I have 2 girls, 8 & 10 and I'm into the final planning stages but I'm getting cold feet thinking I may have too much going on. For those of you who've run a kids game before please let me know what you think. FYI - we'll be playing weekly for a couple hours at a time (more or less based on attention spans and such):
1. Investigate a ruined tower. Rumors in town come up for side quests:
a. giant rats in sewers getting more agressive
b. debutantes in town are disappearing
c. weird robbery at a bookseller in town
d. there's a monster-filled wilderness to explore
2. After resolving a rumor, party is asked to retrieve a sword from the dungeon under the tower
3. After resolving another rumor they find these rumors are linked to an evil adept who is also a wererat; deal with her
4. Party is asked to take the sword to a distant city; stopover in another town along the way. Rumors there:
a. Local lord wants good hunters to lead his party through the hills
b. The river nearby is icing over in just one area
c. bandits have taken up in the forest
5. while in town dealing w/the rumors, the sword is stolen; the ransom is the destruction of the lord since he's evil
6. Arrive in the city on the coast where the sword is supposed to go. Rumors there:
a. wizard needs a crystal from a sea cave up the coast
b. an earth elemental is running amok in the hills - claims to be looking for a lost portal home
c. someone or something is sabotaging some repairs to the city wall with practical jokes but they're getting worse
d. an oracle has predicted a growing horde of giants in the mountains to the north and a village there has lost contact w/the city
e. an alchemist invented a flying machine and subsequently disappeared into the clouds; his patrons wish him returned
7. as the party handles some rumors the wizard they delivered the sword to invites them to a get together - they arrive to find her near death; she gives them a cryptic clue of where the blade should go. They must find "the keyhole" where somehow they will use the sword.
8. the party finds the "keyhole", inserts the sword and raises an island off the coast. They must go there and collect the final treasure before the place sinks again.
Ok, so the game will essentially be a railroad track (the whole finding/using sword thing) running through a sandbox (rumors, monster-filled wilderness). I figure these can get us through about 10-15 levels, maybe more. What do you think?
I think you place an emphasis on the fact that there are sometimes many different ways to resolve conflicts (and not all of them involve violence). When they must kill enemies, best use monstrous/bestial enemies (as to avoid moral conundrums).
In regards to "dealing with" the wererat, I think you should allow for the chance that it can be redeemed. Stress the use of the Diplomacy skill, and roleplaying. Speak in character and make sure they understand that NPCs are people with backgrounds and personalities (not merely videogame avatars that parrot the same phrases over and over again).
Good luck!
Railroading is fine for beginners, as they will most likely look to you for guidance anyway. Lots of "side quests" is a good idea in case they end up getting distracted. In that case, you should make sure to use your wizard NPC (or other plot-devices) to place them back on track.
One thing I'd recommend is providing the players with an invested interest in the village or town. Make them locals and create NPCs that are relevant to their backstories. Use these NPCs often. The game will be a lot funner if they actually care about the people in it.
I don't know how much role playing they'll actually do. Of course I'll encourage them but this will be their first real campaign (had a couple of one-offs to build interest).
I think as their "NPC Wizard" I'm going to have a captain of the local adventurer's guild called the Lantern Watch keeping an eye on them during the first 3rd of the campaign, while they're in the first town. In the small town along the road or the city on the coast I'll have to generate better contacts.
You don't think though that, just by HAVING all those potential side quests, they won't get distracted? In other words if I just took those out, would they be less likely to get distracted?
When I was young (to young to play) my father used to made up storys where we (my sister, brother, him and me) were the main characters. It was basicly "roll playing" in a very loose (very cool :D) setting.
I've done the same thing with the kids I used to baby sit for. I my experience, when you ask a kid an in character question she will awnser in character . And as long as the NPC speak to the imagination they'll most likely go along with it.
Appart from 6 the side quests are mostly things that happen to be there during there mission. I don't think it will be a problem as long as the sword is most important to them, make sure they like the sword, so pick or make a good picture(pretty often helps girls to focuse ;-) ). (You could help them keep track by having the picture of the sword on the cover of your dungeon stuf.) You could always shorten or skip side quests if you feel like they are to distracting, but I see no reason for you to do that now.
I think everyone else's input is good. Railroading is practically necessary for beginners, and I also highly agree on the "monster enemies so as to avoid moral conundrums" point.
I think it's fine to offer side quests though, kids roleplaying will do what they think is most exciting. It could be an interesting situation as a GM to try and tie everything back together. Kids do the darndest things, so there might be some strange (and brightly colored) loose ends to tie up. I like the main trek that you have for the story, it sounds like fun. Have you thought of putting in some interesting puzzles and/or riddles?
I actually think the addition of moral conundrums could actually assist in parenting.
What better way to get an idea of their morality than to actually test it?
That depends, I suppose, on your parenting style. At ages 8 & 10, it's not such a thing that I would place before my children. It seems that gradually introducing children to reality is kind of an obsolete notion nowadays.
Actually Swordborn I hem and haw over including puzzles. One is good at them but says they're boring, the other one doesn't care either way but kind of stinks at them. On the one hand if they're working together it might be awesome; if they're frustrated with me or each other it could be toxic. How about I make some that are optional; the games are in rooms they can avoid or regarding side quests they don't HAVE to accomplish. That way they're easily skipped if a meltdown is imminent.
As for moral dilemmas, I hadn't planned any into the fabric of the game. That being said the first collection of rumors/side quests (Rats, Thieves in a bookstore and Missing debutantes) were originally going to tie into a girl who herself got tricked into stealing beauty from others to pay for some powers she'd used to turn her bullies into rats, but I'd thought I'd scrap that plotline as "too heavy" for my girls.
If you're thinking its a good idea to introduce themes like redemption and forgiveness then I can certainly reconsider. I just worry that putting them on the spot like that, so early in roleplaying and being so young and all, might make it seem like too dark a world for them to play in.
Aside from redemption, how else might they "deal with" a villain? I'd worry more about the alternatives, myself. If they just slaughter the wererat, indiscriminately from the dire rats, wouldn't that be the darker world? The wererat is a person after all.
Another thing worth considering is how you might portray the bandits, in case they decide to venture into the forest. That might be pretty dark for kids, considering all the things historic bandits were known to do. Aside from thieving, raping and murdering were a favorite past time of theirs.
You could always clean things up, censoring out the later bits, but I'd consider the phrase "bandit" in that case. Better to call them thieves, then. You could even put a Robin Hood spin on it and write in a corrupt noble that has been heavily taxing the people (turning them to a life of crime, as highwaymen). Their leader, the Robin Hood fellow, might have a strict rule that none of the thieves harm or kill anyone. The end result of this quest might be that the kids end up bringing the noble to justice, having him imprisoned, and establishing a new lord (perhaps an elected one; the Robin Hood fellow might be a good candidate).
Again, best of luck to you, Mark!
Sorry it's taken me so long to get back w/this. Ironically with the "bandits" I had a good spin planned for that one. You see there are grippli in my area.
The grippli in the town are a small minority and generally disenfranchised. Those who choose to stay in the town are trying to acclimate to civilized life, effect social change, etc, while there will be some "bandits" in the forest who are simply angry grippli looking for some payback.
I don't know about the murder and rape thing; that's too extreme for the kids. However I'll have a robin hood of sorts in that the grippli in the woods are re-distributing their ill-gotten gains to their kin in town. Should the heroes encounter them there might be a way to convince these grippli thieves to work WITH the system instead of against it.