[RPG] How to explain D&D’s rules, but you can do whatever you want, to new players

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I recently brought up the fact that I play D&D to a friend, and a few days later he came back to me and said that he wanted to play. I was excited at the idea and said that I would be willing to run a one-off session for him and some other friends. The first friend used to play somewhere around 15-20 years ago (certainly before 5e), but the other people have never played.

RPGs are fun to me because of the idea of being able to go anywhere and do anything. I don't want to make a group of people read the entire PHB before they play for the first time, especially before a one shot game. Even further than that, I will be making their character sheets for them so new players don't get bored by filling out sheets of paper.

Now I am presented with a challenge: I am new to GMing, and relatively new to RPGs in general. How do I explain the rules of D&D to new players? What should I explain before we play so that they understand that they can do whatever they want, but are still constrained by rules and rolls of the dice?

Best Answer

How to explain D&D to new players?

I like easy questions: don't.

Set up a session where you can show them the concepts and be explicit about what you are doing:

This is a short session to show you what D&D is like, to see if you like it and want to play more. We will have four encounters and to make it easy for you I'm going to tell you now that you deal with them this way: role-playing, combat, exploration and combat. These are the character sheets, don't worry about what the numbers mean: I'll tell you when you get to them. I will also show you how taking a "short rest" works just before the last combat.

You then run a session where a guy gives them a job (role-playing) to track down the goblins (combat) who are in a small cave complex (with a trap or two) (exploration) and at then end of that is, I don't know, some skeletons because its a tomb (combat). Make sure you ham up the role-playing part.

You then show them how each of these parts work - emphasising the flow of the game (DM narrates -> Players decide what they want to do -> DM tells results). Suggest options as to what they could do:

Jim, you are playing a big strong barbarian - you are best when you get in close and hit things with your axe. You can do this thing called "raging" but only once a day which allows you to hit harder and take less damage when you get hit. Remember, I gave you a heads up that there will only be two combats today so you can do it now or later but not both. Normally you wouldn't know that. Do you want to rage now?

When you call for a die roll from the players or make one yourself explain what you are doing and how the mechanics work:

This goblin is shooting at your rogue with his bow. The range is 70 feet which is further than short range for a short bow so he makes the shot with disadvantage so I will roll 2 dice and take the worst [roll]: a 7 and a 16 so we take the 7. The goblin's attack bonus is +4 so the 7 becomes an 11. Your armour class here [point] is 14 so that is a miss: the arrow falls short hitting the ground at your feet: if you had been closer it would have hit you in the chest because 16+4 is 20 which is more than your AC.

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