Breaking In A N00b...

[*Ravel's Heart]

So, after begging her to do it for years, my wife has agreed to dip her toes into the whirlpool of CRPGing. This Wednesday and Thursday, after we put the boy to bed, we are going to play NWN2 together.

She's worried that it will be too overwhelming for her. (Her exact words, "I don't know clerics from clerks from palindromes from gnomes..." :lol: )

That's a slight exaggeration. I have been reading fantasy to her for years, and she has read a few on her own as well. The summer we started dating, I read The Hobbit to her, followed by the entire Lord of the Rings. I read the first two Sword of Truth books to her and the first three books of Harry Potter to her. She read the rest on her own. I read the first Wheel of Time book, Eye of the World to her right around the time our son was born.

Since then, we've had substantially less time to read! -_-

Having said all that, how can I make the entry into the world of D&D more painless for her? I think we are going to play the OC together to start. It's a ready-made story, and I think it will be a good place to get her feet wet. But she is worried about having to learn all about races and classes and feats and so on.

Any suggestions on making it more fun and easy to learn?

[*ManyFaced]

I'd suggest a custom campaign instead. The OC lasts fifty odd hours, has hundreds of NPCs, many glitches, and a great deal of answers to give. A polish custom module might give way around much of those issues and give the game in easier to digest chunks.

Tabletop n00bs need the easiest to understand system and the most insane plots.

[*Ceremorph]

Agreed. Also, it might be easier for her if rather than forcing her to decide on character creation and building, she uses one of the characters from the NWN2 Wiki... that way there's no worry about "if I take the wrong feats, my character will be useless". Either that, or focus on things that stay at low levels.

[*cryptc]

I got into this way too young to have any meaningful advice... Pasha might have some good advice though :)

[*hunvagy]

Custom Campaign is a good choice, you could got with Pool of Radiance Remastered. Pretty straightforward, low level campaign, not that many quirks and twist to get lost in.

I'd also say then instead of classes and stuff, you could try to depict what she wants to be in the world, and then choose a class along those ideas, and stick with it.

Oldschool D&D party setups are pretty straightforward and easy to get into IMO.

[*Pashan01]

Hmm....well first off, yey! fer Ravel-wifey braving the world of NWN2.

My suggestions, still at least as a partial-n00b, as Cryptc hints is thus (taking from others points too):

1) If she has never played ANY RPG before then start with the OC perhaps or mod as suggested, pre-set story, concept of building up a character and its gear as you go through. OR, if brave, just throw yourself into Sigil, keep to yourselves incognito maybe so you can take things slow and just observe without too much bugging as the low-mid challenges are fun and there you can practice slowly to interact, go read some books, potter a bit, learn to use the things like chat box/talking etc, approach others (e.g. for crafts) when you are ready. Can try a bit of both then, dip into OC/mod AND SCOD, to get a nice mix of flavour, story and PW..and see then what she prefers. LISTEN to the woman, let her find out some things for herself without being told too much, let her time to absorb in her own time/space too..I attempted to play SoZ mp with a friend and he'd already been through it afew times, tended to rush through the story parts and I didn't absorb enough to keep my own interest.

2)Pick up an off-the-shelf build or make a pure class, something middlish understandable from the real world - i.e. human race, not too many spells. Simple fighter with some arcane buffs or ability to use wands to help, alternatively, divine. Oddly I find divine spells simpler to RP and use - cleric/shaman/druid and help the low player a lot at first. Druid, tho odd in Sigil for its lack of greenery, is a strong class, easy to play just pure, no tweaks/mixing and is still a good class, and RL understandable and lots of nice things to play with later on when the noob is comfier (shapeshifting, nice spells).

That's it for now, I gotta go work!

[*Mr_Otyugh]

I'd play Baldurs Gate I and II in lan <.< Admittably NWN 2 is only choice # 3 after both BGs (the game, not server!) when it comes to learning the hooks of DnD.

Also I'd personally probably go for multiplayer first and campaigns second when it comes to learning DnD. I've noticed that campaigns tend to have a lot more into them after you've learned the lore, they don't force you to know the lore, but in the end offer relatively little of it also.

[*pelhikano]

I think that in a way you learn most from your mistakes. My very first NWN2 character was a totally useless wizard/fighter dualwielding mix that still somehow managed to get through the OC, and from all the mistakes I made I gradually realized what the problems were ("'Oh, my spell failed because I can't wear armor? OK."). I'd suggest to let her play a (human) bard first, which are really nice overall characters I've found that introduce you to a bunch of abilities. They can cast, buff and fight pretty well and they can use almost any item, so if you find scrolls you can explain what they do and she can use them when she feels it's the right time.

I got to admit though I never had to introduce anyone to D&D, so this may in fact be the very worst way to go about it. :lol:

[*Lutemasta]

NEIN NEIN NEIN
WE HAVE TO MAKE IT STRICT AND HARD FOR HWEEER
NO EXPECTIONS NEIN NEIN NEIN
SHE NEEDS TO LEARN RP DISCIPLINE
((jk btw xD))
Id suggest showing her around , telling her what she needs to know most about the race/class she wants to play , making a concept for her char with her together
Like telling her about the divine caster classes if she wants to be a human druid or something
And the humanoid races etc.

[*Product of Void]

Make her character simple, most women I know do not CARE about mechanics and find it confusing as hell.

I would suggest Pure fighter or a warlock.

lay out what to do level by level.

as for rp, just toss her in let her know that its like being in a play.