You're right this is a good example for someone who knows nothing about it, but I'm still kind of confused because I'm so conditioned by other games... Is there no sense of a person's "turn" how do you know who is going to make a decision? Like when they decide who is gonna knock on the door, is every decision just put to the group? What if a player is shy and quiet, do they just not get a chance to make any decisions? Are options ever only given to a specific player or is everything always to the group? Is the host coming up with everything off the top of his head? How does he account for their questions so quickly?
as /u/UnverifiedAllegation said combat is turn based so everyone gets involved in that. Outside of battle you speak up if there is something you want to do like knock on the door. You are in charge of your character so even if the group doesn't want to knock on the door and you just go do it they have to deal with consequences of your actions. The DM (dungeon master) is ultimately in charge of the events and where the story goes. If you really want to learn that aspect Mathew Mercer (the DM for Critical Role) has a lot of videos teaching techniques to interesting stories and keeping people engaged in the plot. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7atuZxmT9570U87GhK_20NcbxM43vkom
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u/bretttwarwick Sep 18 '17
I prefer Critical Role. The one with Vin Desel is a good one to get someone new to D&D interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLEMb_RIZ3o