I work for a mental health agency and provide services in schools for children with behavioral needs. As a part time gig, I'm exploring starting a respite group with some adult dice rollers from my agency for some kids who are into gaming. In the past I've always wanted to play RPGs with kids at work and finally went for it at my agency's summer program. In this setting we've been playing FATE Accelerated and focusing on teamwork and survival tasks. If I run this after school group, I'm considering running Pathfinder. The main reasons are that these kids seem to want rules and concrete definitions of what characters can do and that Pathfinder is a system that actually gets some play in my area. The latter is important if they choose to branch out.
My question is this: What are the best prepared adventures for running with pre-teen/teenagers? Ideally these would have minimal violence toward sentient creatures, especially humanoids. Investigative and roleplay scenarios/modules/etc. would be best. Modules would likely work best for me given that I can pick them up fairly cheap and run them over multiple sessions. I own the beginner box and would likely take them through that to start. Beyond that, what can people recommend?
If it helps, it looks like the group would have the large age range of 11-18. Knowing the kids personally, this gap isn't as extreme as it looks on paper.
I believe you've posted this in the wrong forum; this is for discussion of online campaigns. I've flagged it to be moved to where you'll hopefully get some helpful responses.
In that vein, have you seen AaW's Basic Paths series of modules? They're set in a Hogwarts-type "adventurers' school" and ought to be good for teens.
Legendary Games also has a new Adventure Path out to take new players through level 5 called Trail of the Apprentice. I haven't read it yet, but it's supposed to be geared toward younger gamers.
Thanks for the response. I noticed after my second post and also flagged. I'll make sure to check out that Legendary AP.
Edit: Thank you, moderators!
Upon further investigation I find myself wondering if I might want to jump from the Beginner Box material to Shards of Sin, which happens to be the first installment of the Shattered Star AP. the biggest advantage this has going for it already is that I own it. Furthermore, magic item quests are fairly classic and for an AP volume, this one is fairly easily adapted for a younger audience. Almost any human combat can be spun as bringing in suspects for questioning. Have people done anything like this with Shattered Star? Also, would replacing the preliminary investigative material with Black Fang's dungeon and then sending the PCs to confront Natalya on Shiela's orders throw off the adventure's progression too much?
Just print out what you need from the pdf. The classic flip mat made for this module is back in print as well.