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
*Dungeons & Dragons
25 years
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="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 7810172" data-attributes="member: 6796661"><p>You don't have that long to wait. I started playing short games with my sons when my youngest was in kindergarten, so 5/6. </p><p></p><p>I started with Hero Kids. Very simple rules, affordable PDFs on DriveThru RPG (if you're afraid of spending money before knowning if they'll like/are ready for TTRPGs), and they offer printable to-scale battlemaps and cardboard-standee minis. Even at that age he wanted to run his own game. So I helped him create his dungeon and monsters and help adjudicate the rules, but he otherwise was able to lead his mom, brother, and I through 90 minute session. </p><p></p><p>Next we moved to the excellent No Thank You Evil! by Monte Cook Games, which uses a simplified version of the Cypher system. We played through all the included adventure stories plus many randomized adventures using the Story Please! expansion. The rules are more involved than Hero Kids, and the instruction booklets, while very well organized and clearly written, are thick enough that even non-gamer parents may be scared away, the system is actually very easy to pick up. There is not much you have to memorize and you really only need to look things up during character creation. A big plus are the excellent production values and artwork. All the cards, big colorful dice, and tokens make it feel more like a board game than a TTRPG. Tt is very much designed to be more of a theater of the mind game, but they do have some "battlemaps" for key set encounters. We played NTYE through 1st and 2nd grade. </p><p></p><p>By third grade, my son had no issues with D&D 5e. Now, we are gaming family. Besides exposure to TTRPGs, we have a large library of board games and my kids routine play games rated for ages years above their age. Not that I'm saying they are smarter than other kids, but they have had a lot of exposure to what many non-gamers would find to be complicated games. I've seen simplified rules for 5e for kids, but I've never needed them. But I did start with shorter adventures written for children, like those from Play Ground adventures. </p><p></p><p>As I write this, this reminds me of when I was living abroad in a country where if there were any game stores, I wouldn't have known where to find them, and it was before I rekindled my gaming hobby. When my older son was 4-5 we created a strategic miniature war game using Lego Duplo sets. We'd stack square colored block on the animal's backs (or under the animals, depending on the animals shap). The red ones would be health, so an elephant may have four red block, but a monkey only one. Other color blocks would represent buffs or conditions. I don't remember all the rules. They kinda changed each game. </p><p></p><p>As part of the set up and rule creation, my son would make up a background story and act out various personalities for the animals during the game. </p><p></p><p>To me, this is pretty darn close to a TTRPG. </p><p></p><p>So, yeah, little kids can play RPGs. It is a great way to spend creative time with your kids that is fun for both the parent and kid. My recommendations are:</p><p></p><p>1. Keep it short and be ready to create a fun ending on the spot if the kid seems to start losing interest. Nothing will kill interest in the hobby than a parent upset at a kid for getting distracted or wanting to do something else. </p><p></p><p>2. Use game aids and involve your kid in setting up the scene. "Game aids" can include all those doodads you accumulated from Kickstarter that you've never actually put to use in your adult games, but can also be minis and terrain printed and cut from card stock, or legos. </p><p></p><p>3. Let your kids homebrew. Kids love to make up their own rules. One thing that breaks my heart in modern parenting and in schools today (at least in my part of the USA) is that everything is supervised, directed, and planned by adults. The amount of time available for kids to engage in unstructured play is distressingly limited and something I try to work into our lifestyle. You'll notice that when a group of kids get together to just "play" without any direction on what activity they will engage in, they'll quickly start making up their own games, or suggest a game they know and then they'll negotiate (maybe argue, but that's okay) about the rules, and they'll come up with something unique to their group. Kids like to create games and engage in an activity they helped create. So forget RAW and encourage kids to come up with some of their own rules.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MNblockhead, post: 7810172, member: 6796661"] You don't have that long to wait. I started playing short games with my sons when my youngest was in kindergarten, so 5/6. I started with Hero Kids. Very simple rules, affordable PDFs on DriveThru RPG (if you're afraid of spending money before knowning if they'll like/are ready for TTRPGs), and they offer printable to-scale battlemaps and cardboard-standee minis. Even at that age he wanted to run his own game. So I helped him create his dungeon and monsters and help adjudicate the rules, but he otherwise was able to lead his mom, brother, and I through 90 minute session. Next we moved to the excellent No Thank You Evil! by Monte Cook Games, which uses a simplified version of the Cypher system. We played through all the included adventure stories plus many randomized adventures using the Story Please! expansion. The rules are more involved than Hero Kids, and the instruction booklets, while very well organized and clearly written, are thick enough that even non-gamer parents may be scared away, the system is actually very easy to pick up. There is not much you have to memorize and you really only need to look things up during character creation. A big plus are the excellent production values and artwork. All the cards, big colorful dice, and tokens make it feel more like a board game than a TTRPG. Tt is very much designed to be more of a theater of the mind game, but they do have some "battlemaps" for key set encounters. We played NTYE through 1st and 2nd grade. By third grade, my son had no issues with D&D 5e. Now, we are gaming family. Besides exposure to TTRPGs, we have a large library of board games and my kids routine play games rated for ages years above their age. Not that I'm saying they are smarter than other kids, but they have had a lot of exposure to what many non-gamers would find to be complicated games. I've seen simplified rules for 5e for kids, but I've never needed them. But I did start with shorter adventures written for children, like those from Play Ground adventures. As I write this, this reminds me of when I was living abroad in a country where if there were any game stores, I wouldn't have known where to find them, and it was before I rekindled my gaming hobby. When my older son was 4-5 we created a strategic miniature war game using Lego Duplo sets. We'd stack square colored block on the animal's backs (or under the animals, depending on the animals shap). The red ones would be health, so an elephant may have four red block, but a monkey only one. Other color blocks would represent buffs or conditions. I don't remember all the rules. They kinda changed each game. As part of the set up and rule creation, my son would make up a background story and act out various personalities for the animals during the game. To me, this is pretty darn close to a TTRPG. So, yeah, little kids can play RPGs. It is a great way to spend creative time with your kids that is fun for both the parent and kid. My recommendations are: 1. Keep it short and be ready to create a fun ending on the spot if the kid seems to start losing interest. Nothing will kill interest in the hobby than a parent upset at a kid for getting distracted or wanting to do something else. 2. Use game aids and involve your kid in setting up the scene. "Game aids" can include all those doodads you accumulated from Kickstarter that you've never actually put to use in your adult games, but can also be minis and terrain printed and cut from card stock, or legos. 3. Let your kids homebrew. Kids love to make up their own rules. One thing that breaks my heart in modern parenting and in schools today (at least in my part of the USA) is that everything is supervised, directed, and planned by adults. The amount of time available for kids to engage in unstructured play is distressingly limited and something I try to work into our lifestyle. You'll notice that when a group of kids get together to just "play" without any direction on what activity they will engage in, they'll quickly start making up their own games, or suggest a game they know and then they'll negotiate (maybe argue, but that's okay) about the rules, and they'll come up with something unique to their group. Kids like to create games and engage in an activity they helped create. So forget RAW and encourage kids to come up with some of their own rules. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
25 years
Top