I've been DMing for a couple of years, and I have this recurrent problem. My players are now quite experienced, they know the rules, they know how to play. Every once in a while, we invite someone to play with us (or a couple of people).
When we invite someone new, we describe the classes available, their playstyles, how the game works. A great majority of the people decide they want to play a caster of some sort (I get the appeal). However, even at level 1, casters have a high skill-cap. Even experienced friends of mine didn't quite get the spells known / spells prepared / spell slots / arcane focus nuances. In practice, this makes the new player go for 2 hours of character creation, which mostly turns them down from playing. Not many people enjoy spending so much time reading something for a game they're not sure they'll enjoy.
To overcome this, I've done a couple of things:
- Help them build their characters, step by step, keeping it simple when necessary, and allowing them to customize when I feel its important (weapon or spell choice, for example)
- Eliminating some more complex mechanics (like spell components)
These work, some times, others not. When they do, if the player sticks to the table, i eventually introduce them to the full rule set. Another idea I had, but haven't tried yet, is to have some pre-prepared character sheets for lvl1 and lvl3 characters.
Are there any recommended good strategies to invite new players to a table, without overwhelming them with so many rules regarding character creation? I hate to see new players feeling bored and turning away from the game just because of the high learning curve.
PS: I'm asking this for D&D 5e, but I'm sure the question will fit in other tabletops of the genre, so maybe the tags can be improved?
