Running DnD for Non Nerds 

I DM'd for my mum, dad and sister around Christmas time. I drummed up a short christmas one shot about possessed toys sneaking into stockings which turned into a dungeon crawl through the toy makers factory. My dad rolled a lot of natural ones, my mum went full evil which I did not expect and my sister mostly laughed at my silly voices. When I was last there my mother even suggested playing again. I think it went well.

I played 'dragons of stormwreck island' with my kids and my wife. I was especiaily worried that my wife would hate it, but they all got really into the game really fast.

I started DMing a game for my old friends from high school who, while they are nerds, aren't (yet) the TTRPG type of nerds. One of the things I did when their characters were only just meeting up was do several contested deception/insight checks between players as narratively appropriate, and it's amazing how their faces lit up and got into things with such an early excuse to roll dice and incorporate the results into their interactions, as opposed to having to wait for the first combat! Also provided some early structure for the role play when I otherwise left it pretty open as to how they were to interact to form a party 😊

My wife dms for the in-laws and me. It took us about a year to find out rhythm as a table. Early highlights included miscalibrations about the boundaries of improv: while we're talking in the village store owned by the joint lost cousin of one of our party, the wizard wanders outside. A bit later he comes back in and announces: "I've just been and paced the building. It's 8 feet bigger on the outside than on the inside" causing the DM to yes-and onto existence a hidden treasure room, which we then, a mostly lawful party, then rob for the randomly rolled magic goodies.

It was a really fun game with you!

pro tip to help new people is to etheir have a copy of their charecter sheet or colorcodeing the chareecter sheet so if they are looking for something you could say the "area colored green" or something similar

I didn't take it too seriously, started my game as a comedy game, got my players comfortable (had them travel through the "Forest of Pure Evil" while playing Mr Blue Sky on a bluetooth speaker). Highly silly, good time, until they turned a corner and I dropped the party into a silent hill level horror setting in full earnestness. Probably the most successful story transition I've ever done, my players told me they were actually scared. That sprawled into the best campaign I ever ran.

- Starting small is also really good. Suggesting to play a lengthy campaign to first timers might be a little intimidating. They will accept a one shot with much more tranquility. - I also like to have pre-made/ready-to-go character sheets in case they find it too complex to create one on their own. The first time someone pitched DnD to me, they started by showing me the book! Smh, of course I didn't understand a thing and my first reaction was not wanting to play, but eventually I was introduced to Critical Role and other shows and that was a much better way to get into the TTRPG world. To sum up, try not to intimidate them with the complexity of the game. Keep it simple.

My dad was absolutely impossible. He didn't understand the difference between player and DM, he wanted to "best me" and _win_ at TTRPG, by telling a superior little story of his own 😂

I have been DM'ing for my group of girl friends for more than a year now. I had two girls in the group who had played before and the other three were brand new to the concept of the game. Originally, they agreed to play as long as I removed some fantasy aspects from the game (like gods and some races they weren't comfortable with). I had about a month of prep time and came up with a "mod" inspired by games like kids on bikes using memes and TV show tropes to reskin the classes (eg. Barbarian is a "Karen", Rogue is an ankle-biting "Lil Sh*t" etc.). I set them up into a suburban town where nobody remembers the name of the town and anytime someone leaves, they're forgotten by everyone within it. They've been enjoying playing so much that I've found out that they have a secret group chat to talk about their theories for what's happening in the town. I couldn't be more proud than in the moments when they're talking to each other in character and trying to flirt with all of the single dads and their favorite "cringe fail male wife", Jeremy.

I DM'd for my friends twice during the holidays and they were too good at avoiding encounters. After they avoided 3 plot hooks, 4 random events, and ignoring my warnings at least twice I ended the session adter an hour and reluctantly told them they "won". Their characters avoided all danger and lived the rest of their life at home base eating goodberries and avoiding the outside world.

As one of Rich's normie* guinea pigs**, I can say this approach worked for me and I'll be back for more. * as normie as can be expected doing what I do and not RPGing for 2^4.x trips around the sun. ** I'm not the one that befriended the rat.

Speaking of Communism in gaming,. My International Relations instructor at West Point actually had us plot and roleplay a Marxist revolution to overthrow the Academy as our class project. It was really fun. Granted, we didn't have to live through the violence, starvation, etc. that has traditionally followed real world revolutions, but it did teach me that, man, there were a lot of legitimate grievances to exploit...

Unfortunately for me I had at least one arrogant prick at the table when I dm'd who thought the silly voices were a bit much. They didn't "get" it. Everyone else followed their lead, not wanting to annoy this person by not agreeing with them and that made me become the weird guy nobody wanted to be around. I was in my 20's at the time. We were all adults. My suggestion would be to first ask the table if silly voices would be ok. Maybe things would have ended up differently for me but who knows.

Glad this went well for you. About a year ago, I introduced a number of people who are new to the game to it. All of them had been exposed to some degree of nerd culture, but one of them was definitely not a nerd by any conventional definition, and he had a blast

I pitch TTRPGs differently to different people. To the gamer nerds I say it is like a coop RPG with little to no limits and to theater nerds I say it's like improv with dice and strategy.

Incredibly useful tips, especially on selling the rolls, spotlight distribution and making everyone feel special! Huge thanks! Ratigan is awesome.

super cool video! i have only played with people who knows about the game before but your video really encourage me to introduce the game to some people in my life

I am in a college DnD group where just the DM and one other player had actually played extensively before. I had only played in one other campaign, where everyone is my family was new, including the DM.

Hey. I loved the story and the advice. Looking forward to more!

Just started an episodic/west marches campaign worh coworkers about 5 weeks ago. Most of them are locked in wanting to play, Having a great time Now its just a matter of logistics😅 One thing i would add is to try to build their characters in advance if you can. Get some ideas of what they want, guide them to a relatively simple build and have it ready ahead of time if you can. They can always change it later once they have a good handle

I'm sure the rest will be great, but as soon as you gave props to Communist monopoly, I knew I had to subscribe. The creator of that is a twisted genius!

All my friends are nerds or nerd adjacent.

😎😎😎

Y'all have non-nerd friends? 😮

I run sessions for new players all the time. My DOs: I start without character sheets, keep the preassure up and the mission clear, make the dice judge all actions, and improvise the hell out of the outcome. My DONTs: No character sheets, just a class archetype for reference. Use flashbacks, like in Blades in the Dark, a lot. No railroading, let them explore. Dont go over 90 minutes. Have fun!

Wtf do you mean “your normal” friends. That’s an incredibly offensive word choice you used there. Are you implying rpg nerds are somehow not normal? 🤔

Unironically, we ought to gatekeep the normies out.