Finding That Perfect Game

After last month’s escapades I’ve been interested in setting aside a couple of games for my new brother-in-law. I’ve been ruminating on setting and play style trying to figure out how best bring him into the fold. I finally made up my mind; I’m going to be using the plot point campaign from Slipstream.

Why Slipstream?

Besides my personal nostalgia for the setting it lends itself to be a good starting adventure for newcomers, and a kid who has some serious attention deficit when something that is not a TV is front of him. As an added bonus the Slipstream campaign is setup to run like a television season, with small episodes and obvious stopping points. If he gets bored or generally wants to stop and do something else it’s easier to push him to the end of the episode before we finish playing.

It’s Easy to Understand

Well, kind of. The main premise is simple enough; you and your team will navigate a space ship from fragment to fragment looking for adventure. As an added bonus there are aliens, psionics, and a big nasty queen to rebel against. All perfect for an angsty teen to vent his frustration against, besides ray guns are awesome, and rocket ships are cool. The plot point campaign means I can focus on the players and not have to worry about crafting the story around them. It’ll focus my attention on making sure they are having fun, and teaching the rules as needed.

If All Else Fails, It’s Silly

I mean let’s be honest, we have ray guns space ships and you can breathe in freaking space; this is not a setting that should be taken seriously. I can take it seriously if needed, play up the grave wounds they receive; give some nasty descriptions of their enemies, it can happen. Though more likely I’ll be playing up how dashing the Heroes look as they cock a big grin; teeth gleaming from the ships lighting that happens to be perfectly placed. How they make it all look so effortless and so gosh darn awesome.

What setting would you use to introduce a new group of players to roleplaying in general or Savage Worlds specifically?