Anyone know any good adventures I could run for my kids? My kids are 8 and 11 years old. They have become very interested in Pathfinder and just made two characters. I figured I would ask the community for help while I dig through sites.
Side note: I run two games for adults, so I do know what I am doing. I just lack kid friendly adventure material.
Thanks
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Anyone know any good adventures I could run for my kids? My kids are 8 and 11 years old. They have become very interested in Pathfinder and just made two characters. I figured I would ask the community for help while I dig through sites.
Side note: I run two games for adults, so I do know what I am doing. I just lack kid friendly adventure material.
Thanks
How deep do you mean to go - just one adventure, or a whole Path? Some Paths start OK and get darker as they go.
For adventures, I don't recall seeing anything particularly horrible in The Dragon's Demand - I'd start there if you want something short (1-7). I'm not as familiar with the rest of the module line, though.
For Paths, I don't recall Legacy of Fire having anything particularly horrible, at least not blatantly. Serpent's Skull, Mummy's Mask, and Iron Gods should be decent as well. I'm playing in Reign of Winter, so I'm not an expert, but I haven't seen anything too blatant.
Hope this helps. ^_^
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If either of you want to ask more specific questions about themes and content and such, go for it! You can PM me as well.
I might not respond immediately, as I should be going to bed soon. Then again... I say that a lot. ^_^
Virtually anything regarding pathfinder is going to need a bit of editing/foresight regarding being kid-friendly. Every kid is different, and you're the best judge of what's acceptable for your kids.
That being said, have you taken a look at the Beginner Box? The content and the adventure included within might be the best start.
Other than that? Maybe Rise of the Goblin Guild, a scenario?
The Confirmation might be a fun starting point as well.
For modules, maybe Master of the Fallen Fortress?
Any additional information you could provide, Aviel, would really help to narrow things down.
I don't think you're going to find much along the lines of what you're looking for. If writing your own 1st-3rd level "module" isn't an option, then my next best suggestion to pick up a module that you think looks fun and edit the material throughout. You can steer the RP any way you like, swap out monsters with others of the same CR, and modify any story elements you don't want to include (the villian didn't slaughter the entire village - he beat them up and captured them).
Good luck! I consider passing on gaming traditions to be one of our most important duties. Let us know how it goes.
Kids! I have kids! Now, where did they go....
So lucky you pathfinder is the best when it comes to adventure writing :-)
Not all are for kids, but many are easy to edit and tweak for the kids :-)
Kingmaker (hard to find the books, PDFs easier) very kid friendly and teaches kingdom building, lots of faeries and trolls :-)
Mummy's Mask, super easy introduction to dungeon crawling, Rogue friendly and if kids love mummy or Egyptian s@!@ all the better
Reign of Winter, requires some editing, but a classic path with an obvious trail to follow
Iron Gods, if your kids love Star Wars, He-Man, lasers, robots, or anything to do with sci-fi, get this path, in fact get it anyway, its literally the best one
Also Serpent's Skull is good tho for whatever reason is next to impossible to get the kids off that first beach they end up on
.... right! She's at school, gotta go get her, early release :-)
I'm running Kingmaker for my kids and their friends (similar ages), and it's pretty well pitched for kids I think. There's a lot of wilderness exploration, so the dangers tend to be animals, tricksy fey, and bandits. (And the bandits are relatively straightforward thugs, not gruesome or disturbing.) I think it's not until the 3rd adventure that you get anything sort of disturbing,
Also, the chapters of Kingmaker are very episodic, so it wouldn't be hard to start it up, go as far as you like with it, and move to something else when you're ready.
It is hard, though, to get the adventures in print now (especially the first two chapters), so you'd probably want to go the PDF route. You can also get the map folio as a pdf and get the big overland hex map printed and laminated at a copy shop; I'd really advise you to do that, since the kids totally love filling in the hexes as they explore further.
Let me add as well that I sympathize with your general concern; it's hard to find adventures with age-appropriate materials for the younger set, and I also tend to want adventures where there are options to solve problems without everything turning into a bloodbath. (Serpent's Skull, for instance, is especially bad on that last score.) I've actually been toying with the possibility of starting to write some new adventures specifically targeting this demographic and publishing them at 3rd party publishing sites like Drivethru RPG. It seems to me there's definitely a market!
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Let me add as well that I sympathize with your general concern; it's hard to find adventures with age-appropriate materials for the younger set, and I also tend to want adventures where there are options to solve problems without everything turning into a bloodbath. (Serpent's Skull, for instance, is especially bad on that last score.) I've actually been toying with the possibility of starting to write some new adventures specifically targeting this demographic and publishing them at 3rd party publishing sites like Drivethru RPG. It seems to me there's definitely a market!
Let me know if you need help. ^_^
Isn't the beginner's box designed for younger players? Pretty sure it has a short adventure in it.
Reign of Winter is great to start with. It's a very straightforward narrative, and you can always reflavor whatever you need to make it more appropriate and less violet or creepy (cuz it gets a little creepy). It also deals a lot with faeries, which is a big plus for kids, and there's a pretty clear villain that's Frozen turned bad.
That's if you're looking for an AP. I'd recommend that one first. I have found that kids don't get into campaigns that much, though, and series of one-offs have usually worked best for me with kids. You can set up a cork board with colorful "Adventurers Wanted!" bills and have them pick the missions they like. Kids also usually don't care too much about whether an adventure is on rails or contrived, and the stories can be super straightforward. It's pretty easy to just come up with a five-room dungeon and let it rip.
Good luck!
Looking for one myself - what's everyone's thoughts on Mummy's Mask? I see it being mentioned around a lot.
Looking for one myself - what's everyone's thoughts on Mummy's Mask? I see it being mentioned around a lot.
It's fun! It's pretty Indiana Jones/The Mummy without a whole lot of adaptation in the first couple modules. Can't speak to the 3rd and beyond though.
Hollow's Last Hope was nice and PG as well as being a lot of fun for first level PCs.
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First Steps, Part One (the discontinued introduction to society play)is fairly kid friendly. There's some fairly easy puzzles and problems to solve, one human encounter, no really violent themes, and a good intro to the idea of playing a character.
There's a couple of alcohol references in there you might what to skip over, but for the most part it should serve well as intro.
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I play with my 9 and 5 year old kids. We've found that about half of Paizo's modules are appropriate, or can be easily modified. Every parent is different, so what we watch out for are:
human sacrifice, torture (if it even mentions Lamashtu, it's a NO)
cultic worship
rape
demons (a little is ok, but not contracts to sell your soul or anything)
succubi
We've played the following:
Black Fang (Beginner Box)
the mines adventure in the Beginner Box addon
Beginner Box Bash adventures
We Be Goblins
We Be Goblins Too
Master of the Fallen Fortress
Risen from the Sands
Entombed with the Pharoahs
The Pact Stone Pyramid
We plan to play (and these look OK to me)
Hollow's Last Hope
Into the Haunted Forest
Flight of the Red Raven
No Response from Deepmar
Guardians of Dragonfall
Crypt of the Everflame
Masks of the Living God (I will use the suggested alternative and just let them do it as a dungeon crawl, I'm not OK with roleplaying a cult initiation with my kids)
City of Golden Death
The Dragon's Demand
Plunder and Peril
Wardens of the Reborn Forge
Emerald Spire Superdungeon (the town may require a light hand with Hellnights)
Thornkeep (I don't actually have a copy of this yet)
Some of the above Paizo adventures are for 3.5 instead of Pathfinder. We plan to get into some of the adventure paths later, but I haven't yet investigated which are appropriate.
I also highly recommend the adventure Lair of the Winter Dragon from pfbeginner.com which was written for the beginner box, and written for kids.
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In my earlier post, I forgot to mention the following:
If you want your kids to play in a way that seeks non-violent solutions, you as GM need to make these solutions more likely to work. For example, in Master of the Fallen Fortress:
The system seems set up so that attacking things is more likely by the numbers to work than more creative, non-violent solutions. For kids, I think it's perfectly appropriate to adjust things a little so that the creative solutions work.
We've had some similar issues with our kids in Uganda, so I have been reading through the ideas for our own benefit.
We've run Kingmaker - now on Part 4 - and Reign of Winter is about to end Part 1.
While D1 is quite bloody, it is the one module that our kids play and GM again and again. Maybe it's to do with rescuing the kids or just the simplicity of the format and the monsters, but they love this one. Having said that it does need some softening. They also like Hollows Last Hope.
We've recently been trying the Mini dungeons from AdventureaWeek and the Level 1 adventure was really fun and also quite easy for our kids to run themselves - https://adventureaweek.com/shop/ - is the link.
Lastly, I do rather like Keep on the Shadowfell and, while 4th edition has issues for adults in its combat-focused format, its battles are fun for children, as they start with super powers etc. A different type of child will like it.
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A few I've run for my nephews/niece - (now 11/13/15 - but I started when they were younger) -
The Godsmouth Heresey (not bad - just go vague on creepy undead stuff - but they already play Left 4 Dead)
Rise of the Goblin Guild (fun mod - nothing objectionable - highly reccomended for kids)
Gods' Market Gamble (nothing objectionable - though they may not 'get' certain clues)
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Here are a few things I use to start my kids on tabletop rpgs.
1: Hero Kids RPG. You can find it by googling Hero Kids RPG, or I believe it is actually for sale on Paizo (pretty cheap). You can use their kid friendly rules or just play their adventures using Pathfinder rules.
2:Basic Fantasy RPG. Go on Amazon and search for Basic Fantasy RPG and a bunch of books for the system will come up. They have many really great adventures for super cheap, most of their books are under $5, including their rule book. You can use their super simple rules or just play their adventures with Pathfinder's rules. Their adventures are AMAZING especially for the price and I think all GMs should check them out to use as Pathfinder modules.
3: Pathfinder Beginner Box and the downloadable adventures that go with it. The Pathfinder Beginner Box is the most amazing, best thought out starter set I have Ever seen (D&D 5th edition should be ashamed of the crappy starter box they put out). The simplified Pathfinder rules and adventures that come with it are perfect for teaching kids, plus after you play them long enough to become proficient with them it is easy to make a seamless transition to the full rules, if you want to. I find kid's like the short mini mission type of adventures that come with it. My kids like the dungeon exploring and combat parts that they offer, but get bored playing Pathfinder Society games with the longer more storylined adventures.
4: Old D&D 1st and 2nd edition adventures, but using Pathfinder rules. Can download PDFs or I have had great luck finding tons of them for cheap at Half Price Books, not to mention the beautiful reprint editions you can get (if you don't mind spending a few bucks). 1st and 2nd edition days often offered simpler and more innocent adventures and contain some of the best stories and adventures in the history of gaming.
5: Fat Dragon Games. This isn't actually a game, it is downloadable printable 3D gaming terrain. I only mention it because my kids LOVE cutting and glueing together these sets to have Pathfinder Battles on, or to make homes for their characters.
I hope some of this is helpful to those looking for fun RPG options for their kids.
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If you wanna do a custom setting, just declare that the world is at war with the 'Shadow Realm' and everything they face doesn't die when HP is depleted, it merely 'goes home' (disappears)-leaving behind any treasure they accumulated on this plane, taking with them any gear they originally came with (also an easy way to control gear). This also allows for repeat villains...
Or.
Have their characters be awakened animals or fey creatures, they are trying to save their forest from the evil Automamen, humanoid robots intent on clear cutting their magical home! Oh noes!
If you wanna do a custom setting, just declare that the world is at war with the 'Shadow Realm' and everything they face doesn't die when HP is depleted, it merely 'goes home' (disappears)-leaving behind any treasure they accumulated on this plane, taking with them any gear they originally came with (also an easy way to control gear). This also allows for repeat villains...
So, basically, play a game where the majority of enemies are Outsiders. Outsiders generally only actually die on their own plane, unless they're Native (not entirely sure if this is a general thing for Pathfinder or only for specific types, though).
Also, remember that most enemies don't die unless their HP reaches their negative CON score, and can still be saved, and that nonlethal damage exists (especially for a character like a Monk or Buccaneer Bard which could deal most/all of their damage non-lethally if they want). Even if they're an enemy, common sense dictates that taking them alive is better that killing them, even if you're not specifically trying to be kid-friendly (for getting information out of them, for convincing them to join your side, or for having the proper authorities sentence them; hell, in a game I'm playing, we ARE the proper authorities, so we try to have enemies surrender as much as possible and we frequently try to administer first aid to dying enemies). If you want to have them succeed more at stabilizing a dying target, either occasionally fudge the results if they fail, or just drop the Heal DC down from 15 to something a bit easier/more consistently achievable. Taking enemies alive also means a larger emphasis on roleplaying and the Charisma-based skills, which is a plus.
Edit: Almost forgot that the Stabilize 0-level spell existed! That could be helpful to know if those situations pop up frequently.
Anyone know any good adventures I could run for my kids? My kids are 8 and 11 years old. They have become very interested in Pathfinder and just made two characters. I figured I would ask the community for help while I dig through sites.
Side note: I run two games for adults, so I do know what I am doing. I just lack kid friendly adventure material.
Thanks
Let me just check my reviews...
Do the kid like lizards? There is this one:
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8ey4?Pathfinder-Module-Master-of-the-Fallen-F ortress
Taking the tower back from smelly trogs can be good fun.
Do you want a very silly funny monster for a monster hunt?
http://paizo.com/products/btpy82qq?Behind-the-Monsters-Terror-Turkey
If they like Egypt and Egyptian themes, I liked running this dungeon:
http://paizo.com/products/btpy88ll?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-21-The-Etern al-Obelisk
How about this, if they like gargoyles and watch the old cartoon (coordinating them both may be possible for you):
http://paizo.com/products/btpy855o?Behind-the-Monsters-Gargoyle
If you want to promote their language development (English tutor happy to help here) there is this setting:
http://paizo.com/products/btpy9er7?Gossamer-Worlds-Poetica-Mundi
Port it to pathfinder and add a lot of fey, let them know poetry gives them power and you are set.
All products are rather cheap, with the fallen fortress being free!
Anyone know any good adventures I could run for my kids? My kids are 8 and 11 years old. They have become very interested in Pathfinder and just made two characters. I figured I would ask the community for help while I dig through sites.
Side note: I run two games for adults, so I do know what I am doing. I just lack kid friendly adventure material.
Thanks
Start them at the beginning with Crypt of the Everflame. It's a perfect adventure to build a campaign around.