alienux
Explorer
My now 13 year old son has been playing D&D on and off since the Next playtest. He's played in some games I've run for friends my age, he's played in a few games with his sister, and he's played once or twice with some of his friends.
He's shown an interest in being a DM at times, and I helped him run part of Death House as a solo adventure for me, but mostly just helped him in knowing what to do, so he didn't really run it, but had my help in a demo solo game.
Since that time, he's become a huge fan of Stranger Things. So naturally, for his birthday he got the Stranger Things Starter Set.
This past weekend, he finished reading through everything and decided he wanted to run it. We had two PCs, but since the adventure is designed for at least 3, we just gave one PC an animal companion that could help in fights (for attacking and also absorbing some of the damage from monsters).
I said all that to say that the included adventure is perfectly done for a young, first time DM. He read the adventure and ran it entirely on his own, and did a tremendous job. I'm sure his experience playing helped some, but the book is perfectly laid out to explain exactly what the DM needs to do to keep things on pace and to make things interesting. Seasoned DMs would probably find it a little too railroady and simple, but for the intended audience, I think it's great. And as a player in his game, I had a fantastic time playing through the short adventure.
He's shown an interest in being a DM at times, and I helped him run part of Death House as a solo adventure for me, but mostly just helped him in knowing what to do, so he didn't really run it, but had my help in a demo solo game.
Since that time, he's become a huge fan of Stranger Things. So naturally, for his birthday he got the Stranger Things Starter Set.
This past weekend, he finished reading through everything and decided he wanted to run it. We had two PCs, but since the adventure is designed for at least 3, we just gave one PC an animal companion that could help in fights (for attacking and also absorbing some of the damage from monsters).
I said all that to say that the included adventure is perfectly done for a young, first time DM. He read the adventure and ran it entirely on his own, and did a tremendous job. I'm sure his experience playing helped some, but the book is perfectly laid out to explain exactly what the DM needs to do to keep things on pace and to make things interesting. Seasoned DMs would probably find it a little too railroady and simple, but for the intended audience, I think it's great. And as a player in his game, I had a fantastic time playing through the short adventure.
