"Best for introducing multiple new gamers at once?" Topic

What would you consider the best rules, period, scale, scenarios etc for introducing five or six new players to miniature wargaming at the same time?

They all play D&D and other RPGs so dice, tables, etc are not off putting.

I play mostly solo historicals so I am not familiar with what works best for group games, hence my question here.

I run lots of demo games of X-Wing Miniatures at non-gaming specific conventions. Skip the upgrade cards except maybe for some Proton Torpedoes, and it's very easy to teach to a group of new players.

I would think a fantasy game would be the logical progression from D&D; or did you want it to be purely historical?

Song of Blades and Heroes. Light weight, easy to teach, and it goes well with their existing D&D experience.

Horse and Musket era. Maybe 7YW because you can do a credible battle with just 3 unit types.

Rules? Something simple. I prefer old school like Don Featherstones rules from Wargames.

Song of Blades and Heroes would be perfect for this. But I would get them playing one vs one games to begin with, so get a small warband for each player and pair them up to play two or three games.
If you want them all to play in one game that will be more difficult, as many games slow down with more players so it might not be the best introduction to miniature wargames.

Introduction to Wargames ……. rules by Neil Thomas. Pick your period…. battles or skirmish.

Ask them what their interests are and try to set up something like that.

The rules matter a lot less than the subject matter. Are they interested in a particular style of gaming? If they all think "wargaming" means Saving Private Ryan, then putting on another fantasy game might not really work and vice versa.

Anything can work for group games, so I think you need to find out what they are interested in. There are a few sets (x-wing, sailing ships, WW I airplanes, WW II airplanes) that come with pre painted figs so you can get a jump start on gaming. Do they want to game battles or do they want to stay with a more RPG/skirmish theme and have Old West gunfighter type adventures, small unit WW II actions, etc?

Dear Dave

First and foremost

Be nice to them.

The rules are unimportant, the scenario and period are unimportant though they will have to be moronically simple. The most important thing is to be nice to them.

I use very simple rules for my 18th century game "Oh God! Anything But a Six. The whole thing is 12 pages long, single spaced two sides. About a third of that is rules for campaigns. All illustrations, artwork, diagrams rules, and art must fit into that. When I give this game at a convention I tell everyone that I will spend about 15 minutes going through the rules (actually takes about 12) and we will start. i will do the first turn slowly and nursemaid you through each process. After that you'll be on your own, and by turn three you'll be playing like experts. That's exactly what happens.

However the key is kindness, being nice to them, nursmaiding them through rough spots, and by turn three I'm no longer needed.

The game, for bringing people into miniatures gaming however is almost irrelevant. You aren't selling the game, you're selling the company they'll keep. If they like to be with you and your group, they'll come back because it's fun and it's a fun bunch of guys. If you're not a fun bunch of guys, you'll never see them again. They can get enough sturm und drang at work where they get paid for it.

It's always amazing to me how mean-spirited and unpleasant gamers can be to newbies, and then wonder why they never see them again.

tconvention

How about Mordheim for fantasy, or one of the newer "Osprey" rulesets such as Ronin for historicals?

Screw the fantasy! Go straight to the historicals! Of course, you can ease them into it with game systems based in Games Workshop such as Warmaster (ancients), Blitzkrieg Commander (WW2), Flames of War (WW2), or even Black Powder, etc.

Maybe a Western gunfight game. Give each player a "gang" of 5 figures or so and give each one a specific objective. I can recommend "Shoot and Skedaddle" and "Fistful of Lead" as good rules that are easy to teach. Both give a good, fun game.

X-Wing
Wings of Glory
Ogre/GEV
Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game (GW)
Space Hulk
HeroQuest or similar dungeon crawl game (you can get the rules legally as a free PDF from Hasbro's online customer service "Instructions" database, but you'll have to supply your own stand-in components).

If you want more of a battle than a skirmish, look at multiple basing games like Warmaster, Mighty Armies, HOTT, etc.. All are rather easy to grasp quickly.

If you're trying to stick with historicals, I think you need to play something that they have a familiarity with. That's probably something they saw on TV.

So, Small skirmish WWII, or Wild West, or Gladiators might be a good start. Then later you mention how it would be cool to have a big battle with hundreds of figures. See if they bite, then reel them in.

OSchmidt said it best…be nice to them…have fun! All the above suggestions for rules are good, but you really should stick to something you already know. There is nothing more off putting than a GM who does not know the rules. Keep the scenario small, simple, and challenging. Go with a period you are passionate about and it will hopefully infect them as well.

Dear Corporal Pat

Thanks for adding elements that are vitally important that I forgot. You have to have passion for the period otherwise you have no hope of infecting them with it. Small, simple, and challenging and passionate- that's the key. Even if they don't get the passion at once, it will leave in their mind the question "Why is XXX so passionate1"

One point on this, one of the best ways to show passion is to know the period and don't forget things like funny stories or a bit of humor. People may forget the modifiers of infantry having to walk five miles uphill both ways in a snowstorm" but they won't forget the jokes. Don't try to whowze them with facts about the Charleville Mod 67 as opposed to the Charleville 62, tell them about the people or the gossip. They'll remember that.

If they have fun they'll clamor for more.

Otto