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Adumbration
2008-05-03, 08:50 AM
Yes, that's 4 exclamation marks. It's that serious.

A few moments ago I got a call. I'm supposed to keep a table for DnD at a mini-sized convention at my hometown. There was some talk about it before, but I had all but forgotten about it.

It's tomorrow from 4 to 8 pm., and I honestly need help. At the moment I've recruited a friend of mine to help - the one who actually introduced me to DnD, but is a foreign exchange student, so he can't hold it alone.

We've been - and this is remarkably fast thinking on my part, talk about panic, I got the call 15 minutes ago - thinking about doing a sort of arena thing as a part of it, with most of the archetype characters battling against each other, and we would try to get the watchers come and try it out themselves. Does this sound good?

But then there's the other side. Apparently we're also supposed to give a sort of introduction about DnD, and I honestly don't know what to talk about. Any ideas?

I need your help, giantitp forums.

Thane of Fife
2008-05-03, 10:44 AM
First of all, what kind of convention are we talking about, here? An RPG convention? A miniatures convention? A knitting convention? That's kind of important, and your post doesn't give us much background on what these people are going to know.

I would shy away from doing an arena - that isn't really what DnD is about.

Instead, perhaps try running a short, sweet, 5 Room Dungeon (http://www.roleplayingtips.com/articles/5_room_dungeons.html).

Assuming that these people are new to RPGs, absolutely minimize the amount of effort needed on the part of people who just happen to step in. A character sheet should look somewhat like what you'd get with, say, Heroscape:

Dwar the Dwarven Fighter
Moves 4 Spaces.
Attack with Battle Axe: +6 to Hit, 1d8+6 Damage
Power Attack with Battle Axe: +3 to Hit, 1d8+9 to Damage
Fire Crossbow: +5 to Hit, 1d8 damage, Range: x Spaces
May not move if he switches between his axe and his crossbow.
Feat of Strength: +2
Feat of Dexterity: +1
Armor Class: 20
Hit Points: 36

Using feat like that will, hopefully, get players thinking of interesting things they can do without your needing to use the Skill system. Just say that, say, Climb is a Feat of Strength.

Make about eight sheets, four females and four males, with two members of each generic class (Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard) - one for each gender.

That will give the feel of DnD, if not the actual rules. Be sure to mention that, in the actual game, you can make your character better at some things, and worse at others, to personalize him or her.

Note that if the people to whom you're speaking are familiar with RPGs, completely scrap this advice.

Adumbration
2008-05-03, 11:07 AM
I'm sorry. Here's some more information.

It's small. Small, small, small. There'll be stuff about anime, cosplay, stuff like that, and it's held by the student's board or something like that. I have no idea how many people will show up, but it would better not be more than a dozen, since the place where it's held is small-ish too. I very highly doubt that very many people that will show up know much about DnD - and possibly don't care, since it's mentioned as a sidenote in the poster. Still, you never know.

The whole convention - well, "convention" lasts about 4 hours, so we'll see what happens. Thanks for the advice so far, the 5 room dungeons seem like something I could do.

RTGoodman
2008-05-03, 11:18 AM
The five-room dungeon with pre-gen characters seems like a good idea. Eliminate some of useless information, but don't forget to tell people that you've done so. Instead of Wizard, maybe go with Sorcerer - that way, you can just pick a few spells and they can choose which ones they'd like to cast. Maybe start them at 2nd or 3rd level, though, where there are a few more options, but it's not terrible complicated. And don't be afraid to use the stereotypical characters. A Dwarf Fighter or Cleric, an Elven Wizard/Sorcerer or Ranger, a Halfling Rogue, a Human anything, and stuff like that.

As for the introduction, just turn to the very first part of your PHB. The whole intro is basically a description of what RPGs in general and D&D specifically are all about. Maybe have a couple of PHBs and MMs laying around that people can flip through, or put up a poster with some basic info and pretty pictures to attract people.

SoD
2008-05-04, 02:12 AM
Given that it'll be for first level, do any playgrounders who know these have any recomendations?

Looking through, I'm thinking: we could do (looking over the 5-room dungeons): Warts and All, The Necromancers Cave, Bedizen's Traveling Dungeon, The Noblemans Daughter, Saving Plague, The govoners House.

Adumbration
2008-05-04, 04:18 AM
Given that it'll be for first level, do any playgrounders who know these have any recomendations?

Looking through, I'm thinking: we could do (looking over the 5-room dungeons): Warts and All, The Necromancers Cave, Bedizen's Traveling Dungeon, The Noblemans Daughter, Saving Plague, The govoners House.

It's your call. :smallsmile:

At the moment I'm making 4 characters modeled the way Thane suggested: a cleric, a sorceror, a fighter and a rogue. Making Dwar Stonehand, the dwarven fighter at the moment... It's looking a bit poor compared to what I usually see, since I decided against Power Attack - thought it was a bit complicated and unnecessary for a lvl 1 character.

EDIT: Actually, I don't think I'm going to write down what gender they are, nor their names. I'll leave that to the players.

SoD
2008-05-04, 05:01 AM
I think PA shuold be fine, it's quite simple, and we can make it -1/+1 for all weapons for simplification. Also, weapon focus, if not already taken. I think I'll wing a lot of it (bad guy HP, AC, skill DC's, etc.) as I'm not sure if we'll have a laptop or not...

Adumbration
2008-05-04, 05:21 AM
I think PA shuold be fine, it's quite simple, and we can make it -1/+1 for all weapons for simplification. Also, weapon focus, if not already taken. I think I'll wing a lot of it (bad guy HP, AC, skill DC's, etc.) as I'm not sure if we'll have a laptop or not...

Jeah, I winged some of it as well as I made it all now. I left out most racial statistics and stuff away, and tried to make it so that it makes sense. We'll see.

See you soon...

SoD
2008-05-04, 12:27 PM
OK the thing was dumbed down a lot, and ended up going for only about a half hour tops (our little section), but, on the plus side, the one guy who went there who wasn't part of our gamin group, not only expressed interest in joining, but also said he had a friend who would possibly be interested, which is good. Our current group=me (DM) +3 players. With the others, it'll be 5 players. Plus the fact that I'm leaving in a bit over month, that'll mean that when one of our others DMs, there'll be the 'typical' four players.

Adumbration
2008-05-04, 01:11 PM
There's just a little thing: they're in their thirties (I think) while we are in our 17s and 18s, plus the fact that we're keeping our session in our parent's houses - they may not like the idea, and you should at the very least check it up with them first.

SoD
2008-05-04, 02:02 PM
They're that old? He didn't look that old, I'd only peg him at 2-3 years older than us tops. Hmm, how curious.

Adumbration
2008-05-04, 02:04 PM
They're that old? He didn't look that old, I'd only peg him at 2-3 years older than us tops. Hmm, how curious.

Meh, never been good at reading ages, so I could be wrong.

Waffles
2008-05-04, 09:59 PM
Hi guys. How ya doin.

Lycan 01
2008-05-04, 10:11 PM
So how did it go? Did you do a good job? C'mon, I want to know how good ya did! :smallsmile:

SoD
2008-05-05, 08:17 AM
Hi guys. How ya doin.

Doin' good...do I know you?


So how did it go? Did you do a good job? C'mon, I want to know how good ya did! :smallsmile:

Did good, under the circumstances. I was informed about it the day before, whilst in Helsinki, and arrived home at, ooh, 0530ish the next morning, thus making me overtired when I had to prepare/run the thing (with a lot of help from Adum. In fact, let's face it, I was helping him). As previously mentioned, we have potentially snaged up to another two players for it, and I ran a 5-room dungeon (see above), one by the name of 'warts and all'. Over simplified everything, to the point of eliminating ability scores, saving throws and various other unimportant stuff. But everyone seemed to enjoy it, we had a few people up and looking at our stuff, but we were in a pretty crappy position (on the third story, no lift). But, all in all, it all went well.