>Want to get into D&D with friends >Got the starter

>>52280240
Sounds doomed to fail already.

>>52280252
^^^^^

>>52280240
most the stuff in it is for the DM. You can easliy study up and teach them as they go. Although they will have to read for character creation stuff.

>>52280240

They sound like they don't care. Did you have to do any persuading at all? Have you managed to convince yourself they're interested when really they were just humouring you?

Honestly, either way things don't look good. If they can't even be fucked to read the rulebook then I can't see any effort being put into playing once the game starts either.

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>>52280240

http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop/players-basic-rules

>>52280240
>Hello friends.
>I am excited about this game, and willing to learn all the rules and set things up.
>But none of that matters if you aren't excited to play and learn enough rules to do that.
>This will work better if we all put in some effort. Don't just say you want to for my feelings, it will actually suck more later if you do that.
>thank you friends

Players have to be into it, but honestly a good DM can make even the worst cynic interested.

I've ran a few sessions with full new player parties. The first one was a complete disaster, but the rest were pretty good.

Probably 3 most important tips (speaking from experience):

1. Skip character creation. Noobs don't get it, so just introduce it gradually later on. Instead make premade archetypes (stronk barbarian, holy cleric etc.) and ask the players what kind of guy they want. Skip skills, alignment, personality, profs, items and story until later.

2. Control the game. Had an idiot execute every enemy npc before they could be interrogated. The other players didn't do shit to stop him, so I made a downed bandit cut off his right hand. The story could progress after that and he didn't mind.

3. Engage everyone early. Just pre-write the first fight to let everyone have a moment of glory and feel like a hero.

Some other shit that helps:
>know rules inside out but don't expose players to the nitty gritty until they are into it.
>use lots of visual aid like character portraits and landscape scenery
>introduce concepts gradually - start by letting them find an item, then let someone learn
>force the players to make hard decisions
>use audio - tabletopaudio.com

tl;dr - engage players early, keep rules simple, introduce rules gradually

>>52280268
Yup. If you sum up all the reading for pen 'n paper RPGs, its like 75% of the reading is for the DM.

>>52280240
>Is it even worth it since they're so passive about it, despite them saying they'll play? I suck at explaining games

They aren't even willing to basically take the first initial step to playing the game.

What makes you think they'll actually commit to the act of even playing the game itself?

>>52280240
it's a rough life when you're friends just want to lay overwatch and world of warcraft and they don't enjoy your tastes one bit even when you secretly think theyre plebs and you like good movies music and social games they never seem to care about and they call you an evil fascist because u dont like jews and talking about the flavor of the month shit from hjollyweood and game informer and always project their insecurities onto you and flake out all the time

>>52281357
amen anon amen

>>52281161
This. Set up characters for them. Explain what the stats do. DM and be both clear in what stats they need to use and who each npc is talking to. Engage everyone

There should be some premade character sheets from 1st to 3rd level you can print out for 5th Edition on the Wizards of the Coast website if that helps with what other advice Anons have offered.

That in mind. Tell us what happens. Here if the thread persists long enough or in a new thread.

I was in the same situation. Ended up teaching them the ropes I knew so far while creating their characters with them, took us the whole evening.

Then during actual play I just let them play to their hearts' content, we played it with how we understood things and when there was something that was entirely foreign to us or overlooked because of us not thinking of it we just winged it and rolled with it, making some narrative around it.

Led to our Monk clearing an entire room with some spinning-while-moving attack that we had hit way too many times without realizing.

That was only a one-shot, really, and nowadays I learned the game properly by playing with experienced players as my core group and am DMing a campaign with many of the original guys that we just started out with.

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>>52280240
It was decades ago when I first started role-gaming, and the approach to the game was rather different back then, but I handled all the rules and rolled all the dice myself. Your players don't really need to have more than a vague idea of the rules in order to play. The biggest sticking point to this is casters, since their spells are rather specific in their effects, which can't be gleaned from real-world knowledge, and as they level, casters get quite a diversity of spells. Still, casters start off with few spells, and even if it takes more know-how to play one, you still don't need to know all the particulars of the crunch.

Anyway, you might want to start off with a simple RPG that's easy for you and them to grasp. Check out Barbarians of Lemuria for a full-length game with minimalist rules, or maybe do a few-page, ultra-light game like in the pic if you really want to make things easy on yourself. You can always move on when you've picked up the basics of role-playing, and the stuff you've learned from the rules of the ultra-light game can be a stepping stone for coming to grips with more complicated games.

>>52281161
>2. Control the game. Had an idiot execute every enemy npc before they could be interrogated.
This is why I find it very useful to have an NPC in the party to be the voice of reason. The character tends to fade into the background most of the time, and is usually a bit weaker than the PCs, but when the players are doing something really stupid or are missing something obvious, the NPC can come forward and say "Um... guys? Have you considered...."

>>52280240
Trust me. I was in the exact same scenario. DO NOT EXPLAIN THE RULES in a mundane way. What i did (and turned out perfectly) is learn the rules, read the phb, download an official pdf if u must, and check out WASD20 On youtube "how to play dnd"

You should run a very short and very railroaded game without any character creation.. just throw them in the deep water and explain the rules one by one as they appear in game.

Explain how the game consists of 3parts, you set the scene, they interact, the dice and you decide

In your quick tutorial scenario touch on moving, interaction with npc, a few skills (like persuation and perception) how saving throws work and finally very simple combat. Only after this introduce them to cantrips and how the spell slots mechanics work. If they understood the tutorial, you are good to go.

Now you can ask them to make their own characters. Dont do it for them, trust me........

Gl OP

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>>52280240
There is a real strong feeling on this board that people who don't read the books and learn the rules are automatically bad players and people to be avoided. In my experience this is not really the case. A lot of the best roleplayers I've played with over the years never read through the books or make characters on their own, and they may take a long while to really learn the rules of a new system. This doesn't prevent them from being engaged in the story, from developing complex and interesting characters, and from acting in character and being creative and entertaining players.

At the same time, many of the most technically knowledgeable gamers are the worst role players I have ever met. They are pedantic rules lawyers who frequently slow down the game arguing about minor mechanics issues, and they are often creatively hidebound, finding it difficult to come up with interesting characters or play them well, and paying so much attention to the crunch that they completely fail to follow through on the story.

There are different types of players who have different strengths and weaknesses. Just because they are not interested in or good at one aspect of role playing does not automatically mean they are useless. Give them a chance to get into things before you start writing people off.

>>52280240
If you are talking 5e, then you can do it.

Build character sheets that let them know what they need to know. There really aren't that many rules that a player needs to know and they will pick it up as they go.

I've done it before and it has worked out. They are your friends? Like actual friends? Give it a try.

Just ask them what they want to do, and then tell them what to role and why. They will get it.