Brad Hookman? REALLY?

Today on the Blog with a Memorable Name; an experiment!

It's tradition that, during their final year, students at my place of education write two essays on a subject of their choise, and give an accompanying presentation. True to geeky-form, I did mine on Role-Playing Games, and the stereotypes associated with them. Specifically, why these stereotypes hamper the popularity of these games, and stop them from being accessed by a less geeky audience.
On a side note, have you seen some of the crap people think about RPGs!?! Check it out. You WILL be scared.
Anyway, inspired by this "Senior Project," I desided, "Hey, why don't I put my money where my mouth is and get some noobs to play an RPG?"
So, after some quick talks with a few people, I got a group together who had never played a Role Playing Game before. It consisted of an adult male (AM), an adult female (AF), a teenage male (TM), and a teenage female (TF). Yesterday, we played about 75% of the "Ill Tidings" adventure of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay with me as the GM, and each of them as a PC. My friend, with about as much RPG experience as myself was also there to help out, taking the role of a 5th PC. It's in the "Knights of the Grail" sourcebook, if you are inclined to look it up. I know you're not, but, hey, I try to be considerate.

The game itself went ... okay. Character creation took a LONG time due to me having to explain everything five times, but, really, you'd expect that, even with a group of experienced RPers using a new system. AF created a haughty Elf Envoy called Gythithy (I love randomly generated names! XD) TM, a tough Dwarf Pitfighter called Noragund, and TF, a crafty Halfling Knife-Thrower/Acrobat (Entertainer Career) named Agnes. AM, who was rather counter-productive throughout the whole game, created a none-descript Human Fisherman called Fisherman. After Vetoing this, he changed his name to Hookman. I told him to get a given-name, and he chose Brad (Which really fits with the Medeival Europian feel, doesn't it?). Brad Hookman.
This became a pattern throughout the game.
Being pressed for time, due to the lengthy character creation process, I rushed my introduction to the world. This, as any GM/DM will tell you, was a BIG mistake. This gave my players very little idea about their overall goal (Fighting Chaos) and so, when they found their first Chaos Mutants, rather than fighting, they wanted to run away. More my mistake than theirs, but, it's interesting to note that they felt such strong self-preservation insticts for their characters at such an early stage.

At the end, they all shared similar views about the game:
Character Creation: Way too complicated and WAY too long. They wanted to play the game, not spend an HOUR setting it up.
Story: They thought it was fun to play the story out, and enjoyed play with their characters, though, as above, they would've liked a little bit more background. My fault, and, therefore, not a great representation. They also liked the investigation elements, and seemed pleasently surprsied that we weren't just going around cutting down monsters.
Out-of-Combat actions: Everyone (other than AM) took to these quickly, and enjoyed the roles their character had to play.
Combat: Similar to Character Creation, though, there were parts that they enjoyed. I could tell TF was taking great pleasure in knifing everyone to death, and TM's joy was palpable when he finally killed the choas cultist he's been fighting.
The general consensus was that, if we had a little more time (I.E. more than one session,) it'd be more enjoyable, as the rules confusion and character-creation process wouldn't be a problem.
AM - Unenthusiastic, wasn't paying attention, didn't seem to enjoy it. When he DID have input, it was (for the most part) unconstructive. I explained to him several times that he only determines the actions of his character, not the results, yet he INSISTED on saying "I hear the wizard inside the building killing people!" *Shakes head with dismay*
AF - Was involved, enjoying them game and really getting into it. I was impressed!
TM - Seemed slightly bummed that he didn't have great success with his character (Bad rolls) but, other than that, liked the game.
TF - The real success story of this game. While she wasn't as enthused as AF, her enjoyment far exceeded my expectations.

So, our verdict? Role Playing isn't for everyone, but, the "Not everyone" isn't nessicarily confined to gamers/geeks. Success? Partially. Am I going to do it again? I would like to. Not just so I can verify what we've seen here, but also to show more people that RPGs don't turn you into a bloodthirsty killer.

In closing, Jack Chick rhymes with dick.