D&D Session for Kids only

[DungeonmasterCal]

I'm running an intro adventure for three 11 year olds tonight. One, my son, has played some, but not often. The others are completely new. All three are extremely bright kids (my son's IQ is higher than mine... oy). Any suggestions for "kid friendly" adventure hooks?

 

[EricNoah]

Someone's in a magical sleep, and the town wizard needs heroes to gather ingredients X, Y and Z to brew a special antidote.

 

[johnsemlak]

These hooks may sound familiar, but that may be becasue they were thought up with kids in mind...

A town or village on the frontier is being raided by evil humanoids (perhaps motivated by a more evil force such as an evil cleric or whatever).

Party stumbles on an abandoned castle/temple/wizards tower/tomb

Relatives of the PCs were kidnapped by ... (a band of wererats?)

People are disappearing from the town. (Undead hunters? Lycanthropes?)

A mine previously controlled by a village is taken over by evil humanoids.

 

[Vrecknidj]

And idea for you, if the kids in your group are playing characters who are also kids . . . .

The child of a local butcher, inn-keeper, or other merchant who has access to food, has been acting strangely, from the point of view of the characters (but not from the point of view of the town's adults). The kids can't get any adults to listen to them, so they have to investigate on their own. Simultaneously, the adults in town are busy dealing with some disease or something that's causing many of the people to be sick. The kids watch this other child who, it turns out, has been going off on his own and heading into a cave somewhere just outside of town. In that cave, there's some bad guy (pick whatever enemy seems suitable to you), and this bad guy has this kid under a charm. The bad guy has it in for the town for some reason (adventure hook for the next session), and is using this kid to help him poison the city's food.

The kids find this out, but can't get anyone to listen to them. So, they have to solve the mystery on their own. They gather up some stones or clubs (or whatever you deem appropriate weapons for 11 year-olds) and head into the caves. Luckily for them, they don't confront the bad guy--he's out at the time. Maybe they have a frighting run in with some rats or spiders (no poison saves though--not on the first adventure). But, they find some books or notes, written in some strange language.

One of the kids is the son of a librarian or of a mage or something. They sneak into the parent's stuff and decipher the notes. The notes are the formula for the disease, from which, they hope, the formula for an antidote can be found.

Another kid is the child of the apothecarist, or whatever, and they sneak in there to get the stuff. Once the kids make the concoction, they sneak it into the food supply and people start feeling better.

All the while, the other kid hasn't been heard from in a while. The now braver adventurers decide to solve this puzzle by going back to the cave. Afraid of what they might find (the notes make them think they're dealing with a powerful wizard), they go to one of their homes and get their family's guard dog to come along. While there in the cave, they find that the kid is in a cell of some kind--apparently he'd outlived his usefulness, or he's being kept here so he won't be hard to find later. The bad guy isn't around, but as the kids are trying to free the child, or break the charm, or whatever, they hear the bad guy returning. They're cornered and have to fight. The kids do a valiant job, and the dog really helps.

Maybe when the bad guy trips (from the dog?) he gets knocked out and this ends the charm. Then the kid in the cage tells them where the key is. Clever kids that they are, they manage to subdue the bad guy and trap him in the cell that the other kid was in. Now they all go back to town. They'd been missing for a bit too long and so a search party finds them. Finally, the adults listen and go into the cave, finding the trapped bad guy.

Everyone praises the kids for their bravery (except for the moms who keep fanning themselves and telling the kids they shouldn't do this anymore), and the bad guy is dealt with by the adults.

Dave

 

[Philip]

I'm running an intro adventure for three 11 year olds tonight. One, my son, has played some, but not often. The others are completely new. All three are extremely bright kids (my son's IQ is higher than mine... oy). Any suggestions for "kid friendly" adventure hooks?

I wouldn't worry too much about the hooks being 'kid friendly'. I have played with kids at age eleven (both when I was 13-14 myself, and also in my late twenties). As long the hooks don't involve sex or torture, you're pretty save. In my experience the kids feel empowered by playing/being treated as adults in their roles within the game. As a kid myself adventure hooks that were 'less kid friendly' were also way cool!

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Thanks for the tips. My son has played a few times with my group (all of whom are in their late 30's) and usually surprises the veterans with more sensible solutions to problems than they come up with. His buddies are completely new to the game, though. This should be pretty interesting.

Thanks again!

 

[Stockdale]

DMCal: I run a parent-kid game with kids between 13 and 7 years old. I second Philip's suggestion - so long as the hooks aren't amoral, I wouldn't worry about them. I ahve also found that kids roughly your son's age (my oldest is 11 also) are dungeon crawlers. THey won't get into the role end of roleplaying for a little while yet.

I also woundn't count on Vrecknidj's suggestion that the kids play kids. Not that its bad, but the kids I've played with perfer to play adult characters; thereby escaping the realities of their actual age and the lack of control over their own lives.

A good starter module was The Burning Plague. Its straightforward - town engages heroes to save it from evil in the mine. This module also can be accomplished in one sitting. A benefit with playing with the kids becuase it is not dependent upon rescheduling to complete when at least one of the kids will be either unavailable or have found the game uninteresting.

Another suggestion, which I implemented today, was breaking the session into two or three hour blocks and limiting snack to the breaks. Further send teh kids out to run around in the middle. The longer the game session goes on without a break, the more restless the kids become. Also having the snack out all the time permits the kids to focus on the orgy of snack rather than on the game.

Last suggestion, save or die rolls should have multiple saves. for example, climbing down a cliff to a cave enterance. One character looses his balance (fails the save and begins to fall to what will be his certain death), permit another character to attempt to catch him (ref save to catch, opposed str to pull back to saftey. Failure on the strength mean sav or begin to fail himself). This has worked out well with new players. Character death can be so disruptive to the game. Further depending upon the kid, it can save you from an upset or crying player.

Good luck.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Thanks, everyone for the input. I don't have time to go into deep details of the game, but in a nutshell:

I only had 2 players, my son and his friend Kenny. They play brothers, both chaotic good rogues from an upper middle class family who learned their skills by sneaking out at night and hanging with "the wrong crowd". (All this came from their own imaginations, not me). They quit hanging with the street toughs, but still liked the idea of rebelling against their stodgy family, so they still go out and have their own adventures in the huge, ancient city my campaign is based in.

I ran two short adventures. The first was exploring a temple that had mysteriously burned. Overhearing that several cases of healing potions destined for the poor quarters might be lost, they snuck into the ruins to find them. They fought a large monstrous spider and 3 ash rats (the cause of the fire). I gave them tons of chances to make skill checks, and the combat sequences were a blast. At the end of the adventure, they were rewarded with a dozen of the healing potions and 120 gp for the rats.

The second adventure was to help find a little girl who had fallen down a drain and gotten lost in the city sewers. Again, I gave them lots of chances to use their dice and learn the mechanics. They fought a choker and a ghoul, and both had really scarey moments where they really thought they might not make it back. They rescued the little girl and were rewarded by being the guests at a huge party in their honor.

The greatest part of all this was the roleplaying they did. At one point, they stole some cheese and fruit from a street vendor to give to some poor kids. The idea to find the healing potions so they could be used for their intended purpose was their idea. They used cushions and other household items as props and "markers" around the living room where we played, even to the point of constructing the ledge on which they traveled while exploring the sewers. They rolled and tumbled about the living room to simulate their combat actions. All of this came from them. All I really had to do was help them remember the mechanical aspects of the game, and even then, very little of that. I wish some of the adults in my other game were half as creative and innovative as they!!!

They're already talking about the next adventure, and my son has picked out prestige class he wants to track for. He figured that by taking the Wild Talent feat and spending points for cross class ranks in Concentration, he can achieve the Pyrokineticist PrC w/out being an actual psionic character. I have to look into the rules, but I think he might be able to do it.

All in all, a good time was had by everyone who participated! Ahh...youth.

 

[Imagicka]

Greetings...

Also, another thing that I would throw in to such a game, is the occational comic relief. Monsterous NPCs that they have to interact with...go see the minotaur who lives just outside of town who just happens to have a flatulence problem.

This kinda thing can also backfire. You do it, so the kids do it too...and eventually, it leads to too much silliness. So, you really have to personally gage if your game warrants it.