Best Practices for Teaching New Games?

[squirmonkey]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to ask what the community's thoughts are on this. I'm thinking of running a game of Avatar Legends on the site soon. The game isn't super popular, so I'm expecting to have players who are interested in the game that have no familiarity with the rules.

What I'm wondering is how I should go about teaching the game. To what degree is it reasonable of me to expect players to buy the book, or to read excerpts from it that I provide? Is there advice on how much to teach before starting play? Are there rules about how much information I'm allowed to share (as opposed to telling the players they need a copy of the book)?

I appreciate your advice!

[Starflier]

I generally think that going through character creation is the best way to 'learn' a new system for players since it will touch on most aspects they will need to know (what's on their sheet). PbP is generally slow enough to give time to look up rules and discuss in OOC threads, so even if players don't know all the rules the format is forgiving. As to sharing, that's trickier because there are site rules governing that sort of thing.

As to buying the books, Avatar Legends is currently part of a Humble Bundle if they're so inclined to purchase it, along with some other games (the 29 item bundle).

[squirmonkey]

Ooh thanks for the tips! And for the bundle, I should get the ad up soon so that people can get that if they want it.

[zevonian]

If there are free and legal copies of a basic rules or players' guide, on a legit site such as drivethrurpg, you can post a link to that site/pdf.

Also, if you are using a system you know is rarely used here, consider looking through Players Seeking Games for recent threads from would be players interested in that system. Might be able to find someone to invite to check out your ad.