Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Looking for a fantasy TRPG for children
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="dbm" data-source="post: 7123506" data-attributes="member: 8014"><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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).</p><p></p><p>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 <em>and achieves</em> 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.</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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).</p><p></p><p>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).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="dbm, post: 7123506, member: 8014"] 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 [i]and achieves[/i] 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). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Looking for a fantasy TRPG for children
Top