Teaching my Parents how to Play

[Chilingsworth]

Hi playground!

OK, so my parents (in their 60s) want to try learning D&D. Unfortunately, I'm neither a skilled DM nor a skilled teacher. I have adequate system mastery as a player, though. I think my father might be an adequate dm... if he could be taught the system (and find the time). Neither of my parents are lacking in intelligence,*though they do both occasionally show evidence of memory problems.

I want to teach them 3.5, as it's the system I'm most comfortable with.

Any ideas how to accomplish this, or am I doomed to failure?

*Dad's a sociology PhD, Mom has a master's in government and is a retired town administrator... though the small town she administered drove her alittle nuts

[SilverLeaf167]

How much experience do they have with fantasy literature, movies etc.? That can really affect how easily they can imagine what's going on and understand some common concepts, regardless of how intelligent they are in general. Also, do they have any experience with gaming, or roleplaying in particular?

Your best bet would be to build them some very basic characters at first (I think a Fighter and a Rogue are a pretty good team for this level of practice), explain them the basic concepts of those characters and then run a simple adventure (go into cave, kill goblins). Explain things and teach by example as they come along and try to be rather lenient. They probably won't know exactly what they're capable of, so they'll likely ask questions like "can I charge him", "can I sneak past", "can I pick the lock" quite often. Answer these questions as you normally would, while also explaining how and why they can do those things:
"Yes, you can charge him because there are no obstacles and he's not too far away. You will get a single attack at the end of your charge with a small bonus on the attack roll."
"Yes, you can sneak past by making a Move Silently check. He'll roll a Listen check, and we will see whose result is higher."
"Yes, you can pick the lock because you have ranks in the Open Lock skill. Roll a check and we'll see if it's high enough to surpass the lock's Difficulty Class."
Don't start with too much detail though. Build from the ground up, you're probably the best one to judge how well they can understand these things.

[Amnestic]

Start them off with character creation (martial classes or Invokers might be best?), then run them through a Tutorial Module type thing which teaches them the basics (attack rolls, bonuses, saves, the action economy, skill checks)? Once they're done, they should have a basic grasp of everything. Creating cue cards explaining how things like Touch AC or different attack rolls to have on hand could also help.

Once they get the basic hang of things, you can start talking about skill synergies, level ups, prestige classes, more advanced magics and alternate systems (Psionics).

[Deaxsa]

i found one of the easiest ways to familiaize people with something is to have them do it. for instance, after explaining the "d" dice nomenclature, hit points, AC, and some basic things to my sister, i said "you're an ogre. i'm an ogre. we're mad at each other. let's just smack each other til one of dies." it's absolutely ridiculous, but having such a controlled environment, with such a small quantity of variables, where they are actually DOING, not just listening, made her learn more. if you explain that, you can start explaining some other stuff a bit later, such as skills and saves, and it will be easier to understand because they have context.

EDIT: I HAVE FOUND THAT STARTING WITH CHARACTER CREATION IS ONE OF THE WORST THINGS YOU CAN DO! you will simply confuse them with all of the many stats: grapple, bab, saves, damage, attack, skills, ranged attack, touch attacks, ac, touch ac, flat-footed ac, are just some of the stats they need to know before they can start character creation. start with the mechanics.

[Jigokuro]

EDIT: I HAVE FOUND THAT STARTING WITH CHARACTER CREATION IS ONE OF THE WORST THINGS YOU CAN DO! you will simply confuse them with all of the many stats: grapple, bab, saves, damage, attack, skills, ranged attack, touch attacks, ac, touch ac, flat-footed ac, are just some of the stats they need to know before they can start character creation. start with the mechanics.
THIS
You can't create a character if you don't know how they will work.

[Rhynn]

Same as anyone:

Keep it simple - PHB only.

Go through creating characters with them. 1st level.

Prepare an adventure that includes various skill use, and some situations that can be resolved through negotiation, cleverness, or fighting. Maybe a little dungeon (10-15 rooms), depending on what you think they'd enjoy.

[Douglas]

Explain to them that building a character can be a highly involved process that requires understanding the system already. Thus, you want to teach them how the major parts of the system work before getting into character creation.

After finishing that explanation, hand them some simple prebuilt characters. Describe each character in pure fluff fashion, no rules elements. If you like, have multiples available for them to choose from.

Then run them through a short adventure. Each time they want to do something, explain the rules relating to that exact action, and why their character either is or is not able to do it. Go step by step, and make sure to point to any relevant numbers on their character sheets and explain what those numbers represent - but only the ones that are relevant to what they're trying to do.

When they're all done with that first adventure, then you can dive into the full details of character creation. Go over the character sheets of their characters in their entirety, and explain each and every number and line item on them, particularly the ones that were not covered during the adventure. Then go over the leveling up process.

By the time all that is done, they should have a decent grasp on most of the major game concepts. Most of what's left is just the lists of options, such as the enormous chapter full of spell descriptions.

[Phelix-Mu]

I also find that color-coding is a simple device that can break up the wall-of-numbers effect that often plagues paper character sheets.

If I were you, I'd design a custom character sheet with colored boxes, one color for ability scores, one for AC related stuff, one for offense stuff, and so forth. Make sure to use big fonts, since the size of stuff that adults can read and that older people can read are usually not the same. And don't try to cram everything onto a single page, especially for the trial run.

Lastly, give them time to process stuff. Schedule the first session to be no longer than a couple of hours, and take it slow, allowing for their questions. Try to get past the mechanics and into the story telling/role playing during this first bit, as that is by far the most engaging part for many new players.

Good luck. It's a complicated game to introduce new players to, and I'm thinking the generation gap is going to probably complicate things a bit.

[CaladanMoonblad]

Echoing some of the above...Pre-Gen characters (by you) after hearing what sort of character type they want to play, and run 'em on a standard 1st level module. After experiencing, they can delve into character generation. To make things simple, I use the following text block for almost all my NPCs and PreGen PCs for sessions where not everyone could make it but we still want to play something.

Name (Class 1)
Hitpoints XX (XdX+X), AC XX (+X armor, +X Dexterity, +X shield), Init +X, BAB +X; +X melee (Weapon 1dX+X) or +X ranged. Fort +X, Ref +X, Will +X, Str XX, Dex XX, Con XX, Int XX, Wis XX, Cha XX.
Feats: Blank.
Skills: (XX)
Equipment: Blank
Description: Blank

It's just a matter now of filling in the BLANKs/Xs

[Chilingsworth]

Thanks for all the advice, guys!

Any suggestions on a good module to run?

[IamL]

If you're playing a different campaign, invite them to co-play a character with one of your friends after explaining the rules to them to help them ease into the system. (I'm surprised by the distinct lack of KOTD references in this thread.)

[Chilingsworth]

If you're playing a different campaign, invite them to co-play a character with one of your friends after explaining the rules to them to help them ease into the system. (I'm surprised by the distinct lack of KOTD references in this thread.)

I am playing a different campaign, but we play an hour's drive away. I highly doubt they'd want to get back from playing around midnight. Even if they'd be interested, we don't have sufficent table space for two addtional people.

[IamL]

Ah. I see.

[Chilingsworth]

(I apologize for the thread necromancy)

Just an update:

Thanks for the advice, guys! I've gotten my folks into Pathfinder (decided to teach them that instead of D&D because I got my hands on a trainee adventure for the game.) I think they're hooked. :smallbiggrin:

[Rubik]

(I apologize for the thread necromancy)

Just an update:

Thanks for the advice, guys! I've gotten my folks into Pathfinder (decided to teach them that instead of D&D because I got my hands on a trainee adventure for the game.) I think they're hooked. :smallbiggrin:What did you do? How did they do?

Details, man! Details!

Give us a story!

[Ravenica]

Score one for pathfinder! Now get your dad to DM the hell out of skull and shackles, it will be a riot!

edit: and invite me along as player via skype :smallbiggrin:

[Sith_Happens]

(I apologize for the thread necromancy)

Necro = six weeks. It's been four.:smallsmile:

[Chilingsworth]

What did you do? How did they do?

Details, man! Details!

Give us a story!

Well, I'm running them through the Fallen Fortress. So far, they've made it through the third level. I'm probably not running the rules quite right, and have made adjustments to the module (Letting them rest, adding a few easy random encounters while they rest, allowing them to access all the floors via the staircase.) They're only a party of three (Dad, a Paladin, Mom, a rogue, and a Cleric DMPC.) I'm thinking of turning the endboss into a recurring villain (probably by having his death by paladin/LG cleric be the final step to a form of lichification.) After that, I'll probably drop all pretense of using the default pathfinder setting (I'll keep the name Absolom for their home city, but invent it myself if needed.) I'm probably going to end up playing some form of 3.P given that my background is in 3.5.

I had the meet by having my dad's character and the DMPC be from the same church, with my mother's rogue being a reprobate being rehabilitated by the church.


Score one for pathfinder! Now get your dad to DM the hell out of skull and shackles, it will be a riot!

edit: and invite me along as player via skype :smallbiggrin:

I'd say we're barely managing to play a coherent game. Also, while I think my father would make a decent dm, I doubt he actually has the free time required. Also, I've never heard of skull and shackles. If you'd be willing to put up with a novice dm and two very novice players (and maybe even help us get better with the game?) You'd be welcome to join us, assuming we could work a schedule out (and figure out how to play on Skype.) Actually, I've played quite a few PbP games, and have used Fantasygrounds before, but I've never used Skype for a game.


Necro = six weeks. It's been four.:smallsmile: Hmm, I miscounted. Thanks!

[Phelix-Mu]

Skype actually works fairly well. I've been running a group via skype for over two years now. While dice rolls can be tricky, there is technology to give various options to maintain honesty. I'm sure others might have useful advice, but, while it isn't an ideal arrangement, it can make meeting with a given group plausible when real-life, face to face is out of the question.

[Waker]

Now all you need to do is get some of their other friends playing the game with them. Just remember that they can't ground you just because you killed their character.
I always find big age discrepancies between players to be funny. I remember when a friend had his five-year-old son playing with a group of college kids. Another time I was in a group where I was the youngest guy, with the next youngest having about 15 years on me.