From: laird@think.com (Laird Popkin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Newbie System?
Date: 9 Oct 1992 19:47:42 GMT
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: django.think.com

In article <1992Oct9.014129.13498@jade.tufts.edu> gharris@jade.tufts.edu (George W. Harris) writes:
>In article <1992Oct8.211814.7362@ncsu.edu> jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH) writes:
>>
>>|>Which system would you recommend to someone who had decided they wanted to
>>|>try Role-Playing? The game should be suitable for whole groups of Newbies
>>|>to learn on their own without the guidance of Role-Playing Gurus. What do
>>|>you see as the dominant criteria for a Newbie RPG?
>>|>
>>	Naahhh.  What if someone doesn't LIKE Star Wars (the universe, that is).
>>Though I may be prejudiced, I would suggest GURPS and any one supplement that
>>happens to strike their fancy.  D6's only, two-tier combat system with lots
>>of OPTIONAL rules that can be added when the players are more experienced, and
>>of course the benefit of having TONS & TONS of other supplements when they get
>>bored of their first choice.
>
>	GURPS for a newbie?  I think not.  What if they don't think that their
>character must have a high stat to be good in skills, as you are forced to 
>think in GURPS?  What if they are unfamiliar with the character creation 
>system and create grossly inefficient, and therefore ineffective, and there-
>fore (we ARE talking newbies here) unfun characters?  GURPS requires far too
>much handholding in character creation to be a game for newbies without the
>guidance of Role-Playing Gurus, unless the newbies in question are accontants.

While I am a GURPS fan, there are certainly plenty of great games to use to
introduce new gamers to roleplaying.  But I do want to address the
implication that because GURPS is flexible that it is hard to learn.  Quite
the opposite, the fact that GURPS is based on a few, simple mechanics makes
introducing new players easy, and people seem to enjoy picking skills,
advantages, and disadvantages from the rather extensive lists.  All of the
remaining issues can be taught as they come up in the game.

Actually, I've seen "newbies" introduced to GURPS on several occasions
(including in my campaign) and complexity has never been an issue.
Remember, the issues that seem to be able to inspire weeks of debate on
r,g,frp.* are rarely issues anywhere else... :)

When introducing players to character creation, I tell them to first come
up with an idea for a character, or to flip through the list of advantages,
disadvantages, and skills to see if anything catches their eye, and then to
pick stats, advantages, disadvantages, and skills to add up to 100 points.
The only part that people require help with is in figuring skill costs --
the rest is just picking from lists and adding, which nobody has trouble
with.

Of course, for introducing "newbies" to GURPS when time is limited,
pre-generated characters are the way to go, since everything after that can
be summarized by "roll three dice less than your skill/stat, sometimes with
modifiers that the GM will tell you about", and "roll a die and add one to
see how much damage you did", so the players can learn the mechanics in a
few minutes and enjoy playing.

Again -- the same can be done in any system with a few simple mechanics
(e.g. Toon, Star Wars).  I'm not saying that "GURPS is the best RPG" just
that it works fine for introducing new players to roleplaying.
-- 
- Laird Popkin, Thinking Machines

Connection Machine: Massively parallel supercomputer.  Also a cool black
cube with more blinking lights than you can shake a stick at.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc