your best interests at heart when it comes to making new characters and just starting out in a game. We, the GMs of the world want everyone to have fun.
That having been said, what works at my table may not work at yours and vice versa. Maybe there are DM/GMs out there who expect brand new players to have half the PHB memorized before their first session. Somewhere in the world, someone’s first game was Rolemaster, and that character creation process took nearly an hour to complete.

It never hurts to ask for help when creating a new character for a new campaign or game system. There are plenty of applications and tutorials online for Dungeons & Dragons as well as other games. The main thing is just to get a character made, familiarize oneself with some of the basic rules, and go do the thing! Have fun with it.

Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.

Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.