..but they've never played before. They're interested because they here you chatting with your campaign buddies about next weeks game and you offer to run them something...

I was inspired by someone mentioning what the storygames board thought would be the best games for brand-new players over here http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3538. I don't think any of those are real great, to be honest, though. I was tempted to list my big 5 games that I thought would be good games for newby players to start off with. Instead I just started a new thread.

Here are my five, in no particular order, for never-roleplayed newbies.

1. D&D 1st Ed.
2. True20
3. d20 Modern
4. nWoD Core
5. All Flesh Must Be Eaten

D&D 3.5 gets a runner-up because I think I like True20 better as a system, and it's pretty much just as easy to run your bog-standard D&D game in it, but everyone's so familiar with it. I know if I taught them to play, they'd be able to get a game anywhere.

• D&D 3.5 - Seriously. I find all this horseshit about it being too complicated a bit exagarated to say the least. I find that unstructured rules light games are actually BAD for beginners who scarcely know what they want yet.
• FATE - If you gotta go rules light, give it some structure. FATE does a good job of that.
• Marvel Super Heroes or DC Heroes - Supers games with figures non-gamers will recognize. Note: specifically referring to the classic games here, no little pebble and stone or card based crap.
• Star Wars - d20 is my normal preference, but though I don't like d6 for long term play, it's quick to get into and play, and structured, so it's a good intro game.

To name a few...

Depending on the crowd it would be:

D&D Rules Cyclopedia
Dungeoneer
D20 Star Wars
True20
Robotech
Call of cthulhu

or, dare I say.. "Forward...to Adventure!"? Not to sound too much like tooting my own horn, but that is precisely what it was made for.

RPGpundit

1. D&D - I can't make up my mind what version.
2. Marvel Super Heroes - the faserip version
3. FUDGE - I'd have a complete game to put before them, maybe a Star Wars type sci-fi thingy
4. Risus
5. A chopped-down 3.5, maybe Perfect 20, maybe Microlite 20, maybe just a 3.5 game using NPC classes.

Quote from: Caesar Slaad

• Marvel Super Heroes or DC Heroes - Supers games with figures non-gamers will recognize. Not specifically referring to the classic games here, no little pebble and stone or card based crap.

FASERIP Marvel is a fantastic game and simple enough to easily teach to a non-role player who is familiar with comics.

That Marvel RPG stones game on the other hand... *shudder*... that game was just bad. And almost like it wanted to add insult to injury, it kept reminding me how REVOLUTIONARY it was.

I also agree that the D&D RUles Cyclopedia would make a good starter game.

Something I'd like to suggest that I haven't seen yet is Red Box D&D. Hard to find these days probably in print, but in the 5th grade me and some friends taught the game to ourselves. None of us had ever role-played at all before.

Chuck

D&D Cyclopedia
Marvel superheroes FASERIP
Star Frontiers
Boot hill- everybody knows how to play Cowboys and Indians

All TSR I know. But they did make great games for beginners.

Quote from: Thanatos02Here are my five, in no particular order, for never-roleplayed newbies.

Partly this depends on the circumstances that I'm playing with.  If it's one new player in a group of experienced role-players, then almost any game will do -- though lower complexity is preferred.  

If I have a set of five people totally new to gaming, though, this changes a lot.  If I am playing a game, it's rules have to be super-easy.  I guess my top five would be:

D&D Basic Set (not sure which edition)
Truth & Justice
Dead of Night
Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG
Faery's Tale

Though the choice would vary widely depending on who was playing.  i.e. I list Faery's Tale mostly for younger kids -- and wouldn't recommend Dead of Night to the same people.  Also, since I'd be game-mastering, I'm a bit less worried about some fuzziness in the rules.  

If I had to mail someone an RPG who I couldn't game-master face-to-face, it would be different -- for example, if a college friend of mine says her kid is interested in gaming and asked me advice on what she should buy.  In that case, having a familiar genre and plenty of potential support material is important.  In that case, my list would look more like:

D&D Basic Set (not sure which edition)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG
James Bond 007
Marvel Superheroes (FASERIP)

1) Hearts & Souls
2) Marvel Superheroes (MSH)
3) Marvel Saga (Card based, easiest to explain and grasp mechanic ever)
4) Buffy TVS
5) Basic D&D/Cyclopedia D&D

One of my friends brought his girlfriend last game session--she's never played RPG's before, but wanted to try. She sat in on at least one other occasion (maybe two) and I had her a PC worked up with her choices for Hearts & Souls and her playing in around 15 minutes. The longest part was deciding on a name for her character BTW. She decided on a Telekinetic/Flier whose name was Lady Emerald (we went and made her TK cause objects being manipulated to glow green to make the name fit.)


She had fun, was  bit unsteady at first, and needed help a time or two coming up with monologues. But everyone pitched in and encouraged her and offered some for her to use.

1. Burning Wheel: Revised
2. Chaos University
3. Paladin
4. Conspiracy of Shadows
5. GURPS 4e

In no particular order, though I'm leaning toward low medieval fantasy at the moment, which makes #1 and #4 very attractive. I've been sold on #4 since I read it back in 2004, but I have such a hard time finding players ofr it 'cause it's predominantly human-centered fantasy (which, let's face it, doesn't appeal to a lot of folks).

Paladin I'm more interested in trying due to the urging of a former RPGnet poster (now deceased). I got into some heated arguments with him over the virtue of Paladin as a game, but I admit, in retrospect, that I was blinded by over-paying for it. I can say, today, that it is a game, but it is not an $8.00 game (it should have been a $3.00 game or a freebie).

Chaos University is a game that I recently received for review and, as much as I typically hate humorous RPGs (HoL being the only other such game I've ever been remotely interested in), I was very much taken by the basic premise of CU. It's probably not going to be good for a prolonged campaign, though I can see it being great for one-shots.

GURPS 4e is here 'cause I'm an old GURPS player who left during the era of 3e Revised, when I realized that other systems could give what GURPS does with 90% less hassle. For the first time in years, SJG has made GURPS look attractive again. I played in a brief GURPS Lite campaign last Fall with a total GURPS newcomer who was able to learn the system in one session.

1. Basic/RC D&D (or C&C)
2. WFRP 2e
3. MERP (or HARP)
4. Angel/Buffy RPG
5. True20

So the premise is what games we'd run for a group which has never played an RPG before? OK, let's see:

1. Basic D&D, the Holmes edition. This is the first version of D&D I played. Simple, straightforward, and only details up to 3rd level. I might tweak it with some 3.5 stuff, like AC equaling the number needed to hot an opponent. Those interested in more after the initial game will likely want a more robust game with more options, and that's when I'd introduce 3.5 D&D.

2. Lord of the Rings RPG by Decipher. The setting and premise will be instantly recognizable due to the films, and the game itself is fairly rules-light, essentially a stripped down d20 that uses 2d6 as the main mechanic.

3. Boot Hill - The Evil DM is right. BH is fast, fun, simple, and the main theme is readily grasped.

4. Gamma World, the original version. Loose and very "wahoo!" in nature, this game is also pretty rules-light.

5. Star Wars, either version, mostly due to how recognizable the setting would be to any given player.

HARP is a good choice for beginners, also. Forgot about that one.

1.  Basic D&D
2.  Star Frontiers
3.  Marvel Superheroes
4.  Burning Wheel Revised
5.  Mortal Coil

• Cthonic
• RC D&D
• BPRS

Well, that just petered out in record time.  I like Cthonic because it's bone simple horror, has a sanity mechanic that might just play out like a champ (hopefully I won't be too deep into 2007 when I find out) and is as free as the common cold.  

RC D&D does fantasy just the way people expect it to.

My Beer Pong Resolution System is deep into its playtesting.  I expect deep and fruitful debugging at my birthday party tonight.  BPRS will explode the industry as we know it with its 北斗の拳 sourcebook and PongMinis.

1. It Was a Mutual Decision
2. Nicotine Girls
3. Bacchanal
4. Primetime Adventures
5. Dogs in the Vineyard

Look at that!