When constructing a layout for my new game, I had a thought.  Does the first chapter always need to be character generation, or should it be world information?  In your opinion, what do you find the most useful when buying new games?  (This is to help me get my layout done, so I put it in this thread.  If I'm wrong please move it accordingly.)

I'm of the opinion that Chap 1 should be a very condensed introduction to the rules, so people know what their choices in Character Creation mean.

Dexterity of 6? Is that Above Average or Abysmal?

What are Consequences? Do I want a lot of them?

Hit Boxes? How do those work, and why are they linked with my Resilience?

Answer the basic questions. Quick intro to the rules, no more than 2 or 3 pages, then Character Creation.

The world info should be like 1 page total in Chapter 1..."Grim world of perilous adventure,", giving a basic overview of the the world and why players want to be in it...then off to chargen.

The first things I check when considering whether to invest time and/or money in getting a new game are:

• The character sheet can often tell a lot about what to expect from a game. E.g. probable complexity of rules, breadth of skills, number of game elements that are important enough to be on the sheet, etc.
• The core mechanic. Ideally this is briefly summarised in the introductory chapter. Even better if there's a handy rules summary at the back of the book too.
• Character generation. A quick summary is vital IMO. I don't want to have to read page upon page to work out if I understand and/or like how a character is created.  A handy explanation of the character sheet in this section (with a sample sheet shown)  is a bonus, ideally with a sample character already filled in.

I like the above information to be easy to find. This means I'll tend to look at the back pages first for the character sheet and/or a rules summary. If it's not all there, or if I'm sufficiently intrigued by what I find to want more detail, I'll visit Chapter 1.

As it generally takes me less time to get a basic grasp of the rules  than it does to get a reasonable understanding of the setting, there's good odds that I won't even look at the world information if any of the above unsell me on a game.

I think Chapter 1 should only have a few paragraphs outlining the key features of the setting. And please, no multi-page 'handwritten' in-setting fiction as the first contact with the game!

I think it should go straight to character generation. Even straighter than most games do, if I could have it my way.

My thought it that if I buy a book, I've either gotten hooked by the flavor text and art on the cover, or I've already researched the game online and know what's up. Additionally, I've already advocated the game to my play group, so everyone at my table already knows it's a "bronze age low magic romp" or a "one shot murder mystery on a train".

I neither need, nor want, the book to go over that again right at the beginning in excruciating detail.

What I want is a very direct "This is how you play", preferably divided into -

• Follow these specific steps to generate a character
• This is how you flavor that character (class, race, etc)
• This is how you resolve conflict in the game
• In combat
• non-combat

I picked up Barbarians of Lemuria, but had a hard time teaching it to the other people I play with because it wanted to spend so much time telling me all about its setting right at the beginning.

Likewise, when I first started playing Pathfinder, even though it didn't dwell on setting, it's character creation process was so fucking garbled that it took forever to figure out how many feats I had. =(

Quote from: Al Livingstone;600933And please, no multi-page 'handwritten' in-setting fiction as the first contact with the game!

If that were in an annex in the back, would it be less bothersome?  I personally love the sort fiction I find in some games, but I do agree it can cause problems if that is the entire beginning.

Introduction.

• what is the game basically about
• what are the main elements of the setting , if it has a default setting -  I am moving to games that are a genre and have a separate setting that is really an example of a setting you could have built using base game tools (class creation, monter creation , race creation etc)
• Overview of he primary mechanic and i like a unified mechanic
• Rough idea of char gen and options, point buy v random, skills versus classes etc

In my RPG, I start out with an example character statted in game terms, a small lexicon of special game terms used, and a primer on the rules. The idea is that all a new player needs is to read about 3 pages and they're ready to play. Then I go into more detail about the mechanics. Chargen is in the Appendixes.

Chapter 1 should be Synopsis and Quick Start Play.

Sell me why your world's cool, what I'm encouraged to do in it, and how quickly I can set it up.

This is probably a response from getting tired of reading Chapter 1 "What's an RPG?", WW fiction, Forge-y dissertations on the nature of play/zeitgeist/post-human dialectic, game mastery stat or setting vomitus, or how this RPG is "truly groundbreaking!" with "[number+many zeroes behind it] of STUFF!"

I'm older, more tired, and really can't be bothered to flip through pages of new stuff at the FLGS. It's why I default back to the old standby games so much. So tell me why it's cool, what's default play like, and how quickly we can all jump in.

Now I'll go stand in a corner and sport my crotchety face. "Get off my lawn!"
:pundit: