Re: It has come to my atention

From: aaron@iphc.washington.edu (Aaron Ranta)

Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 00:00:00 +0000

In article <32207147.7CEB@airmail.net>, topcat@airmail.net says...
>
>It has come to my antention that alot of GMs are not letting new people
>into their game because they have no experience in Roleplaying .
>What is the world comeing to when gamers wont let new guys in , so they
>are inexperienced that makes it that much better . Come on  guys you at
>one time were new at one time . How would you hae felt if you were
>snubbed because you didn't know how to play ?!?! If you think about it
>what there to learn can you act like somebody else HMMMMMMM , if you
>can't then you've got a problem . So what I'm saying is give newbes a
>chance .

Hmm... this sucks... (not your response, but the reason's that
caused you to make it).
I, personally, ran a pbem game once.... it was a AD&D based
game, and two of the players I had, were pretty much a newbies
to the whole deal. He had none of the AD&D books, nor knew much
about the game mechanics as a whole....

Both players did just great.
Sure, I strongly advised they stay away from the spellcasting
classes... simply because they did not have the resources that
would allow them to know what spells were available, and what
they did (and I was not in the mood to type them in).

One was a thief, the other a warrior. Both were great.
I helped them create their characters, told them what skills
they had, and what sort of things they could do with them...
The rest, they did as they played.

When it comes down to pbem role playing, you do _not_ need to
know much about the game, and in face, I can attest, from
experience, that the players who are less familiar with the
game mechanics are often far better role players.

To all you DM's out there! It's refreshing to have players
that act realisticly to a situation, rather then the normal
'experienced' set, who have knowledge their characters do
not (be it knowing what an 'orc' is, or what a fireball can
do) and can't help but let this knowledge affect how their
characters react.

In a pbem, the DM rolls the dice. The players just tell you
what they want to do... You do not need to know the game
mechanics to say "I want to pick his pocket" or "I'll attack
him with my axe."

Of course, this works best with DM's who run their games
more as an interactive story, based around the pc characters,
rather then the ones who are just doing a real life gaming
session, just over a different medium... but there are
plenty of both types out there, and its very easy to
assimulate beginners into many of them.

Aaron

References

It has come to my atention
Richard Reynolds <topcat@airmail.net>
Sun, 25 Aug 1996 00:00:00 +0000