I am new to RPGs but I'm hooked, I am playing solo and am running NPCs, I have just foundout you can roll for stats on the fly for NPCs you encounter, this saves you writing out character sheets for everything you meet, I may be dumb here but I was creating cut-down char sheets for everthing, this is the workload that was putting me off, but now its a breeze.

Please add more tips to this list.

My next tip, is to tell new players to create a game on here, you learn the interface much faster, and you can keep it solo to test out things

My next tip is to watch youtube.com videos on character creation for your chosen game

My next tip, is if your new, try only an RPG you like the sound of, I joined an RPG about a story I wasn't fond of, and soon became bored, so look at games that interest you for your first game

Look on the net for interactive character sheets in pdf form, you don't need to print them , you can edit on the sheet.

buying a pdf version of your chosen RPG has some benefits, you can search for key words, you can copy snippets of text from it and insert them into char sheets or in chat. you can read them on a big screen, they don't get wet, you can buy online so no waiting.

join your first couple of games as a lurker, I was surprised on how a game actualy looked in text form.

one tip I should not give, but I cant resist its so good, but World of Darkness its possibly the best and easiest start you can get into RPGs. I would give it 10 out of 10.

Another tip: remember that you can edit your posts to add more information, so that you don't end up spamming a forum with numerous posts, one after another.

Because continuously pushing a forum back onto other users' sticky lists after they just cleared the marker a minute ago is a sure way to annoy people.

Don't just buy an RPG a read it from cover to cover, its the wrong thing to do, watch youtube on character creation to see how a game is put together then the book becomes a reference for thing like equipment or weapons or specific rules, you would not read a dictionary or a phone book, but you just need to find what your looking for. once you can play an RPG then read the full RPG book.

and another tip Lisen to the Moderators :)
This message was last edited by the user at 15:00, Sun 07 Aug 2016.

I'd respectfully disagree.  Reading a rulebook cover to cover (with the exception of lengthy lists of powers/spells) is one of the best things I ever did for any game I've ever played.  Even if I didn't remember everything about a rule, I usually remembered about where it was and where to look it up.  I had a better knowledge of the rules and how they interacted than my fellow players who hadn't done the reading.  I had a good grasp of all the options available to me.  And it gave me a ton of ideas, not just for making a character but also running a game.

Character creation videos on YouTube are extremely valuable as well, and there is a lot of very useful fan-made guides, but never underestimate the simple value of just reading what the game designers made for you to play.

When I first got the enthusiasm I read a stack of RPG books for one system , gamemasters guide, players guide, monsters guide. and it was a lot of effort, I didn't know what I was reading, it would of made more sense if I knew how an RPG game was designed first, I was totally new to RPGs and now I have the basics I can read them and they make sence. I'm not saying don't read them , I mentioned to read them at the end bit of my post if you look. I'm saying just understand an RPG before you read and read. I love looking at the RPGs now but as a total newbie with no help I got put off by the imence effort.

This isn't a tip so much as it's an opinion, though part of it is also technically wrong. WoD is trumped in ease-of-use by about a dozen systems (objectively speaking one could mention RISUS, BFRPG, Amber, and others) and then a variable number based on user (subjectively speaking I would mention FFRPG, Iron Kingdoms, and any of the WH40K systems). Now, this isn't to say your opinion is wrong when it comes to it being the best, because opinions are opinions, just that it's not objectively the easiest start you can get.


This is also technically an opinion, but if we're talking "time-savers" then it's sort of a gray area. Sometimes you don't know what you're looking for, or the book is written in such a way that it's more like reading a novel than it is reading a dictionary or phone book. It's also not wrong to do if you like reading systems that way, but it does save time, and it's not for everyone, so... I can't really disagree, in the end.

Otherwise, for tips of my own, you might also check out resources on this site when it comes to learning systems. There are things like pre-made character sheets formatted for this site to long discussions about different mechanics within specific systems. Talking to other people is often faster and more-comprehensive than learning by just reading. You should still read the books, but talking to people for clarifications is a beautiful thing.

When there are no Youtube videos available (which happens) - and even if there ARE videos, honestly - I recommend taking a look at the examples characters in the book somewhere (which there almost always are). As Isida said, see what the system expects from you rather than trying to figure out "what your numbers should look like" on your own. People play games different ways, and every individual game run on this (or any) site is going to have something unique about its expectations, but knowing what the core game expects from you is just as important.

Never be afraid to ask for something new. If you want a Mecha-style game, but you only know Pathfinder, ask people about other systems. Maybe you'll find something you love, and it's a lot easier than trying to convert a system into something it's not.