Kiddie Dungeons?

[bloodymage]

I'm starting a new campaign soon and I want all the characters to come from the same village. We'll be spending a lot of time on character generation the first night and there won't be much time for actual play. I thought it would be neat to run them through a mini-adventure as 0 level kids so they would all be bosom buddies embarking on the real adventure as adults at our second get together.

I'm thinking, maybe, 8-10 years old (relatively speaking). Killing something isn't really necessary, but challenge and fear are to my mind. The only thing I've come up with myself is the "haunted house" motif, but I can't think of a climax. And btw, this will be a standard fantasty milieu.

I'd really like to come up with something that's not such a cliché. Any help out there?

 

[Gunslinger]

They could have been playing in the forest one day when they found the(unusually long, narrow, and twisty) den of some animal. Something along those lines would make the most sense if one of the characters is a druid, ranger, or barbarian in the actual adventure.

 

[Dagger75]

How about Timmy fell in a well but Lassie ain't around to save him, only the party.

Help heal a wounded ranger. He lives in the forest, was a thief a long time ago now he is a neutral good ranger. Protects the village but if discovered will be hunted by the law. He got hurt, the kids find him. He needs medicine, they have to go around town collecting the ingredients to heal him. When they are older they have an ally and adventure hooks.

 

[bloodymage]

Thanks Gunslinger. Simple is not something I tend to grasp right off! Btw, my username is a nod to my first character, colloquially known as The Blood Mage. Her actual title in the Mages' Circle was "The Red Mage."

 

[Patrick-S&S]

There is an adventure done by Brittania Games IIRC that is named Under the Castle Bridge that covers gaming as youngsters. It is for the Chivalry & Sorcery game but I imagine that it would be easy to convert.

 

[pogre]

There was a S. King novel It where a group encountered a strange beast that they had to force into remission (sleep?) only to have it return when they were adults. I'm not a big fan of King's but it would make for a neat campaign start.

 

[Melan]

Tomb of Horrors!

Uh, no. But how about a haunted old battlefield? With some ruins, maybe a ghost...

 

[Frostmarrow]

From d20 Modern System Reference Document
http://www.wizards.com/D20/article.asp?x=msrd

Children
Children (newborns to age 11) are handled differently from other characters. They do not have classes or levels. They begin with the same ability score package as ordinaries (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), but their ability scores are reduced as follows: –3 Str, –1 Dex, –3 Con, –1 Int, –1 Wis, –1 Cha.
Children have 1d4 hit points plus their Constitution modifier (minimum 1 hit point). They have no skills, feats, action points, or occupations. Their base attack bonus is +0, they have a +0 modifier on all saving throws (plus any modifiers for high or low ability scores), and their Reputation bonus is +0. Children have a +0 modifier to Defense and a normal speed of 20 feet. Children have no effective attacks and should be treated as noncombatants.
When a child turns 12, he or she is considered a young adult and takes his or her first level in one of the six basic classes. At that point, the character becomes an ordinary (or hero, in some cases).

D&D doesn't use Reputation or Defense but the rest should be compatible with D&D.

 

[MGibster]

I'm thinking, maybe, 8-10 years old (relatively speaking). Killing something isn't really necessary, but challenge and fear are to my mind. The only thing I've come up with myself is the "haunted house" motif, but I can't think of a climax. And btw, this will be a standard fantasty milieu.

I'd really like to come up with something that's not such a cliché. Any help out there?

Have you ever seen Goonies? They went on an adventure filled with traps and criminals in search of pirate gold to save their homes.

Marc

 

[Silver Moon]

Children's Campaign

Thank you very much Frostmarrow for the information. It will be very useful as I will be running a Children's campagin, for 8-10 year olds, at an upcoming SCA Yule event. I have been working with my nine year old daughter on the characters, who will be the 8-10 year old children of my weekly game's playing characters. While they won't have specific character classes, each will have an idea of what they want to be when they grow up.

The game will focus on problem solving and tests of skills rather than monsters and treasure. From what I have seen the overactive imaginations of SCA kids should probably lead to some excellent role playing.