gaming for newbies

[joshua neff]

Not too long ago, a coworker of mine, Ryan, who I know plays RPGs expressed an interest in playing other stuff. He's only ever played D&D (& started that just this past year), & he wants to broaden his playing field. So, I invited him to play in my upcoming Adventure game. Last week, another coworker, Heather, expressed an interest in "learing how to play those games", so I invited her over to play a one-off with Ryan & Julie & me. I chose to run InSpectres, mostly because when I asked Heather what kinds of books, movies, & TV shows she liked, to try & get a handle on what kind of game she might click on, her answers were extremely broad & vague ("I watch all kinds of movies--pretty much anything."). And InSpectres is, let's face it, super-damn-easy to throw people into. (On the other hand, I feel bad using InSpectres as a default one-off game. It deserves to have a long run.)

Ryan's sole gaming experience has been with a GM that doesn't support the kind of Player contribution that InSpectres demands. And Heather had never done this before. Nevertheless, it all went swimmingly. There were a few times that, when a 5 or 6 was rolled, Ryan & Heather both stumbled & had trobule thinking of what to say, but since I don't have a problem with other Players giving suggestions, it didn't slow the game down. In fact, it was nice watching it be a communal effort as the entire group of Players contributed to a single dice roll response.

The InSpectres franchise was located in the middle of the town of Nowhere, Nevada. They were hired by an Air Force major to investigate strange giant footprints on the outside of the perimeter of a top secret Air Force base. It got progressively wacky & Dada from there.

Heather (playing the Contacts person): I ask the private what he knows about what's going on in the base. (Rolls a 6.)
Me: Okay, so what does he say?
Heather: Ummmm...
Ryan: Oh! He says the major is involved in a counterfeit jeans ring!
Heather: Yeah! He tells us all about it.

Through further play, it developed that the jeans were experimental black tech: they could change color to fit in with their surroundings, but they smelled weird. (Heather: "They smell like wet dog & cinnamon.") And while at first Ryan's science guy had determined the footprints to belong to a sasquatch (who had come to the desert for unknown reasons), he decided he didn't want it to really be a sasquatch, so he changed it in his confessional--it became a giant lizardman. It turned out the jeans were turning the wearers into giant lizardmen, one of whom went beserk just as the InSpectres told the flabbergasted major, "Well, you hired us to find out who was making the footprints, but not to do anything about it. Our bill will be in the mail. Bye!"

Great session, especially considering it was my first time running for a complete & total newbie. Evevryone seemed to have a lot of fun, so...success!

[Jared A. Sorensen]

It turned out the jeans were turning the wearers into giant lizardmen, one of whom went beserk just as the InSpectres told the flabbergasted major, "Well, you hired us to find out who was making the footprints, but not to do anything about it. Our bill will be in the mail. Bye!"

Well naturally...chameleonic technology taken too literally by some government egghead. :)