Help me design a story/encounters for kids

[Constance Clochard]

You guys are all so helpful I thought I'd gamble and throw this question at ya.

In a fit of foolishness I decided to take on the challenge of putting a game together for some friends and their kids. I've got 2 adults (both play various RPGs) and 3 boys (ages between 10 and 13). The 13yo has played before but the other 2 haven't. It's been a very long time since I was that age and have no experience being a "boy" - but I think I'm safe in assuming killing things is gonna be the highlight of the evening.

I'm good at coming up with complicated story arcs and encounters to go with them that play out over many many gaming sessions. But these are kids. I'm not sure the kids are gonna get invested in a "big" story arc especially since I can see them wanting to try out other Classes when they want to "retire" there PC (or when their PC dies). I'm thinking I need some "short" story lines for Low Level characters.

So, assuming you all have been in the 10 - 13 yo age range (and remember it!)... any ideas for WHY my feisty younguns' would go out and Kill Things? Any fun one night stand adventures you enjoyed that might interest the youngsters?

 

[krupintupple]

i'd suggest making it as morally unambiguous as possible for them, so it's quite easy to 'get' what they're supposed to be doing. i'd keep the standard fare for a lower level campaign, but perhaps take a note from Blizzard mythos: fell orks.

basically, they're regular orks, except they've been tainted with the corrupting powers of evil outsiders, or the nine hells, or the infinite abyss, ect. have locals, including an influential cleric who they can easily identify as a 'good person of character' explain these orks are beyond redemption and are even more warlike than regular orks.

if you think they'd be into a twist, you could even plan them to eventually meet an orkish shaman or medicine man or something who's ALSO trying to destroy the corruption upon his peoples, so the two can put aside hostility for the time being.

failing that, use undead: a classic zombie invasion is always memorable. heck, make it a small mining town or something with barely 100 people. so the heroes can't fall back on anyone for help, as they're surrounded by zombies and citizens begging for help. sure, they're slow as heck, but there's literally dozens of them and they've surrounded the barn the heroes have stowed away in!

you'll find that undead and demons/devils are the peanut butter and jelly of D&D - they're timeless, classic and even the worst player need not worry about any reprocussions of smashing them to pieces, so it'll be fun without bogging down with philisophical discussion on the nature of undeath.

 

[aboyd]

I decided to take on the challenge of putting a game together for some friends and their kids. I've got 2 adults (both play various RPGs) and 3 boys (ages between 10 and 13).

Yeah, I'm in my 30s and I've played many sessions with 4, 6, 10, 11, 12, 14, and 16 year olds. It's not bad.

The girls will want forests, horses, talking animals (think Narnia or Speak With Animals spell), and so on. My daughter, for example, became a druid and selected all sorts of non-combat nature/animal spells.

But you're worried about boys. The boys want to be Neo in the Matrix, even my 6 year-old son who has never seen the movie. I created a fighter for him because he wanted to be "big and strong." However, he was mad that I dared to only give him 1 weapon. He ended up with daggers in boots, a sword, a mace, a club, and couple other cheap weapons. He took quick draw so that he could be switching things up all the time. He didn't care about combat effectiveness -- it was just cool. But then he started to care when other players were more optimized and stole his spotlight. It's a balancing act.

The boys at 12+ will have role-playing down as a concept. Younger, probably not. We had some teen boys who were rogues & stole from the party. Some of us played in character, as if we didn't know it had happened. But one kid, about age 10, hadn't understood role-playing yet and was furious about the theft, entering into combat against the characters while everyone else was like, "What? Why?"

So there is a point there where you have to be more delicate. Kill the character of a 10 year-old, expect tears or thrown pencils and dice. Kill the character of a 13 year-old, expect him to immediately say, "For my next character concept, I want _____!"

It's likely none of them will want to play a cleric. You should gear your campaign to have lots of potions or other ways to heal.

They will expect to be able to get in a lot of heroics. The younger ones especially will be perturbed with level progression. I mean, they'll love adding in new feats and such, but they'll not do well with the idea that they are weak and need to gain experience. This may mean "assisting" them with things like feats -- try to steer them to the ones that will make their fantasies come true. Make sure somebody is getting Greater Cleave ASAP, so they can do the whole Lord of the Rings take-on-a-mob scene.

So, assuming you all have been in the 10 - 13 yo age range (and remember it!)... any ideas for WHY my feisty younguns' would go out and Kill Things? Any fun one night stand adventures you enjoyed that might interest the youngsters?

My groups have loved lots of the adventures posted for free at the WotC site. In particular, the Calzone Golem adventure was quite well received. There was one with a poisoned water supply and some kobolds (I think) that was also well received. You can do the Calzone Golem adventure in one sitting. The poisoned water adventure can be done in two. There are perhaps 40 or so adventures there, each fairly short, each with simple, kid-friendly motivation ("Someone in town asks you to look in on the bakers, who have been missing for a few days").

 

[Aluvial]

Well, you have boys and they'll want adventure. My big question is whether they can handle the complexities of the rule set. If you think they can grasp the major points, then I think you are a go... but if you think that it might be a little too much math (granted the game is great for learning basic math skills) then I would dumb it down a tad, make simpler character sheets with just the necessary numbers to play. For example, Jump +10, not Jump +10 - 5 ranks, 3 ability, and 2 synergy.

Simple sheets in a big sized font.

If they can handle the game, then adventures should be fairly easy for the boys. I would definitely steer them down the fantasy line of things, breaking them away from the conventional anime that is so prevelent in our western society. Make the bad guys BAD, the good guys GOOD. With adults, I play with degrees within the alignment system; in fact, we don't really use it. Its how you act around others that speaks volumes. Use alignment for the kids to show them how to behave, expect them to be GOOD heroes. You almost have a responsibility to teach them morals while playing. Not in a preachy way, but in a fun way. Heroes protect the innocent.

I taught my younger cousins to play DnD years ago. One of the lessons that I learned from my uncle (who taught me), was to make the PC's responsible for their actions. Their must be a lot of cause and effect. IF-THEN stuff. Give the party a charter that they must sign to join up, something like a code of ethics that they must follow. This allows them the opportunity to choose whether they want to play, but to play in a way that makes them be responsible for being heroes.

Children, especially teens can take roleplaying very seriously. Make sure there is a distinction between the game world and the real world. When you are done playing, take time to talk about the adventure, and plan a small activity, I suggest a snack. As the DM you are taking on a role that is bigger then just a buddy playing a game, you are acting as a compass for their future. Good roleplay leads to good behavior.

Ok, so I know this sounds heavy in the preachy department, but I only wanted to say that teen boys are impressionable. They should not be allowed to hack up the waitress in the bar and walk away. There has to be RULES. Kids live and thrive with order and dicipline. Your game world has to reflect that evil and corrupt behavior will be punished, if not by their peers, but by the populace. Do not resort to hach 'n slash. Plot is very important to teens. Try VERY hard to remember what it was like to be hitting puberty. These kids are extremely inpressionable. You have a great opportunity here to teach them something; don't squander it.

Sorry to be so preachy myself... hope this gives you something to think about.

Aluvial

 

[Constance Clochard]

My groups have loved lots of the adventures posted for free at the WotC site.

Thanks! I'll go over and check it out! I've already got a Cleric for the party and the boys have all chosen fighter types.
Thanks for the advice about tears as well. I had given that possibility some thought.

I've been playing with moral ambiguities for years and years - my group seems to thrive on the challenge of making the "right" choice.

Make the bad guys BAD, the good guys GOOD.
Aluvial

That has given me something to think about! You weren't too preachy. Many of the things you pointed out are things I've been considering.

 

[Tinner]

Don't underestimate these boys. At that age they can grasp some pretty complicated moral ambiguity. If they can watch LotR and get the idea that Boromir was a "good guy" tempted by the Ring, then you can hit them with some more complex plots.
That said, they are going to have short attention spans, and a strong desire for action. It doesn't have to be all fighting, but if their PC isn't in the thick of things for more than a few minutes they will get bored. And a bored tween is a terrible thing!
Paint the scene with a broad brush. At this age they want to crush their enemies, and hear the lamentations of their women. Subtle clues, political thrillers and tricky mysteries are much harder to pull off for this age group, but YMMV.
I run for a group of guys this age, and they can handle the complexities of D&D just fine, as long as I can hold their attention with an action packed plot.

 

[weem]

I started playing when I was 12 (am now 31) - your question made me go back and really think, what was it that really got me hooked.

I'll always remember the first game I played - I was a dwarf with a "huge" axe (I was currently playing golden axe iirc and the dwarf was my favorite). So anyway, at one point I was attacking this guy (for whatever reason) in a bar and I rolled the dice landing a critical hit for which the DM described me splitting the guy in half from head down. I thought this was the coolest thing ever. I rolled a crit and that happened to be how the DM decided to describe it to me, but I was new and to me the reason he split in half had to have been because I was somehow good at this new game and it happened because of some skill I possessed personally when playing this game - haha, sounds funny now, but really I remember thinking "man im good at this game".

So, the point is if it were me in this situation, I would really focus the game on them even if it meant playing that up more than I normally would. I would consider having the townspeople coming to them asking for help - having people rally behind them, counting on them - and then really reward them when they do well with epic descriptions of how they succeed (instead of "you cut him again and he dies". I might say, "you lunge forward putting your sword through him, pinning him to the wall" for example) - kids love the visuals, especially violent ones for the boys, hehe.

At least that was my experience

 

[Sigurd]

An Island is Sinking!

The tower of Fib-Ulan

(fill it with stuff you think they'll like.)

In the lowest room of the tower, under the heaviest guard, behind the greatest doors and the thickest walls, there is a case. The case should hold the 'blue bird' amulet but it doesn't because it was stolen. Without the amulet the whole island is sinking into the ocean. People will lose their homes and this very cool island will be destroyed.

Each of them has come from the whole world over to see if they can help. Nobody can make another amulet but maybe the original can be retrieved.....

Perhaps the Ogre army is behind it?
Perhaps the Thieves guild took it?
Only they can find it.

Give them each a part of the quest where they will be the star. Listen to their understanding of the game and adapt a bit. Keep them looking for a bit then create an 'evil ogre' that has locked up the amulet in a black oak tree.

Can they kill the ogre and smash the tree?


Or something like that.


sigurd

 

[Khuxan]

The tower of Fib-Ulan
[etc.]

That's really great. I like that a lot, especially if each of the fighter-esque characters have a different speciality (e.g. an archer-fighter, a knight and a cavalry-fighter). Then you can choose challenges that suit each one.