Assessing your local rolegamers.
There are four distinct ways to determine exactly how good your local rolegamer crowd actually is.
Play a game set in WW2, run as if it was actual WW2 and not some stupid scifi aliens and Axis nonsense. See if any of the group actually have a clue what routine military operations look like.
If you notice anyone showing signs they actually have clue one about the military, secretly rescue them from rolegaming, and start them on the path of wargaming. Lie to them and say the group broke up or something
Spies and Espionage. Run a game of as close to credible covert operations as much as possible. If they insist on attacking anything without thinking, always resorting to fight vs flight, and think a grenade will always get answers. You might have the wrong game.
Scifi. If they actually expect all the stuff in Star Wars and Star Trek to have any real basis in fact, stop wasting your time, you have the wrong game.
If they think the game should look closer to Space Above and Beyond, you might have a chance. Proceed with caution.
Weed out anyone that can't wrap their head around time dilation in the absence of some form of space travel that removes linear movement restrictions.
Fantasy ala Dungeons and Dragons. This setting is the easiest to get into, because it isn't real, no connection to reality (sorry religious nuts, it's not evil, it's fake). The rules can be as arbitrary as the group wants, because, repeat after me, "it isn't real"
I find it is also the easiest to use with people new to the whole idea of rolegaming.
There are four distinct ways to determine exactly how good your local rolegamer crowd actually is.
Play a game set in WW2, run as if it was actual WW2 and not some stupid scifi aliens and Axis nonsense. See if any of the group actually have a clue what routine military operations look like.
If you notice anyone showing signs they actually have clue one about the military, secretly rescue them from rolegaming, and start them on the path of wargaming. Lie to them and say the group broke up or something
Spies and Espionage. Run a game of as close to credible covert operations as much as possible. If they insist on attacking anything without thinking, always resorting to fight vs flight, and think a grenade will always get answers. You might have the wrong game.
Scifi. If they actually expect all the stuff in Star Wars and Star Trek to have any real basis in fact, stop wasting your time, you have the wrong game.
If they think the game should look closer to Space Above and Beyond, you might have a chance. Proceed with caution.
Weed out anyone that can't wrap their head around time dilation in the absence of some form of space travel that removes linear movement restrictions.
Fantasy ala Dungeons and Dragons. This setting is the easiest to get into, because it isn't real, no connection to reality (sorry religious nuts, it's not evil, it's fake). The rules can be as arbitrary as the group wants, because, repeat after me, "it isn't real"
I find it is also the easiest to use with people new to the whole idea of rolegaming.