by Pargates

Related Item: Mausritter: Sword-and-Whiskers Role Playing

Hi, I'm interested in playing!

by NonaKnowsGames

An item RPG: Animon Story has been added to the geeklist RPGGeek 2026 New Player Initiative - Geeklist of Games!

by NonaKnowsGames

Related Item: Goons and Ghosts

Welcome aboard. 1/5 seats taken. I've tipped you some Geekgold to activate your avatar and buy your first microbadge as a welcome to the Geek! Keep an eye on this space and your GM will let you know when they are ready to start. (I also strongly recommend that GMs sent a link to their game thread through private geekmail to increase the chances of new players seeing it)

by NonaKnowsGames

mcmartian wrote:

FYI

It would be good if abbreviations had the long form in ( ) with them if you want new to the genre players. Not intuitive to those who are used to the abbreviation but helps those that are not to catch up. took me several reads through the thread and the thread this links to to figure out what NPi (New Player initiative).

I looked up on google what OSR is, but the definition and examples weren't particulary helpful for me unfortunately. IC, PBP, PBF probably should be obvious but I have no idea. But sounds like what we need to know will be explained.

It's always a tricky balancing act between trying to be clear and trying to be succinct. The GMs will teach the players everything they need to know in the game threads, so we try to keep the pitches short and sweet. If a game sounds like a fun premise, you should go for it. The different systems mentioned can be useful to those new to playing on this forum, but familiar with RPGs. It's like with boardgames, someone who knows what a worker placement game is will have a bit more of an idea what mechanics to expect going into the game, but you can teach a worker placement game to someone who has no idea what the term means just as well. It's the same thing with these RPGs, but because RPGs are more flexible there isn't always a clear cut definition everyone agrees on (for example, OSR is used for a particular playstyle based on oldschool tabletop RPGs, but some are more strict about the definition than others). It's already a LOT of text if you're browsing through all the games, so we're not really explaining the nitty gritty in the pitches. Too much info would be overwhelming and there's only so much a brain can absorb at once.

But I get feeling lost is stressful too. And this thread exists for questions outside of that, so thanks for posting ❤️ So PbF is Play by Forum, outside of here often called Play by Post. The NPI is short for our New Player Initiative (and I usually do write NPI for short after the first full mention so I'll double-check and edit that back in there in the morning if it's missing too. Making edits to long posts on a phone is bound to get messed up and it's too late at night to turn on the lights and pull out my laptop right now.) Terms like IC and OOC are for in-character (the gameplay) and out-of-character (the rules explanations, general chatter about the game and yourselves etc). As I said, you'd be taught everything you need to know by whoever runs your game. For example, here is part of what I have posted in my opening post on my game threads:

I'll be walking everyone through the game, teaching whatever you need to know.
Some good general guidelines about playing in this game and RPGGeek in general:
- The OOC has many uses. It's where I'll teach you the game, where you can ask questions, notify us if you'll be absent for a while or are dropping out, but also where you can chat and get to know the other players outside of the game.
- Subscribe to this thread and the IC thread (once it's up). By default, subscriptions only show at the top on the RPGGeek website itself (including the sister sites BoardGameGeek and VideoGameGeek). If you also want email notifications when new posts are made, change your settings here: /subscriptions/prefs (be aware email notifications aren't always 100% reliable, the site's own notification system works best)
- Thumb each post once you've read it. This is an easy way for me to track who is still around. It lets me know you've kept up with the posts, even if you have nothing you want to add right now.
- As GM, I am in control of the world and its NPCs (non-player characters). I can make things happen to your character, but I do NOT control their thoughts, feelings or responses to what happens.
- As a player, you are in control of your own character. You respond to the world and players around you, but you cannot control their actions.
- The GM is NOT against the players, but here to help you all along on your adventure. The goal is to provide a fun and interesting adventure, it is not to defeat you. You can always ask questions, in-character (IC) and out-of-character (OOC). If you feel lost and don't know what to do, feel free to use this thread to ask for guidance from me and/or your fellow players.

It'd be too unwieldly to go over all of that in a pitch. Pitches are just meant as hooks to draw people in, they are not meant to fully cover everything. Although I do make sure they all include what the posting frequency and ideally also the estimated game length is, so those things along with the more flavorful description of the game should be enough to decide if it's for you. Basically, if you like the description that the person running the game wrote up and you are OK with the expected posting frequency and estimated game length, that should be plenty to sign up and get started 🙂 And because this is aimed at new players, we all know there will be some people who try it and decide it's not for them and drop out early. That's okay too. It's meant to be a low treshold way to give it a try. Many do love it, which is why we keep doing it 😛 But I totally get that it's not for everyone. The whole idea behind this initiative is that you can jump in with pretty much no knowledge and things will be taught in bite-sized pieces. Some people are new to the Geek and need to be taught about posting here, formatting etc. Others may come from BGG but be entirely new to playing TTRPGs. Some may be new to both. And occasionally people aren't new to either, but haven't played by forum and want to give that a go. All of those are valid 😄

I hope this helps!

by Mulligans

Related Item: Pirate Borg

Welcome, dollarone! You will be able to pick a randomly generated character and choose any name and gender you want. I'm sending you a link to the starting thread.

2 spots left!

by awolfinhumanclothing

Related Item: Goons and Ghosts

I'm ready to suit up, sign me up! ;)

by ThroughTheDeckGlass

2026 RPGGeek New Player Initiative - Launched! Sign-ups open!
New players until the 7th, and then open to everyone. PBF games.

by Mulligans

Agreed. I try to remember to do that. I think PbF should be apparent to those who have read the header but nothing wrong with making things easier for new visitors. Out of Character. In Character. I always explain those at game start.

by dollarone

Related Item: Pirate Borg

This sounds perfect! My name is guybrush threepwood* and I want to be a pirate!

*j/k will create something original

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