Looking for a fantasy TRPG for children

The thing about kids (or anyone) coming to RPGs with a completely blank slate is that they won't have any framework to put their thoughts into apart from either reality or narrative reality.

Back when I was in 6th form college (16-18 in the UK) our maths teacher, who was only a few years older than us, turned out to be a geek and into Diplomacy. We kind of became friends and he briefly joined our roleplaying group for a while. When playing for the first time, he wouldn't look at his character sheet to work out what he could do, as that was meaningless gobbledygook to him. Instead, he would listen to the description and just think what his character would do. We then told him what skills or rolls were needed (this was RoleMaster, by the way).

I would expect kids to approach the game in the same way. They will either tell you what their character does, or possibly tell you what their character does and achieves at the same time. For example, they might say 'I swing my sword' or they may say 'I swing my sword and cut him in two!'. To my mind, people in the first group are unconsciously understanding the simulation approach to gaming, whilst people in the second group are latching on to more narrative aspects. Kids might skew more narrative as that is closer to unstructured, "let's pretend" type play.

Either way, you want a system with a fairly open core mechanic that allows you to adjudicate lots of different actions with a consistent approach, and characters that are more broad in capability whilst still having differentiation. You might want something more simulationist or something with an element of shared narrative control depending on those unconscious preferences. I'd try to pick a system with a simple dice rolling mechanism and keep the modifiers simple.

Cypher system is a pretty good choice as it hits lots of those notes in my mind (a mix of simulationist and narrative). I would personally look to GURPS quite often (primarily simulationist) as it is a system I know well and you can dial the complexity right down if you want to. Fate would also be a great choice (more on the narrative side).

I would avoid games with a very strong game-ist slant and exposed, tricky mechanics. Personally I wouldn't use any of the Cortex+ games with this kind of audience, even though I love the system and am backing the KickStarter. Neither would I use DnD 3.x or it's near relatives as the rules are very demanding of mastery (for example, the precision needed for flanking).

It may prove to be a bit more basic than you'd like, but try Hero Kids.

http://herokidsrpg.blogspot.ca/p/hero-kids-overview.html

Also FUDGE is free, very simple and word based, but it is recommended that you use special dice that are used with FUDGE/FATE.

Thanks people for your feedback.
Right now I went for Fantasy AGE. It is quite straightforward, can be simplified a bit (the Stunts) and has nothing too conceptual (like Cortex or Fate). Also, I have a personnal hatred for Monte Cook, so no Cypher, just don't ask!

In this thread, it seems we've been playing around the ideas that [MENTION=8014]dbm[/MENTION] puts forward: are kids hankering for a framework, or freedom?

Me, I think this very same question is both relevant and counter-intuitive for adults. I am a proponent of the framework side (if only because video games have very succesfully played this card, much more that TRPGs have made freeform creativity and improv work). Would be interesting to see that with children, except we don't get to experiment: I guess once you start playing within the rules framework, you can hardly go back?

(double post bug)

Pugmire is a good choice.

Rolenet said:

Thanks people for your feedback.
Right now I went for Fantasy AGE. It is quite straightforward, can be simplified a bit (the Stunts) and has nothing too conceptual (like Cortex or Fate).

Click to expand...

Fantasy Age is a pretty cool game, a good mix of structure and options. I would say Blue Rose is an even better implementation, by the way, with slightly more flexibility and (IMO) a superior magic system.

Have you run a session with your son now?

Rolenet said:

Thanks people for your feedback.
Right now I went for Fantasy AGE. It is quite straightforward, can be simplified a bit (the Stunts) and has nothing too conceptual (like Cortex or Fate). Also, I have a personnal hatred for Monte Cook, so no Cypher, just don't ask!

In this thread, it seems we've been playing around the ideas that [MENTION=8014]dbm[/MENTION] puts forward: are kids hankering for a framework, or freedom?

Me, I think this very same question is both relevant and counter-intuitive for adults. I am a proponent of the framework side (if only because video games have very succesfully played this card, much more that TRPGs have made freeform creativity and improv work). Would be interesting to see that with children, except we don't get to experiment: I guess once you start playing within the rules framework, you can hardly go back?

Click to expand...

It's a well known axiom of Elementary Education that to get the best creative writing, you have to limit the choices somewhat, so the kids have a framework wot create within. I've found it quite true for adults, too, but adults don't like being made aware of it.

dbm said:

Fantasy Age is a pretty cool game, a good mix of structure and options.

Click to expand...

Cool, yes. Structure and options, yes. But good, I strongly disagree. I don't understand all those 5/5 for that game. I have posted a ENW review here.

Have you run a session with your son now?

Click to expand...

Not yet. I still plan on it (in two weeks), eventhough if you read my review, you'll understand I'm really uneasy with giving him this book as an entry-point into TRPG. I can make it work, as a GM, but it won't work as his first book.

I read your review, and in many ways can't argue. Blue Rose magic is superior IMO, but the game is not massively different.

I'm a long way from being a new player or GM these days, but I can't think of any game that strongly functions as an introduction for genuinely new players. The closest thing in my experience from recent games is the 5e starter set. And I think there is a dichotomy in that, games that hit your desires for meaningful weapons variation and handling of non-combat actions tend to be more complex and so not intended for new gamers.

We've just started playing The One Ring and it's got some really good sub-systems for travelling and social interaction. But I've no idea how easy it is the GM, and it is of course highly focused on the Tolkien experience.

So I did run those games!
I played some Hero Kids with the 6 and 12 yo. The game works very well, and I appreciated the very effective writing: you can read the whole thing in half an hour and you won't need to get back to it, as the rules are very intuitive for anybody who's played any D&D. Plus the character sheets are available in several languages, something which was appreciated.

It worked well for both kids who are on both ends of the age spectrum for that game. The older would coach the younger in using the special powers or optimizing movement.
I think the designers made clever choice in keeping the action to a hack-and-slash, though the rats get repetitive: I mixed in bats and spiders. The usual suspects.

I also ran one-on-one Fantasy Age with the oldest, and indeed he was quick to catch on and promptly would call the shots. Moral choices and sacrifice situations proved a bit too hard to truly explore right now but otherwise it worked very well. In fact he would ask me to play every day, and started GMing for his little brother after I left...
I'm still really not convinced by FA as a beginner game (5e is much better written, but significantly more complicated esp. for spellcasters), but I guess that kids don't care that much about the game itself at first.