Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags

How to start playing tabletop RPG (step by step)

A topic by Luiz Oliveira | Rpgtips created Aug 02, 2021 Views: 507 Replies: 5
Viewing posts 1 to 3
(+2)

If you've made it this far you might be starting to get interested in the tabletop RPG hobby. So today I'm going to bring you here the main information you need to start playing tabletop RPG today.

In this article you will understand everything you need to do in order to start playing tabletop RPG. To put you in context, I'm an RPG player for over 10 years, so I know a lot about this hobby.

In addition, I produce daily content on this topic (in Portuguese) and I will leave here today my main experiences, which is what you need to be able to start playing ttRPG.


Start with the group

The first thing you will need to be able to start playing is to find a group and with that group you will start building your own stories. It's extremely important to know this, because roleplaying is a social activity, so it's going to involve other people.

Having said that, the first thing you have to do is find a group, either in person or an online group, since in the situation that we are in a pandemic, online groups have become great alternatives.

If you want to find an online group, there are several ways, including going to Roll20, which is an online role-playing platform, finding Facebook groups, etc.


Set the scene and system

Once you have the group ready to play, it's time of you choosing a scenario and a system you are going to play.

Know that there are hundreds of scenarios you can play, both set in medieval, futuristic and contemporary worlds, as well as various themes such as horror, fantasy, which involve action, various models and you will need to choose one for your campaign to be set.

You can check some ttRPGs to play here:

https://itch.io/search?q=tabletop+rpg


Choose who will GM

With a set scenario and system and with a group it's time for you to decide who will be GM and I hope you will be the game master, because all my content is more geared towards RPG GM.

So you're going to take and you're going to set someone to be the GM and the others will be the campaign players. Once you've got that all set, it's time to organize the adventure and then set up the first game session.


Time to roll the dice!

In the first session it is ideal that you start small. Don't try to show the entire RPG world to your players (assuming you're going to be the GM) right away.

Choose a specific spot, which could be a tavern in a city, and then start developing the adventure from there, showing certain monsters and environments that will be important to the story as a whole.

So, you go on turning and progressing in the story, generating more and more immersion because of it.

 

An important detail: You'll need a place

There's this detail for you to start playing tabletop RPG: You'll need a place to play RPG. If it's in person, you'll need to meet at someone's house, in some store in your city, so you can meet people to play.

If it's virtual, you'll also need to gather people to be able to play and usually I use a combo that is very common in the RPG community, which is to use Roll20 + Discord which is a communication app.

That way, the video, images and maps are in Roll20 and the audio is in Discord, which is this other specific application for making calls. So, you get a very good communication, with a lot of stability for your internet, even if you don't have such a good internet and you can explore a lot more of this resource that way, using this combo.

Therefore, you will agree with staff the time for you to meet, so everyone can, and this can be done through a WhatsApp group, as it is good that there is always a group to maintain communication, this is extremely important within the RPG, because you will have to set a day to finally meet and start playing.

Keeping rolling the dice

Once you find yourselves at this date and time, it's time for the game to begin! Usually the game starts with the GM speaking and introducing the campaign. You will see that in the campaign you will introduce the world, you will talk a little about the setting, where the characters are at that moment and put a starting scene so that the game can progress from it.

A quick example of early roleplaying game:

Players are in a tavern and suddenly a person comes into that tavern and starts asking for help. She is dressed in rags and a little bruised and carrying an object wrapped in a cloth in her arms. Players don't really know what it is and from there you ask one of the most classic and iconic questions in tabletop RPG: "What do you do?" or if you are a player the GM is introducing this scene.

From then on, decisions are totally free and that's what the great beauty of ttRPG is, it's all open. So players can choose to chat with the person, see what they have, take that package out of their hand, or simply ignore it.


Before starting to play table RPG there is a session zero

Important to also have a highlight in this article about section zero, which would be a section prior to this first session that I commented now to arrive and present an opening scene, which is a moment where everyone they will get together and talk about topics that can be covered in the game, topics that should be avoided, levels of eg violence, levels of Gore, points that some people are uncomfortable with, etc.

With that, you'll have more chance to please everyone and you can also talk to players about expectations with the game, if they want more combat, exploration or social interaction and you can put together a campaign that will be much more interesting for all players and therefore much more immersive.


Look for it to have good RPG games

To conclude, it's important to start already bearing in mind that in RPG you'll want to look for two things, either as a player or as a GM, but speaking mainly to DMs: Immersion and, through it, comes the fun.

So actually the big goal of RPG is immersion. You're going to want to make the players very immersed in the story so they can have fun and what makes that connection is the emotions, so as you awaken the players' emotions you make them much more immersed in the story and with that the whole set generates much more fun and of course a very well-crafted story if you follow the steps that I'm showing you here according to what you're following the content of RPGTips.


Gather feedback to improve your game

After you've done the entire first session, a game that usually lasts three to four hours, it's important to gather some feedback through questions like: "How was the game?", "What do you need?" improve?, "what did you like best?"

I guarantee that you will be able to get this kind of information to improve for the next one, always looking to increment and improve if you are the master. You should always try to improve your game because there is a maxim that I always say that if you play well, you can always play.


Start playing tabletop RPG!

That's it, now you have everything you need to start playing tabletop RPG today. I'll deal with other content, but I hope that with this you can start playing.

I hope I have also given an overview of what will be necessary for your journey and always count on me for any questions.

Follow me here to learn more about ttRPG: https://rpgtips.itch.io/

Leave your question about RPG in the comments of this post.

Thanks for reading!

play well, to play forever.

[This article was originally published in Portuguese on my website. Translated with the help of Google Translate].

(1 edit) (+1)

Going to share this with some friends who have been putting off jumping into this kind of thing for years.

thanks for taking the time to do this :)

Hey ArgondevilGuiderods, thank you for share!

(+1)

Nice primer! We have a group get together every Wednesday. While we've been doing it for quite a few years, wish we started it even sooner. Helps keep the creative juices flowing. Seeing play in a different perspective or just trying out new things  Tabletop is the mother of modern gaming, right?

Have fun and hope to catch some stories.

~Skunkie

Hey Punk Labs, nice to know that u play ttRPG too! What game do you play?

Currently playing Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition with quite a bit of house rules. Nothing particularly fancy, and basic conference calling and Theater of the Mind in terms of setup right now.