D&D 5E I Failed My Kobayashi Maru Scenario

[Lhorgrim]

So I've finally gotten a chance to play 5E. I'm running a game for my son and two of his friends. All three boys are 11 years old. I haven't played in a long time, and the boys have never played any RPG before.
I have struggled a bit trying to learn the game at the same time I'm teaching it, but at yesterday's session I feel like I made an error in DM judgement.

I've been running a homemade adventure and the boys have been really enjoying it. This was just our second session, and one of the boys was showing off the set of dice he bought for the game. I can't describe how proud I was that I had inducted a new gamer into our world. During the course of the adventure, the party got initiative on some kobolds and the wizard rolled really well on his Sleep spell and dropped them all. The boys have been battling this small tribe of kobolds for the whole adventure, and they quickly dispatch all but one.
they take the final kobold captive and decide to take him back to town. They have actually completed the quest for the Macguffin at this point and are returning it to their patron. It's the end of the session and we've been playing for around 5 hours. I guess I didn't want to deal with the kobold, which the boys are now treating more like a pet than a prisoner. I hint to the guys that their little buddy is not going to be welcome back in town, and rather than cut him loose, they start planning on how to conceal him.

They have a legitimate random encounter when they camp that night, and I have the kobold flee into the woods at the start of combat. One of the PCs ( the boy who just got his own dice) runs after him and leaves the other two to fight by themselves. Now I'm running a challenging combat and a separate chase through the woods. I plan to use DM fiat to let the kobold escape, but I decide to get the boys involved with dice rolls. They start rolling natural 20s like I've never seen! I should have let them catch the little critter and have him escape later, but I had the kobold fall into a pit trap (the PCs had already encountered several) and fail to survive the fall.

The boys took it a little hard. After winning the random encounter combat, they recovered the kobold corpse and buried him with a small marker. They were trying to figure out if they could somehow bring him back to life. I got them started on another adventure and the dead kobold seemed to be forgotten, but today I heard my son on the phone talking to one of the other boys about "Snik". That was the throwaway name I gave the kobold when they captured him. It made a much bigger impression than I realized. Now I feel like I should have let the boys experience handling the kobold the way they wanted to. They were having fun, and I just wanted to skip to the next adventure without roleplaying the whole kobold pet thing. I feel like I let the boys down and took away some of the magic of gaming.

How would you guys have handled it? Let them keep him until he was able to escape? Make him a pet or mascot? Have him killed when the PCs get into combat?

 

[trentonjoe]

HE could have been the wizard'd familiar.

You could have snik's little brother come and look for him and join the party.

 

[BigVanVader]

Bring him back as a zombie, have him start hunting the boys one by one. Start running a much different kind of game.

"Snik know what yoo did lastest summerzes!"

 

[Rune]

I'd like to think I would have rolled with it, but had Snik attempt several blatant, but doomed, escapes. Of course he would also do other sneaky things, like putting scorpions in their bedrolls.

Since you killed him, though, you could turn the tables on the PCs and have Snik's relatives hunt them down and drive them toward snares, so they can be enslaved.

Or go in the other direction. Have them come across a warren with many spiked kobold heads in front. The survivors of whatever went down could approach the PCs, desperate for protection.

 

[Frusticolus]

I think you've actually put yourself in a situation that not many people find themselves in. That is, you have players that are extremely emotionally invested in an NPC.

Life and death can be fairly transient in D&D. You could probably make them go on a quest to recover the soul of Snik or something to that effect, with significant emotional payoff at the end as they're reunited with their pet that they thought they had lost.

 

[Mistwell]

...I guess I didn't want to deal with the kobold, which the boys are now treating more like a pet than a prisoner...I plan to use DM fiat to let the kobold escape, but I decide to get the boys involved with dice rolls. They start rolling natural 20s like I've never seen! I should have let them catch the little critter and have him escape later, but I had the kobold fall into a pit trap (the PCs had already encountered several) and fail to survive the fall.

I dunno man, this seems like a particularly harsh and un-fun approach, particularly with new players. It shouldn't matter if you are tired of the Kobold, you're the DM and your players were loving the kobold and role playing it as part of their party goals. This is not the sort of situation one normally starts pulling out DM fiat to resolve so you as DM don't have to deal - and doubly so after you start to let them roll for things, they roll great, and you override their rolls anyway by killing the guy in a pit automatically (and you're thinking you should have instead just automatically let the kobold escape later...which seems just as harsh).

I mean, they came up with a role playing plan to sneak the kobold into town. They are digging this role playing challenge. They're doing what players should be doing, what you as DM should be thrilled with - changing the world with their actions in the game, and creating their own story.

Why on earth did you quash it? Why would you send the message, to new players, that if their role playing goals and decisions don't mesh well with your mood at the moment, you will just make it all go away anyway regardless of what they do with their characters?

What are you going to do now, if your players decide their new goal is to find a way to resurrect their kobold friend?

 

[Warbringer]

So, you learned something about how the boys like to play: awesome, use it and let them run with it next time.

Re Snik. The boys have a great shared experience they will probably remember the rest of their gaming lives. Don't beat yourself up.

The Snik is dead; long live the Snik

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I had a similar situation with adults in a 4E game a couple of years ago. When I realised they wanted the kobold to continue with them, I converted him from a minion to a simple PC (Essentials thief) and let him tag along. They soon got rid of him when he began dishing out more damage than any of the PCs.... (That's what happens when you have a group without a true striker!)

 

[JWO]

Definitely a shame, even the dice were trying to stop you! Just learn for next time I guess and enjoy the fact that your kids are sophisticated roleplayers who don't just want to go around hacking and slashing!

 

[AngryOgre]

If it were me, I'd give the party a chance at braving the kobold afterlife to recover it's soul like mentioned earlier. Really give it some thought about the emotional payoff that would have for the players. It would also be a redemption quest for you, the dm. I know you're getting back into it but fiating the kobold dead wasn't a fun thing for them. I'd work on giving them a legit chance at bringing him back.