Alrighty, I work at a boys shelter and have done some games with the boys in my house. Many of them love it. Boys that think of themselves as thugs have taken to this alternate self very well. Many have done selfless and thoughtful things. Many have played their character.
However, there are times that their baser instincts show. I, as a DM, will try to steer them in a productive and open ended direction, but I also don't want to deprive them of making the wrong decision and seeing the consequences.(Which is a major reason I want to do this. I want them to make decisions and see a somewhat real outcome in a safe environment.) But when they decide to try and take over the whole town that they are supposed to help, I can't help but wonder where I am going wrong as a DM.
If I make the adventure a track that the boys cannot deviate from, it will deprive them of what I am after. If I let them wreak havoc and their characters are thrown in jail for life, or executed for their crimes, it discourages the fun of the game and they lose all the hard work they put into their characters. I've had a few boys stop playing because they did kill people and take over a mining town. Their characters were hunted down by NPCs far better than them, which I thought was fairly realistic. Now they donot want to roll up another character.
Any advice for a fairly new DM in this situation?
Currently, I'm going to give the boys a taste of Pathfinder Society games with The Master of the Fallen Fortress game. The pregen characters will make it easy for them to play and they are on a track they cannot deviate from.
We'll see how they do.
Any advice for a fairly new DM in this situation?
I have a few pieces, and the advice is worth every copper piece that you are paying for it. ;-)
The boys might not have an idea what the expectations in the game are. One approach could be to put together a background for the area that they are in that includes social norms and important laws and then find a reasonable point for having an NCP talk them through some of the critical rules, e.g., the marshall of Dodge City talking to a posse of tough ombres, because it is just a good idea.
Another thing that I have done is to place a mentoring character in the group, often a healer or similarily useful profession to advise while not getting in the way of the plot movement.
If there are some boys that do "get it" then you can reward them for "in character" performance.
You could limit the amount of trouble that the characters can get into initially, by placing them far from towns and trouble. If the boys spend most of their time surrounded by Bad Things(tm) far away from poor, innocent civilians then the boys are less likely initially to cause anti-social troubles.
Hope that helps!
In service,
Rich
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