Hello there! I am wondering if there are some games that people can recommend that would get people into playing RPG's. I have played Mice and Mystics with my girlfriend and our friends, who are all coming to gencon this year! The girls seemed to like it but are not sure if they would be into traditional pen and paper RPG's. I have played D&D in the past but never had a group to play with on a regular basis, and my first RPG was actually Blackmoor at Gencon in 2009! So, are there any games at the con this year anyone could suggest, or just in general any games we could try out that might be a good intro in the RPG world? Thanks in advance!
Side note, we are signed up to do the True Dungeon at 10:24AM on Thursday, should be a great first event for their first time at GenCon!
Not to pimp my own game, but Exiles is actually a good RPG lite game. We are running events every day of the con.
You can check them out here.
Exiles plays fast, simple, and discrete, but like Mice and Mystics (which is an awesome game) it has a strong narrative focus and offers plenty of opportunity for RPG-like character development. We also have several mechanics built in to encourage getting into the spirit of the game and doing some role-playing.
Aside from Exiles, which stylistically might not be your cup of tea, there's plenty of other games that are good intros into RPGs.
You might want to consider some smaller-scale cooperative story-telling games like Fiasco, The Shab-al-Hiri Roach, or The Quiet Year. I'm sure there will be lots of people playing those games around the con.
I picked top The Quiet Year at Gen Con last year, and it has become one of my favorite games. Really fantastic.
If you are looking for more of a D&D style not-RPG, you could look into Super Dungeon Explore. It's like a boardgames version of a J-RPG video game. Pretty fun, and easy to learn. Soda Pop will have a booth at the con.
Of course, there's also some D&D board games, like Castle Ravenloft.
Space Cadets: Away Missions is another fun co-op narrative board game, released last year if memory serves.
You could take a look into Dungeon Saga by Mantic Games, who will also be at Gen Con and most likely running demos.
Dungeon Saga is a lot like Mantic's version of Hero Quest, which was always a classic way to get kids started into D&D back in the day ;).
Nascrag, the tourney or the charity event, is a great intro to RPG.
Roleplay heavy, rules light and a blast every time. They have multiple slots and 2 adventures this year. And they like generics. If you don't have a full party they will fill you in with others. I have friends that I me through their games years ago that I still look forward to seeing every year at the con.
Baldman Games does some introductory D&D sessions under the titles "Intro to Adventuring" and "DNDAL 5-01 Season 5 Preview." These are cheap ($4) short sessions that are very friendly to new players. They can give you pregenerated characters, so they don't have to make one. The expected levels are 1 and 2, so they will not feel out of place. You can also do it more than one time; there are five different miniquests in each event (it's probably the same five in each). Last year, each one gave a preset amount of experience so that if you do three of them, you'll get to level up.
--- If they want to try something with less of a fantasy theme, in past years Catalyst Game Labs has done free intro sessions to Shadowrun, a cyberpunk RPG, in the exhibit hall. Shadowrun is a bit more complicated of an RPG from Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, but the intro session will be easy to go through. And it give them the chance to try a different a different kind of RPG for free. Who doesn't like trying things for free?
My 'gateway' was the Wizards of the Coast D&D Adventure System board games. Now I get antsy if I can't play at least once a week.