In reply to Gaffer (msg # 45):

Agree with Gaffer.

Worth avoiding fight to the dead with humans/demihumans and animals. Wolves will flee if beaten, robbers will run away or surrender. Maybe not so much of an issue with fantastical monsters like skeletons, ghosts, etc.

Also encourage using brain rather than just brawn. If you are looking to teach some life lessons then avoid simply charging in and beating the crabapples out of everything. Maybe even fudge things agains them if they do. Encourage roleplay and problem solving skills to overcome a situation. As Gaffer said, negotiation is a good skill to learn.

I'd highly recommend watching some childrens' television - specifically series oriented ones like Thomas the Tank Engine, Florrie's Dragons, Fireman Sam, etc.

They have a very structured narrative which could easily be adapted to a game with almost infinite variations and don't have to involve too much "moral" judgement but rather "sensible" judgement.

After a couple of episodes you'll be able to pen a five or so point plot structure, and then you're good to go. :)

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is one of the best written children's shows ever, and is also a good inspiration for any bad guys and events should you want to avoid blatant violent solutions.

Additionally, there is a Savage Worlds setting for it posted on deviant art.

Look up John Harper and check out the slew of rules lite games he has made. lady Blackbird, Wildlings, Danger Patrol and several others. They are all very simple, very fun and easy to teach/customize. If you are into DnD, check out World of Dungeons. Also a John Harper game.

Here is a post of one dad playing with his kids. One is seven and the other 11 (I think).

http://www.story-games.com/for...ons-dungeon-girls/p1

My Little Pony as DnD characters -- a truly great webcomic:
http://friendshipisdragons.the...es.com/comics/first/
I linked to the beginning of the story.
This message was last edited by the user at 05:02, Sun 07 Sept 2014.

I'd recommend hitting Mermaid Adventures, by 3rd Eye Games. Even if your kids don't like mermaids, the simple rules and guidelines for story-telling are really handy. The author wrote it for his young daughter (I think four?) and autistic older son (8? I don't recall.) And it really shows; it's the sort of game kids can intuitively grok and run with, and it's gotten very good traction in that age group.

I've also heard Little Wizards spoken well of, but I'm not personally familiar with it.


In general, you need to throw out all your old RP knowledge, and let the kids teach you how to play. They already know. If they don't use dice but instead use the rule of cool, you should too. Once you're on their frequency, you can start adding stuff that meshes with their experience. Don't try to bring them into your gaming style unless they ask.

I would look into The Strange by Monte Cook Games. Its very light on the rules for players, and has rules for the DM on making your own 'incursions' or worlds. You can theme each world around anything you want, so you can literally go save one Disney Princess after another, in their own worlds. It is also based around discovery, not combat, so you could cut monsters out entirely, and still have a fully functional game.

The Deluxe Faery's Tale book I have has a couple of, well, fairy tales at the end written as adventures. There are more fan-written ones for the game, too. But the hint is, look to any set of children's books you may have. Winnie the Pooh stories always have something going on, it's easy to borrow from something like that.

For the younger set, I agree to avoid violence. Problem solving can involve mysteries, investigation, persuasion and indirect spells. My daughter sprinkled faery dust on a foe and enchanted them into "being nice." 'The Journey' is always a good tale, get from A to B, have encounters and overcome the elements and terrain.

Playtested Faery's Tale with Little Miss 6 yesterday.

We handwrote the character sheet (ie, no photocopy) and the care & attention she gave it astounded me.

We had barely started describing how our characters had met - and she turned to me with a rarely seen intensity and said "I love this game. Let's play for 2 hours." So I think we're on to a winner.

As for plot... I hadn't really prepped anything. She was home from school because she was feeling pretty sick, so it was a bit of an impromptu session.

That said, we played about an hours worth of an encounter which saw us:
- roll a few checks, getting used to the dive
-- her first roll was a fail, and she was upset and wanted to roll again, but I encouraged her not to worry, and followed up shortly with another roll for her to succeed at. She didn't get too upset about failing other rolls during that session.
- using magic
- shapeshifting into birds
- coming up with creative plans to deal with a baddy
- making conclusions based on some simple clues

When mum & baby brother came downstairs at about the 45 minute mark she was soon very distracted and couldn't concentrate. So we left on a bit of a cliffhanger, as our two characters find themselves peering through the window of a witches hut...

I'm considering writing up the events of the encounter in narrative form... it could be useful for memory-sake and for her to look back on after a few sessions to put the whole story into perspective.

I'm also going to pop past the local games shop today and buy her some dice of her own :)

I'm glad it's going well.   Kids can be a hard sell for a prolonged game.

In reply to ashberg (msg # 54):



I recommend letting her write some of that narrative. My daughter really started to write her own stories around that age. They were horrible, but the imagination... man you could almost touch it then. Now, she's 10 and her writing is pretty dang amazing. I imagine getting to write what her character was thinking and doing in a little story would be pretty awesome for her. If sh'es not quite to the writing stage yet, you could do that bit for her.

Glad to hear your enjoying the experience.

In reply to Sithraider (msg # 57):

I don't think she'd know what or how to write a narrative (based on the game that is) off her own... this style of game is still very new to her.

If I get it started and show her she could see what was possible, and run with it.

My girl, and probably many kids, feels a little apprehensive in situations where 'anything is possible'. She seems to crave limitations and boundaries. This was evident at the first point in the session where I turned to her and said "So, what do you want to do next?" and she just looked at me and shrugged. Then I listed a few options, giving her an idea of form, of what kinds of things were possible to do, and she slowly got the hang of it.

I figure the same will go for writing narrative.
This message was last edited by the user at 04:08, Wed 10 Sept 2014.

In reply to ashberg (msg # 58):

Suggest you take her to the hobby shop and let her choose her own dice! Maybe even buy a miniature to represent her character, even if you aren't using miniatures it could be a good way to give her ownership of her PC.

Re the narrative, 2 options:

- Let her write it and you help her with any tricky bits.
- You write it, then let her read it back to you (if able) or you read to her. She may remember it differently so you can rewrite as needed based on her suggestions.

In reply to Jarodemo (msg # 59):

Good ideas...

Difficult to get her to the hobby shop any time soon... so first round of d6 is on me.

When we progress to another RPG with other die, I'll take her in :)

In reply to ashberg (msg # 60):

I remember when I first say other dice, d4, d10, d20!!!!!!!! That blew my little mind!

I reckon you could get some girlie pastel/pink ones for her if that is what she would like.

I think you'd have to make the game much simpler for 5-8 years olds, as others have indicated.  Given that the older started going to GenCon with me when she was about 12, my youngest must have played when she was 8 or 9, but that was pushing it even though she was always ahead of her age.  Just please avoid Ninja Turtles; I've always found it ironic that this kind of violence and 'bad influence' was marketed to very young children, when I believe it was originally meant as a comic game for older teens/young adults, and after all the fuss about how D&D was such a dreadful game for any age!

I'm sticking with lots of non-violent challenges. Puzzles. Interactions with interesting NPCs who need help with something or rather.

The hardest thing for her to get her head around is the idea of Players being different to the Storyteller/GM.

She feels it's unfair that I am 'in charge'... so our next session I am going to give her more control over what happens. Rather than having her as a player in a scene - she'll get to help shape the scene first, before we play through it.
This message was last edited by the user at 00:48, Thu 11 Sept 2014.

In reply to ashberg (msg # 63):

I think starting with the simple Window system may help. I'm trying to teach people at my place the wonders of gaming who haven't even played videogames :/

I do enjoy playing with the Window... but even some of it's aspects are on the complex side. Still, a nice simple system in contrast to some of the heavy-hitters out there.

In reply to ashberg (msg # 65):

Eclipse Phase and Shadowrun have just the disaster-seeker's needs :D :P Those systems, at first glance, leave even game developers worried, I believe! But I love them both. Numenera would be good, do you like it?

Numenera looks great... but again, concepts inherent in the system are probably a little difficult to grasp at age 5 - 8.

Faery's Tale had some good adventures on their site.  I don't know if they're still up, though.

If you're looking for story ideas, just flip open a book of fairy tales, they're chock full of ideas.  The original book came with a Jack and the Beanstalk adventure, but I also ran one based on Hansel and Gretel.

This site is out of date, and I don't know if anyone linked to it already, but it's still got a lot of good resources for gaming with kids: http://www.tlucretius.net/RPGs/kids.html

In reply to ashberg (msg # 67):

I read of a guy who used Numenera with his kids, who based their characters of disney princesses.

Elsa, a Graceful Nano who Wears a Sheen of Ice, played by Carrie
Merida, a Rugged Glaive who Carries a Quiver, played by Jen
Anna, a Swift Jack who Entertains, played by Evie

http://ilive4crits.blogspot.co...ales-session-16.html

In reply to OggyBenDoggy (msg # 69):

Wow! Just so cute! :D