D&D 5E 5e for teen game: need advice

[Connorsrpg]

I run 2 school groups. I have developed a lot of ideas for this very situation (and spoken about them on other threads somewhere).

If you get a chance before hand, show the players some pictures and get them to choose their PC from those. The pic should give you an idea of the PC type, but it wouldn't hurt to ask a few questions, especailly for the less obvious choices. Simple Q's: Do you picture your guy using magic? Sneaking around? Good in the wilds? etc.

Then go home home and build those pregens. Point array or roll if you prefer - that doesn't matter.

Make up a few extra, just in case someone changes their mind. It's not like teens do that I know

Use a very simple PC sheet. I am sure you already have a favourite, but I have attached the one I use. It is easy to fill in (esp copy and paste once you have a few PCs), but it's best feature is that it is colour-coded for the 3 pillars. (Abilities and skills, Equipment and Spells are on their own but then the sheet divides into Combat, Interaction and Exploration.

So when talking to the mayor of the village, I say, "You will most likely be using Charisma and its skills here, but also look at the Orange section of your sheets to see if you have any special features that might help."

Also, once you have filled the sheets in, delete everything that is not used or modified. Scale the sheet back to only what features they have. I even remove the skills that are not modified (though some players prefer them all to be there).

(Ah dammit, I left my hard drive at work. For the PC Sheet mentioned follow this link: http://connorscampaigns.wikidot.com/d-d-player-stuff. Scroll down to "Files" at bottom of page. Go for the Character Sheet (July 5E version)). Cheers. C.

 

[BluSponge]

First of all, awesome to hear someone else is running games for kids at their local library! It's great to hear about someone taking on the role of an ambassador for our hobby.

I currently run a game at my local library for a revolving group of about 15 kids (typically about 9 show) so I am very aware of the difficulty of keeping things moving fast and and keeping the difficulty low. ]

I do wish someone in my area was doing something like this or that i had the time to its a great way to spread the hobby to the new generations.

Thanks guys. Yeah, it's been a pretty rewarding experience. I pitched it originally because I noticed how few adults wanted to play with kids at their table at a local con. It was unbelievable to me, because that's how I and pretty much everyone else I know learned to play — someone else taught them. Then one guy broke out his dragon storm deck and had some dozen plus kids captivated (and quite) instead of racing all over the gaming hall. Note to con going parents: the gaming hall is not daycare so you can run off and listen to your favorite author. Be a parent or don't.

People suggesting dropping background mechanics? Might as well not play 5e, one of the big things about 5e is to focus more on roleplaying and creative choices.

Yeah, I really like the backgrounds, so I'm not looking to get rid of that.

Most of the time consuming parts of chargen seem to be copying down information. So I've started working on some cheat sheets that make everything a bit more workable and abbreviated. I'm thinking about color coding the character sheet and the cheats so that it is very clear what information goes where. That should speed things up a bit. I'm also going to have the library put together multiple copies of the basic rules book and maybe score a copy of the PHB (maybe two if the budget allows). Between those and the cheat sheet, everyone should be good. I might even have extra copies of the spell section printed out because that's the thing I can see constantly being referenced.

Not going to play LFR. Instead, the setting is going to be a fantasy Romania with plenty of Ravenloft inspired gothic goodness, while still being dungeoncrawly. Sorry, but FR is just not my cup of tea. I thought about Greyhawk, but here I'm using a setting I've been wanting to use for years: the Epic of Ærth.

Tom

 

[BluSponge]

Seriously, why switch from Savage Worlds?

Couple of reasons:
1) I don't find SW's Benny economy and wound system to work very well with dungeoncrawl-centric fantasy, with its weird magic, save or die effects, and other oddities. Fantasy, sure, but when the focus of the whole game is dungeoncrawling, not so much.
2) we've been playing SW exclusively for 8 years. I want to try something different, and expose the kids to something different too.
3) I want to get back to more theater of the mind mechanics.

Tom

 

[SharnDM]

Seriously, why switch from Savage Worlds?

Savage Worlds is my favorite game system, hands down. However, D&D has the name recognition required to bring kids in & more interesting items for character individuality (something important to kids).

Savage Worlds is a fantastic system to introduce the idea of setting neutral gaming, and I'm already suggesting it to some of my more veteran kids. D&D is just a better gateway drug IMO.

 

[BluSponge]

Obviously, given our numbers, we've had terrible luck with Savage Worlds as a vehicle for new players.

Really, I can't recommend the system enough for 90% of what you want to do. It just works, and the game aspects are really fun.

We're switching this time around more to shake things up than anything wrong with SW.

Tom

 

[Gabriel Pendragon]

Cheat sheets are useful, I use a fillable pdf for character sheets it helps fill in a lot of information for you based on stats and skills and weapon selections, it is really nice and easy to use for me. Though I also grew up playing EVE online, which is all about spreadsheets and number crunching.