Hey, check out this thing I play...

[MarkMeredith]

Okay, this may be the wrong forum to post this in. Sorry if it is.

How many of you have taken one of your Non-Gamer friends, and slowly, ever so slowly, converted them over to gaming? I'm not talking about your Anti-gamer friends, just ones that didn't seem to care either way.

Mine happened about 6 years ago. I was in high school. I was working on building the set for a play at school. One of my barely-aquaintinces was working on the set too. Somehow Star Wars came up. As we talked, I realized "hey, I've got a gamer here". Slowly, week by week, I got her more and more fascinated with Star Wars, then... I sprang the trap.
I told her, "hey, I've got this game called the Star Wars Role Playing Game" Of course, by then she was really liking star wars, so she instantly wanted to know what it was. I explained Roleplaying to her, with the best analogy for an actress: Roleplaying is like a play that you write as you go. She was hooked. We played the next week, and within two weeks, I had a campaign underway, her as a Jedi with revenge problem. Bwahahahaha!

Anyone else?

[Allan]

sure.  In my art school dorms, I had a mixed group of friends who all watched Sailor Moon together.  The show sucked, but we were all into it as camp, and it gave us a common point of reference.  Everyone knew I was into roleplaying games, and we talked about it, but none of us (especially the girls), wanted to get into anything too heavy or complicated.  We started doing a regular, freeform group storytelling session, with me as GM, everyone else playing characters.

I was systemless, everything worked or failed by GM fiat.  This did cause some problems, I was justly accused of favoritism for giving my girlfriend's character a cooler backstory and arch-nemesis.  But overall it worked very well.  We followed the Sailor Moon plot structure, so everyone knew when the villains should die and when they should escape (Like your Star Wars fan, shared reference helps).  The non-gamers were really imaginative and descriptive.  That campaign was my best roleplaying experience.

Some of those players (especially the girls) became the first and most influential playtest group for Sweet Dreams.  None of them roleplay anymore, but I blame geography.

I designed The Big Night as an intermediary step between freeform storytelling by GM fiat and roleplaying in a system.  My non-gamer friends enjoy it in occaisional small doses at parties, but I've yet to convert any of them into regular gamers.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Mark, tell us a lot more about the specific role-playing events - how it went, what happened, and so on.

Many, many people who frequent the Forge make a point of playing with folks just like you describe. But we need a definite and detailed touchstone of your experience in order to discuss it.

Best,
Ron

[MarkMeredith]

My Padawan (I call her that because I taught her how to sword-fight) was one of the best Roleplayers that I ever had play. Her character was a young Jedi who's master was killed by the Black Sun Crime Syndicate. She was constantly in struggle between seeking revenge, and following the Jedi Path. It seems like the best Roleplayers are the ones who aren't career gamers.

[LandonSuffered]

In answer to Mark:

Yeah, I have in the past, and I'm getting ready to try it again.

In college (circa 1993) I was asked/jumped into putting together a Vampire campaign for 7 folks (not counting myself), only 3 of which had any kind of experience with gaming.  Unfortunately, I was a subconscious Typhoid Mary (using Forge-jargon) and certainly had a pre-conceived idea that non-gamers would need to be "taught how to play."  Of course, it turned out that the non-gamers were by far the most creative of the group, and invested the most (creatively and emotionally) into their characters (probably from not having a gamist/D&D background).  But I was unable (or ineffectual) at working so many alternate story lines into my own story...and I bowed out (and the group dissolved) after only three or so game sessions (also, I started dating one of the non-gamers!).

Anyway, in hindsight, it wasn't that difficult to get folks into the game.  The gamers had non-gamer friends who were interested in the same ideas (gothic exploration, in this case), and it didn't require much "stealthing" to get them to play "let's pretend."  MY failure, as I see it, was really two-fold:

- failing to have a theme, NOT just a "cool setting," "cool NPCs," and "cool backstory/fiction" would have lended focus and direction to the game, and a framework in which folks could explore instead of railroading/force to get all the different story lines to "mesh" (a major headache for me as GM)
- failing to tap the non-gamers as a resource, utilizing their creativity.  Instead I tried to "teach them" (with was worthless and patronizing in the end), and "validate" their stories (by working them into my own ego-driven one)

Now that I'm older (and I hope wiser), I've decided to get back into gaming and my current friends (and spouse) are non-gamers.  I don't hope to introduce them to something as hardcore as Sorcerer right off the bat, but have instead picked up a deck of Once Upon a Time to introduce at our next "game night."  Depending on how they take to that, I plan on moving on to InSpectres, and other story-based, limited investment RPGs (Maelstrom or OTE, perhaps) to scope their comfort level.  I would much rather game with my current friends then post notices at the local hobby shop.

[FarFromUnique]

I ran a game tonight, for the first time, with a group of table-top virgins. what I found was that, while they all had ideas of what the wanted to do in-game, none of them (with one exception, who had LARP'd) felt okay doing... anything. As a way to combat this, and also to get the game going, I put in a fully-built PC, and stepped down as GM for a bit. It worked, because my character acted more as a stereotype (this is what a character can do) and less like a GM (This is what you should do). I also got the impression that, when I took up a PC, my players realized that I was not "too good" to play, and they opened up a bit. Of course, this is pure speculation, but it feels right.
I'm glad to have had the experience, and think I would rather play with this kind of convert than with career gamers, because they don't fit stereotypes very well. They make up their own rules. Which, in my mind, is good.

[Sacha]

During my first year at University, probably the second term so I'm talking 1991/92, I was spontaneously asked to run a game of AD&D for a bunch of people who had little or no experience with RPGs.

We had spent a pleasant afternoon in a friend's room watching the animated LOTR movie on a small, portable television. The atmosphere of escapist fantasy must have permeated the room because I was suddenly accosted by 5 individuals declaring a sudden desire to try this roleplaying thing they knew I was into.

I was taken aback but couldn't deny such overwhelming enthusiasm. Also My gaming had suffered due to a poor RPG society populated with munchkins and effete snobs. I ran back to my room, scooped up my AD&D books/floorplans/miniatures/dice and hurried back to my friend's halls. Within half an hour we had created characters and begun an adventure which I concocted on the fly.

Everyone loved it and developed a keen fondness for RPGs. I ran what became a campaign and over the coming years I introduced my friends to other systems with equal success. What struck me as brilliant was the fact that these guys threw themselves wholeheartedly into the game. They were talking in character amongst themselves and exploring every last nook and cranny of the game world that was presented to them.

Whenever I suffer a case of GM burnout I often reflect on this experience and remember the magic and sense of wonder that RPGs can create.

Cheers,

Sacha