Life of a Wizard, from the perspective of someone with sort of moderate experience in RPGs and stat-building in general, seemed a pretty straightforward stat-building game with lots of variations in endings and lots of interesting paths and achievements. I enjoyed stat-building the party, too. The RPG-playing friends I’ve known quite liked it. Now to dangle Daria and Kendrickstone in front of them…
The battle scenes in Trial of the Demon Hunter, particularly in the new version with dramatic revisions and much tighter writing (though I say it who shouldn’t, since I edited it), seems like it’s the most satisfactory in terms of straight-up, old fashioned RPG battling. You fight monsters, with stuff. And strategies. And it’s turn-based without being unreasonably lengthy. But again, I’m no RPG expert.
I tend to introduce people who are new to IF to either Dragons or Broadsides, depending on whether they prefer fantasy or something more like (more or less) everyday life with a historical bent. Those games are too short for a new player to get completely overwhelmed or lost. I find that especially true for the types of people who pick things up for ten or fifteen minutes, and then wander back to them later the next day. Both games are free. And they’re fun and well-written, with interesting choices that have pretty obvious results. Besides, they tend to get a reaction and then people will remember, especially with Broadsides’ world-spinning option.
I persuaded my sister and her husband to try Dragon, which they liked, and then Broadsides, and then dropped them into the deep end with Tin Star and Robots. They’ve started showing the games round to their SFF and gaming circles too, which is brilliant.
I find my friends over, say, age forty struggle a little more with the concept of interactive fiction on a screen. Maybe the experience is unique to me, but mostly they just want to talk about how it WORKS, how could it possibly work, how could you write it, why doesn’t your head explode, etc. ( : And this is why, in my third game (if the time comes), the main character is going to be a grandparent…
I also find that some people are put off because there aren’t too many games that are real-life scenarios. Most of the games seem to have either some element of fantasy/sci-fi, or they’re not modern, or you play some kind of spin on a spy or assassin. I’ve had several people ask me if there were any life sims, or office-based games, or dating or school games, based on present-day reality without any supernatural or sci-fi elements.