This is a HUGE moment for me: I will be GMing my 8-year-old son in his first ever role-playing adventure! He has already rolled up his character, a halfling rogue named Zartod. :-)
Now it's just a matter of what adventure to run. I'm thinking an adventure path might be a bit much, so I'm looking for a module or perhaps one of the Pathfinder Society Scenarios. It'll be a standard party of four in all likelihood. Any advice would be great! Fast-paced action is a must (think 8-year-old attention span), and anything with slapstick humor would be a bonus. ;-)
Thanks much!
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This is a HUGE moment for me: I will be GMing my 8-year-old son in his first ever role-playing adventure! He has already rolled up his character, a halfling rogue named Zartod. :-)
Now it's just a matter of what adventure to run. I'm thinking an adventure path might be a bit much, so I'm looking for a module or perhaps one of the Pathfinder Society Scenarios. It'll be a standard party of four in all likelihood. Any advice would be great! Fast-paced action is a must (think 8-year-old attention span), and anything with slapstick humor would be a bonus. ;-)
Thanks much!
I don't think I would even go with a module if I were you. I remember when my son was 7 and I ran him in his first game (he is now 15). It was a simple adventure. Something along the lines of the orcs/goblins/kobolds/whatever found the king's sword that he had lost while hunting. He sends the PC to recover it. This kind of adventure lets you help him learn the different areas of the rules.
He can use diplomacy/gather info to talk to guards or whomever was with the king on the hunt to see if they remember anything, where they think it might have been lost, etc...
He can use stealth to sneak into the enemies camp of 8-10 of the creatures.
He can fight the leader of the enemies. Then, he could use initimidate to make the other creatures flee.
He can return triumphant with the sword to be rewarded in kind.
As it is his first game, I would make sure you let him live, no matter how poor his dice rolls or how many mistakes he makes. Use it as a teaching experience.
I actually ran four very similar adventures, one for a fighter, priest, wizard and rogue so he could experience all four basic classes.
Remember, keep it fun.
+1 to what Michael said.
I'll add that lots of description, funny voices, corny lines, etc., make it fun for kids. An 8-year-old would probably like to hear about the goblin's death throes after a successful sneal attack.
"You tricksy halfling! Curse you! Ughhhhh...." Ham it up.
I agree simple is better
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This is a HUGE moment for me: I will be GMing my 8-year-old son in his first ever role-playing adventure! He has already rolled up his character, a halfling rogue named Zartod. :-)
Now it's just a matter of what adventure to run. I'm thinking an adventure path might be a bit much, so I'm looking for a module or perhaps one of the Pathfinder Society Scenarios. It'll be a standard party of four in all likelihood. Any advice would be great! Fast-paced action is a must (think 8-year-old attention span), and anything with slapstick humor would be a bonus. ;-)
Thanks much!
We have at 8 year old that plays afighter in our pathfinder society games. He's great, and the fact that these senarios can be a little more raolroady is a good thing, as it helps introduce them to the expectations of finding information to proceed from one scene to another.
I would also suggest the pathfinder society scenarios as they are written knowing that kids sometimes play at conventions, thus tend to be a little cleaner than some of the adventureathws. They are also shorter, so you may be able to fit it into one attention span, two at most. Unfortunatly, I don't really remember any of these having partifularly slapstifck humor
You may want to look at D1 Crown of the Kobold King (here), toning down some of the themes. There are some parts that may strike too close to home for an 8-year old if presented unfiltered (child sacrifice, for instance). The free D0 Hollow's Last Hope (here) can be used as an introduction, as well as dealing with less disturbing situations.
Thanks for all of the responses everyone! I definitely agree with all of the advice given. I'm planning on hamming it up when I can, and doing the silly, fun stuff that I know my son will love. :-)
What I'm still looking for is a good adventure that I could use. I'm hearing a lot of suggestions that I could just make something up that hits all of the main points, which I very well might do. But I was kind of hoping there would be a good published adventure that I could use (and make adjustments where necessary, of course).
this also brings up an interesting topic, should paizo put out some adventures that are geared towards 8 to 10 year olds? all of us are basically in our 30's and the basic tricks and traps don't stand a chance in fooling us, but a whole new generation could find that stuff shiny and new, just my 2 cents
I wouldn't expect Paizo to fit their products for younger players, and I'm totally cool with adjusting to make things age-appropriate where needed. That being said, a very basic adventure to introduce youngsters to the game could be a wonderful idea! A lot of us have kids, and that would be a great way to start the next generation of gamers. :-)
I just came across this thread after posting the desire for Paizo (I put it under the Paizo products board) to publish some modules for kids 12 and under.
Maybe if we get enough people to post support they would explore the idea of putting a few of them out a year?
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I also have taken the old "choose your own adventure" types of books and read them to the kids, letting them make the choices. The Fighting Fantasy line is really good for this as you get to roll up 3 attributes and you get a basic character sheet in this. Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a great start.
Here is a link to the Fighting Fantasy site.
Just a thought, something slightly different.
if they asked one of their writers to do it i'll bet they could whip up something like this in a couple of hours, so really they wouldn't be hurting their brain at all...
Not only would it not hurt their brain, but I'm guessing the writers would actually love to do something like this. I think they'd find it exremely fun and refreshing! :-)
As a father of three young children, I certainly would enjoy this kind of writing. Also, I'm a big proponent for supporting the hobby. I think RPGs really help kids grow their imagination, vocabulary, math skills, and social skills. So, writing adventures tailored to them would be a noble enterprise, in my opinion.
As a father of three young children, I certainly would enjoy this kind of writing. Also, I'm a big proponent for supporting the hobby. I think RPGs really help kids grow their imagination, vocabulary, math skills, and social skills. So, writing adventures tailored to them would be a noble enterprise, in my opinion.
Are you angling to write the first of the YG series (Young Gamer) of Pathfinder Modules? :D
As a father of three young children, I certainly would enjoy this kind of writing. Also, I'm a big proponent for supporting the hobby. I think RPGs really help kids grow their imagination, vocabulary, math skills, and social skills. So, writing adventures tailored to them would be a noble enterprise, in my opinion.
Oh, yay! That's so encouraging to hear! Perhaps you could share your thoughts at Desforous' product suggestion thread:
A Product Suggestion That I Would Buy - Adventures for 12 and under
I don't know if you are still looking for something published, but what about the Pathfinder Module "Crypt of the Everflame." IIRC it didn't seem to have overly mature themes (but even if it did, you said you're okay with needing to edit-out-the-mature-stuff) and CotE is the first module written for the PFRPG (and designed as an intro for new players to boot).
Good Luck! (And I hope you and your son have FUN)!
Dean (TMW)
My daughter is 8, and she is currently playing an elven sorcerer with the undead bloodline.
I can tell you from experience to go BIG with description, and freely STEAL your scenes from movies and cartoons the kids like.
Same goes for NPC's. My daughter is big into icarly (Sigh), so I play an NPC bard that's basically a ripoff of the Spencer character, and she loves it.
Also, ease the game up on them, and rarely (if ever) mess thier characters up badly, unless it is part of the story, and you provide LOTS of healing options.
What's neat also is the difference between the groups. My regular group is all about the missions, quests, and looting. My daughter's group is all about exploring and interacting with the characters. I ran the same low level adventure for them, and my adult group basically hacked and slashed through every kobold encounter, while my daughter's group roleplayed more than fought.
One time she snuck off and cast a spell to disguise herself as a kobold, and none of the other characters knew it, so when she returned, she tried bluffing the kobolds into thinking thier boss had sent them. She succeeded!
One thing I will note also, is, during the first few encounters, don't let them go first. if they win init, make them wait until another player or an NPC has gone. And guide them through thier actions a bit. Don't overly railroad, but give them some options. When i was first teaching my daughter I made the mistake of saying "What do you want to do?" and she was totally lost. I've found that after a few sessions of guiding her a bit,and explaining the game as 'make-believe' with some dice rolling, she has been able to easily get into character and now grasps a further concept of the rules.
However, I don't see Paizo building adventures for younger kids. But If there is an interest, maybe some of us Gamer Dads and Moms could get together and post a few adventures and/or campaigns for the smaller kids. I could dig up some of mine and maybe post em somewhere.
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As mentioned in another thread, if you don't mind converting from 3.5, "The Adventure Begins" from Goodman Games has quite a few good beginning adventures to choose from. The stories are pretty simple, and they aren't really rich in role-playing as they stand, but I've found them to be great to drop wherever I want and fill with my own NPCs. There's a few that are quite fun, and I think they fit your short, high action requirements.
Good luck, and have fun!
...if a RPG superstar winner thinks it's a good idea then we must be onto something, noble and possibly a cash cow for the first guy to put something together...
While I believe it's a worthwhile endeavor, I don't see the admittedly niche market of young gamers as a "cash cow" at all. If Paizo were to pursue such a thing (and they've already intimated they'd like to do an introductory beginner's set of rules someday), I think it would be more of a marketing move to attract new gamers into the hobby...who would eventually buy their flagship products when they got older and more experienced.
But that's just my two-cents,
--Neil
I don't know if you are still looking for something published, but what about the Pathfinder Module "Crypt of the Everflame." IIRC it didn't seem to have overly mature themes (but even if it did, you said you're okay with needing to edit-out-the-mature-stuff) and CotE is the first module written for the PFRPG (and designed as an intro for new players to boot).
Thanks Minstrel, I am indeed still looking for a published adventure. I'll check this one out, thanks for the suggestion!
...What's neat also is the difference between the groups. My regular group is all about the missions, quests, and looting. My daughter's group is all about exploring and interacting with the characters...
Thank you so much for the great insights, Swordsmasher! I found everything you said extremely interesting and useful. And it got me even more excited about GMing my son! I can't wait to see what his imagination comes up with. :-D
I may suggest reading Neil's comments about his Fellnight Queen adeventure. His answers were to questions similar to yours in the OP. I also suggest tinkering with the Dungeon Alphabet, because it has some basic features of old school gaming that can be short, tailored for a small encounter, and very impressive.