Adapting a Clone/ RPG for Kids

[nedjer]

I'm looking for advice/ comments/ feedback with an on-going project that's well underway, but easy to adapt further/ adjust at this stage. I've copied a post about it below and would greatly appreciate general views and opinions on the basis of the information given. I will then follow-up in 7-10 days time with a complete draft ready for download; asking for more specific comments. It would be especially helpful to have comments/ recollections from any self-starting players and GMs who picked-up and ran a game with limited or no help. TIA

Here's the post:

We've take Corruption, (our extra content clone of the Original Game by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson/ Swords and Wizardry variant), and trimmed it down to form a short, family-friendly starter RPG. The target audiences are roughly for players of 8+ and GMs of 11 or 12+; so the intention is not to create a simplified, glittery kids' RPG.

Ideally, the game should look like and play much along the same lines as a clone aimed at adults. Consequently, the changes from Swords and Wizardry, and Corruption, are concerned with helping new players to start playing as quickly as possible - and encouraging players to try-out a variety of different styles of RPG gameplay.

The changes so far are as follows:

• The volume of the rules has been reduced from Corruption's 'full-fat' 365 pages to a Players' Handbook of 80 pages and a Referee's Guide of 120 pages. This has involved:

1. Sidelining Corruption's 'twist of evil' material on gritty campaigns, uncertainty and dark campaigns.
2. Setting aside most of Corruption's new high-level monsters.
3. Limiting the spells available to adventurers and monsters to 5th level.
4. Removing devils, demons and spells or magic relating to them.

• Some of the features built into Corruption have served as a starting point:

1. The Swords and Wizardry engine is already playable at 7 or 8 with limited help from an older GM.
2. Standardised attack roll tables, advancement and saving throws streamline play at the table.
3. The option of using learned spells at will lowers frustration over interrupted spellcasting.
4. Placing no racial restrictions or caps on classes and multi-classing varies and simplifies making PCs.
5. Full HD and slightly generous attributes at 1st level increase survival at lower levels.

• A system of gameplay building challenges has been added:

1. These challenges suggest and reward a wide range of gameplay options.
2. At the same time they model and scaffold roleplaying skills and basic characterisation.
3. The challenges are available at all levels of play, e.g. a new PC tries-out her/ his class skills and teamwork-building missions follow.

• The adventure and campaign-building step-by-steps in Corruption have been adjusted and extended:

1. New GMs/ Referees are guided through laying-out a basic dungeon adventure
2. GMs are then encouraged to try-out wilderness adventures before being walked through a campaign build.
3. The staged progression sets out to scaffold GMs' skills by making it very easy to outline and run games.
4. The step-by-step support maps gameplay options, but leaves and encourages GMs to put their own clear mark on each adventure or campaign.

There are a number of areas, including presentation, which remain to be decided. Young people usually prefer colour images, but that puts costs up for anyone printing off a copy of the game? Balancing a clean accessible layout for use on tablets against a shorter page count? . . .

The next step is to check for ideas and feedback in the larger RPG forums. We've already looked through many accounts of games with kids - mostly run by parents or older relatives. There are also quite a few examples of teachers using RPGs in various circumstances. However, anecdotes about self-starting RPG players seem thinner on the ground; and putting the question directly may shake-out a few useful suggestions.

 

[OnlineDM]

I'll assume you've already looked at RPG Kids and WotC's Heroes of Hesiod to see how others have presented similar material, but I thought I'd mention them just in case.

 

[nedjer]

I'll assume you've already looked at RPG Kids and WotC's Heroes of Hesiod to see how others have presented similar material, but I thought I'd mention them just in case.

Both are interesting approaches. Heroes of Hesiod raises the further question of how to support. There may be help with building adventures included, but sample scenarios are essential to give really concrete examples.

I've a bunch lined-up, which were simply going to be S&W/ OSRIC badged modules. However - time allowing - it would be good to set some up as solo adventures. I've seen a WotC example of that, which didn't quite take for me, but there are a few ways of looking at solo play with a simple system.

 

[kitsune9]

I like the art from Heroes of Hesiod. Makes me want to buy some plush toys of a beholder and bulette for my upcoming kid.