Comment on “3rd Podcast”

I've encountered the problem of there being too much damn stuff for a completely new player to learn the first day. I think there's merit to saying "you're playing a fighter, roll the dice like this for your scores, here's some basic equipment and some gold if you want more, now play the game and if you enjoy it you can continue with this guy and/or make one of a new class".

And if they chose to make a new class character, that would be the one and only time I'd ever allow a person to transfer XP character-to-character -- then there's no incentive to stick with the fighter even if they don't want it. (not that there's much XP from a session or two, but new players in particular might get attached to even a small sum as being theirs.)

There's more than merit. I ought to be doing that. No beating around the bush -- I'm sure I've turned people off by turning char gen into a bunch of "now this, now that, now this" and that's my fault.

Typically the sticking points when I introduce newbies are 1) saving throws (since they're mostly "write-down-the-correct-target for your class/level" and thus just boring copybook work, and also because they just seem like EXTRA FIDDLY DETAILS to the uninitiaited) and 2) equipment which always takes forever. I know you are in favor of the "high detail introduction" where you throw the background info and the equipment table at newbies in rapid succession -- perhaps you could talk about why that works, since I can't imagine it being effective.