Last weekend, while getting together to play the Adventure Club adventure, we had the opportunity to check out a new gaming tavern. AFK Tavern bills itself as being the kind of place where you buy a drink, sit around a table, and play RPG games; it sounded like our kind of place. While, as the site says, they are undergoing stress testing and implementing fixes we found ourselves a bit unprepared to take advantage of playing outside of our own normal habitats.

I’ll admit it; I love pre-generated; pre-built; ready to unwrap on Christmas morning and play, games. I get excited to thumb through new settings, leaf through adventures, and muse over character builds. It’s a window into the mind of the designer, a glimpse at the true game they had in mind. What’s not to love [...]

We’ve all been there. It’s an hour till game time and you realize you’ve completely forgot to prep anything. You can’t cancel now everyone is already on their way, so what do you do?

Let’s face it as GM, or a player, you only have so many characters in our arsenal and not all of them need to be a beautiful and unique snowflake. And that’s OK.

The level of preparation for any given session varies. Sometimes you show up late, or forget your character sheet. Sometimes the adventure isn’t fleshed out. Maybe you haven’t considered what to do about food. These things happen, and to a certain extent are expected. But not today.

When you’re introducing a new player, you want it to look like everyone is on the ball. You want the game to run smoothly. It may be a lie, but you want the newcomer to think that all sessions are as awesome as this one. Let them find out the horrible truth once they’re already addicted. As such, whether as a player or as the Gamemaster, make sure you are prepared.

Bringing in a new player to an established group can be a big challenge, especially if the new player has never played an RPG before, but even if not. The truth is, roleplaying is very intimidating. Even as an experienced player, joining a new group or learning a new game can be a source of fear. I recently joined a game of Legend of the Five Rings, and found myself overwhelmed by the depth of an unfamiliar setting and the nuances of a new rule system.