The All-Newbie Campaign: Should I devote a session to rules and character creation?

[Feddlefew]

So I'm going to start a campaign with a bunch of friends soon. None of them have played a D20 game, and most have never played a table top RPG before. I've DMed for groups of newbies before, but:

-It was always a oneshot.
-I would let people pick between a dozen or so remade characters, so we wouldn't have to worry about optimization. 5e encourages personalizing characters and back story, and I don't want people to miss out on that because I made their character for them.
-I don't like vetoing people's characters because they won't mesh with the campaign* or because they're cheesy.
-The entire one shot was a big tutorial on the basics of 3.5. I've switched to 5e, and the rules for combat, making checks, and spells have been greatly streamlined so I'm not certain an entire 3-5 hour oneshot is necessary to teach the basics.
-I'm not certain if I need to explicitly go over gaming etiquette with my friends.

On the other hand, I'm worried that I might bore or scare off players if I do use an entire session to build characters and teach mechanics.

Thoughts?

*I'm willing to role with almost anything. Almost being the key word.

[Bubzors]

I vote for spending the first session going over basic rules and character creation. That way anyone who has questions can work it out, you can work together to mesh why the party is adventuring together, go over any important details about your campaign world, etc. If things finish early, then maybe for fun run them through a quick battle so they can familiarize themselves with those rules.

My group has been playing together for close to 8 years now and this is how we spend the first session of a new campaign every time

[Myzz]

Ask all the players whether they want to spend the first session making characters...

or

If they want you to provide premades, so they can just start...

or

if there is some combination of the 2 above...

I personally think you learn best from doing... which is 2 fold in this case:
1. Learning Character Creation
2. Learning Rules

which evolves to:
3. Learning how your character is affected by rules and effects the game through rule usage.

My vote with any new system is DM makes several template characters, that the players flesh out prior to first session to minimize time away from game. Then either kill off that character or let him walk away when player learns what he really wants to do... This allows the game to get underway, and the player gets his feet wet in the new system. AND then has a better idea of what he/she really wants. Also has the side benefit of not having players that feel overwhelmed during character creation, due to sooooo many options and not wanting to screw it up!

[Solaphti]

I agree with spending a session for at least character creation and going over the specific rules. I've been playing for 6 years now, with multiple groups, and every time we start a new campaign we spend one session on character creation. It gives the players the opportunity to build a more cohesive party and set the campaign. Sometimes some of the players will want to integrate their backstories or tweak their flavour based on something someone else says. As a DM you can go through any house rules, or campaign specific restrictions. Use this session to help your characters with creation, look up rules/give them options and ideas for MC, etc.

If character creation finishes in a reasonable amount of time, we tend to do a few fun encounters, arena style, to get an idea of anything that might not work as expected so changes can be made before we launch into the campaign setting. No life/death and a chance to try out all aspects of the character.

[kaoskonfety]

For my most recent game (Exalted) we were still playing the prior campaign when character generation began.
By prior I mean 6 months prior, character tweaking was up to the last day (granted its a rather grand scope troope style game with each player writing/responsible for 4-6 characters... but ya).

For any campaign you intend to run for serious, a session feels like the minimum for the combination "rules hash, setting player expectations for the game, character generation, quick play test against some kobolds".Making such a session also a "no consequence one shot" may also work.

With 5th ed, you could with easily get away with less with an experienced group, and I would suggest showing up with an adventure ready to roll in case things go super smooth, but with a table of new players take some time to make sure people know what they can do before you start.

[Myzz]

and you might (I did), want to check some of the larger running threads, they seem to be the most hot topic and controversial rules topics. To get a feel for how you want to run those controversial rules and outline a few of the biggies prior to character Gen...

-For instance- I would never play a mood druid in a campaign run by a DM who can one shot me while in a travel form... especially if were planning on playing till end game. (by RAW certain effects do just that... Disintegrate or PWK on a druid in bird form is dead, make new char. I dont like that rule so in my games it runs different).

That could entail a LOT of reading on these boards that you dont want to do... but I'd at least skim the topics and discuss with players if those things come up.

[Kid Jake]

Personally, I'd ask each player what they want to play and then either help them assemble it beforehand or do it yourself to save time or if they just feel overwhelmed. It's nice to be able to jump right into playing and I've found a whole lot easier to teach newbies as you go than to expect them to remember blocks of information.

[Joe the Rat]

Yes to creation / rules session, and have a simple adventure in your pocket that introduces interaction, ability checks, and combat.

I figured a night on the town could be a way to do this. Social bonding with the characters/players, chatting up the locals, arm wrestling, gambling, drinking contests (Is that a con check or a saving throw? Does Poison Resistance count?), and maybe a nice nonlethal bar fight...

That might be too non-traditional, though.

[kaoskonfety]

Yes to creation / rules session, and have a simple adventure in your pocket that introduces interaction, ability checks, and combat.

I figured a night on the town could be a way to do this. Social bonding with the characters/players, chatting up the locals, arm wrestling, gambling, drinking contests (Is that a con check or a saving throw? Does Poison Resistance count?), and maybe a nice nonlethal bar fight...

That might be too non-traditional, though.

The players wake up, hung over, in the nice part of the palace dungeons. Breakfast is served, morning after ale offered.

The Duke has an offer they cannot refuse. Adventure starts.... cliché enough? I'd vote yes.

[Myzz]

The players wake up, hung over, in the nice part of the palace dungeons. Breakfast is served, morning after ale offered.

The Duke has an offer they cannot refuse. Adventure starts.... cliché enough? I'd vote yes.

well they can refuse... but that character stays in jail...

hand player a new sheet of a soldier/scout he's sending to keep an eye on the party...

[CrusaderJoe]

Give them some pregens, have them do a dungeoncrawl that works with a lot of basic rules.

Have the boss curbstomp the party or toy with them.

Have them create new characters.

Their first mission, if they choose to accept, is to rescue the pregens. The BBEG has sent a message and wants a prisoner swap. The party is to take the prisoners to the BBEG, rescue the pregens, and kill all that opposes them. The party is one level higher than the pregens.

If they really liked their pregens they will actually care about an NPC!

Edit

Next session is the first real session.

[Callin]

Spend the first bit of the game making characters and just helping them fill in the blanks. Then run a short tutorial dungeon (dont call it that though lol). A room with a trap, a room with combat, ect ect. With the final boss fight that they can all bond over.

Its what I do for all my noob friendly games. I did it for 3rd, 4th, and 5th so far. Works out great.

[Rowan Wolf]

I would just have a bit of time for character creation and then just get on with the story. That was one of the things I enjoyed about the first Acquisition INC. podcast they just get the characters out and play happens. You can introduce them to mechanics as they need them.

[Feddlefew]

The reason I'm not particularly interested in going the pre-gen character route is that 5e's backgrounds have significant mechanical and role play impacts. So character creation now has an additional major choice to make, so it's not like 3.5 where I could hand someone a generic character and could come up with any background they liked.

I also feel like making your own character is an important part of the D&D campaign experience, but that's IMO, of course.

[mephnick]

I always do a session zero that includes these things:

- Character creation (can take a long time if new or undecided)
- Character relationships/backgrounds (better if the characters are connected than just random strangers)
- Rules discussion (house rules especially)
- Campaign discussion (during character creation, decide on theme, give them hints on favoured enemy etc)
- Style discussion (explain a bit how I run a game so no one is surprised)

If these don't get done (relationships don't a lot of the time), I finish them through facebook/email.

Session 1: Campaign begins in earnest.

[eastmabl]

When I moved my existing group to 5e, we spent two sessions discussing the new rules, how each of PCs worked on a granular level and taking the characters out for a spin in an easy, medium, hard and deadly encounter before I brought them back in game when XP counts and the choices matter.

I might not spend two sessions with new players, but I would certainly dedicate some time to figuring out the rules and making the characters that the players want to play.

[some guy]

On the other hand, I'm worried that I might bore or scare off players if I do use an entire session to build characters and teach mechanics.

I'm thinking this will be a risk, but you know the players the best. I'd say actual play is the most effective way to transform new players into regular players. I would say reserve at most 2 hours for creating characters (maybe streamline all the steps, print out an handout for everyone? (I'm guessing you only have one phb, which slows down character creation without a need for the slow down)). After that, explain the rules as they come up in play.

[Feddlefew]

I'm thinking this will be a risk, but you know the players the best. I'd say actual play is the most effective way to transform new players into regular players. I would say reserve at most 2 hours for creating characters (maybe streamline all the steps, print out an handout for everyone? (I'm guessing you only have one phb, which slows down character creation without a need for the slow down)). After that, explain the rules as they come up in play.

I only have one PhB, and someone might be getting there own*. Fortunately, there's a free lite version of the rules on the WoC website. It' doesn't have all the races, classes, and backgrounds, but it is going to make things easier for us.

I'm already making cheat sheets with basic rules on them and "As You Know" sheets, so I might as well make sheets with step-by-step character creation rules. And maybe pictures of the different dice and their names, since new players are always mixing up the d12 and d20.

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What I was thinking of doing for the tutorial dungeon is a short (maybe 5 or 6 rooms, including the entrance) bandit-camp-in-a-cave. It's not going to be cannon to the main campaign, so if there needs to be build or fluff adjustment we can make it happen without having to retcon anything.

For the first full adventure I have a 3 floor dungeon , and I'm going to run my brother and his friend through it as a 4 person party to make certain it's not too much. It's actually more like 2 floors, since the first floor is tension building before everything goes to poo.

Edit: And if it is too much, I can always use it later. I'm aiming for 4-5 hours of dungeon, so it'll come down to how much faster combat runs in 5e than 3.5.

*not counting on it.