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Adventures For Children: Writing RPGs For Youngsters
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<blockquote data-quote="GreenTengu" data-source="post: 7697288" data-attributes="member: 6777454"><p>Hmm.. I don't know to what degree I agree with the idea that the bad guys have to always, fully be bad. Honestly, best children's cartoons I have seen have antagonists that are a bit more complicated.</p><p></p><p>If I think about fiction for children, even action fiction, yes-- the bad guys might be clearly marked, but they tend not to be as bad as they could be. And sometimes they can be reasoned with. In fact, it is generally best if you have villains that can come back time and time and time again. Kind of like a comic book or video game franchise. You always have that one wizard who is always trying to kidnap the princess, that one goblin boss with his gang who are always trying to steal magic items around town, that one bumbling orc gang who seems to always show up in the various plots, that one crazy kobold who is always trying to summon a big nasties but is pretty easy to knock out, that hobgoblin and drow duo who always have an unnecessarily complicated plot to try to "take over the world!"</p><p></p><p>Exaggerate the common monster personalities and make them semi-comedic in order to really get the idea across about what these various monsters are about. But they shouldn't be lethal and their plots should generally be more about mayhem and breaking things than hurting people any more than people might get in a standard bar fight. And open the possibility of them being sympathetic and fun.</p><p></p><p>Regardless of who makes up your villain gallery, the goal is to knock them out and send them back to the dungeon... and eventually they will escape again for their recurring appearances, maybe even teaming up.</p><p></p><p>Maybe once you get to a really high level something really, really bad can appear, like a demon, and some of those old villains might even help the heroes defeat it.</p><p></p><p>Use magic liberally. Let real weirdness happen, regardless of balance. Maybe the characters get transformed-- maybe into something small and helpless like mice or cats and have to try to change back... or maybe they get changed so they are really big making their fights easy, but also highlighting the fact that suddenly their daily lives are so difficult they will want to find a way to reverse it.</p><p></p><p>You can do a "through the looking glance" plot or an evil doubles plot... look at the best kid's cartoons from both yesteryear and more recent for various plot ideas. He-Man, Thunder Cats, Last Airbender, Adventure Time... and those are just the fantasy ones, it actually isn't too hard to adapt plots from comic book and sci-fi shows with just a bit more thought.</p><p></p><p>Generally 'no killing' either the heroes or the villains. Even if you are using swords and arrows, generally everyone gets 'knocked out'. Use old school comic book and cartoon logic.</p><p></p><p>You don't need things to be particularly challenging, creative is better than challenging. Try to make things be enough of a cakewalk that they can feel free to take lots of risks and make lots of mistakes rather than having to optimize their characters and plot every move carefully.</p><p></p><p>In fact, challenge should come in the form of puzzles where there might not be a whole lot of risk, but they have to come up with a clever solution before moving on.</p><p></p><p>And, of course, you should try to inject plenty of comedy, at least one comedy scene for every dramatic one. Once they get to teens they might go more angsty.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GreenTengu, post: 7697288, member: 6777454"] Hmm.. I don't know to what degree I agree with the idea that the bad guys have to always, fully be bad. Honestly, best children's cartoons I have seen have antagonists that are a bit more complicated. If I think about fiction for children, even action fiction, yes-- the bad guys might be clearly marked, but they tend not to be as bad as they could be. And sometimes they can be reasoned with. In fact, it is generally best if you have villains that can come back time and time and time again. Kind of like a comic book or video game franchise. You always have that one wizard who is always trying to kidnap the princess, that one goblin boss with his gang who are always trying to steal magic items around town, that one bumbling orc gang who seems to always show up in the various plots, that one crazy kobold who is always trying to summon a big nasties but is pretty easy to knock out, that hobgoblin and drow duo who always have an unnecessarily complicated plot to try to "take over the world!" Exaggerate the common monster personalities and make them semi-comedic in order to really get the idea across about what these various monsters are about. But they shouldn't be lethal and their plots should generally be more about mayhem and breaking things than hurting people any more than people might get in a standard bar fight. And open the possibility of them being sympathetic and fun. Regardless of who makes up your villain gallery, the goal is to knock them out and send them back to the dungeon... and eventually they will escape again for their recurring appearances, maybe even teaming up. Maybe once you get to a really high level something really, really bad can appear, like a demon, and some of those old villains might even help the heroes defeat it. Use magic liberally. Let real weirdness happen, regardless of balance. Maybe the characters get transformed-- maybe into something small and helpless like mice or cats and have to try to change back... or maybe they get changed so they are really big making their fights easy, but also highlighting the fact that suddenly their daily lives are so difficult they will want to find a way to reverse it. You can do a "through the looking glance" plot or an evil doubles plot... look at the best kid's cartoons from both yesteryear and more recent for various plot ideas. He-Man, Thunder Cats, Last Airbender, Adventure Time... and those are just the fantasy ones, it actually isn't too hard to adapt plots from comic book and sci-fi shows with just a bit more thought. Generally 'no killing' either the heroes or the villains. Even if you are using swords and arrows, generally everyone gets 'knocked out'. Use old school comic book and cartoon logic. You don't need things to be particularly challenging, creative is better than challenging. Try to make things be enough of a cakewalk that they can feel free to take lots of risks and make lots of mistakes rather than having to optimize their characters and plot every move carefully. In fact, challenge should come in the form of puzzles where there might not be a whole lot of risk, but they have to come up with a clever solution before moving on. And, of course, you should try to inject plenty of comedy, at least one comedy scene for every dramatic one. Once they get to teens they might go more angsty. [/QUOTE]
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