.png)
My wife has been trying to force me to attend a "Clue" party in the near future. In this type of party, each person picks up a persona and the game of Clue is somehow acted out in such a way that by the end of the party you know the murderer. I don't know exactly how it works... but it sounds a lot like live action role playing. In hopes of dissuading her, I tried to explain how she was plunging us both into the world of LARPing and I showed her a clip from Mama's Boy to emphasize the path she was starting down.
It didn't work. In the end, I agreed... on one condition. "If you force me to be a LARPer, you have to play D&D once for every LARP-party you make me attend." I don't think she liked it too much, but she conceded. It isn't that she hates gaming. She plays Magic: The Gathering with us pretty consistently and she's becoming more and more a Wii nerd every day. Its that she claims she has no creativity or imagination. How do you argue against that?
Now I'm stuck trying to figure out the best way to introduce her to the game. I know I'll use 4th edition (because the goal is getting her interested enough to play with the rest of the group and that's what we've been using lately). I'll probably use pregenerated characters (go Character Builder!). Beyond that I'm undecided. Perhaps a pretty linear dungeon with a few monsters, a few traps, and a simple skill challenge?
In any case, I've got some time to ponder because the "Clue" party doesn't look like it will happen too soon. For now, I just want the community's opinion.
Have you ever attempted to get your non-D&D (but gamer-friendly) significant other into D&D? What was successful? What failed miserably? Any funny stories?
Taichara just posted a microdungeon over at his blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://hamsterhoard.blogspot.com/2009/02/microdungeon-understudy.html
And Chgowiz has been posting regularly about a solo D&D game he's been running for his wife, who is a gaming newbie:
http://oldguyrpg.blogspot.com/search/label/solo%20game
I've tried to get two SOs into gaming myself--one successfully, one not so much. Unfortunately, the one that "didn't take" also came into the experience claiming she "lacked imagination". Obviously that's just a mental block, but how to get around it can be tough. I can't really offer any personal advice other than try to cater to their interests in terms of what you include in your adventure design. The fact she plays Magic is a good first step, especially if she does themed decks or has particular favorite cards.
I'd suggest NOT going with a simple linear dungeon. If you're doing a one-on-one game, dungeons generally don't work well.
ReplyDeleteThe best one-one-one game information I ever read came from a thread on the Wizards of the Coast forums: Lessons from DMing with my GF. Fascinating read - "Oakspar77777" is a fantastic DM with great advice on how to run games like this. It's written for a 3E game, but don't let that slow you down - the design philosophy is the same no matter what system it uses.
I suggest that you just leave you wifey alone about the whole D&D thing, and just attend the "Clue" like party out of love for others.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, I am sure a lot of thought and hard work is put into one of those parties.
Get over being a LARPer... because you LARP all the time anyway. You smell too, but that is another whole subject that we shouldn't get into on Blogspot.
I got my wife started on D&D by finding out what her favorite characters were in books that she reads, what her favorite movies were (and why), and what kind of interests she has in real life. I then adapted that to the game and ran with it.
ReplyDeleteMy wife is very intelligent and structured, and my initial thoughts were that she would want to do either a wizard or a cleric. What I found out though, was that she's actually an amazing rogue. What's that? A woman like stabbing people in the back? You're dang skippy she does.
It took a few game sessions with the rogue to find out what all she liked to do and how she liked to play and such, and then I suggested she pick up the Ranger. She took to that rather quickly as well, but missed some of the Rogue's attributes. So, enter the Scout (talking 3.5 here), which fit nicely into both niches.
I also found out that she much prefers playing without other people in the group. She doesn't mind running four characters of her own in a game, but she doesn't like other players.
In this situation, I would seriously suggest you forget about asking the community here and instead ask your wife. Find out what kinds of things she likes and stick it in the game. There's nothing wrong with actually taking one of her favorite scenes and putting that in the game either.
Thanks for all the great advice, all... except you, Valerie; you're too biased. :-P
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty familiar with her favorite books & movies already. Scenes is a little more specific than I would have thought. I'll put some thought (and questioning) into that.