This won't come as a surprise to most of you, but videogames and tabletop roleplaying games are two different things. As such, they end up doing things rather differently. But that doesn't mean they can't take lessons from each other. As roleplaying videogame series like WoW, Fallout, Mass Effect, and The Witcher have grown more popular, RPG-like elements have begun to invade other genres of videogames, to the point where players of popular first-person shooters find themselves spending skill points and leveling up their characters between matches. Videogame elements can work their way into tabletop RPGs as well, especially as more players enter the tabletop realm through the gateway drug of videogames. This can have mixed results - some say 4th Edition D&D was an attempt to make D&D more videogamey, and it ended up being the most controversial and shortest-lived edition since the 70s. But while there are many elements of videogames that would translate poorly to the tabletop, there
are lessons from videogames that we can safely bring to the table.
Tutorials
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| Call of Duty 2 |
Most videogames have a tutorial level - a soft introduction meant to allow new players to learn the basic rules and gameplay mechanics. Sometimes this takes the form of a literal training exercise, as in the above screenshot from Call of Duty 2, where Pvt. Vasili Koslov is practicing his
grenade potato tossing. But sometimes it is a short, low-stakes in-game mission that happens to lead the player through many of the common situations they will encounter in the game.
This latter type of tutorial is a great way to introduce new players to the game mechanics. Send them on a simple mission that exposes them to a simple combat, a skill challenge, and some diplomacy. For most people, it is a lot easier to learn through gameplay like this than to have the rules explained to them or to read it in a book.
