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(something my 8yo twins can't do)
Xaaon, posted the above quote in a thread about character sheets for the Pathfinder RPG. His comment prompted me to post here. I have 6yo twin girls, and I'd like to introduce them to RPGs, soon. It may sound funny, but after that old April Fool's Day gag, I briefly considered creating a "My Little Pony" game for them.
My question for him and anyone else is: Do you GM for your kids? If so, do you have any suggestions for a GM who wants to start teaching the game to his kids? I read an article about it a long time ago, but more ideas and suggestions would be helpful.
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This has come up a time or two around here so you might look for some other threads with similar content.
I game with my kids (currently they are 11, 10, 9 and 7). Two boys and two girls. I started them all fairly early (ages 5-6). We homeschool and all our kids started reading at a young age. I didn't game with them before they could read. Also, they all asked to play because they had seen me and my wife playing with friends or when they saw their older siblings enjoying the game.
If I was going to give some advice for running games with kids, here have been some of the guidelines I have followed.
1) Young kids will make suboptimal choices in their game decisions. In order to help, I sometimes break their choices down for them. You can do A or you can do B. I also don't hesitate to remind them of their character's abilities or to tell them when something is a bad idea.
2) Young kids like goal achievement. In particular, they love when their characters level. I always try to have the characters level at the end of the first game session. Leveling will slow down afterwards but that first bump is really important to them.
3) Young kids get bored if the game goes on too long. Especially at the beginning of teaching my kids, i tried to keep games to an hour, two at the most. We are currently up to the 2-3 hour mark but if you want them to enjoy it more, leave them wanting more by being willing to run shorter sessions.
4) Until they know what they are doing, don't mix really young kids with adults. When my boys were first starting, I ran them on their own, just the two of them using adventures I made just for them. I now feel confident of their game play and would (if I could afford it) allow them to play with others in cons. My youngest girl though is still not quite ready for that but she does fine with just her family.
5) Feed their imagination. I let my kids read the Monster Manual, buy them books to read and encourage them in learning the 'mythology' of the game.
6) Teach them table manners from the beginning. When we started playing family games we had to lay down some stringent rules. Only one person talking at a time (and only during your turn). Don't roll your dice until the DM tells you to. Stay in your seat. At times it felt more like we were being parents than playing a game but in the end it was worth it because now, two years later, the game feels more fun.
Thats all the advice I have at the moment but hope it helps.
EDIT: 7) One more thing. I make my own character sheets for my kids, using large, easy to read fonts. This helps a ton.
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My boys love reading the Monster Manuals... I just keep my book of Vile darkness WAY out of reach.
One of the things I do is make the games really short, their attention span is definitely too short for hours of gaming, I run 1 to 2 encounters at a time.
For really young kids, try to not involve killing of humanoids. Undead make decent opponents as do constructs. I also like using insects and spiders as opponents.
I try to have lots of problem solving. But problem solving that involves their learning. Math, easy riddles, etc. Also if you can make props for riddles that helps as well. Have them collect items to get in the treasure vault. Tangrams make excellent props for this. Have them collect the pieces, the key hole is the square it fits on.
Kids also love stuff!!! They don't want every battle to be dangerous, they want to win. Lots of little creatures, skeletons are good, that can be taken down easily. Monty Haul is good for younger kids, but even describing a beautiful sword with a ruby in it's hilt. Finding a Giant emerald, or what not.
FUDGE a lot when you start...sometimes I roll the dice and don't even look at them for my kids, I make them feel like they're in danger, when I'm really just story-telling.
Once they hit 10-11, then the game can change towards a more normal D&D game.
I also buy my kids lots of books, in fact one of my twins is just finishing Eragon. Which was written by a 15 year old...gee, I wonder if that kid plays RPGs!! They love the Droon Series, I also have gone to used booked stores to find the OLD-SCHOOL Choose your own adventure books.
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This is all great stuff! Thanks!
I did a quick search for similar threads before I posted this one, but didn't come up with much. I usually find there are way too many threads (and search permutations) to really find something specific.
Wicht, would it be possible to get a copy of that character sheet? I'd love to see what you've come up with.
I'm tempted to start them up this weekend. I can tell that my biggest problem is going to be the attention span. Fortunately, they've asked me several times if they can play, and I've got lots of D&D Minis to use as props. I'm also tempted to go get some of those plastic gems and similar items for them to use.
Thanks, again. If anyone else has any thoughts to add, I'd love to hear them, too.
And Cato Novus, although "The Blood-Drenched Quest of Ultimate Sadism" probably isn't a great choice, I'm often surprised at how much my girls enjoy re-enacting the major fight scenes from Pokemon...they get really violent. ;)
My advice (most of it is probably obvious):
* Feel free to take a relaxed attitude towards the rules as long as they're trying to do something plausible. It's boring and discouraging to hear "You can't do that" all the time.
* Video game style "quests" (e.g. "escort NPC", "kill all the skeletons", etc.) don't have to be the focus of every adventure. I had a memorable time DMing "Mountain Sanctuary" from Dungeon #8 for some young kids; it was basically a bunch of caves to explore without much of a plot behind it. They had a good time just poking around and seeing what was in each room.
* Ask them what kind of adventure they'd like to have. Let them direct the type of adventures they have, if possible.
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My kids were at school a few weeks ago, and they got some of their friends to play D&D, one of them was being the Dungeon Master, he's a control freak so he was basically story telling by telling them what to do...they were playing dragons and faeries and an elf!
They understand how to play, but not how to run a game yet, I'm sure in the next year, the control freak will start reading the rules...and be a rules-lawyer!!!
For twin girls that are six you absolutely have to get "Faery's Tale Deluxe". The system is simple and they will love getting the chance to play pixies, sprites, brownies and pookas. I have four girls and they love the game.
Check this out.
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For twin girls that are six you absolutely have to get "Faery's Tale Deluxe". The system is simple and they will love getting the chance to play pixies, sprites, brownies and pookas. I have four girls and they love the game.
Thanks for the advice, Sean. I saw it mentioned in the other thread (linked in Charles Evans 25's post above) and picked it up from RPGNOW.com...along with some cool card-stock characters made to go with it. I'm neck-deep in working up a list of differences between the Alpha 2 and 3 releases of the Pathfinder Rules, but once I'm finished with that (hopefully later today), I'm definitely going to start digesting the rule and get a game going. The girls are very excited to start learning how to play "Daddy's game."
I also checked out the Renaissance Adventure site. Thanks for the suggestion, Chris. It definitely sounds interesting, but we live in California and the girls are definitely not ready for a summer camp away from home, yet.
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For twin girls that are six you absolutely have to get "Faery's Tale Deluxe". The system is simple and they will love getting the chance to play pixies, sprites, brownies and pookas. I have four girls and they love the game.
Just echoing this sentiment. I like the game for introing younger kids to the genre.
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Pathfinder is going to make D&D way more fun for kids I think...while still allowing us to keep our old stuff...
As far as old adventures classic dungeon crawls are also great for kids...they don't need it to make as much sense, my faves are still S2 and Sinister secret of salt marsh.
I'm getting ready to run my kids thru entombed with the pharoahs, and they're so excited.
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I've been reading the "Faery's Tale Deluxe" game stuff and I have to say that I'm really excited about starting my girls off on this one. The system is super easy, which will make things more fun. My favorite part is that the game sticks with some well-researched information on the Fey and meshes almost completely with the descriptions of the Fey in Spiderwick Chronicles. I'm almost finished with my second reading of those books to the girls, so it's a great fit. Thanks, again, for the suggestions!
Three Words
Seriously, I think its great that people are getting their kids into the hobby. Start em' young. I have a younger cousin (10 or 11) who I recently introduced to the game. He took to it well, although we only played once and we don't live anywhere near each other so he's using his own interpretation of a basic rulebook. Gods only know what unholy mutilation of the rules he'll be using.
Another plug for Faerie's Tale. We dropped the Faeries part of it but are using those rules to adventure through the Secrets of Droon series. That's a great book if you're looking on "how to adventure with young kids" - very fast and very loose.
I also checked out the Renaissance Adventure site. Thanks for the suggestion, Chris. It definitely sounds interesting, but we live in California and the girls are definitely not ready for a summer camp away from home, yet.
You're welcome.
I think there is a similar company called eXperience that has an outlet in the Bay area.
The camps aren't cheap, but it's a great way to introduce kids to fantasy RPGs.
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I just had to share this news. In the process of starting up this game of Faery's Tale for my daughters, my wife has agreed to join in! We've been married for 8 years, and she has never expressed an interest in gaming at all. (It's always been "I'm glad you enjoy it, but it's not my thing.") I finally get to game with my best friend and teach my kids gaming at the same time! I can't wait to get this started!
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I just had to share this news. In the process of starting up this game of Faery's Tale for my daughters, my wife has agreed to join in! We've been married for 8 years, and she has never expressed an interest in gaming at all. (It's always been "I'm glad you enjoy it, but it's not my thing.") I finally get to game with my best friend and teach my kids gaming at the same time! I can't wait to get this started!
Congragulations.