Their First Fudge Game
Say you have a few folks itching to try a new roleplaying game, and some have little or no tabletop experience. Just how do you avoid the common complaints which drive away most newcomers: that the rules are too complicated or that roleplaying games are "frustrating?" Read on for one gamemaster's take on introducing new gamers to Fudge...
Say you have a few folks itching to try a new roleplaying game, and some have little or no tabletop experience. Just how do you avoid the common complaints which drive away most newcomers: that the rules are too complicated or that roleplaying games are "frustrating?"
The first concern certainly has merit: the slender, stapled rulebooks from the late 70s and early 80s have today become 300 page technical manuals. While newer books contain more unified mechanics and better GM advice, their sheer size can be daunting for someone new to the hobby. It's also easy to see how a new player could find even a good game frustrating. If you didn't know what to do next, were railroaded into an undesirable plot, and your character died, wouldn't you just watch a movie instead?
Over the past year, I've been able to run several Fudge sessions with new players. I've done some things right, and I've messed up a lot. These experiences have led me to compile some thoughts about how to make a new player's first experiences simpler and (hopefully) more fun. Though you may have heard some of these suggestions before in various rulebooks, I've tried to tie them to the Fudge mechanics wherever possible. Most of these suggestions should be easy to adapt to any roleplaying system.
Simplifying the Rules
Character creation is the first place to begin streamlining. For a first game, I use five skills, ten hit points (Damage Capacity), and five Fudge Points. You can always add attributes, gifts, and flaws later. My skill list is only 10 to 15 items and I try to combine skills whenever possible. For example, in a space opera game, the skill "Aim" can easily cover both personal blasters and starship weaponry. For now, treat magic or superpowers like any other skill: opposing characters can use one of their own skills to avoid damage, capture or whatever. After players pick their five skills, they should rank them from best (Superb) to worst (Mediocre) and place them in the boxes provided below. Anything not listed is assumed a rank of Poor. The streamlined character sheet looks like:
| Name | ||
|---|---|---|
| Skills (Rank/Name) | Hit Points | |
| Superb | [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] | |
| Great | ||
| Good | Fudge Points | |
| Fair | [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] | |
| Mediocre | |
|
| Poor | X | |
| Terrible | X | |
To simplify even further, you can also use pre-generated characters. If you do, consider using archetypes. Most people get into the hobby to spend more time in their favorite fictional universe, so let them play Luke Skywalker or Buffy. If you want to run your own setting, you might model your original characters on familiar heroes. For example, in a superhero game, you might give the player their character sheet and tell them: "He's a grim martial artist out for revenge, a lot like Batman." This puts the new player on familiar ground and can help encourage them to think like the character rather than themselves. Pre-generated characters also allow the GM to balance out the group's skills.
Before play, be sure to buy or make some Fudge Dice. New players have no trouble understanding how to read dice marked with a black marker, but asking them to remember "Ones and twos are minus one..." only adds another layer of complexity. Before the session begins, do a quick sample roll to show players how to read the dice and determine their level of success or failure.
Another possibility for simplifying the game is to avoid modifiers, especially in combat. Instead of worrying about whether a pistol gives +2 to damage or armor gives +1 to protection, just use the relative degree of success. While this is more cinematic than realistic, most new players have no problem with it. For villains, simply decide if they are a Good fighter or magic user and leave it at that. If you find players are interested in continuing with Fudge and learning the system, add modifiers during your next session.
Avoiding Frustration
Many new players are unsure how roleplaying works and have trouble adjusting to the idea that their character can really try anything they'd like. To help them, think about the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. At the end of every section, they gave you two or three choices to move the plot along. Don't be afraid to do the same thing when players seem stuck. For example, in a horror or monster-fighting game, you might ask "do you want to take the hair sample home and look at it under your microscope, contact your friend over at the university's biology department, or do you have another idea?"
It doesn't really matter how they find out that the hair came from a were-gorilla, just so they know to use bananas in their trap. The third choice, "another idea," keeps players from being confined to just a few options. Consider rewarding even mundane ideas with a free Fudge point. This encourages new players to start taking the initiative instead of relying on the GM. I like to use bingo chips to represent Fudge Points, which makes the reward even more tangible.
Once players make their decisions, it is important that they do not fail consistently. While they shouldn't succeed continuously either, if they can't get through the adventure they are unlikely to return to the table. To avoid consistent failure in unopposed rolls, consider making all difficulty levels Fair. For new players, Fair is probably hard enough, and it keeps the GM more focused on describing events rather than setting difficulty levels. Even if a character is untrained in a particular skill (Poor), they still have about a 1 in 5 chance of success. Admittedly, setting all difficulties to Fair means that players with Great or Superb skills will succeed almost all of the time. However, that is what new players expect: a Great star pilot should be able to get the ship through the asteroid field without catastrophe. The players don't need to know that the difficulty level was only Fair: the GM can make the journey as suspenseful as possible ("Oh, you scraped the paint on that one!") I've formatted the chart from "Fudge in a Nutshell" to show the probabilities for achieving a Fair result at each skill level. If you do want to include some Good, Great, or Superb challenges, you may need to remind players that they can use Fudge Points to achieve very difficult tasks. Use this chart to assess the probabilities:
| Player's Skill Level | Chance of Fair | Good | Great | Superb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Superb | 98.8% | 93.8% | 81.5% | 61.7% |
| Great | 93.8% | 81.5% | 61.7% | 38.3% |
| Good | 81.5% | 61.7% | 38.3% | 18.5% |
| Fair | 61.7% | 38.3% | 18.5% | 6.2% |
| Mediocre | 38.3% | 18.5% | 6.2% | 1.2% |
| Poor | 18.5% | 6.2% | 1.2% | 0% |
| Terrible | 6.2% | 1.2% | 0% | 0% |
Of course, the ultimate type of failure is death. To avoid this, consider making your villains a little weaker than you might in other games. Use colorful descriptions to make them challenging. Give your Fair fighter NPC fangs dripping with saliva and a blade that looks like it could cut through dinosaur bones. If they ask for his rating, just look at your notes and say "This is trouble." Some other ways to make combat less deadly are:
- Eliminate wound levels (sometime called the "death spiral") and just use ten hit points. When they run out, the PC is unconscious until medical help arrives.
- Reward teamwork with a +1 bonus for each additional fighter (the FATE implementation of Fudge suggests this). This could be the group's first introduction to the concept of a modifier.
- Reward creativity by lowering the rating of the villain. If a player tried to throw a rock and knock the magic sword from the Superb villain's hand (and is willing to sacrifice some Fudge Points to succeed), bring the villain down to Good. (Hey, he was depending too much on that sword anyway).
A final way to avoid frustration is to keep first adventures short and rewarding. To keep the session short, use a problem that can be solved in a few scenes: call to action, find some clues, beat some thugs and get more clues, defeat Big Bad and save the day. Think half-hour action cartoon rather than fantasy trilogy. You can leave a clue dangling to entice them to come back next time, but try to have some closure to that first session. That's a reward in and of itself. Also, allow all players to increase one skill by one level at the end of the adventure. Don't worry about experience points and variable cost of raising skill levels. Many players will be used to "leveling up" from computer games and will appreciate the comparison.
Conclusion: Aren't You Stacking the Deck?
Yep. However, following some of these suggestions should increase your chances of getting players back for future sessions. As you go on, you can gradually start adding things like attributes, gifts, flaws, and wound levels to taste. I've even had players want to read the rulebook. As with all things Fudge, the suggestions in this article are possibilities, not edicts. Use the ones you like, ignore the ones you don't, and add your own. Here's hoping you find some brand new players across the table from you sometime soon.
