I am planning on running a game for my 13 year old son and 8 year old daughter.
The first question is a rules one I guess how to make a PC that is in the 8-13 year old range my son likes the idea of playing an older character but my daughter wants to play a kid. Is giving her the "small" characteristic and her lowest ability placed in strength good enough or should I consider something else?
Second, what advice/experience can be shared for running games with kids and/or games where a PC was a child?
Thanks in advance.
P.S- I love the art in Pathfinder and I attribute it for a renewed love of D&D, I had DM writers block for a while and Pathfinder is very inspirational. Thank you Paizo, especialy the artists.
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I think there was a mechanic in d20 Modern to handle the child stats.
Overall, the key to running games for younger folk is description and dice rolls. I started a group with my son and his friends when they were 11ish and over the years, they are 19 and 20 now, the game has gotten more technical and rules oriented.
In the beginning however, it was a roleplayers dream. There is something about new players, including the young folk, where they inherently grasp and enjoy the RP part of the game. After that phase it is nothing but the traditional arguing =).
As for adventures, I believe the first adventure I ran them through was The Cult of the Reptile God. It was a glorious mess. The old wizard and his weasel (?) were very helpful in giving in game advice and assistance.
Personally, I started their group at that age to foster a mini community. My son was brilliant, which means no social skill or common sense, and I wanted to create a place where he and his likewise socially deficient friends could develop social skills. It worked brilliantly. One of my best laughs has always been during the various school awards ceremonies where over half of the children awarded had played, or still play, at our table =).
Give her character the young template. :P
You could try using the Young Creature template from the beastiary (see here), but I'm not sure how well it'd work for PC's. The -4 CON in particular seems rather crippling. I actually had a character concept that I had considered running by my DM about a child PC, but I'm not sure that it would be survivable with that CON hit...
EDIT: Yarrr, ye scurvy ninja!
Penalty to sense motive, bonus to bluff :)
my son likes the idea of playing an older character but my daughter wants to play a kid. Is giving her the "small" characteristic and her lowest ability placed in strength good enough or should I consider something else?She is not an experienced role-palyer, so do not give her the trait/handicap of "young" scores.
Being that today is Tolkien Reading Day I'll suggest the solution of the good professor. He invented a new race of creature called "hobbit" to make his bed-time stories appeal to his children with cute, lovable, archetypically British and most importantly small protagonists who were adult-aged but with whom his children could still identify.
Introduce your daughter to the cute little "halflings" and then let her run with "adult" stats.
FWIW, I once ran a "15-year-old" campaign where I gave female PCs -2 Strength and -1 Wisdom, whereas male PCs have -1 Strength and -2 Wisdom. It was great fun, but everyone was an experienced gamer.
For your daughter, just allow her to imaging the PC being whatever age she wants, but keep the stats normal. Remember, this is a first-time (I assume) game and character for her, and not a Society character that she'll want to run for years but will be disqualified at conventions a decade from now when your daughter is 18 because it wasn't made "legally". As such, there's no reason to hamstring her.
As for advice on the adventure, stick with something light and simple, using archetypal stories with lots of high-fantasy elements. Openly rip off or even let them play through known fairy-tales. You son might be a little old for the faeries and talking-unicorns stuff, but your daughter will eat it up. Boys that age want to be the hero and have a certain "I can do anything and better than grown-ups think I can or often do themselves" mentality. Let him defeat the dragon, rescue the princess or whatever (don't make your...
I've played since i was 10. i'm now 14. I'm assuming that since your son is starting so early it's because he has grown up in proximity to WOTC, Paizo, R.A. Salvatore, etc. as i did. My advice is have him do a simple, "Test campaign" to learn the rules, possibly like mentioned in the quote. He'll likely learn the rules fast, and will soon be able to do just about everything a "normal" PC can do. He may even try a stint as DM in just 3 or 4 years.
I've played since i was 10. i'm now 14.Grumpy old fart minute..
You're 14? And you can spell?? ..ON THE INTERNET????
Yes, thanks. We aren't all idiots. Only most of us.
most of my pc's are 12 year old girls, usually rogues or spellcasters of some kind. i don't use templates at all. i just assign as i see fitting for the character. keeping age and gender in mind. i wouldn't make a fighter out of 12 year old girl. or at least not your by the book strength fighter. if i make a 12 year old girl with fighter levels. don't expect a huge honking weapon. expect more of a focus on mobility, grace and finesse. think more of something like a variant of the swashbuckler, gish, or dervish rather than a savage.
I think there was a mechanic in d20 Modern to handle the child stats.
Overall, the key to running games for younger folk is description and dice rolls. I started a group with my son and his friends when they were 11ish and over the years, they are 19 and 20 now, the game has gotten more technical and rules oriented.
In the beginning however, it was a roleplayers dream. There is something about new players, including the young folk, where they inherently grasp and enjoy the RP part of the game. After that phase it is nothing but the traditional arguing =).
As for adventures, I believe the first adventure I ran them through was The Cult of the Reptile God. It was a glorious mess. The old wizard and his weasel (?) were very helpful in giving in game advice and assistance.
Personally, I started their group at that age to foster a mini community. My son was brilliant, which means no social skill or common sense, and I wanted to create a place where he and his likewise socially deficient friends could develop social skills. It worked brilliantly. One of my best laughs has always been during the various school awards ceremonies where over half of the children awarded had played, or still play, at our table =).
I can vouch for... pretty much this whole post. Yeah, one thing you're going to get plenty of is good roleplaying. And yeah, your kids will become more sociable.
The idea of modifying a halfling would work great. Also I'm not sure if you have already developed a game for them to play but if not maybe a legend of zelda themed game would work? Then they would be fairy-kin? Like mini elves?
Anyhow I love that you are getting your kids into the game, bravo for helping them develop literacy and imagination in a world that seems hellbent on destroying these things.
The idea of modifying a halfling would work great. Also I'm not sure if you have already developed a game for them to play but if not maybe a legend of zelda themed game would work? Then they would be fairy-kin? Like mini elves?
Anyhow I love that you are getting your kids into the game, bravo for helping them develop literacy and imagination in a world that seems hellbent on destroying these things.
+1
alice in wonderland AD&D modules
might take some work to convert to PF, but with the movie in theaters, the timing might be good...
Dunno about when the character is younger, but I think I can be justified in giving some advice on a game where the players are younger.
Relax, and don't talk down to them. I hate it when adults do that (Yes, I am a "child" myself). You might want to "streamline" the combat system, at least at first, and include lots of roleplaying scenarios. Fascinating NPCs and places. Humor is good. Then share stories about funny gaming experiences of your own (just a thought).
Congrats on including your kids. I was introduced to that sort of stuff through reading R.A. Salvatore novels on my own, and it annoyed the heck out of me that I had to remind the only adult I knew with any gaming experience at all twenty times before he'd lend my his old rulebooks, never taking enough interest to actually play a game with me. (My friend's dad eventually played a sort of "trial game" for me and my friend, and occasionally GMs for us when I come over and he's not busy working(different rpg, called Rifts)).
Also being a "child" I can relate to the introduction by R.A. Salvatore. I, however, was lucky enough to be introduced to the game by my (Then) 14 year old cousin, who DMed for my dad (veteran of first edition) and myself.
I does my heart good to hear about people younger than I picking up the game and learning to appreciate it. Also younger people that can spell, I mean why are you guys so rare, I mean I had no problem spelling at that age so why is grammar so hard to come by? (To be honest, the ability to spell seems impaired across all age boundaries on the Internet. Luckily D20 games tend to attract people with decent grammar)
On another note, as I myself am planning on running a game with teenage siblings (12, 14, 16 and 18) and I'm wondering what system will hook them the quickest. I know that, if they put up the time and effort they could learn any system as they're rather bright (I believe I'm the dumb one of the group with an IQ of 141) but I want a system they can pick up easy so we can play it easy. I was thinking 4e due to the much more streamline rules (I'm a pathfinder player) but the system is still far from simple (also the 18 year old doesn't really like 4e, he prefers the pathfinder rules, and even more prefers fantasycraft{he has read the rules to all of them}).
Is 4e the right choice? Should I switch to pathfinder due to my love of the system? Do I get a 1e retro-clone instead? If so, which is the best one to use?
I does my heart good to hear about people younger than I picking up the game and learning to appreciate it. Also younger people that can spell, I mean why are you guys so rare, I mean I had no problem spelling at that age so why is grammar so hard to come by? (To be honest, the ability to spell seems impaired across all age boundaries on the Internet. Luckily D20 games tend to attract people with decent grammar)
On another note, as I myself am planning on running a game with teenage siblings (12, 14, 16 and 18) and I'm wondering what system will hook them the quickest. I know that, if they put up the time and effort they could learn any system as they're rather bright (I believe I'm the dumb one of the group with an IQ of 141) but I want a system they can pick up easy so we can play it easy. I was thinking 4e due to the much more streamline rules (I'm a pathfinder player) but the system is still far from simple (also the 18 year old doesn't really like 4e, he prefers the pathfinder rules, and even more prefers fantasycraft{he has read the rules to all of them}).
Is 4e the right choice? Should I switch to pathfinder due to my love of the system? Do I get a 1e retro-clone instead? If so, which is the best one to use?
4E? What the heck!?!? No, if they're all bright, Pathfinder should work fine. My 9 year old brother picked up 3.5 at age... either 7 or 8. We moved on to pathfinder and he does fine. Assuming they're all boys, they're probably going to want to get right to the action. Just remind them to cover their bases (How long does it take a band of elves to kill 4 barbarians, lol) and they should be fine.
Like I said, they're plenty bright, it's their attention spans I don't trust, and I thought all the shiny powers of 4e might grab them. Since the rules in 4e are so straightforward I thought we could spend less time going over the rules (I have a rules lawer in my head I need to tell to shut up every now and then) and just play.
I do prefer pathfinder (I lack any hatered for the other system, I just prefer pathfinder for all the reasons one might suspect) but the rules tend to be more fiddly (spell areas, movement rules) and classes tend to have more complex mechanics (not fighters though) than 4e. but yeah, I want the system to be as easy as possible as I'm not sure if I trust them to learn the rules on their own, and it would be nice to not spend the whole sessions remind or teaching them.
It's worth bearing in mind that Myomoto Musashi, the renowned historical Japanese swordsman, first killed a man at fourteen, beating a skilled swordsman to death with a club. Young PCs are not incapable.