D&D 5E Very little kids take D&D VERY seriously

Rabbitbait

Grog-nerd

• Aug 13, 2015

• #1

I played D&D with my 7, 5 and 3 year old kids this afternoon. We have been playing lost mines of Phandelver and they have been loving it. However we reached the cavern with the Nothic.

The Nothic communicated telepathically with the wizard, Sensai (Sensai is his character name - the 7 year old) and offered him unlimited power if he killed one of his siblings. Sensai considered it a moment and then cast poison spray at his brother.

His brother, Finn the Healer (aged 5) immediately burst into tears and retaliated with a hammer attack. At this point, the 3 year old - Tilly the Tough says "I cut him up too. I help Finn." and attacks Sensai. That's it - Sensai is dead.

So now I have tears from both the 7 and 5 year old boys. I'm explaining to the 7 year old that if he decides to turn evil he has to deal with the consequences, and the 7 year old begging me to let him respawn. The 5 year old is upset and angry that his brother would try and murder him. Tilly the 3 year old was happy though - she's the toughest.

My wife thought that this was a very interesting social experiment.

Possibly the most harrowing game of D&D I have run.

 

log in or register to remove this ad

Zardnaar

Legend

• Aug 13, 2015

• #2

Damn that is a mean DM.

 

Gilladian

Adventurer

• Aug 13, 2015

• #3

LOL! But did you have them give each other a hug afterwards? Seriously, chat with them about "this is a game, we don't let it make us angry for real." And GO Tilly!

 

Rabbitbait

Grog-nerd

• Aug 13, 2015

• #4

Gilladian said:

LOL! But did you have them give each other a hug afterwards? Seriously, chat with them about "this is a game, we don't let it make us angry for real." And GO Tilly!

Click to expand...

Yep, hugs all round and a philosophical discussion about evil. They were fine within half an hour and I guarantee that they'll be asking if we can play tomorrow. Probably not as we need to roll up a new character first.

 

Gilladian

Adventurer

• Aug 13, 2015

• #5

Sweet!

 

GameOgre

Adventurer

• Aug 13, 2015

• #6

When playing with children I have always found it best to be especially cruel and bloody on a level few adults could take. Gore splattered nursery tales seem to be at fault here. We grow up telling them horror stories like Red Ridding Hood, Hansel and Gretle and other bloody splattered tales.

Even children's cartoons are filled with violence, we don't see it because we took out all the red but believe you me, children add the red back in, in their minds.

 

Umbran

Mod Squad

Staff member

Supporter

• Aug 13, 2015

• #7

GameOgre said:

Even children's cartoons are filled with violence, we don't see it because we took out all the red but believe you me, children add the red back in, in their minds.

Click to expand...

You know, we all were kids, and most of us watched the cartoons. We can remember whether we added the red back in.

I didn't. While I understood very clearly that the violence in the cartoon would be horribly bad if it happened to a real person, it was clear that the cartoons weren't real people. My brother didn't look like Elmer Fudd, so I wouldn't do to him what Bugs Bunny did to poor old Elmer.

 

L

lowkey13

Guest

• Aug 13, 2015

• #8

*Deleted by user*

 

jayoungr

Legend

Supporter

• Aug 13, 2015

• #9

And I hated the gory versions of fairy tales too--they were too scary for my taste. So, children aren't all the same.

My point being, be sure you know your audience before taking the advice a couple of posts up, or you could end up turning a kid off D&D unnecessarily.

 

Sacrosanct

Legend

• Aug 13, 2015

• #10

On one hand, I feel like those kids are way too young to be put in a situation where they're encouraged to turn on each other in a violent way. On the other hand, I've seen adults react the exact same way, tears included