From Newsgroup: rec.games.frp.dnd
On Wed, 12 Aug 2026 19:07:32 +0200, Gottfried Neuner
<
kyonshi@wilderland.ovh> said this thing:
On 7/18/2026 2:36 PM, The True Melissa wrote:
Verily, in article <113fci8$3dmnh$3@dont-email.me>, did
weberm@polaris.net deliver unto us this message:
And D&D's actual engine was ATTRITION. Everything was always
running out. Food, arrows, hit points, hirelings, spell slots, torches, time.
Every room cost resources.
Hmm. I'm not sure that's all there is to it. I am currently running an
OSRIC campaign, so you know I like it old-school, but it's not just
attrition. That only really applied at lower levels. By the time the
players were 3rd level or so, they had enough gold to supply themselves
with basics like torches and arrows.
The need to keep track of such things did increase the grit, but IMO the
more learnable rule system was better. It was also less predetermined.
Character growth happened through roleplaying, not with fixed beats in a
planned arc.
I tried a 5e game, and character creation was a crazy process. I
onboarded a newbie to the OSRIC game, and she had a good character in
about ten minutes. Immediately after, everyone was having fun.
do you one better: onboard them onto B/X and you can have a usable
character in 2 minutes, 5 if you're really slow
It depended on the intent of the game and the players, but I used a
variety of methods. But the 'easiest' (at least on the part of the new
player) was having them start to play the game first as a game of
'let's pretend', and then developing the character sheet around that.
You know; you start with the very basic questions ("do you want to be
somebody like Conan the Barbarian, or Gandalf, or a sneaky thief
character?" to get a basic idea, then dump them into an easy
proto-adventure and have them work out the rest as you play.
[My default proto-adventure for these scenarios? "You've
been kidnapped by someone and tossed into some underground
location. You need to escape before they get back." When
they finally get loose, they climb the stairs to find themselves
in the default starting tavern where they can meet the other
players and start the adventure proper.]
Things like race, gender, age and background were, of course, up to
the player and often could be put off for quite a while as the player
figured things out. Things like basic attributes usually were
determined as they came up. E.g., "Oh, you want to pick up that heavy
log? Well, let's see how strong you are; roll 4D6 and drop the lowest
result."
It's a bit time consuming and works best one-on-one (or with a very
small group; three or less players) but it eases players into the
rules. And obviously, you can't throw them into the 'real' adventure
until you figure out the basics.
It's not an original method, of course; the BECMI rules actually
introduced the game to a player this way, and I think there were
actually some 1st (or 2nd?) Edition AD&D modules that were built
around the concept. It's certainly not a method I frequently used.
More often I just asked the players to create their own or provided
them with a pre-generated character that they could either use
unaltered or gave them a grace period to tinker with as the adventure
rolled on.
I've gotten new players who had no familiarity with tabletop gaming to
start characters this way. But, as always, tailor your method to the
needs and desires of the other players. DMing can be hard and
demanding work, but *nothing* beats the satisfaction of a player
coming around afterwards and saying, "man, I really had fun this
time."
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2