Soon I´ll be running a game for two children (5, 7). The mother will probably join in too.
Has any of you ever run a game for children? I think I´ll do some sort of mini adventure about pirates or some other theme they like in a very bright world (something similar to Wakfu´s or Ryuutama´s) with an extremely simple character sheet and ruleslite system (I was thinking on going with no system, but they love my dice and would prefer something where they have to roll different ones to do things. I´m keeping it down to "brawns" and "smarts" as stats and I´ll just tell them to roll different ones when they try to do things). I´ll bring a few premade characters but give them the option to make their own, if they want.
Also thinking on just running Ryuutama but with simplified everything.
How does it sound? Any tips or things I should keep in mind?
Well, as I said in the last thread, I sometimes hear here that Engine Heart is good to play with children.
Another idea might be a simplification of the CATastrophe system(s) because the setting is quite fun and there are really lovely pictures to go with it, though there is probably stuff about drowning and fatal accidents that you'd want to remove.
Cameron Rodriguez
Have you considered FATE Accelerated? At least for a series of adventures or a single longer one it has some of the simplest systems you can get, making it good to have them rolling dice in a meaningful way and having unique characters with special abilities while still letting you generally fudge rules as needed.
Characters all have six stats so it encourages in characters to try finding ways to approach situations while using their highest stat and character abilities can be as simple or complex as you want. I learned tabletop this way personally and found it to be a pretty nice time while easing into the systems. It might be better as a second step given your audience but that's just my two bits.
I think regardless of what you find yourself doing it should be a nice time if all your players are honestly interested. Just keep an eye out for things they might like. I hope I don't sound preachy since this is pretty obvious but be sure to do chargen early, even for a game as simple as this as it'll really help for the experience if you can find ways to weave the characters into the backstory, even in a really simple way, that kind of immersion coupled with letting them decide things and feel their decisions have major impacts on the story will get them into it and mean more than any high combat role could.
Sorry for the bad formatting and blog post, I'm an awkward mess and don't usually do more than lurk here but all the best, OP.
Nathan Lee
Holy shit dude that is cute as fuck
Parker Garcia
>FATE Accelerated This. Use 2d6 if you don't have a set of Fudge dice, one positive, one negative.
Ryder Williams
There was another thread short ago? Do you remember any keywords? Maybe I can find it somewhere
Thing is, anything resembling a system sounds somewhat too complicated. They´re all new to these games, and the little one isn´t exactly patience.
I´m mostly decided about the "system" - just a small skeleton that´s just there to have them roll dice and to get them used to the idea that there´s a limit to what they can and cannot do, and sometimes things don´t come out as expected. It´ll be a 1d6 roll higher or lower than target, but I´ll occasionally ask them to use other dice just to make them happy.
I´m more interested in tips about the handling of the children themselves. I´m not sure whether I should give them more freedom or try to railroad a story. I guess something in the middle, whatever makes them have fun.
Maybe some little silly quests. A little dragon who´s lost and scared of flying but everyone is too scared of dragons, so he has to hide.
A goblin stole the baker´s mold and now all his bread looks ugly, so he wants them to get it back. But the goblins stole it because they wanted to learn how to make their own bread, and because the mean minotaur that steals their food isn´t interested in bread, so they hope he´ll leave them alone if they only eat bread.
Little stuff like that, to make them think a little. But mostly everything I come up with is either "X has stolen Y from Z / Z lost Y" or stuff that works for my (adult) group, but not for children.
Robert Bailey
Improvise. I think the DW book has some pretty good guidelines on how to continue a story based on what the players show interest in. Just say something like "it's a sunny day, what are your characters doing?". If they don't have any ideas THEN throw the goblins on them.
Don't fuck over the entire RPG community by introducing two new kids that thing RPGs are something they aren't. Put them down with the Pathfinder rule book and make them memorize the thing, then they can play a REAL RPG.
I hope my sarcasm has gone through.
But in all seriousness I think it depends on the kids. Do 5 year olds do addition yet? If so I would say that you should definitely do 2d6 as an added little math exercise to the game. Don't worry too much about a system. Give them Mind, Body, and Spirit skills that they can add to whatever roll. Don't have any real DC, if they roll 9+ let them do it 5- they fail. If they roll 6-8 then just throw out a judgement. As far as handling them I would start off pretty railroading, I wouldn't do too cutesy of a scenario but that's because I don't think kids need it, but that leads to a more sandboxed game. If these kids are like any new player in general I've had they won't know what to do unless you lead their hands. But if they get ideas for what to do don't try to force them to help your flightless dragon or figure out your golbin bread problem. Oh and they might just throw in facts, unless it's something like "Oh, and I can't be hurt by anything!" just roll with it. Trolls are suddenly addicted to jelly beans? Work with it. Player wants to suddenly fly? Figure out how and decide to roll with it or tell them "No, but...." and help them think of an alternate solution whatever problem they to fly to solve.
Jacob Hall
Don't run Dungeon World unless you want to simulate low-powered "kill things and take their loot."
Liam Brown
I only mean the ideas in DW, not the game. OP doesn't want to use a system, although I think scrolls and swords would be kinda amazing for this.
Connor Perry
Fair enough, as I said, it might be best as a second step for if you want something that actually has leveling and more diverse characters while keeping it simple.
I'd say for general tips, I can't stress enough to let them make characters in advance so you can give them some stake in the world. If Dale Knifeshire knows the princess because he's the royal huntsman or Demoiselle Stabbington can track trolls because her family has long made their living selling coveted goblinoid toe nails to the druid's guild it once again helps reinforce that a character is more than a stat block and makes sure everyone gets to be useful even if they aren't getting stellar roles or able to come up with any brilliant solutions. I think it's important to be sure a streak of bad luck doesn't sink a character or leave anyone feeling like a third wheel.
Getting their characters done ahead of time will also help give you a feel for what you'll be dealing with. If you have your wife in the game and you're sticking to your two-stat system you have the benefit of letting the kids pick either forte and she balances it out to make sure your party isn't all Brains/Brawn.
Another benefit you have is that if it's really simple of a system you can set it in pretty much anything. I'd say it'd be best to figure out a small handful of settings and a few examples of quests unique to said settings and let them choose. There's no less than half a dozen threads on Veeky Forums at any time about this or that game based on a known IP, if you can find a way to adapt thethe things your kids enjoy into a unique setting they can be part of without just literally being that setting I think you can garuntee interest. Not saying you need to make every adventure a hugely varied trope subversive masterpiece of writing but I think it'd do very well to give them variety and play the strengths of a game limited only by your imagination (and D6).
Again, sorry for the mess. Don't write posts on a phone, kids.
Adam Gray
No Thank You Evil?
It's designed for children, the art is pretty interesting and colourful.
The system is also pretty solid.
AT the very least you could steal ideas and advice from it.
Ian Nelson
I´m good at that, but the older one is a damn smartass and has a tendency to fuck things up just to see what happens. I want to plan a few quests beforehand just to have something to pull in case we get lost.
Looks interesting. Thanks!
I´ve got the system already: There´s three stats, strength, skill, and mind. They assign 5, 3 and 1 points. A thief would be 1/5/3, a pirate maybe 5/3/1. Each point in skills lets them have another manual skill (pretty much anything they want), each point in mind lets them know a lot about some topic or have a spell, though you only get spells if you have 3 or 5 in mind. Each point in strength lets them have an extra piece of equipment.
Rolls are simple: difficulty is 2-6. If whatever´s the problem uses their stat with 5 points, they roll 3d6. If it´s the secondary, they roll 2d6. 1d6 for their dump stat. If one of the dice rolls equal or better than the DC, there´s success. If the highest die is just one point under the DC, it´s just partial success or something goes wrong. Though now that you say it, it might be better to modify it and forget about DC. Maybe just say that pick higher and check: 4+ is success, 3 partial, 1-2 failure. Guess I can let them pick what die they want to use, and just translate the rolls for them.
I´m pretty sure the small one will want to be a big warrior and the old one will go for a smartass wizard, while the mother seems to prefer rogues. This way each of them can be what they prefer and the children will hopefully start to learn that every person might bring something different to a group. I´ll probably add some little mechanic to give them a reason to roll the poly dice, but that´s secondary.
The rest sounds good. I´ve never been very into railroading, but it does sound like they could be quite lost at first. Wish I could throw in more children, that might help a little, but I´m not good enough with the language yet to handle kids I´m not used to. 1/2
Elijah Diaz
Hey, I like that. I can imagine the first question will confuse them, at least the young one, but it looks fairly easy to handle. I´ll see what she says, she knows them better than me.
Well, they´re children. The tropest of tropes are still novelty for them. I´m just too used to search for something new to keep my adult players engaged and it´s hard to "disconnect".
Guess I´ll watch some old cartoons and take some notes. I want to get them hooked.
Never heard of that before, but it looks interesting. I think the art is none of us´ style, but I´ll take a look at the mechanics.
Thanks!
2/2
Dylan Hughes
>Guess I´ll watch some old cartoons and take some notes. I want to get them hooked.
Best excuse to marathon thundercats!
Nathan Stewart
>the children meet problems in life always with the same response >"Let's see if it can stand up to the Thunder Tank."
Cameron Smith
>making the plot, roll 1 3 1 6 >A threat: the king >Wants to: merge with >The: queen >Which will: solve everything
So it´s about cockblocking the king to doom the world?
Jayden Ross
OP here.
Have you tried the system yourself? Or anyone else here, for that matter.
I´ve been looking around and it looks great. I love the idea that they have tokens to give away, and that sometimes they might have to give away some of them to help each other. That´s exactly what they need.
But it seems to me that half of the book is info on how RPGs work and on being a GM and leading a game, which I don´t need, and that the rest are special cards and similar stuff that the children have to read - but it´s all in English, and these two speak only German.
I guess I could translate it easily if necessary, but still I´m dubious about forking over 40$ for what´s essentially a few tokens.
Is there anything else in there justifying the purchase? I´ve taken a look at an unboxing, but it doesn´t really tell me much. I get the feeling it might be better to just make the tokens ourselves with cardboard and some paint.
Colton Sullivan
I have played the system. You're right, the book is mostly RPG filler.
I can't recommend any system if you have to translate components, I would make the tokens yourself.
Parker Butler
Well, that solves the matter, then. I´ll ask the mother what she thinks the kids will work better with and then we´ll finish the details.
Thank you guys, that was quite helpful.
Anthony Jenkins
Hmm to me that is a quiet straight forward thing. I really like the Hero Kids stuff
Jason Turner
"Fix everything" is code word for "make the world a totalitarian dystopia where nothing ever happens, good or bad".
Alternatively, they could have some interesting ideas about needing to "fix" people.
Brandon Edwards
Monsters and Other Childish Things Mouse Guard Golden Sky Stories Engine Heart Whatever cartoon they're watching in FAE
Adam Hernandez
Yes yes yes and yes
Except mouse guard... the system itself tends to require a lot of forward thinking. Or else you would have any check when you get back to town.
Julian Lopez
Really depends on the kids. Some like structure a lot. And they'll all surprise you with forward thinking once you've conveyed the context on their level.
Brandon Ortiz
sounds good
Juan James
This seems interesting, though I'm less than crazy about adding 2d6 to skill level, but these are the (approximate) base chances of success the scores would give you... 1 = 28% 3 = 58% 5 = 83%
You could use 1, 2 and 3 as the stats, roll that number of dice, and if any of the dice come up as a 5 or a 6, count that as a success... 1=33% 2=56% 3=70%
Or you could simply use the stats as target numbers of 2, 3 and 4 (roll under)... 2=33% (also 5, roll over) 3=50% (also 4, roll over) 4=67% (also 3, roll over)
Honestly though, I think all these (including the default scores) come out a bit low. I'd want the kids succeeding about 2/3 the time on an average score...
Jordan Torres
continued >I'd want the kids succeeding about 2/3 the time on an average score... With that in mind, here are some more forgiving systems:
Using dice pools of 1, 3 and 5 (or 2, 3 and 5 if you don't want the law score to be so weak) and treating it as a success if any die comes up as a 5 or a 6... 1=33% (or 2=56%) 3=70% 5=87%
Or use dice pools of 1, 2 and 3, but counting it a success if any die comes up a 4 or higher (I like the smaller dice pools for this one)... 1=50% 2=75% 3=88%
Or you could use stats of 3, 4 and 5 as target numbers (roll under)... 3=50% 4=67% 5=83%
Ryder Perry
>Or you could use stats of 3, 4 and 5 as target numbers (roll under)... >3=50% (also 4, roll over) >4=67% (also 3, roll over) >5=83% (also 2, roll over) Really, this is my favorite method, because it only requires you to roll one die, and you can easily modify it with a +1 or -1 (or +2 or -2) with predictable results for a difficult or easy task.
