First Time Roleplayers - Using AW as an Introduction

So, I've been participating in what has been called a Geek night for the past 3 years.  It started out just as a night to watch Battlestar Gallactica, but I soon introduced my friends to a variety of board games, and these have taken over Geek night.

Recently we began playing a game called Risk: Legacy.  Basically it is a game of Risk, but the game evolves each time you play it, and the world takes shape with each subsequent game (For the first 15 games or so).  Basically we've been playing and slowly destroying the planet.

This got me thinking about AW, and I've now convinced my friends to try AW once we finish our game of Risk, and set it in the world we have created (and destroyed).

Now my friend has been opposed to Roleplaying his whole life, he's a sports guy, so I figure I only have one shot at converting him. :D  I'd be looking at a 5 person game, three players having never RP'd before, one experienced gamer who has played 1 session of AW, and myself.

So, I was hoping for some advice on which playbooks I should include and which ones to leave out for a first time gamer.  And any other tips or tricks on how AW is different with people who has never played a tapletop RPG before.  And basically any other advice is always welcome.

Leave out the Savvyhead, the Operator, the Driver, and Maybe the Angel from the core crew. Include the Maestro D', the Faceless and the Quarantine.

Leave out the Savvyhead, the Operator, the Driver, and Maybe the Angel from the core crew. Include the Maestro D', the Faceless and the Quarantine.

Why?...
Let him/them choose...
My wife came to roleplaying game thanks to apocalypse world and her fetish playbook is the angel...
The non gamer cousin of a friend once played a savvyhead and was really perfect...
Let him/them choose but explain the difficulties once you know the other playbooks chosen.
Vincent explains it very well on pages 97-98-99.

I'm gonna try the same thing with a bunch of Library Science students soon; AW or maybe InSpectres. Tell us how it goes.

I don't think any of the playbooks need to be left out.  I'm playing an AW game with my coworkers, none of whom had ever played an RPG before, and I threw in all the core playbooks, plus all the LE playbooks save the Marmot and Quarantine (for reasons of personal taste and not accessibility), and tossed in the Ruin Runner, Feral Kid, Grotesque, and Juggernaut to boot.  A few facebook posts in our group before the game introduced everyone to their choices, and no one seemed too overwhelmed come game day.

Other than that, I'd say to stress the part about "play your characters as if they were real people".  When one of my players was looking overwhelmed staring at the basic moves sheet and wondering which moves he could make, I told him not to worry about it in terms of moves, but to think of what his character would do, and I'd tell him when something he did counted as a move.  That seems to have worked for the first session; I expect as people get more familiar with the game and how it's played, they'll start getting into using the moves from a mechanical viewpoint as well.

Other than that, I'd say to stress the part about "play your characters as if they were real people".  When one of my players was looking overwhelmed staring at the basic moves sheet and wondering which moves he could make, I told him not to worry about it in terms of moves, but to think of what his character would do, and I'd tell him when something he did counted as a move.

To add to this, I'd encourage strongly stressing "to do it, do it" for players' responses, don't even have them try to think about "moves" as their characters act.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes, Indydart!  I feel so proud that so many on my players are starting their own AW games!

Use whatever set of playbooks most interest you as MC.

Cultivate your headful of apocalyptic imagery (which you're totally doing with the Risk game).

You probably learned this one from board game night: don't explain all the rules before you start. It will just bore them. Plus, all the AW rules are written in plain English ("when you do this, roll this, choose this") so usually most new players don't need a lot of preamble.

Just play AW. It'll work out fine.