I am nowhere an advance player, or an experienced DM, but I wanted wanted to give my son the opportunity to play. I was talking to a coworker about how my wife and son are both enjoying D&D. We reminiscent about our childhoods playing, then she said how her husband wanted to play too but couldn't find a group. Now, it comes out that im hosting a session with her, her husband, my wife, my son, and I.
I AM NERVOUS!
What if I'm not good? What if they don't have fun? This is the first time that my wife is meeting them. My wife is very anti-social, and some might ever call her a *****. What of they don't get along?
Remind yourself of this fact: Nobody ever was as good as they were going to get at DMing when they weren't experienced. Be patient with yourself and give yourself time to actually learn as you go, and remind yourself that anyone else not being similarly patient with you is being unreasonable.
What if they don't have fun?
Put in your best effort at facilitating a good time, and don't hold it against yourself if your best effort wasn't a complete success - it's a waste of energy to stress over something you can't do anything about.
You can do a few things to help increase the chances that everyone has fun, the simplest and most effective of which is to take some time before diving into building characters and starting playing to have a conversation with the whole group of participants. Find out what ideas and themes each are interested in, and what sorts of things each would have their fun reduced by if they were part of the game-play experience. Use that information to shape the characters being built, and the campaign they'll be a part of.
Focus on the things your group like, and minimize the things that get in the way of their fun.
This is the first time that my wife is meeting them. My wife is very anti-social, and some might ever call her a *****. What of they don't get along?
My other half is also predisposed not to meet new people... but we do it anyway from time to time. There's really nothing for it but to get together with folks and see how it turns out, and try to go into it looking to have a good time (putting yourself in the mindset of "I plan on having fun tonight" instead of something like "I hope these new people don't suck" is a difference maker, in my experience).
And if you find out that they don't get along? That's far from the end of the world - there are like 7.5 billion other people on the planet, so not getting along with a couple of them doesn't even rate as a statistic. Just go on playing with your wife and your son, and maybe poke around a bit to see if any other friends of the family or relatives are interested in trying out the game.
Ok so I'm going to offer some advice but I must insert the caveat that I'm not married and whilst I was engaged marrage and being engaged may be very different so I may very well be talking nonsense
Firstly make sure your wife knows this is happening. Read her in on what kind of a person your co worker is. If she is prepared she may be less prone to being anti social. Remind her it's supposed to be a fun night for everyone including her.
If your worried your wife won't get on well with everyone perhaps you could talk to her first. Ask her to be patient or at least to give you a signal if it's not going well for her. Then maybe you can take her aside see what the issue is and prevent her from acting anti social
Also if it's at your place then get her to help you with the snacks maybe if she feels involved from the start she'll feel happier and therefore less anti social
For this first rpg I'd suggest you make all the characters and their personalities and do it so that they all like each other before hand. Try and prep the table for pcs vs npcs drama not pcs vs pcs drama.
I realise I'm possibly putting more on you than you can handle making pcs as well as everything else so sorry about that
Also I'd like to point out that I'm trying to offer concrete solutions and I'm not trying to insult anyone. I realise what I just posted might come across as insulting but I'm trying to help so I'm sory if it comes across any other way
The cool thing about 5e is that it is a lot easier to DM than a lot of other editions/games. All you really need is a base understanding of the rules, and I find it's actually not too hard to adjudicate on the fly with what makes the most sense. I'm honest with my players when I'm not sure of a certain ruling, and I'll say "Well, this makes sense, so we'll go with it for now, unless anyone has a reason why it doesn't make sense." I say this with caution though, because I have a pretty reasonable group, but I understand how some players might be more prone to argue. I rely heavily on "Rule of Cool" (as in I reward my players' creativity), and I tend to let iffy results fall in the players' favor. I mean, I want to create a challenge, but I also want to see them make it to the end.
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I am nowhere an advance player, or an experienced DM, but I wanted wanted to give my son the opportunity to play. I was talking to a coworker about how my wife and son are both enjoying D&D. We reminiscent about our childhoods playing, then she said how her husband wanted to play too but couldn't find a group. Now, it comes out that im hosting a session with her, her husband, my wife, my son, and I.
I AM NERVOUS!
What if I'm not good? What if they don't have fun? This is the first time that my wife is meeting them. My wife is very anti-social, and some might ever call her a *****. What of they don't get along?
Remind yourself of this fact: Nobody ever was as good as they were going to get at DMing when they weren't experienced. Be patient with yourself and give yourself time to actually learn as you go, and remind yourself that anyone else not being similarly patient with you is being unreasonable.
Put in your best effort at facilitating a good time, and don't hold it against yourself if your best effort wasn't a complete success - it's a waste of energy to stress over something you can't do anything about.You can do a few things to help increase the chances that everyone has fun, the simplest and most effective of which is to take some time before diving into building characters and starting playing to have a conversation with the whole group of participants. Find out what ideas and themes each are interested in, and what sorts of things each would have their fun reduced by if they were part of the game-play experience. Use that information to shape the characters being built, and the campaign they'll be a part of.
Focus on the things your group like, and minimize the things that get in the way of their fun.
My other half is also predisposed not to meet new people... but we do it anyway from time to time. There's really nothing for it but to get together with folks and see how it turns out, and try to go into it looking to have a good time (putting yourself in the mindset of "I plan on having fun tonight" instead of something like "I hope these new people don't suck" is a difference maker, in my experience).And if you find out that they don't get along? That's far from the end of the world - there are like 7.5 billion other people on the planet, so not getting along with a couple of them doesn't even rate as a statistic. Just go on playing with your wife and your son, and maybe poke around a bit to see if any other friends of the family or relatives are interested in trying out the game.
And dont complicate things.
If they are new, then an adventure to find a lair of kobolds could be really fun :)
I'm not stupid. I'm just unlucky when I'm thinking.
Ok so I'm going to offer some advice but I must insert the caveat that I'm not married and whilst I was engaged marrage and being engaged may be very different so I may very well be talking nonsense
Firstly make sure your wife knows this is happening. Read her in on what kind of a person your co worker is. If she is prepared she may be less prone to being anti social. Remind her it's supposed to be a fun night for everyone including her.
If your worried your wife won't get on well with everyone perhaps you could talk to her first. Ask her to be patient or at least to give you a signal if it's not going well for her. Then maybe you can take her aside see what the issue is and prevent her from acting anti social
Also if it's at your place then get her to help you with the snacks maybe if she feels involved from the start she'll feel happier and therefore less anti social
For this first rpg I'd suggest you make all the characters and their personalities and do it so that they all like each other before hand. Try and prep the table for pcs vs npcs drama not pcs vs pcs drama.
I realise I'm possibly putting more on you than you can handle making pcs as well as everything else so sorry about that
Also I'd like to point out that I'm trying to offer concrete solutions and I'm not trying to insult anyone. I realise what I just posted might come across as insulting but I'm trying to help so I'm sory if it comes across any other way
The cool thing about 5e is that it is a lot easier to DM than a lot of other editions/games. All you really need is a base understanding of the rules, and I find it's actually not too hard to adjudicate on the fly with what makes the most sense. I'm honest with my players when I'm not sure of a certain ruling, and I'll say "Well, this makes sense, so we'll go with it for now, unless anyone has a reason why it doesn't make sense." I say this with caution though, because I have a pretty reasonable group, but I understand how some players might be more prone to argue. I rely heavily on "Rule of Cool" (as in I reward my players' creativity), and I tend to let iffy results fall in the players' favor. I mean, I want to create a challenge, but I also want to see them make it to the end.