Musings #2-2: Potential new players - What do they need to know?
So you’re talking to some potential new players. What information do you need to share with them? Other than:
1. What’s the general idea/plot behind your game?
Pretend your overall plot is a movie, and you’re writing the two-three sentence summary that might be found on an IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes page. Really broad strokes here - but enough to have some intrigue.
For example:
“Flight of the Valkyries features young adults hailing from Thealla, a peaceful avian nation above the land of Relis. One day, their lives are changed forever when they are pulled into brewing conflicts of surface-dwellers.”
Featured in that example includes the premise, the setting, and just enough information to build intrigue. Note that you need not have every small detail planned of your campaign. These are enough!
2. What system are you running/what genre is your game? Sometimes genre and system go together; for example, Dungeons and Dragons/Pathfinder are generally associated with medieval fantasy, while Starfinder is associated with galactic adventures. Though, genre is not limited by system. Horror and Adventure are more general terms for genre that can exist in any system.
An example you might include in your game description is “Flight of the Valkyries is a fantasy adventure that utilizes Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition.”
Knowing what system you are running, plus the genre, can help you find interested players who share your interests, and also help players search for games that will match theirs.
3. How will you meet to play, and how often/long do you expect your games to be?
You may not actually figure this out until you get your group, which is entirely OK. However, sometimes having this information can help both you and interested players find the right fit. An example of this for offline games:
“Flight of the Valkyries will aim to meet once a week at the University Community Centre. Meeting day and time can be decided once we get the group together and compare schedules. I’m hoping each session can be about 3 hours in length but we can discuss among the group.”
Or, for online games:
“Flight of the Valkyries will meet monthly on Roll20. Dates and times are flexible. Aiming for about 3 hrs per session but we can discuss among the group.”
So, remember to cover, even if you haven’t figured it out yet, meeting frequency, location, date and time, and duration of games. It’s completely fine to indicate that you can work it out with the group.
In summary, after you’ve schmoozed people with the great parts of tabletop and are looking for players, people need to have an idea of what your game is about, what genre and system you are running and what the time commitment will/may be.
This will help you and potential future players find the right gamers/game!
What other pieces of information do you give potential new players? Feel free to reply or message me, I would love to hear your feedback.
On the next musing, let’s talk about Logistics and Preparing for the First Session.
Until next time, cheers!