Today’s #newbieTuesday post is inspired by a play test we had this past Friday. The post is all about providing new players with the clarity they need on order of operations of the tabletop role playing game you’re playing at the table.
Oftentimes experienced players take for granted both the literal steps you take when you’re playing a story and the order within which you leverage those steps. Take, for example, a basic skill roll. An experienced player knows to declare the skill, explain how they’re going to use the skill, in many cases the GM/DM blesses the setup, and the player rolls. No problem, easy stuff.
But we have to remember that that order of operations is not necessarily intuitive to someone who is brand new to the table. We need to remember that, to them, a skill roll in and of itself is a new concept let alone the order within which it needs to be used. And not to mention the strategic and tactical implications of doing so.
So please do the new players at your table a favor and check in from time to time and make sure that they’re understanding the game mechanics and their implications. The faster they’re able to feel confident in how the interact with you at the table, the faster they’ll learn to love playing stories!