High freedom low rule games.

[newBlazingAngel]

I've been interested in roleplaying as a hobby for a while now, but haven't been able to assemble a dedicated group. The few times I've played actual sessions have been with other beginners. My first DM pretty much threw the rule book to the side and let us do pretty much whatever we want, within reason for a collection of level 1s. That was a great time, and their was no confusion to speak of. I DMed for a different group, using the same technique, and it was great.

In my experience, this seems to be the best way to get newbies to play. Draw them in by simplifying the game. Have a small adventure mentally layed out with the basic technical stuff worked out, and let the players be free before they're ready for the more complicated stuff. Has anyone else used this method in the past?

[Jessica1990]

I also used this method.

[Kane0]

I'm also doing the exact same thing, though I'm also trying to Beta test my own little system while doing so. Now the best combo at times

[Sidmen]

This is more-or-less my default DM-style. When I run a game, I usually choose a simple system that can let people do whatever they want from the word go.

I've found that the AGE system from green ronin (used in their Dragon AGE game) has allowed me to do this quite easily. The standard mechanic in that game for anything you want to do is simply "choose which ability it falls in, determine if it is easy, hard, etc., then roll comparing the total to the difficulty you chose".

While combat has a few more things in it, I tended to ignore most of them.

[Craft (Cheese)]

Wushu's a great system to run for this kind of game. I actually take its rules-lightness a step further and remove traits entirely.

[Siegel]

Play

Fiasco
Lady Blackbird
(Mouse Guard)
Apocalpyse World (or hacks like Dungeon World or Monsterhearts)
The Shab-al-Hiri Roach
In A Wicked Age
InSpectres

or a game like that, don't use simplified DnD or something like that.

[mishka_shaw]

Mine started like that but I have to be honest and say it wasn't intended.
Basically I didn't know half the rules so things went like this..

"I draw my sword, erm, can I leap over the enemy and smash the goblin behind?"

"Er roll a jump and add your modifier....oh 15?, yeah that might do it, you leap over and shock all the goblins. You than smash your sword down into it's skull, roll your badass damage"

Now we actually do it as intended with armour check and all the right dc's .etc
No-one minds since they also know all the rules now too so it has balanced well. Would definitely recommend starting campaigns to have a lot of the rules stripped out like some sort of D&D lite.

[Fhaolan]

That's basically how I run games too. Mind you, I *like* highly detailed character generation systems, but when it comes down to actual play the simpler the resolution mechanic the better.