August 28, 2009
What is the best way to learn how to play a RPG game?
codered320 asked:
Recently I bought the RPG protection of mice from the comic shop and I don 't know whether I should read through the whole affair. Its very complicated for me. Should I sign up to watch other play and kind of learn from there, or read the book in full? The kind of I know the basic, but the more complicated just lose sometimes.
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Recently I bought the RPG protection of mice from the comic shop and I don 't know whether I should read through the whole affair. Its very complicated for me. Should I sign up to watch other play and kind of learn from there, or read the book in full? The kind of I know the basic, but the more complicated just lose sometimes.
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probably the best way would be to learn from a friend, that’s how i do it
Go through the book carefully. It takes some time if you’ve never played an RPG before, but most are written to be as helpful as possible. Still, it’s really hard to understand, because it’s a very complicated thing really.
I’ve found that reading the introduction is a really good place to start with RPGs, no matter the system, the intro will show me what the game is doing and will tell me how it works compared to other RPGs I’ve played. Some games use the introduction to tell the background of the story and establish a setting, some use it to introduce game play elements and basically teach you how to play the game right from the first page.
The hard part about an RPG is that it makes sense when you play it, but it doesn’t always make sense when it’s being explained.
Basically you roll some dice and use info on a piece of paper to see if you’ve succeeded in doing something or not. That’s the basics of it, but it’s a lot more fun than that.
I just checked the new RPG Geek website and it looks like you chose a good RPG to start with. It’s focused on shared story telling which is one of the things I look for in an RPG.
I think if you make your way through the book and maybe make notes you might be able to figure out what is being said, but if you can see other people play the game, or maybe even play in a game yourself before running one that would be the best experience.
So, in short: Yes, you should read the whole book and also not read the whole book. If you can sign up to play the game, that would be a great way to learn, but if all you have is the book just see if you can figure it out. Some rule sets are written really oddly, but overall the game is made to be played, so the writers will make it so people can figure it out pretty quickly.