Should a free RPG have a section on how to play an RPG?

[Rob Lang]

I have a feeling that its mostly redundant because your audience is bound to be players who know what it is.

Your thoughts please!

[misterecho]

I think it's really difficult to learn how to play an RPG just from reading it in the beginning of a book. It's so outside the normal realm of experience for the uninitiated.

I remember when I tried to start out. I didn't really get it until I sat in on a game. But I think it's the RPG authors duty to TRY and explain it. If a noob stumbles upon your interesting/cool/avant-garde game, don't you want to at least hook them in?

my 2p

[maledictus]

Like I've said, maybe a little introduction to RPG's, just in case a newbie looks in the web for "free RPG" and your game pops out. A paragraph of so, so if you're a seasoned player you could simply skip it.

I also agree with Mr. Echo.

Plus, I always find entertaining reading what the author considers is a roleplaying game, everyone have a different explanation.

[Majyc]

Mine doesn't, though I felt compelled to have a sentence explaining that it doesn't...

A decent explanation of what an RPG is and how to go about playing one would occupy a bunch of pages, and almost everybody who ever encounters your free RPG will just skip it. Unless you're producing an RPG designed specifically to introduce people to the hobby, your take on it is probably more useful as a separate article or at most an appendix.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I would say yes, it should.

For one, having an introduction looks professional - and most printed books have a section for what an RPG is and maybe how its played.

The pattern does seem to be overwhelmingly "Learn about RPGs from a friend, become interested, look for free ones". However, there is a chance that someone is unsure about the hobby and wants to look at the free games before spending $90.00 on the D&D core set or $60.00 on the White Wolf's Vampire and World of Darkness core book. To help people who approach like this, an essay on RPGs and how they are played would be nice.

Furthermore, looking at free games is a chance to experiment with new styles of play. It would help your game stand out if you were to give explanations of how the game can be run. Rob explained in his recent interview how the Scavenger setting of ICAR was effectively dungeon crawls in space to avoid overwhelming people with the scope of space opera. I've pointed out that D&B is not your normal zombie apocalypse. There can be internal games of intrigue, external ones external ones of exploration, and certain rules can be tweaked for more a higher or lower body-count.

You might not learn how to play an RPG from a book, but it can point you in the right direction, or or of course enumerate there are a large number of directions to go in. Page eight of the 3.0 DM's guide has the sections "Kick in the Door", "Deep-Immersion Storytelling", and "Something In Between" as well as notes about the use of humor and naming conventions to set up the world. Notes like these can be of great help to a new game-master, or even a seasoned one looking for inspiration.

[misterecho]

It's also a tradition, I love reading that section.

[Rob Lang]

I think the ideal of a new player/GM picking up a free RPG cold and using it to play is a beautiful one. However it's also fantastically unlikely. I'd stick my neck out and say that 99% of roleplayers came to roleplaying though a route other than free rpgs, it is a niche of a niche and a tight one at that. If someone were to stumble over Icar, Dog Town, Superliga, Sufficiently Advanced, Dark Dungeon, or the epic Fear then there is little chance that they would be able to work out what roleplaying is from the rules.

Most free RPGs come under the category of involved. Super-light free RPGs would be made very bulky indeed if you had to explain how to roleplay too. There is a niche for 'getting started RPGs' but they would be heavy on the How and very little on the game itself. For most RPG philanthropists, that task is nowhere near as fun or interesting as writing a full game.

I am all for a good GM section but I think explaining what every term and idea of roleplaying and GMing is would choke a game. And that is the level you need to go to if a newbie is going to learn to play.

I think free RPGs are read and played solely by experienced roleplayers - at least those that have played enough to know the core tenets of roleplaying and what 'd' means on the front of d20. For those game that do depart from core RPG ideas, I think they should explain themselves but "what is roleplaying" is superfluous.

The second problem is that these sections are rarely well written. This is because the author often stops short, realising that they're explaining everything and not actually getting on with the system. They stop in mid flow, explaining just enough so that they can say they have that section. At best you're giving experienced players a load of bloat they don't need and at worst you're obscuring the game you're trying to explain. Half-written 'How to roleplay' sections are useful to no-one and fully featured ones are both rare and heavy.

I'd say to authors (in my usual hard-line way) not to include it and assume an experienced audience unless you're writing specifically for new people.

[Rob Lang]

[misterecho]

I bow to your perspicacious argument.

[NoobHealer]

I agree that in most cases, it is redundant.

That said, having a section for new role players doesn't hurt the game for experienced players. I've been playing RPG's for ten years, so I tend to skip over anything labeled "What is a roleplaying game?". But the first time I played Dungeons and Dragons, I needed it. In fact, I read it for years before I truly felt comfortable with the question.

Free or not... leaving it out can excluding anyone who is looking to learn. Whether that is an acceptable loss depends on your own goals.

As for free RPG's being only for experienced RPers... I actually take the opposite route when I try to recruit new people to the art:

1. Commercial game's are expensive.
2. Commercial games are long in order to justify the $40 price tag.
3. Commercial games are complicated and often use multiple books (Players Guide, GM guide, Monster Manual, Dungeon Handbook, etc.)

These facts make them harder to market to people who are hesitant to engage in an activity that is "too geeky" for them. (This, by the way, coming from computer programmers)

I tend to link them to free rules-lite games for the introduction. Something like Risus has the simplicity to learn fast, play fast, and the randomness to make people laugh. There is no better way to introduce someone to RPGs than a group of people gathering together for some laughs.