New Players & First Sessions

Inspirobot knows how to spread it.

So, I now have a hard and fast rule that I learned the hard way must always be obeyed.

New players, in their first sessions, should be brought into the hobby with Dungeons & Dragons.

Now I hear you all moaning "BLEH NOT SO" and "MAH FURTS GAEM WUH XXX" but hear me out.  I wouldn't say that for no reason.  I have reasons why I'd want new players at my table to experience D&D instead of any other system for their first time playing.  Reasons born of first-hand experience.

You all mostly know my credentials, but suffice to say I've done a lot of games and I've broken in a lot of new players.  I've seen just about every which way it can go; from newb to pro and everything in between.  From all that, I have found (by and large) that a "gamey" environment is the best for any new gamer.  Especially for new gamers.

Why D&D?

It's very basic, you might say.  Especially Basic.  This is easy for newer players to understand, and if you're using an older edition will immediately grab their attention ...with the tension.  Ahem.  5th Edition is bad for new gamers, because it's immediately boring.  That pretty much goes for any "story-game", but more on that later.

If the player already has a 'gamer mentality'; e.g. has played a video game; the tropes and rules of D&D are very easy to get to grips with and understand.  All the numbers will make sense, and even some of the more advanced items like nonweapon proficiencies will easily be taken into account.

More than that, the settings will be easy to digest.  They are all takes on Lord of the Rings, for the most part.  For the worlds of D&D (these generic high-fantasies and whatnot), not much understanding is really needed by a new player.  Most of them, such as Toril or Oerth, pretty much fit the bill of your 'standard' fantasy world.  All the tropes and creatures will make sense right out of the gate with very little exposition or explanation.

Set up a 'fun' and 'gamey' scenario to accommodate the new players.  Don't take it too far in the opening acts, you know what I mean?  Focus on the dice, the miniatures, the 'spectacle' of the game.  Make it tense, but story-lite.  Lean heavily on the action and game elements the players might be familiar with.

It doesn't really have to be D&D - but it needs to be something 'like' D&D.  Some Examples in my library include:

• Pathfinder
• Warhammer Fantasy
• Palladium
• Star Wars D20
• Shadowrun

If you don't follow this course, you might end up with what I experienced to finally change my mind - Real Life Religion Change.

At the time, the club had a breakneck schedule.  We had a couple (who were about to be married, incidentally) join the group who were friends of some newer members, and they had never played the game before but were very interested in doing so.  We had just wrapped up D&D, and moved into a World of Darkness game.

This was to be a story-rich game (storytelling?) and no one even ended up dead this time.  However, the subject matter was rather taut.  It involved spirits and demons and what I felt might be a realistic depiction thereof, and it used our local area to build this story and it's verisimilitude.  For the first time I really, really had the audience's attention and wove that spell of dread around the entire table.  Everyone was truly immersed and engaged.

And then the couple stopped showing up.  No messages were answered.  The very next thing we saw of them , they had gone to a local church. A video was shared on social media of their new Baptism ceremonies.  All the tattoo/emo-metal and sk8/punk attitude was gone.

While this is sort of a point of pride for me, I caution you against alienating folk in such a manner.  There wasn't even much in the game that a 'gamer' would find revolting.  It was all spiritual subject matter, Twilight Zone style moral conundrums.

Neither of them have ever spoken to me again.

Bad Day at Geonosis Rock

*Last Updated 5/6/2019*

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Episode IX

Betrayed by the corrupt Lt. Levdu and ordered to capture or eliminate him by the Hutt Cartel, the Cripple Crab makes a surprise flyby attack on Knossa Spaceport to distract as Modo and Rokka seek to infiltrate the Imperial installation from street level.

Meanwhile, pursued by Imperial TIE fighters, X and B3-T5Y take the ship into the desert and attempt to lay low while their allies deal with Levdu.

- GameDoc

B3-T5Y and X fly the ship into the canyons near Knossa, and find a cozy place to sit and hide as the TIEs cluelessly spin overhead.  As everything dies down, the team checks in with one another to make sure no other emergencies need to be dealt with.  B3-T5Y and X begin much-needed repairs on the ship once everything is quiet.

Modo and Rokka begin to take stock of the action.  It seems Levdu may have survived, so the two duck into a cantina to avoid stormtrooper patrols as they hatch a plan.  It doesn't take long for them to be caught in the dragnet, but one of the troopers turns out to be Rokka Reer's biggest fan.  Before long, Rokka has booked a show at the Imperial facility they just attacked.

Modo, posing as Rokka's roadie, gets into position and finally identifies Levdu.  He survived the attack intact, and this is vexing to the group.  As Rokka wows the audience with song, Modo attempts to get into a spot to assassinate the double-crossing Imperial officer.

After taking out a stormtrooper while "looking at the lights" on the upper deck, Modo avails himself of the trooper's armor and makes his way into the living quarters.  After finding Levdu's bunk, Modo hides in the closet and waits.

Rokka finishes signing autographs and meeting his adoring fans, and not long after that Levdu returns to his quarters.  The struggle is brief, as Modo was feeling particularly murderous.  After leaving the lieutenant dead in his quarters, Modo jinks the security teams and joins up with Rokka and exfiltrates toward the waiting ship.

B3-T5Y and X have everything ready and repaired, and hit the rendezvous with Modo and Rokka without even touching down.  The ship peels away from the Geonosis atmosphere by putting the planet between them and the Imperial fleet.  The ship hits hyperspace, and the crew is satisfied with their work.  They only hope Jabba will be as impressed as they are.


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Ninjas & Superspies: Introduction to Occupational Character Classes

Palladium Megaverse?!  What's that, by golly?

Well, it's an oft-benighted game system published by Palladium Books, and the basic gist is that all their games are interchangeable, compatible and set in the same universe - the aforementioned Palladium Megaverse.  For a long time I've wanted to run some Palladium, but it was a hard sell at the miniatures club.  Rules are wonky and it doesn't have ... well, miniatures.  Today is a different story, and I find myself in a spot where Palladium isn't just suitable, but might be preferable.

It's all very old-school, you might say.  Lots of guidelines, rather than hard and fast rules.  Yadda yadda.  I will still try to be as close to RAW as possible, depending on which volume of rules we'll be using at the time.  With all the different versions and small differences between each ruleset, there will be some changes from session to session if we move to a ruleset that has a different take on certain things.  I'm being very oblique about all this, but I don't want to give too much away.

So, Palladium uses something called Occupational Character Classes, or O.C.C.'s.  They are basically character classes, but specifically their occupation rather than race.  In Palladium, if a class is a race, it's called an R.C.C., or Racial Character Class.  It's kinda loose with this, and sometimes you can actually gain both an R.C.C. and an O.C.C. ...but really you should only think of that as an accidental by-product of play rather than any kind of advancement scheme you can map out.  There are uncountable character classes in the multiverse, so we'll do like we usually do and bite chunks off the giant beast.

Today, we're going to be jamming some Ninjas & Superspies!

Welcome to the Meta-Concern Authority.

Below are listed the O.C.C.'s and their general bents.  It might seem a little abbreviated and non-specific, but most of these classes are mostly equal, otherwise.  Not a lot of that matters before we dig into the weeds, because you can't really min/max a Palladium game.  You can try for high numbers, but that's about it (and you won't get many anyway).

• Martial Artist
• Kung-Fu / Ninja, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat / Bruce Lee types.
• Dedicated Martial Artist: Has the most Kung-Fu's.
• Worldly Martial Artist: Has less Kung-Fu's than Dedicated Martial Artists (but still more than other classes) but has a few other skills to make up for it.
• Espionage Agent
• High-dollar spy types from all tropospheres.  James Bond / Jack Ryan / Lorraine Broughton types.
• Wired Agent - Lots of skills and cybernetics also.
• Gadgeteer Agent - Has Gidgets and gadgets for all your spy network needs.
• Operative Agent - Has the most skills.
• Free Agent
• For those with attachment issues.  Carmen San Diego / Mike Hammer / Hudson Hawk types.
• Wandering Free Agent - Has lots of freedom.
• Professional Free Agent - Has slightly less freedom, but more resources.
• Thief - Is free to be thief-y.
• Mercenary
• Gun-toting Chuck Rambo / Van Damage-types.
• Veteran Grunt - Has the most guns.
• Cyborg Soldier: Has lots of guns, but also robot-parts for pitying fools.
• Academy Officer: Has guns, but mostly skills.
• Gizmoteer
• For those who like to build stuff.  Q / MacGyver / MacGruber / A-Team in a Shed types.
• Tinker Gizmoteer - Is the most build-y of all.
• Dreamer Gizmoteer - Builder with more diverse skills.
• Gizoid Gizmoteer - Can build lots of stuff, but loves cybernetics very much.

It's really kind of hard to go into further specifics without just bringing out all the information in the book.  Honestly, the entire book is filled with the options these characters have.  Without players actually perusing the book in their own time, Palladium character creation sessions take ... well, entire sessions.  Just pick one that looks the coolest to you and we'll muddle through the creation process, exploring your options as we go.