New Blood.

Content for contents sake? Her be chickens and cats then! I have not been idle in this past couple years since I started this but have only had a couple things worth talking about. I was planning on waiting until it resembled something of a conclusive statement rather than this burble your about to get. Being a man who is sensitive to mob and individual pressure, including quietly rising to the bait of a man I’ve never met who is goading me, I submit my findings thus far: New players want easy. That’s it. They want to rock up with everything ready to go, next to nothing to learn, easy to track gameplay, few tokens and few mechanics. They want to have fast streamlined fun. Nuance and grit can be added a piece at a time with repeated games that are linked in a campaign sort of way. Players do not want pressure to join a cult, they do not want to be required to spend money. Most people just want to casually join in. Roleplay is lost on most people unless anchored to a physical ‘scene’ or game set up that is in front of them. Free movement freaks people out. They like counting squares. A paired back Dungeon saga fits the bill to all of the above, except on 2 points. It takes too long to set up once a door has been broken. The wizard has too much going on for a new player so should be someone experienced, which makes some new keen admirers of the occult of arts disappointed when they try the wizard and get perplexed. Now these points are very generic and some people take to it like ducks to water. People do tend to fall into two broad camps once gameplay is an established reality. Some want narrative character to a mission, almost to the point of random chaos at times. Some want a tactical chess play sort of scenario that they can credible-hulk their way through. A spectrum does exist between these two types but there are bulges in each camp rather than a bell curve. So far this can only be addressed with me ducking and diving as the dungeon master to alter gameplay to suit the majority of your players that have attended that evening. Even introducing people to like minded players rather than mixing the two. Anecdotes of failure: I tried to introduce my wife and sister to Warhammer. I used 6th edition skirmish rules to start a very small game. Same sort of size as Frostgrave. It did not get far before people were clearly not having fun. Comments of ‘this is slow’. ‘Why are we rolling again!?’ Then insults fly, questions of parentage are raised. Reminders that we all got 6 months last time and should calm the fuck down. Yes unfortunately Warhammer is not a good game for introducing newbies. I have failed on all attempts to introduce raw recruits. The only 2 times I have succeeded is where my newbies had developed from the D Saga, to Frostgrave, and are now intrigued by something a bit more crunchy and larger in aspect like lord of the rings battle games. They then are less intimidated by a small Warhammer game, say the old boxed game set in size is ok. Even in these circumstances people are merely more likely to tackle it rather than the smooth winning streaks that other games present. It seems there really is just better games out there for new candidates and a wider audience. Age has very little to do with it, the above applies to all ages it seems with clarity of rules being more important to older players than children who prefer narrative generally. Elsa and Anna from Disney frozen make great miniatures in a dungeon and my daughters are completely ‘IN’ the game so long as the threat is not high. A sin I must now admit. Boys tend to aggregate towards threat and Uber violence and girls to narrative intrigue with lower threat levels. WHO KNEW OR WOULD HAVE DARED GUESS THIS OUTCOME!!!? ? There is always an outlier mind. IP definitely helps massively. A familiar and loved IP helps engagement enormously. You don’t even need change dungeon saga at all, just swap the wizard for Elsa and the elves archer for Anna and call them those names. Onwards we go. Far mass games I am currently experimenting with leading people through lord of the rings skirmish

after the prep of D Saga and Frostgrave, with the outlook to giving War of the Ring a go as it’s a mass battle version of LOTR SBG. And should be only a minor step on in mechanics, rules and  length of play.

Watch this space, out of 25 people introduced 20 of them are still interested in playing D Saga. 10 are good with Frostgrave and LOTR, with the prospect of more joining them once the D Saga lot reach the same level. Only one has stepped onto mass battles, Sigh.

Onwards not backwards. Upwards not downwards. And always Twirling, TWIRLING! To FREEDOM!!!