How do you deal with new and experienced players at the same table? This is the exact scenario that I was facing as the GM at my last game session. We had three very experienced players and two players who had not yet played the game.
A Group Effort
One issue we ran into was that the new players ran out of options (or maybe ideas) relatively quickly. We gave them simple characters to make the learning curve shorter but that sometimes left them short on options. The experienced players did a great job of tossing out fresh ideas about what their PC could try. You still need to give the new player the agency to make their own choices and to role play their own characters. You could start by asking, “Given your character’s background, what would they do in this situation?”
Just Keep Playing
One other way that I felt the experienced players were supporting me as the GM was never calling my adjudication into question. Even though they all know more about 5e than I do, the experienced players never corrected me when I made a rules error at the table. I learned later that there were some things that I had done wrong, but they kept quiet and allowed the story to keep moving rather than stop the flow of the game to nitpick a ruling. That definitely contributed to maintaining a fast paced game and, I hope, left a great impression on the new players!
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