[Cat] Meredith's Big Night Out

[Caesar_X]

/i]



Any other comments or observations?  Have any of you played with non-gamers recently?






Any other comments or observations?  Have any of you played with non-gamers recently?

[Callan S.]

Hi,

Bit confused about the social configuration here -  girls only night? I don't know your real name and your internet handle seems male - your female?

[komradebob]

	Logged

Robert Earley-Clark

currently developing:The Village Game:Family storytelling with toys

[Caesar_X]

Callan, my name is Chris and I'm a guy.  I guess my comment was a bit confusing there:)

Robert, I think you are right about the "props".  But I'm confused by your comment about LARPs being a good entry point when they don't have any visible props that non-gamers would be used to.  Why would moving around and acting be any different than sitting at a table and acting?  Care to elaborate?

Chris B.

[komradebob]

Reposted from the related Story-games thread:

I think LARPS, even without props, are a good entry point for new players because they're closer to things they already know. In the case of LARPs, space to move around effectively becomes the important prop. In a ttrpg, the table is just something to sit at and roll dice on, lean on to write. In a LARP, it''s the Big Boss' table at the local Speakeasy, the living room is the hoity-toity gal's mansion, the deck is the yacht and the basement is the mad scientist's lab.

On top of that, even non-gamers do roleplay under the right circumstances. Watch what happens at an adult Halloween or Mardi Gras party. People will begin to act in-character, spontaneously creating vignettes as their characters. Sure, they'll drop in and out of character (unlike log-time hobbyists), but the basics are there.

I guess I'm saying that the tabletop, sans board or cards, are something that long term hobbyists can evolve to appreciating, but may actually be a little constraining and unfamiliar to new folks.

BTW, doesn't John Wick talk about playing Cat with kids and moving around the house to describe where the action is taking place, making it an almost LARP kind of thing ( or similar to The Nighttime Animmals Save the World where the players use the physical surroundings as inspiration for the story events)? Maybe it wasn't John, but someone else?

[Caesar_X]

On top of that, even non-gamers do roleplay under the right circumstances.

I would agree there, but the big difference here is that you are asking adults to sit down together and roleplay within a given set on constraints (i.e. character sheet, following the rules, rolling dice, etc.)  I think some things really helped me, such as the subject matter (it's a game about cats!) and my obvious excitement about the game and the geek cred that I have with them since they know I make games for a living.  If someone had bought the game "cold" and suggested running it with friends instead of say Poker or Settlers of Catan or Apples to Apples, it might have been a much harder sell.

Perhaps a game that was heavier on the board/card game elements and much lighter (at least initially) on the storytelling elements would make a better crossover game.  But that's only conjecture on my part.

On the positive side, several people have already emailed to say that they really enjoyed trying a new game experience and liked the in-game banter.

[komradebob]

Perhaps a game that was heavier on the board/card game elements and much lighter (at least initially) on the storytelling elements would make a better crossover game.  But that's only conjecture on my part.

I think that there's a really fine line involved no matter what. Any introduction almost certainly needs a touch-stone of familiarity of some kind.

I think sometimes designers are a bit afraid to tell, outright, new purchasers what to do. Which, in the sense that a new rpg design is most likely going to end up in the hands of long-term hobbyists rather than total newbs, may be a valid concern.

Do you think that if you'd taken a bit more designer type control that it would have ben easier or harder to introduce these folks?
By that, I mean things like:

More pre-game situation building, perhaps with pregens and even a bit of character roleplay advice?

Some kind of basic situation background handout.

Maybe a story "track" to show forward progress?

An end-game condition?

I realize that none of that stuff is built-in in Cat, btw. I also realize that your players seem to have really jumped in and got going. I'm thinking more of a general start-up procedure.

It sounds like your playes really took to the game, which is awesome-gives me warm-fuzzies ( which I suppose is appropriate in this case)

On the positive side, several people have already emailed to say that they really enjoyed trying a new game experience and liked the in-game banter.