So in a fit of boredom I ran a vampire dark ages session for my much younger siblings, and while my brothers (13 and 15) weren't huge fans, my 12 year old sister fucking loved it. While she was fine with the opening session that took place on a ship I'm not sure she'll enjoy the 13th century Anatolian vampire politics that is the rest of the campaign (I originally made it for some friends) and I feel that long term its not going to be a good system to run 1 on 1 sessions with her.
My question is, what the fuck is a good system that works with 1 player 1 GM and that an otherwise generic 12 year old girl might like while has enough depth that I'm not going to bash my own brains out trying to run it for her. She plays terrible witch school mobile games on her Ipad so I assume she likes witches if that helps? Obviously a game being somewhat mechanically simple is a plus, although she picked up the vampire system pretty quick (which isn't surprising given its just basic addition and throwing d10's at the table) and since it will be one on one I can always help her mechanically.
I've taught 14 year olds on nWoD a lot. Once you get past the math it's just rolling lots of dice and counting high numbers. For setting I'd say you should watch some magical girl/Shojo shit and go along with it. Magical schools and that like. Personally I wouldn't be able to do romance with my twelve year old sibling so the main interest of most little girls is out.
Landon Young
>In before hurr durr book of erotic fantasy
user don't even joke about that, I would NEVER recommend 3.5 to someone, don't be gross.
Now lets get back to talking about playing sexy vampire games with your preteen sister.
Ryder Anderson
I think there's a roleplaying game marketed to you girls specifically something about Witch Girl...academy, adventures?
Something with an A, I think.
Cooper Jones
I've not done anything with nWoD, if its robust enough to support bullshit magical adventures I might give it a try since I've always liked how simple running non-mage white wolf stuff is. If I REALLY cared I'd probably just home brew a dark heresy variant but It'd be nice if there was a prefab solution.
I wasn't even going to suggest she play but she asked if she could, I was really surprised since while my two idiot brothers were off picking fights with lower generation vampires she was solving problems in interesting ways with animalism since she picked gangrel instead some bullshit like kiasyd(which I expected her to choose because apparently I'm massively and unfairly dismissive of her).
Bentley Baker
Oh man, just had a look at witch girls adventures, looks like a horribly shitty nightmare but it might be what I'm after, she's watched madoka so I'm sure she'll at least somewhat expect the nightmare I'll slowly turn the campaign into to keep myself sane. I'll read through the pdf and see if it'll work, thanks for the suggestion
Connor Butler
I would go with MAID. Just kidding
Instead, I would try a cannibalized version of nWoD, with d10 dicepools.
Anthony Scott
It all depends on what she's willing to learn to play really. If she's really into witches she may make the effort to play a caster class, which IMHO, tend to be complex no matter the system. If that is true you can probably get her to play any system you have lying around.
Joshua Bennett
I take it back, on skimming the pdf this system looks fucking terrible, I'm probably going to have to just grab a system I already know and adapt it into something I can smash cut between little witch academia and tanya the evil
Henry Evans
I'll read nwod and see how I feel about it since its come up twice, I cannot imagine a faster way to get shunned by my family than trying to run a maid campaign with my 12 year old sister (maybe playing it with my 13 year old brother?)
Easton King
There is a MLP rpg, written by Alessio Cavatore. Even if she's not into pastel horses, you can adapt the setting and rules easily enough for generic use
Ethan Allen
Continue to try to keep it in a group setting or everyone will start to think. . .you know.
Benjamin Allen
Never use Witch Girls, user, the game exists as a cumrag for it's transformation obsessed writer to use to justify taking pictures of young girls for a magazine devoted to the game, and for him to sue Disney for "stealing" a character design from him.
I wish I was joking.
Noah Myers
just play tsuro
Jack Brooks
What's she into?
Find a game that appeals to that, possibly in a system that's simple enough.
And don't only think about shit like fantasy or sci-fi, or capeshit, but also things.... does she like board games/card games? If she does, does she prefer ones with mechanics revolving around chances and numbers or like, cards against humanity (there's a kid version, right)? Does she play vidya aside from occasional mobile games?
Ian Stewart
Golden Sky Stories for something totally different? It does feature witches in the supplement, Colours of the Sky.
If not maybe Monster of the Week. I don't think the "modern witches" idea had ever a decent outcome in RPGs.
Julian Thomas
I run DnD games for a groups of kids at the PCYC every second Sunday. Hey range from 5 all the way to 16. The simplest system I have is for the younger kids is >1-5; bad thing AND... >6-10; bad thing BUT... >11-15; good thing BUT... >16-20; good thing AND... Depending on their actions I add modifiers to the roll of -5 to +5
Landon Howard
Okay, made this post before finishing reading OP.
Those Witch mobile games are 100% pure romance/power fantasy. The "witch" is just an aesthetic, something to make her feel special. This is why Vampire worked. Go with something high fantasy with powerful characters, have her be a chosen one or at least one of the chosen ones or something.
This is good. You really don't need to have detailed statistics when you only have one character to interact with.
Wyatt Miller
You give them a blank piece of paper. Tell them to write down what they are (some of the best I've seen have been; badass, my dad, dragon killa, bomb guy) and 3 things they are REALLY good at. These can get automatic 20s in the game. Like bomb guy put down "blowing up building" so when they were seiging the castle in NOT!DUESVAULT all the doors got blown up in spectacular fashion.
Christopher Evans
>my brothers (13 and 15) weren't huge fans
you have faggot brothers? i fell ya mate.
Juan Hernandez
>not being a fan of VtM makes you a faggot
suuuuuuure
Angel Nelson
>Those Witch mobile games are 100% pure romance/power fantasy. The "witch" is just an aesthetic, something to make her feel special. This is why Vampire worked. Go with something high fantasy with powerful characters, have her be a chosen one or at least one of the chosen ones or something.
What about a decontruction (if I can use such a term)? From great powers come great bullshit. Especially romantic bullshit.
The problem is that you surely wouldn't be playing even a "sanitized" Monsterhearts with a friggin 12 yo. And probably no romance game whatever.
Gabriel Parker
Why not 13th century Anatolian politics? Declining Byzantine empire, invading Mongols. Turks riding around on horses and the black death is just over the horizon. She seems like she handled the first session more maturely than your brothers did.
Aiden Butler
I digress, playing a run-away-princess who finds a cute knight or something is well within what 12 years old would enjoy. Of course OP might not feel comfortable roleplaying stuff like that.
Michael Lewis
Magical princess running away from magical prince who is however a douche, finding her way to adventure, a purpose in life other then demurely staring out windows and looking for the approval of cute boys and saving the world instead?
Elijah Price
literally just do make believe,
ask her what character she wants to play. imagine a world in which that character could live in and have her do what she wants.
roll a 20 sided die for each action to see how well it gos.
maybe have 4 stats at most if you want to make it more complicated. like inteligence, speed, strength and charm.
she starts with 0 in each stat or maybe she can give 1-2 points to some. then just add that 1 point to whatever action she wants to roll for.
>using a bow d20 + speed
>casting a spell d20+ intelligence
when she levels she can add 1 point to one of her things. items just give +1 to one of these four.
BUT I WOULDNT EVEN GO THERE.
just do some bedtime story choose your own adventure shit.
Joshua Wood
He said she was twelve, not six...
Gavin Lee
same shit
Ryan Thompson
Maybe... ask her what she'd like? Witches are nice. I remember most 12 years old girls liking witches, indeed. If she likes Harry Potter, you can go write similar plots : chosen one, school full of weird stuff to explore, mystery happening and a bad guy to defeat. I'd say keep the same system, if she's already picked up on it, maybe adapt it so it's better suited to whatever it is you decide on. And don't do that. If there's anything kids 12-16 are very sensitive about, it's being taken for morons.
Ryder Roberts
Why not stick with Vampire.
Obviously you will have to tone down politics (you can try how much she can stomach) but she plays a Gangrel so that should be easy.
Maybe just a more railroady quest Type campaign in a crumbling Byzantine Empire.
She seems mature enough tbqh. And you can always include a princess or two.
Isaac Evans
I run Monster High and Mahou Shoujo settings for my little sister. I just use a very basic D20 system for them.
She also likes when I run Dread games for her.
Josiah Thomas
>ywn DM for your younger imouto
Brody Collins
Does anyone have the screenshot of an user who introduced his little sister to a Dark Heresy group as a SoB?
Adam Powell
Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with running vampire for her. Sure, focusing on politics might not be the best idea but some light poiticking is not that bad to be honest. Girls love mystery and intrigue. So throw some of that at her. Make her feel all special by telling her Gangrel have secret gatherings all to themselves and if she discovers something new for the clan, she will be respected.
>animalism Makes sense user, girls love the whole "talking to animals and being able to tell them what to do" that's like the earliest little girl fantasy there is because it's so cool t. girl
Elijah Gonzalez
Might make a good starting point
Bentley Williams
>if its robust enough to support bullshit magical adventures It's not robust enought to support jack shit. However It's so stupidly easy and customizable You can run anything with it as long as you've got enought dutchtape.
Brayden Garcia
>foxes have a sly of 0 THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT.
Cooper Bailey
There's DAGGER. But, in all honesty, just give her Mage or something. The overall plot for Mage reeks of YA novel anyways, so it'll be a good fit. If she took to the system quickly, then it's most likely she'll want to continue using that system.
Anthony Johnson
I'd stick with vampire honestly. She likes the system and you'v already admited you're massively and unfairly dismissive of her. Talk to her about what kind of stories she likes and take a cue from that, tone down the politics a bit (but feel free to test the waters there...) you'll be fine.
DESU in most modern vampire media I'm aware of politics are a Big Thing, but most of it actually boils down to relationships and the drama thereof. She doesn't have to have a relationship to be enthralled by the tragic story of vampire lords fighting over heartache and betrayal left to stew for a few centuries.
Nolan Turner
>which I expected her to choose because apparently I'm massively and unfairly dismissive of her Maybe you should just try vampire politics, your sister might surprise you again. If she's not picking it up then just steer things more towards whatever you did in the first session. Or just ask her.
The Motherfucking Warren. It's Watership Down the Horror RPG
Brayden Nelson
Try Nechronica.
Or just stick with Vampire for 1-2 more sessions and see if she enjoys it. Otherwise, Symbaroum is nice and you can do witchy stuff. And the system is quite simple.
Evan Cooper
I like this, and I have to babysit a friend's kids next weekend, and changing it to "save the witch" gives us a fun activity to do.
