The Situation
I have been a GM for a few years on and off, for at least half a dozen of groups with at least 20 different players and have played my fair share of systems.
A few weeks ago my colleagues asked me to introduce them to roleplaying. I was delighted to share my passion with the people I see and talk to daily.
We now have played two times with a group of me plus 4 player characters. Nearly all of the player were completely oblivious to roleplaying in general.
We are playing "Splittermond" which is a German system with a typical high fantasy setting which is comparable to "The dark eye" or "D&D".
The Problem
All in all the two sessions have been a lot of fun but I struggle with one of my players that seems to have big problems with imagining the real situation the characters are in.
Things like trying to build things without any of the necessary tools, trying to run from a enemy that is obviously about ten times as fast as him, although they have cover and are not yet discovered and so on. The result is that the other players and I are very confused and partially frustrated since those false interpretations can put the group in very rough spots, which is dampening everyone's fun. Which in turn might demotivate the player in question.
The player in question has not played any pen&paper games before and is only casually playing board games or computer games.
The specific situation that sparked the discussion in our group was the following:
The group went out into the wild to try and figure out how to slay or at least bind a wild crow beast, which had ripped apart a group of adventures (The characters of a one shot I previously played) as well as a pack of rattlings.
So they know quite well that this beast is dangerous.
The player in question is safe and sound in a already deserted camp of rattlings and hidden under some bushes and trees under which the group covered themselves with the remains of the tents of that camp.
While he is on watch duty he is playing with fire (so far so good, this is part of his "pyromania" character trait). Then he hears a loud shriek which they already hear before and could/should therefore connect to the beast they are hunting.
First of all he does not realise that the light coming from the flames in his hands is a dead sure giveaway of their location for the beast, which can fly and hunts during the night. And after someone else woke from the beasts noise and extinguished the flame he wanted to jump and run across the open field in hopes to escape instead of assuring himself that the beast had yet to find them.
We collectively stopped the game there because we knew the player really struggled with building his character and would quit the game if his character died within the first few hours of the game.
What I Tried
I try to picture their situation as clearly as possible, even using a smart board in the room we are playing in (we luckily can use one of the rooms in our office) to draw the current situations. Still these problems accrued.
I never had this happen in one of my groups before. Is this to be expected and will sort itself out over time, or should I try to tell them even more?
Does anyone have any experience with players like this?
Is there any technique I can use to make it clear to him that he is a real character in a real world and cannot do things that would be impossible in a real world as well (apart from magic)?
I fear that he is somewhat used to the game mechanic of just try things and reload if they don't work.
Best Answer
I ran tabletop games for new players at a local game store for a while and I've had several players make wildly unwise decisions in their first couple sessions. There seem to be three main causes for this:
Ultimate Greatest Heroes
Your player just built the absolute best character imaginable. They're a pyromaniac with an attitude problem and completely unstoppable. This is, of course, completely out of line with a Level 1 character in the system you're running, but who wants to squash the enthusiasm of Chuck Norris with a flame thrower? Only those who don't want the character to immediately die.
Certain games, like Savage Worlds, actively encourage this mindset—as do certain GMs (cf. arguments for "the rule of cool"). Your game does not. That's worth training new players on. In this case, either describe NPCs hiding lights or specifically call out how bright the fire is before the monster is close enough to see it.
Heroes Have Plot Armor
This one is similar, but subtly different. Here, the player assumes that they have plot armor. They may not be the coolest thing since sliced bread, but they Heroes Win. That's just how this works. Villains give expository monologues, protagonists walk out of jails, and bullets are just another game of dodge ball.
I think you headed this one off rather well with the stories of now late adventurers, but sometimes new players need to experience character death (though not always their own) before they realize that no one has plot armor.
What Does This Button Do?
"Wait, I can do anything I want?"
"I just realized how cool [insert class ability] is!"
"Ha ha! My sword is on fire!"
This is, by far, the most common problem I have when running games for new players. Players new to tabletop games are sometimes too enamored by the freedom and power the game gives them to focus on the strategy and tactics they need to survive. I once had a player choose to start a campfire and cook fish while the party fought a Balrog simply for the joy of having the freedom to do so. Everyone died, but she loved the session. Everyone else, not quite as much.
In these cases, there are several options:
Players who focus too much on awesome single actions and players who often incorrectly visualize a scene (poor descriptions, aphantasia, lack of trope awareness, etc.) often just need some additional coaching from the GM. Usually this clears up after a few sessions. I have one player who still needs some help thinking through the likely consequences of his actions every now and then. Sometimes he gets upset that his awesome plan won't work, but he usually thanks us for our patience as he formulates a new one. And to be fair, his plans are often pretty cool.
My answer does assume good faith mistakes. A player seeking to repeatedly cheat the rules or rewrite "reality" is a different beast entirely, but it doesn't sound like that's what you're facing either.