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D&D for kids?
- Thread starter Ravek
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Corronchilejano
Member
D&D is whatever you want to do with it, so you could just pick up a copy of DnD 5E and do a campaign for them. I started playing with my nephews when they were 7 and had a blast back then.
mcz117chief
Member
Not a traditional D&D but I vastly prefer it. It is called Fate, an extremely simple RPG system with some pretty damn good original ideas. It requires the players to be proactive and develop the story and the game with the Game Master. Plus, you can make up ANY kind of story in ANY kind of setting you want. Me and my pals were recently playing a prequel to NieR (the stuff that happens about 20 years after the Giant incident), everybody ****ing loved it!
The biggest advantage Fate has is that it doesn't rely on dice rolls like traditional rpgs but actually uses a system of modification dice that only say if you performed as expected/worse/better, much much bigger chance of not making yourself look like a fool just because you had a bad dice roll, most of the time you roll 0 or +1/-1 which generally means you did exactly what you wanted/as you planned it.
The biggest advantage Fate has is that it doesn't rely on dice rolls like traditional rpgs but actually uses a system of modification dice that only say if you performed as expected/worse/better, much much bigger chance of not making yourself look like a fool just because you had a bad dice roll, most of the time you roll 0 or +1/-1 which generally means you did exactly what you wanted/as you planned it.
UpperCaseN
Member
What is it about D&D that has the kids interested? If fantasy setting, there's a ton of board games that can cater to that age. If it's the imagination part, you can just run a D&D campaign and customize it however you want. Just know that being a DM is a lot of work
I understand that it can be whatever I want it to be, but I am essentially looking for a good starter to get things going. Test the waters.
I think its the role playing and the story being whatever their minds can thing of. I don't know how to run a campaign, thus why I'm asking.
SillyEskimo
Member
Dungeon! is a board game that was designed as an introduction to D&D.
There is now a series of D&D board games that are more advanced, yet still pretty easy to play:
Castle Ravenloft
Wrath of Ashardalon
Legend of Drizzt
Temple of Elemental Evil
They all have their own themes too, so you can get a starter set with what interests them most.
Off the D&D path, there are all kinds of dundeon crawling board games out there. Look over the above and see if any of those scratch your itch.
My kids started with Dungeon!, at ages 5&6 fyi. Of course, that is with mom and playing as well.
There is now a series of D&D board games that are more advanced, yet still pretty easy to play:
Castle Ravenloft
Wrath of Ashardalon
Legend of Drizzt
Temple of Elemental Evil
They all have their own themes too, so you can get a starter set with what interests them most.
Off the D&D path, there are all kinds of dundeon crawling board games out there. Look over the above and see if any of those scratch your itch.
My kids started with Dungeon!, at ages 5&6 fyi. Of course, that is with mom and playing as well.
Bear Force One
Banned
Got you covered. Great simplified system with great support by it's creator.
http://newbiedm.com/rpgkids/
He's very active on Twitter if you have questions. @newbiedm
ALSO:
http://www.susanjmorris.com/dd-for-kids/
Free on the wizards site: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/MS_HeroesHesiod.pdf
http://newbiedm.com/rpgkids/
He's very active on Twitter if you have questions. @newbiedm
ALSO:
http://www.susanjmorris.com/dd-for-kids/
Free on the wizards site: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/MS_HeroesHesiod.pdf
Jag
Member
Bought this during a black friday sale and it came today. Going to give it a go with the kids.
SillyEskimo
Member
Oh yeah, Mice & Mystics is a great game for kids and adults alike. A very rich narrative and simple mechanic as well. The game oozes with thematic charm.
JetBlackPanda
Member
You should buy the 5e starter set, it has simple rules and a decent little adventure. its about $20 and comes with everything you need.
edit: 12.95 on Amazon.
Also 5e is open source and the rules are free on Wizard website, although I would start with the box set.
edit: 12.95 on Amazon.
Also 5e is open source and the rules are free on Wizard website, although I would start with the box set.
Joe Shlabotnik
Banned
I started playing 1st edition AD&D with my older brother when I was seven.
bengraven
Member
https://storium.com/
Storium is basically an online card game that favors story over actual gameplay. You "play" plot points. It's a great tool for kids to learn story telling which of course will lead to better dungeon mastering.
And it's great for adults. I wish it would pick up a bit. I Kickstarted it, but it's hard to find people who want to try it out.
Storium is basically an online card game that favors story over actual gameplay. You "play" plot points. It's a great tool for kids to learn story telling which of course will lead to better dungeon mastering.
And it's great for adults. I wish it would pick up a bit. I Kickstarted it, but it's hard to find people who want to try it out.
Pop-O-Matic
Banned
Check out the '83 Red Box edition of Basic Dungeons and Dragons, since it's a pretty simplified and rules-light along with being a little less "gritty" than the other editions can be (since this was the first edition specifically designed for younger players). PDF versions are available legally here and here, though if you want a REAL physical copy then they're pretty easy to find floating around eBay.
JetBlackPanda
Member
Lost Mines of Phandelver
Corronchilejano
Member
An Adventure Time dungeon.
D&D, especially the newest edition, is actually fairly kid safe, at least with a caveat that you monitor the supplements available to them (since some third parties are a lot less careful about the content they put into the books)
That said, if you are willing to look beyond D&D itself
Mouseguard is a crazy good way to ease kids into roleplaying. It's a really simple but intuitive system and it's tied to a license that is fairly age appropriate (not to mention it's similar enough to Redwall to where there's even more similar media for them to read involving it). This rundown of the system should give you a good idea of what it's like.
Pop-O-Matic
Banned
The revised Tomb of Horrors for 4E.
SillyEskimo
Member
Let me add a caveat that Dungeon! is a vs game and all my other suggestions are cooperative. Some kids are better than others when it comes to vs games.
If you are new to roleplaying games and want an experience closer to what you saw in Community you might want to pick up a rules light system such as Dungeon World or even more so World of Dungeon. Easy to pick up rules, requires very little prep on the side of the game master, and are very fun. Instead of being bogged down by numbers and stats you can focus on roleplaying and having fun. I don't think actual Dungeons and Dragons is a good starting point for roleplaying. If you do want to go with the D&D brand definitely go with 5th edition as it is more streamlined.
Corronchilejano
Member
Burn
Jest Chillin
Member
Dungeons & Dragons has Basic Player Rules and Basic Dungeon Master's Rules available for free right here.
That would supply you with everything you would need to dip your toes in without having spent a dime, but you would have to create the story setting yourself and go out and buy the necessary dice.
If you don't mind spending a little bit of money. Amazon has the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set right here
and that gives you a starter adventure, 5 pre-made characters, and one set of dice for about 13 bucks.
Or if you want to try something similar to Dungeons and Dragons but a bit more guided, you could try a tabletop RPG. They tend to be a little expensive at $50-$60 on average but they come with pre-made visuals.
One that I like is Mice and Mystics which is usually around $60. It's completely co-op with 1-4 players (if you have less than 4 players people will have to control multiple characters). The concept is that everyone in a castle gets turned into animals and insects by an evil Sorceress/Wizardess and the heroes (now Mice) have to battle their way to stop her. The cool thing is that each battle gets played along with a story chapter that gets read as the players progress... so there's still an actual story without you having to make one up or the kids having to make decisions to progress it. It comes with pre-made boards, 3D plastic figures for players and enemies and lots of solid cardboard pieces for the various other items and elements of the game. Downside is can be a bit complicated, take a long time to set up and there might be a bit much to track for the kids. However you can always just not use whatever elements of the game you don't want to. It's up to you.
Hope this was at least a little bit helpful.
Tertullian
Member
Everything I was gonna suggest is already covered.
- The Heroes of Hesiod children's adventure
- The D&D board games like Legend of Drizzt (the 8-year-old will need adult help)
- The full 5th edition basic rules or starter set (again, the 8-year-old will need adult help)
I don't really recommend Fate. It's a more abstract system than D&D, not easy for an 8-year-old to grock. You might consider Risus, which is somewhat less abstract and much lighter. Your kids could play ridiculous Druid/Ninja/Wizard characters and get to roll lots of 6-sided dice.
- The Heroes of Hesiod children's adventure
- The D&D board games like Legend of Drizzt (the 8-year-old will need adult help)
- The full 5th edition basic rules or starter set (again, the 8-year-old will need adult help)
I don't really recommend Fate. It's a more abstract system than D&D, not easy for an 8-year-old to grock. You might consider Risus, which is somewhat less abstract and much lighter. Your kids could play ridiculous Druid/Ninja/Wizard characters and get to roll lots of 6-sided dice.
Ouch.
To throw another RPG system on the pile, Dungeon World has been a lot of fun for our group (We came from D&D 4th edition). It leans a little more towards a storytelling type game with just enough D&D-ish stuff (character classes, special moves, stat allocating) to feel familiar. We're having a blast with it and I constantly wish we could find more time to play. I haven't played it with younger kids, but the way the game is structured it feels like something they would pick up pretty fast.
There's an online reference for the rules here if you want to check it out. The DM is the one who needs to be most familiar with the rules – while the players can get going with just a character sheet – but even for the DM, it's pretty straightforward. In some ways "best practice" dungeon mastering is built right into the rules the DM follows, so it's a great way to learn if you're new to RPGs.
EDIT: Beaten by CBtech. Glad to see the game has even a tiny bit of reach here on GAF. I really think it'd be great for kids.
There's an online reference for the rules here if you want to check it out. The DM is the one who needs to be most familiar with the rules – while the players can get going with just a character sheet – but even for the DM, it's pretty straightforward. In some ways "best practice" dungeon mastering is built right into the rules the DM follows, so it's a great way to learn if you're new to RPGs.
EDIT: Beaten by CBtech. Glad to see the game has even a tiny bit of reach here on GAF. I really think it'd be great for kids.
Are these 4E and 5Es clearly marked to say they are what edition?
I started playing at 10, so you probably aren't far off from just playing D&D. That said, Mouse Guard -- which someone else posted -- is an excellent starter system with simple rules and stats. I ran a game for a bunch of ten year olds and didn't have any problems -- other than the sort you have with a bunch of ten year olds sitting around a table for a couple of hours.
Dungeon World and Monster Hearts are both pared down, simpler RPGs, one focused on fantasy, the other on teen horror tropes.
Labyrinth Lord is basically the basic box set for D&D circa 1979, so it's much simpler to use.
Hero Kids is a super-simplified fantasy RPG specifically designed for kids between 4 and 10.
rpgKids is another fantasy based RPG aimed at 4+.
Dungeon World and Monster Hearts are both pared down, simpler RPGs, one focused on fantasy, the other on teen horror tropes.
Labyrinth Lord is basically the basic box set for D&D circa 1979, so it's much simpler to use.
Hero Kids is a super-simplified fantasy RPG specifically designed for kids between 4 and 10.
rpgKids is another fantasy based RPG aimed at 4+.
bengraven
Member
Hero Kids might be right up my son's alley. I never even expected him to be ready for RPGs at 7, but maybe.
Pop-O-Matic
Banned
Not always, but each edition has very different cover art & trade dress from each other. It also might be a little confusing since Wizards reprinted nearly every edition recently. Here's what each of the current printings look like:
1E:
2E:
3E/3.5:
4E:
5E:
And there are some others that are more specific in their theme. There's one that's sort of Avatar-like, and another where you're basically playing a character in an anime neighborhood drama. There are so many game systems now that publishing your own involves sending some files in that I think you can find nearly anything if you really look for it.
At places like http://www.drivethrurpg.com/index.php you can find all sorts of unusual, niche RPG systems.
Playing as cats? Check. Adventure Princesses? Check. Santa vs. Krampus? Check.
The books themselves don't (they were actually hesitant on calling the newest one 5E until it actually came out), but online stores are good about separating them out. Most book stores are either only going to carry 5E or will have 4E clearly separated out with older/other systems (it's worth noting that 1E and 2E were recently given special edition reprints and will be similarly sorted).
These are what the 5E books look like, if it helps
Also, as another D&D alternative, I think
Savage Worlds might be a good consideration. It's genre agnostic, so you can use it for just about anything. Biggest thing here that might help with younger kids is that it uses very little math for its resolution system. Skills and abilities are directly represented by dice, so you just role whatever (with four sided dice being the lowest and twelve sided being the highest), with addition only generally coming into play once you've been playing for a while or if you actively pick one of the few perks available early in the game that give you bonuses to add to your rolls.
The core book is also only ten bucks, so it's a fairly easy investment if you are wanting to just test the waters.
Savage Worlds might be a good consideration. It's genre agnostic, so you can use it for just about anything. Biggest thing here that might help with younger kids is that it uses very little math for its resolution system. Skills and abilities are directly represented by dice, so you just role whatever (with four sided dice being the lowest and twelve sided being the highest), with addition only generally coming into play once you've been playing for a while or if you actively pick one of the few perks available early in the game that give you bonuses to add to your rolls.
The core book is also only ten bucks, so it's a fairly easy investment if you are wanting to just test the waters.
Bear Force One
Banned
I'm really
Interested in how this worked out.
Interested in how this worked out.
Henchmen21
Banned
Liam O'brian of Critical Role is currently running two games for both his kids who are like 10 and 7-8ish respectively I think and says that he started with the starter set. He says that they both enjoy it.
Edit: Just realized this thread was from December and someone just necro'ed it.
Edit: Just realized this thread was from December and someone just necro'ed it.
Bear Force One
Banned
My dad used to run AD&D campaigns for my brother and I and friends of ours when we were all around the ages of 8-10. We used his old First Edition books and he came up with a campaign setting and we had the map of it that he drew on the wall for a good few months. Fun times. The technical side of getting started as a DM is pretty straightforward, and little kids aren't usually very discerning critics of the story side of campaigns, especially if the story is responsive to them.
benicillin
Banned
I'm a pretty big fan of Monte Cook Game's Cypher System, which powers Numenera and The Strange. Really love both of them, and they recently released a game specifically aimed at kids called No Thank You, Evil! It's pretty great for kids in the age group mentioned in the OP.
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