Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;446308...
Dungeonslayers
The second printing of the 4e rules will be wrapped in a real, old fashioned introductory box, with a primer, dice, and adventure.
There are follow-up 1-page modules (10+ free downloads, "Dungeon2Go").
...

O' yes, and this.

Gamma World 4e box set

GW 4e is the best noob product on the market.  Its well written, chargen is fast and involves their imagination and gameplay involves a board and pieces and thus looks like a game.

Quote from: Imperator;446294Call of Cthulhu.

An interesting thought.  

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;446308Another problem: the first edition is not available anymore, and the upcoming "Grindhouse" edition is clearly not suited for teen n00bs.

Grandpa, do you remember being a teen?  Who do you think bought all those Fangoria and GoreZone magazines in the 80s?  Who keeps low budget horror movies in business?  Who bought Cannibal Corpse T-shirts?

If Raggi has any marketing sense, he will get the Grindhouse Edition everywhere a teen can possibly find it.  If the mommies start yelling, that's called free advertsing.

Quote from: Spinachcat;446320If Raggi has any marketing sense, he will get the Grindhouse Edition everywhere a teen can possibly find it.  If the mommies start yelling, that's called free advertsing.

I would bet that Raggi is well-aware of how free publicity works, actually.  If it weren't for the tempest in a teacup generated by the more delicate members of the OSR over Lamentations, I doubt a lot of people would have even heard of his game.

CoC with pregen characters works pretty well with noobs - most things are on the sheet and percentages are intuitive to most people. You can bend it to any thing 20th century that isn't too high powered.
 
If they want a classic D&D feel, Basic Fantasy is probably the best, though Labyrinth Lord is good too - I prefer not explaining that better Armor has a lower value. Either stick with that or graduate them to D20.
 
LotFP is a decent choice as all the special abilities are x/6 and are on the charsheet and encumbrance is made explicit.
 
For Conan or pulp fantasy, Barbarians of Lemuria is great - few stats, instead of lots of skills, you have careers and can do anything that career could do. This makes for fewer things on the character sheet to remember.
 
For SF, I'm not sure. The 1Pg system used in Broadsword (another good fantasy option) has all the rules on the charsheet and is easy - there are modern variants and a Traveller version that would work.
 
YOu could also go the really simple route with PDQ, Risus, or similar. This might be the best route if they come from an interactive fiction or online story telling route - there are lots of people who are essentially doing GMless rpgs without rules. They find it easier to adapt to a few rules rather than tons of rules.
 
edit: Yea, the new Gamma World is also a great choice - it's very stripped down from 4e. I'd download some of the free power cards floating around and print them out to help them keep track of what they can do.  the descriptions make it sound like the characters are badass even though it's not really all that high powered.

Quote from: misterguignol;446309If I were to go with an "old-school" game I'd rather go with something that this that puts its own spin on the material instead of the somewhat slavish adherence to older-edition D&D-isms that seems to be the bread and butter of some of the OSR crowd.

You are right with that assessment, but we have to work with what we have. There is no "old school" game that caters to fans of Twilight or

If there were a Harry-Potter-ish S&W variant, or a Vampire Diary/Supernatural one, or a Captain Harlock/Cowboy Bebop/Code Geass one, I'd pick that in a heartbeat.
But that still leaves the problem of product support. A rule book(let) alone is no help, neither for the gaming community/market/scene nor for the n00bs themselves.

Missing support is also the reason why I didn't pick Faery's Tale, Ancient Odysseys, Mouse Guard, or the French Adventure Party - all very fine games. (And I named Dungeonslayers only because the publisher seems to be bent on putting a lot of work in this little game - a setting book is announced, as well as a stand alone SF variant called Starslayers.)

Quote from: Spinachcat;446320Gamma World 4e box set
GW 4e is the best noob product on the market.

I completely forgot GW!
Yes, that one fits.

QuoteGrandpa, do you remember being a teen?  Who do you think bought all those Fangoria and GoreZone magazines in the 80s?

But the general layout and illustration style of LotFP is what I call ..."somewhat slavish adherence to older-edition D&D-isms".

Some (not all) of that b/w stuff looks and feels like over-the-top, out-grossed illustrations from early 80's modules.
And RPG illistration style from that time was not even close to Rich Corben, Moebius, Boucq, Gimenez, et al - stuff that I read as a teen in the 80s.

I am pretty sure that you can't "get" today's teens with the look and feel of the old school renaissance (as much as I love Mullen's Swords & Wizardry cover), gross or not.

But I don't blame Raggi, or anything. He's got his artistic vision and wants to make a product that he likes. Go for it!

Hybrid?

Actually I suspect the Gamma World starter's about as good as it gets these days.

It depends on what they like of course.

Some flavors of GURPS lite game would be okay.  I think having a list of things they can do on the character sheet is very helpful for newbies but you'd need to use pregens or a template that only leaves a few points to play with.

Probably one of the simpler OGL variants -- Swords&Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord or, for a Hungarian audience, the full version of my game. There are mechanical differences, but all are easy to generate characters and start gaming with.

I think what matters a lot more is to start with good introductory adventures that sell the idea of roleplaying well - a starting scenario should be actiony enough to be exciting, complex enough to allow for interesting player plans and consequences, and have enough plot hooks to direct the action towards adventure but enough freedom not to constrain it. Finally, when completed, it should provide lots of potential for expansion and further play. There are relatively few good modern starting adventures like that around. The Wizard's Amulet/Crucible of Freya is one (esp. with the expansion material), but I haven't seen anything comparable from the old school small press yet. There are decent dungeons, but nothing that presents the whole wide world and encourages the players to start exploring it.

Quote from: Melan;446342The Wizard's Amulet/Crucible of Freya is one (esp. with the expansion material), but I haven't seen anything comparable from the old school small press yet.

That's a really helpful suggestion, thanks!

Also, it helps if you don't think of these people as "noobs."

Quote from: Benoist;446345Also, it helps if you don't think of these people as "noobs."

No disrespect meant, but it was the easiest shorthand for "people who have no experience with table-top role-playing games," you know?

Another option is to start with a boardgame and then progress into more actual roleplaying.  Boardgames are very concrete, with figures and maps and have built in adventures.  Characters have only a few stats.
 
Examples include Heroquest and Warhammer quest (both old and rare), possibly the new D&D boardgames or WFRP 3e (neither of which I've really tried), the old Thieves World boardgame, and a few othere that I'm blanking on.  
 
After a session or two, tell them that you are going to expand the adventure, giving them things to do other than fight monsters.  Make like a very simple old school game - allow them rolls based on the few stats they have and modified by their actions.

Quote from: misterguignol;446346No disrespect meant, but it was the easiest shorthand for "people who have no experience with table-top role-playing games," you know?

I know. I meant no disrespect either.

It's worth pointing out, however, that thinking in terms of "noobs" might come with a whole series of assumptions which usually will not help making the right choices for the game. I've seen beginners introduced to RPGs via Role Master for instance and It was a real success. These people became long term gamers and are still gaming to this day. I was personally introduced to role playing with First Ed AD&D. So I think we have a tendency as experienced gamers to create a narrow "noob" stereotype that isn't always helpful in our efforts to share our passion.

Depending on their interests, one of nWoD, SWN, Swords and Wizardry, or OpenQuest.

I would use Savage Worlds because:

a) I know it well

b) I have had much success teaching it to multiple completely new role-players (albeit not using fantasy)

and

c) there is quite a bit of "fantasy support" for it.

Sucking up to Pundit but Gnomemurdered.

It's a good laugh and it introduces the concept well with the simplest rules in the buisness.