Tips for running a beginner D&D 5e game at LFGS

[Necrozius]

So I decided that I needed to get out of the house more often (well, my wife convinced me). Instead of struggling with motivations to do new things, I settled on doing something that I actively love: table top RPGs.

There's a gaming shop in my neighborhood with friendly staff. They offer tables for games and I have everything set up. I'm part of several community Facebook groups that are perfect for reaching out to people and network.

So my plan is this: advertise a weekly D&D game night especially to welcome beginners to the hobby.

To keep things simple, I thought I'd run a mega-dungeon (Stonehell, probably) but using 5e stats. Rationale: if people come and go, the dungeon is constant and its a nice retrained environment for exploration and adventure.

I won't be going overboard with miniatures and dungeon tiles, keeping it relatively theatre of the mind (although I will use Dungeon Craft's suggestions for a circular range-band battle arena).

Anyway, any suggestions, tips or warnings?

Thanks!

 

[Silverlion]

One: Be consistent. Show them as many of the rules over time as you can (climbing, grappling, etc) but not all at once do it in stages.
Two: You might consider using the basic set with its limited classes and archetypes since it saves you from having to explain how sorcerers differ from wizards, warlocks, and so on. If the group has a consistent core you can expand with them over time.
Three: Be willing to take time to answer questions you might not otherwise need to. Like how zombies don't die as they do in movies.

 

[Necrozius]

In all honesty, I'd rather use a different editon (or entirely OTHER RPG), but D&D 5e is so hot right now.

 

[deflagratio]

In all honesty, I'd rather use a different editon (or entirely OTHER RPG), but D&D 5e is so hot right now.

It's your game. Run what you want. However, if you are going to run 5e for beginners, then run 5e raw so they aren't confused when they move on to other tables.

 

[deflagratio]

Also. I feel like A-Team style wandering mercenaries solving problems with violence might be a better setup when you don't expect consistent player participation. It's easy to explain why a character isn't taking part in the adventure. They just decided to not go with the group to the next location. Any new players just happened to join the merry band in a previous town they passed through.

 

[Necrozius]

It's your game. Run what you want. However, if you are going to run 5e for beginners, then run 5e raw so they aren't confused when they move on to other tables.

Absolutely. I was just thinking about this.

I have a HUGE list of pet peeves about D&D. For example, I hate Darkvision (or infravision or night vision etc...) for PCs.

However, I won't mess around with any house rules (other than good GM practice). I'll leave dark vision abilities as-is, but I will explain to the players that the darkness of the dungeon is a malevolent force that is almost... ALIVE. Being in the dark for too long can be dangerous. Stick with your friends, keep those torches lit! That kind of thing.

Mostly to promote team work.

 

[Necrozius]

Also. I feel like A-Team style wandering mercenaries solving problems with violence might be a better setup when you don't expect consistent player participation. It's easy to explain why a character isn't taking part in the adventure. They just decided to not go with the group to the next location. Any new players just happened to join the merry band in a previous town they passed through.

Absolutely. However I was thinking of using the DMG optional rule for experience, and reward it by treasure instead of killing things. Would definitely make it fun for the PCs to find ways to sneak around monsters, trick monsters, charm them, hide from them etc...

I forget, are reaction tables used in 5e? I might use those, but explain that this isn't always the norm at all tables.

 

[Necrozius]

I was also thinking about getting the players to map out the dungeon. There could be a volunteer mapper each session (with some kind of metagame bonus incentive for doing so), which could be fun after a few weeks with different player notes in this shared resource...

edit: I could even start it for them, showing how it is more of a flow chart with notes rather than a perfect grid.

 

[S'mon]

I've been running Stonehell in 5e D&D for years. Works great. My main advice would be to add another access from Level 5 (probably the 5B Yig Temple) to Level 6, since as written level 5 is a terrible bottleneck with the mountain trolls & Vrilya controlling access to Book 2.

 

[Jacob Rodgers]

Let's see: stuff that other folks haven't mentioned yet. Offer breaks and announce things beforehand, ala 'We're planning a three hour session and I'll offer a break about half-way through to let people stretch their legs, use the facilities, grab a snack, or whatever.' That will cut down on unexpected interruptions or pauses. New players will likely be shy of roleplaying and might retreat into mechanics for comfort or certainty. It's okay to ask them what their character is doing when you want a reaction. Don't go overboard on the prep, visuals, or tactiles. You want people using their imaginations, not fiddling with toys. Above all, have fun and don't be afraid to ask for a break while you look something up or make a temporary ruling.

 

[Jacob Rodgers]

Absolutely. However I was thinking of using the DMG optional rule for experience, and reward it by treasure instead of killing things. Would definitely make it fun for the PCs to find ways to sneak around monsters, trick monsters, charm them, hide from them etc...

I forget, are reaction tables used in 5e? I might use those, but explain that this isn't always the norm at all tables.

I think they're in the DMG. But a simple Charisma or Wisdom check can often suffice. Don't forget about the convention of 'Beat the DC by 0-4? minor success. 5 or more? major success!' when adjudicating them.

 

[S'mon]

Absolutely. However I was thinking of using the DMG optional rule for experience, and reward it by treasure instead of killing things.

I do both. 1:1 gold for XP won't work unless you reduce the gp by around 10 to 20, but I give achievement awards for finding treasure. Generally by Tier so roughly 100 - 200 - 500 - 1000 XP per PC for a tier-appropriate treasure cache.

 

[AsenRG]

So I decided that I needed to get out of the house more often (well, my wife convinced me). Instead of struggling with motivations to do new things, I settled on doing something that I actively love: table top RPGs.

There's a gaming shop in my neighborhood with friendly staff. They offer tables for games and I have everything set up. I'm part of several community Facebook groups that are perfect for reaching out to people and network.

So my plan is this: advertise a weekly D&D game night especially to welcome beginners to the hobby.

To keep things simple, I thought I'd run a mega-dungeon (Stonehell, probably) but using 5e stats. Rationale: if people come and go, the dungeon is constant and its a nice retrained environment for exploration and adventure.

I won't be going overboard with miniatures and dungeon tiles, keeping it relatively theatre of the mind (although I will use Dungeon Craft's suggestions for a circular range-band battle arena).

Anyway, any suggestions, tips or warnings?

Thanks!

In all honesty, I'd rather use a different editon (or entirely OTHER RPG), but D&D 5e is so hot right now.

In all honesty, I'd advise you to run the game you want to run. If it's 5e, sure, but if it's not, just run what you want to (knowing you, likely RoR or similar).

Seriously, 5e is hot here as well. But if you stick to your guns, players would come, IME.
Also, the "West Marches approach" would be useful. This way people aren't committing to multi-session attendance before they know you. In fact, you can tell them to treat it all as a series of one-shots...

OTOH, if you're running 5e, you might want to consider the Dungeon Grappling rules for an oft-maligned combat option.

 

[JAMUMU]

Think of 5e as a loose framework. Work outwards from what's on the players's character sheets and not what's in the rulebooks. Be very flexible with the monster stat-blocks, especially HP totals. Give them a few stock central-casting NPCs to bounce off. Let them win, but make sure they earn the wins. New players love it when a seemingly unimportant minor villain escapes and returns to taunt them. Which reminds me: lean into all the things you thought were cool about your foundational RPG experiences.

Encourage cross-talk and don't stamp on ooc chat or meta-discussion; these are signs your players are engaging and enjoying themselves. Immersion and dying to septic ulcers can come later...

 

[Necrozius]

Encourage cross-talk and don't stamp on ooc chat or meta-discussion;

Oh yeah I always encourage “metagaming” chatter. But just like cooperative boardgames, my only rule is not to interrupt other players, ever.

 

[opaopajr]

Might I recommend "curating" your game with a nice boat of thematic restrictions?

Like, first I would keep things to D&D 5e Basic only -- and then a memorable hook, like "ONLY Halflings!" Call it your homage to The Shire or WILLOW or something. But insist that all PCs must be Halflings. Then you can keep Basic's 4 classes (1 archetype). And you can teach more campaign editing Backgrounds by removing Noble (to get rid of 'pushy git' issues) adhering to how halflings don't seem to do nobility traditions.

It's a small thing but it writes off Darkvision immediately *AND* is a mental hook for people to remember your campaign.

It also limits the spell and item lists, turns off Feats and Multiclassing, and spares you A LOT of overhead. Yet still allows high-end resources like Silvering Weapons so as to keep up with most early- to mid-levels. It pares down the widget cruft and focuses on the setting interaction and rapid entry to play.

 

[S'mon]

One way to curate is simply to provide pregens. Sticking with 5e Basic Rules https://www.lulu.com/shop/mike-mear...rback/product-15gke8w9.html?page=1&pageSize=4 has a lot to commend it, and will fit with Stonehell written for Labyrinth Lord. You can always open it up later. Another similar possibility is to use the D&D Essentials Kit https://dnd.wizards.com/products/essentials-kit, which covers much the same as Basic but only for levels 1-6, but adds Bard. That should be enough for Stonehell Book 1 anyway, especially if you modify XP awards.

 

[S'mon]

It's a small thing but it writes off Darkvision immediately *AND* is a mental hook for people to remember your campaign.

You could just say "In this campaign darkvision is low light vision" ie doesn't work in pitch blackness. And have some parts of Stonehell magically lit.

 

[opaopajr]

You could just say "In this campaign darkvision is low light vision" ie doesn't work in pitch blackness. And have some parts of Stonehell magically lit.

You could, yes... But as was discussed above, there is a stronger desire to play in a more RAW way, so as to build up the skills of new players.

I have had experience using Darkvision RAW and "defeating" it (not my intent) easily because its range is fixed. One example in my PbP game was having Stagecoaches riding at night on Great Basin (complex, hilly, and forested) terrain. Yes they have lanterns lighting their front, but they are also traveling pretty fast (@ 30MPH coaches with 4+ horses), so you are in similar risk like deer in headlights. And sound is erratic in rocky, hilly deserts at the best of times (personal experience) so pinpointing is way harder than people think. So camping out or walking about in the dark of a mining town's outskirts *without signaling where you are with a light source* is still risky if you're in their general pathway.

If you remember Darkvision is fixed and rounds are 6 seconds short you can return to its normal constrained value by RAW. But I feel it might be more fun to give a thematic reason to just take it off the table.

 

[AsenRG]

Might I recommend "curating" your game with a nice boat of thematic restrictions?

Like, first I would keep things to D&D 5e Basic only -- and then a memorable hook, like "ONLY Halflings!" Call it your homage to The Shire or WILLOW or something. But insist that all PCs must be Halflings. Then you can keep Basic's 4 classes (1 archetype). And you can teach more campaign editing Backgrounds by removing Noble (to get rid of 'pushy git' issues) adhering to how halflings don't seem to do nobility traditions.

It's a small thing but it writes off Darkvision immediately *AND* is a mental hook for people to remember your campaign.

It also limits the spell and item lists, turns off Feats and Multiclassing, and spares you A LOT of overhead. Yet still allows high-end resources like Silvering Weapons so as to keep up with most early- to mid-levels. It pares down the widget cruft and focuses on the setting interaction and rapid entry to play.

Yes, indeed...

 

[deflagratio]

I was also thinking about getting the players to map out the dungeon. There could be a volunteer mapper each session (with some kind of metagame bonus incentive for doing so), which could be fun after a few weeks with different player notes in this shared resource...

edit: I could even start it for them, showing how it is more of a flow chart with notes rather than a perfect grid.

Plus 1 on demoing how to map before handing it off the the players. Don't forget to be forgiving on map errors and the like since they are new players.
It really feels like from your comments that you want to run an OCR game. Run an OCR System. Pitch it as OG style Dungeon Delving for beginners with a GM who understands that they are beginners.

 

[Necrozius]

Plus 1 on demoing how to map before handing it off the the players. Don't forget to be forgiving on map errors and the like since they are new players.
It really feels like from your comments that you want to run an OCR game. Run an OCR System. Pitch it as OG style Dungeon Delving for beginners with a GM who understands that they are beginners.

I admit that I’d much rather run Old School Essentials. Like, desperately. But all the cool kids want D&D 5e right now. Easier to sell people on it, I think. Plus they can buy the books very easily (at the store where we will be playing, for instance).

 

[Necrozius]

The challenge would be to run 5e RAW so that new players won't be confused when they subsequently sign up for another campaign with a more "purist" 5e DM. However, I will still give it an "old school" dungeon crawl "feel". Not the lethality, per se, but the focus on exploration, problem solving, team work etc...

The dungeon will be a mythic place, a "Mythic Underworld" type of nightmare world.

Plus 1 on demoing how to map before handing it off the the players. Don't forget to be forgiving on map errors and the like since they are new players.

What I plan to do for the map is this:

1. Explain that the adventuring party will be doing the mapping collaboratively (while there will be a volunteer "lead" mapper each session)
2. The map doesn't have to be super duper high fidelity: it can be a bunch of boxes connected with lines.
3. Copious notes are encouraged (eg. "trap here" or "stay away from the fountain")
4. Mistakes are okay, future parties might correct them (no erasing, but you can strikethrough things). Like dungeon grafitti.
5. Explain to the players that their maps will be used by future parties, even if they're not there!

I will start off the campaign with some of the map already done (they'll inherit the unfinished map of an ill-fated previous adventuring party). To show them what they can do.

I may get a big easel pad of newsprint paper for this: https://www.staples.ca/products/19313-en-staples-easel-pad-24-x-35-12-plain-white-newsprint

It sounds like fun to me, anyway...

 

[S'mon]

The challenge would be to run 5e RAW so that new players won't be confused when they subsequently sign up for another campaign with a more "purist" 5e DM.

Ofc 5e is designed to be runnable RAW in a wide variety of styles. Very easy to have a more old school feel. Simply not allowing Variant Human at 1st level gives 3 levels to decide whether to allow Feats. Use rolled stats instead of point buy. Use just the Essentials Kit or Basic Rules for rules - & advertise as such, and be strict when That Guy who's been playing 5e since 2014 turns up with his PC built from Tasha's/Fizban's/Strixhaven.

 

[S'mon]

You could just say "In this campaign darkvision is low light vision" ie doesn't work in pitch blackness. And have some parts of Stonehell magically lit.

Or to keep it RAW: "In Stonehell, the clinging blackness negates even Darkvision!" ie treat as magical darkness. There are a few powers like Warlock Devil's Sight that can see through even magical darkness though.

Devil's Sight

Source: Player's Handbook

You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.

 

[AsenRG]

The challenge would be to run 5e RAW so that new players won't be confused when they subsequently sign up for another campaign with a more "purist" 5e DM. However, I will still give it an "old school" dungeon crawl "feel". Not the lethality, per se, but the focus on exploration, problem solving, team work etc...

Why would you care? I mean, you're not preparing them for another GM's campaign, you're teaching them to play RPGs...that's what can logically, in good conscience, be asked from you. Anything more, WotC should at least be paying you, not the other way around!
(And yes, you are contributing to their financial gains this way).

Now, if they want to play with someone else later, they themselves or the DM can help them to adjust... and there's no reason to favour a style that you yourself aren't practicing!

I mean, what if their next GM wants to run a more dungeon-crawl/old school oriented D&D5e and has introduced houserules? They'd still have to adjust!

Except if they internalized that "RAW is The Right Way", you're actually creating issues for people that are sticking closer to your preferences...

So if you ask me, the "teach them to play RAW" line is pure unadultered BS. Teach them to play well in your campaign, with an eye to future campaigns with you!

 

[deflagratio]

Why would you care? I mean, you're not preparing them for another GM's campaign, you're teaching them to play RPGs...that's what can logically, in good conscience, be asked from you. Anything more, WotC should at least be paying you, not the other way around!
(And yes, you are contributing to their financial gains this way).

Now, if they want to play with someone else later, they themselves or the DM can help them to adjust... and there's no reason to favour a style that you yourself aren't practicing!

I mean, what if their next GM wants to run a more dungeon-crawl/old school oriented D&D5e and has introduced houserules? They'd still have to adjust!

Except if they internalized that "RAW is The Right Way", you're actually creating issues for people that are sticking closer to your preferences...

So if you ask me, the "teach them to play RAW" line is pure unadultered BS. Teach them to play well in your campaign, with an eye to future campaigns with you!

If the game is billed as "Learn how to play 5e" and then you houserule the shit out of it, that's the textbook definition of a "bait and switch" which is a dick move.

Now, after they've gotten through D&D 101, and they trust you, Then it's time to pull out the system you actually want to play.

 

[AsenRG]

If the game is billed as "Learn how to play 5e" and then you houserule the shit out of it,

To quote the Spartans: "If".

Meaning, I'm seeing nothing indicating that Necrozius is advertising it in this specific way. And since when is 5e prohibiting houserules?

 

[Necrozius]

To quote the Spartans: "If".

Meaning, I'm seeing nothing indicating that Necrozius is advertising it in this specific way. And since when is 5e prohibiting houserules?

Yeah I'm advertising it as "D&D for beginners", which means the current and popular edition.

Also to encourage sales at my local shop. If I run Old School Essentials, the players will have a bitch of a time getting hard copies. But the shelves are stocked with 5e material.

I'll be sticking with 5e rules, but clarify any "tweaks" chosen from the Dungeon Master's Guide. Not many, to be honest, other than some fluidity with Experience (ie, they won't get it exclusively from killing shit) and when the time comes I'll explain that to them.

Lastly I am aiming for an "old school" feel in theme and structure only. 5e rules, even though I don't like them, will be used by-the-book.

If anything, I hope that these people leave my games thinking "wow that was fun, I certainly hope that my future DMs will be that cool".

 

[Necrozius]

Planned structure

I would like to keep things simple and easy for players to literally drop in and out. So this is my plan:

1. The Dungeon is reached via an old ruin on the outskirts of a village. Just like in Diablo 1. PCs can go right back to the village if they can get to the exit(s).

2. The village will be small, but has everything that they need:

• An inn to take long rests (but the chance to buy property later).
• Trader to get any equipment (anything except weapons or armor) and to hire hirelings.
• Weapon/armor smith to get weapons and armor
• A Religious / Spiritual place for religious contemplation (ie, for Clerics, Druids, and other faithful to do their thing)
• Hospice for recovery, healing etc...
• Tavern to conduct downtime activities (gambling, carousing, gathering information/tips about the dungeon etc...)
• Library for research, alchemy and experimentation (for wizards, warlocks and bards to do their stuff)
• Mysterious merchant who sells weird stuff (fun, one use items in the spirit of Cyphers, including maps, potions etc...). Very minor effects but useful.

 

[AsenRG]

Yeah I'm advertising it as "D&D for beginners", which means the current and popular edition.

Yeah, and I've been told that houseruling is part and parcel of D&D. So I'd think that beginners should be introduced to this as well!

I mean, one of the most common complaints I'm hearing from D&D5e GMs (and I've been listening to a lot of those after joining a certain Discord) is "they expect everything to be by the book", meaning the PHB!
Teach people to be the kind of players you'd want to run a game for, I say. And I've been bitten by breaking this same rule already...like, you know, that time last year when I was considering deleting my RPG folder for lack of using it. So I'm not wishing the same to any of you!

At the least, using some of the options that are (I've been told) presented in the DMG should be fine, too. Short rests being 8 hours and long rests being one week is still "by the book", isn't it? And it would give it a lot more "old school" feel, from what I've been told.

 

[Necrozius]

At the least, using some of the options that are (I've been told) presented in the DMG should be fine, too. Short rests being 8 hours and long rests being one week is still "by the book", isn't it? And it would give it a lot more "old school" feel, from what I've been told.

Oh for sure. One thing that I'm borrowing from someone here at the Pub was the idea that Long Rests can only be taken back in the village, or at least in a well-defended "safe space" in the dungeon itself:

- a spacious chamber with fresh air and a fountain that's hidden behind a well-concealed secret door
- a tiny subterranean village of befriended kobolds
- an easily-defended throne room that's considered taboo and cursed by the local dungeon inhabitants

 

[S'mon]

At the least, using some of the options that are (I've been told) presented in the DMG should be fine, too. Short rests being 8 hours and long rests being one week is still "by the book", isn't it? And it would give it a lot more "old school" feel, from what I've been told.

The most old school style I think is what I do with only long rests extended to 1 week. I find short rests work great with dungeon exploration. Could make them 10 minutes as in a trad D&D rest Turn.

 

[deflagratio]

I mean, one of the most common complaints I'm hearing from D&D5e GMs (and I've been listening to a lot of those after joining a certain Discord) is "they expect everything to be by the book", meaning the PHB!

Wow. "Am I out of touch? No, It's the players who are wrong." How dare players want to play by the rules they know.

 

[AsenRG]

Oh for sure. One thing that I'm borrowing from someone here at the Pub was the idea that Long Rests can only be taken back in the village, or at least in a well-defended "safe space" in the dungeon itself:

- a spacious chamber with fresh air and a fountain that's hidden behind a well-concealed secret door
- a tiny subterranean village of befriended kobolds
- an easily-defended throne room that's considered taboo and cursed by the local dungeon inhabitants

Sounds good to me!

The most old school style I think is what I do with only long rests extended to 1 week. I find short rests work great with dungeon exploration. Could make them 10 minutes as in a trad D&D rest Turn.

And roll for Wandering Monsters?

Wow. "Am I out of touch? No, It's the players who are wrong." How dare players want to play by the rules they know.

Yes, indeed!
I mean, if I'm running the game, I'm running it with the rules as I see them, and/or as I changed them. If they want to tell me what rules to use and how to interpret them?
Yeah, they need another Referee, and I, different players, it's that simple. "Some people should not play together", as a smart man told me once...or a score of times...always before telling me to fetch him a beer!

And before you ask, yes, if one of them decide to run and I find it interesting enough to join, I'd definitely return the courtesy by not arguing rules!

 

[deflagratio]

Sounds good to me!


And roll for Wandering Monsters?


Yes, indeed!
I mean, if I'm running the game, I'm running it with the rules as I see them, and/or as I changed them. If they want to tell me what rules to use and how to interpret them?
Yeah, they need another Referee, and I, different players, it's that simple. "Some people should not play together", as a smart man told me once...or a score of times...always before telling me to fetch him a beer!

And before you ask, yes, if one of them decide to run and I find it interesting enough to join, I'd definitely return the courtesy by not arguing rules!

Yea. I just find it funny those GM's being all upset that people don't want to play by their rules and there's likely a lot to unpack there about how those GM's are communicating and how others don't see the way they want to play as fun. Also, with the proliferation of content creation around builds and mechanics, players want things to work the way they see on youtube so they can use what they've learned.

The big thing about making sure newbies have a strong base is that it will free them up to adjust later. To quote Picasso, "Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them as an artist." By having strong fundamentals (in this case understanding the game RAW), will give them a foundation to play with others, Makes it easy for them to learn more about the game on their own (No cross-referencing a house rules document to study up on mechanics), it will allow them to understand what house rules are trying to do, help them avoid treating r/D&DMemes as a source of rules learnings.

I'm also assuming that anyone attending a "Learn D&D" game is an RPG newbie in general. You don't introduce Alegebra and balancing equations while trying to teach division and multiplication.

 

[AsenRG]

Yea. I just find it funny those GM's being all upset that people don't want to play by their rules and there's likely a lot to unpack there about how those GM's are communicating and how others don't see the way they want to play as fun.

How I'm communicating with players is easy to see. I have run games on English-language fora, like Myth Weavers and TBP, under this same name. Feel free to find my recruitment threads!

I am fully aware that some people won't see the way I run games as fun. I can't please everyone, so I strive to please myself - you know, to be sure at least one person in the whole world likes my game...
Luckily, I've been getting mostly happy players since I started running games this year. Which would make it something like 30 people (I rand a series of one-shots).
Tl;dr: I see no reasons to change!

Also, with the proliferation of content creation around builds and mechanics, players want things to work the way they see on youtube so they can use what they've learned.

And those are exactly the players that wouldn't work well in my games, so you should look at this as a litmus test: If the player has this issue for the reasons stated above, we're better off not playing together!
Better for both of us, that is.
You know, exactly like what I wrote in that previous post...

Though if you want to, feel free to consider this "trying to steal some builds off internet protecting players from the Big Bad Evil Referee"!

The big thing about making sure newbies have a strong base is that it will free them up to adjust later.

Learning one system isn't "a strong base". It's actually more limiting than anything, IMO&E, so it's the opposite of how I see "good base"!

Learning to adjust to whatever system is being used what I'd want to teach a new player...

To quote Picasso, "Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them as an artist." By having strong fundamentals (in this case understanding the game RAW), will give them a foundation to play with others,

Sorry, that's bullshit. I mean, sure, it is true, but learning my version of the game would give them just as much of a fundamental as yours. For good or ill. One system is still only one system.

I'm also assuming that anyone attending a "Learn D&D" game is an RPG newbie in general. You don't introduce Alegebra and balancing equations while trying to teach division and multiplication.

Not necessarily. My sister has only played with me, so she's never touched D&D, for example - she commented recently she should find herself a DM to be able to at least try that game. "I mean, it's the most popular one, I should give it a try"...

(I've already asked some GMs to run a game for her, BTW. DCC or OSE might work in a pinch, though, so I'm going to ask her - those would be the easiest to find someone running!)

 

[Silverlion]

I for one would probably not do a mega-dungeon, preferring to you know to give them the FULL RP experience of cities, towns, traveling some distance, resupply, etc. I see someone suggested putting it near a small village which can solve part of that, but I'd probably use a series of small dungeons instead so they can also get a feel for buying and selling things with barter, interacting with locals, etc.

 

[Necrozius]

I for one would probably not do a mega-dungeon, preferring to you know to give them the FULL RP experience of cities, towns, traveling some distance, resupply, etc. I see someone suggested putting it near a small village which can solve part of that, but I'd probably use a series of small dungeons instead so they can also get a feel for buying and selling things with barter, interacting with locals, etc.

I totally get that.

In this case the village will have a finite cast of NPCs (innkeeper, blacksmith etc...) who will be fleshed out and available for roleplaying purposes. This is easier for me to handle rather than switching up NPCs over mutiple locations over a larger world. Nevertheless, there will be bartering, haggling, manipulating, socializing with these people. I just get to focus on a smaller cast of characters to make them all feel more distinct and alive.

I really just want to get them to roll the dice, figure out how the game works within a constrained environment. Almost like a board game.

The constraints are purposeful in my case. A mega dungeon is easier fo rme to work with currently.

 

[S'mon]

And roll for Wandering Monsters?

Absolutely! I always roll for wandering monsters before I tell the players they've completed a Short Rest.