D&D 5E 5e with Young Kids

[halfling rogue]

In our last session the kids cleared out Cragmaw Hideout, so for this session I was really interested to see what they would wind up doing. The Hideout was lots of exploration and combat right off the bat. Now they had a bit of treasure and a new companion (Sildar) who offered his advice that Phandalin would be the best place to go next.

The first thing we did was level up. The kids were very grateful for extra hit points. I didn't want to take the time explaining Second Wind (or surge...I forget what it's called) that they gained because I figured it would be easier to bring up in combat. As it is, I forgot to bring it up at all. I'll have to do it next session.

Before they left for Phandalin they recovered their wagon and wanted to make sure no one messed with it. I told them that the oxen were really excited and that something recently spooked them. As they explored they found just beyond the trees an enormous dragon footprint and they heard the echos of a roar off to the north. I threw that in there to basically say, yes Virginia, there is a dragon you will face. They loved it. My son wanted to go after it but Sildar wisely advised against it.

So they went to Phandalin, spoke to the Stonehill tavern owner and made their way to Barthen's provisions. When they realized they could actually buy stuff with their treasure they had a field day. I gave them the rule book that contained supplies and told them what was in the shop. They loaded up. If it sounded cool, they bought it. My son bought a rope and was convinced he could use it as a weapon (which he did later to, oddly enough, great effect).

They then went to the Lionshield Coster and were straight up giddy about buying weapons. After they nearly cleaned out Barthen's Provisions I realized they were going to do the same here so I had the owner look upon them with suspicion, thinking they might be in with the Redbrands. This introduced the ruffians quite nicely. She would only sell 2 weapons each because of a shortage of supplies (dumb excuse I know...but the kids figured it made sense.) They told her that her supplies were up at the Hideout and that they would get them for her at some point. That put the shop keeper in a better mood and they left as friends.

At all the places the kids went they asked about the location of Cragmaw Castle. I had each proprietor recommend one place (more for simplicity sake, but also because I figured this would be the quickest way to action). This was the Orchard with the retired adventurer. They figured a traveled person like him would have much in common with them and he might have heard about the Castle.

So they went to the orchard (my 4 year old really wanted to buy lots of apples...) and discovered that, unfortunately, the old half-elf didn't know the location of the Castle, but might look into it. Meanwhile he doubled-down on the hatred of the Redbrands. Said he needed some courageous folk to teach em a lesson. He gave them the lowdown and the location of their Manor and the kids went on their way.

Since virtually the entire session was Roleplaying with little dice rolls and no combat to this point, the two younger ones were getting a little restless. My oldest was loving it though. Every word from an NPC was a clue to her and she had a thousand questions. I had to restrain her from overtalking the other kids. They all spoke in accents. It was awesome. Anyway, the Redbrands encounter was great. A bit of roleplaying beforehand led into the battle, and it was pretty tough. I realized halfway through that the Ruffians get an extra attack. This made it pretty deadly. I had the 'leader' battle my oldest (as they were the ones doing the most talking beforehand), one ruffian vs my 4 year old and 2 ruffians vs my son because I knew he would love taking on two at a time.

He very nearly dropped though. I didn't fudge rolls but I did play pretty safe. I didn't always invoke an extra attack unless the situation called for it. On one occasion a successful extra attack would have meant that he would have dropped. He knew this and dreaded it. I rolled and missed. Instant cheers. His lil sis did have to come save him though. After she dropped her foe she circled back to him and took out another (she's a little killin machine...). When 3 ruffians dropped I had one running away per the adventure but an arrow stopped him dead. It's okay though, they are ready to take on the Redbrand hideout.

And that's where we ended. I'll probably suggest they rest and they'll head into the Manor in our next session.


One thing that I thought was rather funny (and sweet) was that the kids had no qualms disclosing everything to pretty much anyone. Who they were, what they were doing, what they were seeking. They literally just blurted it out. So different from my normal gaming group where we are all a bunch of conniving skeptics.

Another thing related to this was that (aside from great roleplaying) they were constantly referring to their backgrounds. "I am so-in-so from the land of whatever, and I am in search of the Hidden Temple and she's looking for her Lost Kingdom" All of a sudden it hit me that they weren't using their backgrounds just for story, but that they were thinking in terms of this adventure being kind of a sidetrack to their own adventure from their backstory. When I stopped to think about it it made sense. I had them come up with the backstory first and then when I introduced this adventure, it was very much a "you all were on your own individual journeys and now are doing this one". This got me wondering how long I should stick with Lost Mine. Right now I'm thinking about sticking with the main plotlines (finish Redbrands/find Castle/Wave Echo) and then somehow incorporate their own individual backgrounds into the 'side quests'. I could either have a 'side quest' send them away from Phandalin to jumpstart their own adventures, or we could use Phandalin as a base. Still kicking things around, but after hearing them I'm convinced that they care more about their own story than Gundren.

Sure is fun though to play with kids.

 

[kbrakke]

Having read through these, it sounds great. I'm actually excited to see what happens when they hit three and get to choose their archetype. Though given the love of cantrips, I expect a quick trio of Eldritch Knights. I'm also excited to see how you handle magic items with them, the wonder of discovery is a powerful thing.
I think that you have many good ways to incorporate their quests in, basically just remove the factions hooks, and add quest hooks instead. I also remember reading that there is a map in Wave Echo Cave, which is another good plot hook.
I actually have an adventurer's league group about one session ahead of you, which makes reading these even more amusing. I'm glad you're having fun, and hope to read your continuing adventures

 

[halfling rogue]

My kids and I have played a couple times since I’ve updated around here. Last time I mentioned that they might be growing a touch bored with “Lost Mine” as it is written, in that they had become interested in their own backstories more than the current adventure. I’m still planning on using Lost Mine as the springboard for perhaps creating a new adventure, but for the time being, they are still inside the Redbrand hideout.

In an in-between session they encountered the Nothic. That was kind of hard to roleplay with the secrets, etc, but I tied it to their backgrounds. The session was mostly uneventful but a quick bit about the treasure beneath the bridge. My 7yr old fell through the far bridge and saw the treasure. The 10 year old, wanting to beat him to it, jumped in to get it (ouch). Oddly enough the 4yr old was wise enough to climb via a rope...I ruled she grabbed it first (to the chagrin of the others). She was pretty thrilled about the magic sword.

One thing that I’m realizing about playing with young children is that first, they need a lot of hand holding. By that I mean they bypass things that more mature players would catch pretty easily. I’m constantly asking if they want to be sneaky or if they want to look for something (or saying, "hey, maybe next time don't jump down a crevasse"). For instance, they’ll enter an empty room and want to immediately move on. This isn’t a complaint, but rather a recognition of the reality for new and young players. In this way I hope that my recommendations will help them become better at the game later on.

But the other thing I’m realizing is that, while I need to hand hold for small things, I almost have to restrain myself from limiting their imaginations! What I mean is that I need to make sure I hold back long enough before pushing them in a direction or otherwise I might stifle something awesome.

For instance, when we played over the weekend the kids were presented with two doors. One door led to the wizard’s workshop (with the rat familiar) and the other led to the Redbrand common room (with 4 drunk ruffians playing knucklebones). They listened at both of the doors (per my recommendation) and I assumed that they would kick down the door ready to fight in the Common Room. But instead they chose to find out what that bubbling sound was (actually, the youngest here, age 4, figured it had something to do with the wizard, because, duh boiling cauldron…this spurred the others on). So they enter the room, see the rat (which alerts Iarno to book it) and a somewhat empty room. They enter the (recently vacated) wizard’s bedroom, find some treasure, find a letter, and a secret door. So far, they are getting bored and pretty bummed they missed the wizard (I did drop lots of hints to have them try to chase the wizard, but they didn’t bite). I could tell they were wanting to tangle so I almost had a Redbrand discover them, but held back to see what they would do.

They wound up heading back to the Common Room door. Now here I thought, for sure, they were going to kick the door down and brawl. But instead, without my prodding, they recalled that they were wearing Redbrand cloaks and all decided to try to trick the Redbrands. I played this per the adventure (which recommended a DC 15 deception check) and they convinced one of the members that the wizard wanted him for some new assignment. That’s about as far as they thought ahead so I was really curious as to what they’d do next.

So the other 3 Redbrands are sitting around the table. I made one of them suspicious, the other completely wasted and the last one greedy. (They walked in on them just as he was collecting a large sum of winnings.) So while the leader was off to see the “wizard”, and I thought there would be an awkward pause trying to figure out what to do next, all of a sudden my 7 year old son said he wanted to join them. He grabbed a beer (in character…don’t drink, kids), threw some money on the table and told them he was playing. Seemed like a good enough plan so the girls joined too. One of the girls threw down a valuable pearl, to the great interest of the others who decided that this would be an all or nothing type of game. The winner takes all. But since I couldn’t think of a game on the spot that they might play as a type of side game, I had the Redbrand leader return and say that the wizard was gone and “What’s going on here”. Another DC check conceived him that they don’t know why wizards say what they say and leave us alone we’re playing a game. When he expressed doubt again, my 4 year old did something completely unexpected and hilarious: her character stood up on her chair and pointed her sword at the 10 year old’s character (who was the main one trying to deceive the leader). She said, “Yeah, what’s going on here?” and she told me she was trying to trick the other Redbrands to think that she was on their team (of course she missed that she was aslo throwing her own teammate under the bus! But it was cute). This little event caused the suspicious Redbrand to become even more suspicious. When I had my 4 year old roll for deception, she failed her DC check and the suspicious Redbrand stood up, pounded the table and shouted “LIES!”

And here is where my 7 year old did something just as hilarious and unexpected. He stopped me as I was describing the scene and asked if he could steal all of the money on the table while everyone was looking at the unfolding scene. I had him roll a slight of hand and he rolled a natural 20! So when everyone was standing up all tense, he was clearing the entire table into a sack unseen! Back to the action.

My 4 year old’s PC was caught in her lie so I gave her one final opportunity to do something about it before I had the Redbrands attack. She still had her sword pointed at her sister’s PC. I asked what she wanted to do and she said, “I take my sword and hit the Redbrand”. So she rolled and took that suspicious bugger down to 1hp! At this I ruled that she flat out killed him. And the scene exploded in an all out brawl. During the battle my 7 year old who stole the ‘winnings’ intentionally drew the greedy player to himself by making sure he heard the money Clink as he dropped the bag to draw his sword (how awesome is that!?).

The 10 year old jumped on the table and was embroiled in a miss/miss/miss battle with the wasted Redbrand. The leader jumped on a chair next to the 4 year old to be on the same level and I rolled a Natural 1. So obviously he swung and fell prone. With the drunk and the greedy Redbrands dispatched they all surrounded the leader. He stood, swung again…and I rolled ANOTHER 1. So he stumbled over the fallen chair, prone again, and the adventurers easily finished him off.

Before, throughout, and after the battle the kids were in a full on roleplay mindset. They didn’t use the mechanics of the game to their advantage; they did things in character to sway the scenes and the battles. I just gave a few highlights here, and might not have described it well, but this might have been the greatest D&D battle I’ve ever witnessed. This battle would have fit right into a movie like Pirates of the Caribbean. We had to end our session after that battle and I was teary eyed with laughter. I couldn’t help but keep telling them how awesome it was. Grins and laughs and high fives all around.

 

[Nebulous]

My brother runs games for his 7 and 5 year old using some rules called Hero Kids, which I think is just a d6. He's careful though to omit the violence and most "fights" end up with baddies knocked down, unconscious, or fall asleep. He's a far gentler DM than I would be. Maybe this makes me a "bad uncle", but I would have more bloodletting and screams, but I'm just evil like that

 

[Tormyr]

My kids and I have played a couple times since I’ve updated around here. *snip*

Ho Lee Crap. That was awesome. It has been a while since I checked in on this thread. What a great group of role players you have there. Fun and imaginative and everything a DM could want. Well done on you for keeping them engaged.

 

[Tormyr]

My brother runs games for his 7 and 5 year old using some rules called Hero Kids, which I think is just a d6. He's careful though to omit the violence and most "fights" end up with baddies knocked down, unconscious, or fall asleep. He's a far gentler DM than I would be. Maybe this makes me a "bad uncle", but I would have more bloodletting and screams, but I'm just evil like that

I ran the introductory adventure of First Fable* for my 7 year old daughter, and she did a great job. Non violent, role play solutions for just about everything, imaginative ideas and a great time. I told my daughter that she can start playing D&D when she is 12 (for a variety of reasons including the inherent violence which, yes, I can control). If we ever start earlier than that, it will be a fun surprise.

*I think First Fable was either the predecessor to Hero Kids or what DriveThruRPG abandoned in favor of Hero Kids. It was also D6s, but skills, combat and DCs were a bit clunky.

Heh, "bad uncle."

 

[Nebulous]

Before, throughout, and after the battle the kids were in a full on roleplay mindset. They didn’t use the mechanics of the game to their advantage; they did things in character to sway the scenes and the battles. I just gave a few highlights here, and might not have described it well, but this might have been the greatest D&D battle I’ve ever witnessed. This battle would have fit right into a movie like Pirates of the Caribbean. We had to end our session after that battle and I was teary eyed with laughter. I couldn’t help but keep telling them how awesome it was. Grins and laughs and high fives all around.

That's pretty awesome. I distinctly remember that battle as well (mostly because I photo-document for stories). Ours was by-the-numbers-combat, nothing wrong with it at all, but nothing particularly memorable like your description.

 

[halfling rogue]

Hot off the heels of our amazing swashbuckling battle vs the Redbrands, the kids set off to explore the last remnants of the Manor. They came across a room of bugbears degrading a goblin. Confident in their last deception they walked right in with their scarlet hoods and tried to pull one over on the bugbears. They were going to really have to earn it here. These bugbears weren’t going to take orders from some puny Redbrands. Amazingly enough the youngest (4) persuaded one of the bugbears that the wizard needed him with a natural 20. So he left the room, leaving it 2 bugbears vs 3 adventurers. I figured it would be a relatively easy battle. But things never go as I figure.

On top of her success, the little one then proceeded to try and convince the bugbears to hand over the passed-out goblin so that she could throw him in prison (she made sure to tell me that she was just tricking the bugbears and she was really just wanting to get him out of the room…). Again, the bugbears weren’t going to be persuaded, again natural 20. So he threw the goblin at her in disgust and when I asked what she wanted to do, she said she was going to drag him out to the prison. So off she went leaving her two siblings in an awkward position.

The eldest (10) felt the awkward tension and immediately attacked. After they rolled initiative and finished one round, I transitioned to the 4 year old dragging the goblin in another room. The bugbear she convinced to go see the wizard happened upon her on his way back (because there was no wizard to see…) seeing her dragging the goblin. Words were had, battle commenced. So I was running two separate fight scenes. We’d flip from one to the next after each round.

Things were not pretty. Early on the 10 year old dropped with one massive hit from the bugbear leader, Mosk. Her brother (7) decided instead of helping to stabilize her, that he would be the hero and face two bugbears alone. Surprisingly he held his own and dealt some pretty decent damage, but he took some too. Thanks to some horrible rolls by me (two flippin natural 1s in a row!) he eventually had some time (and some sense) to stabilize and heal his sister. Good thing too because has soon as he finished healing her he was dropped with a critical hit.

Meanwhile, the youngest was engaged in battle with the lone bugbear. The goblin still passed out. It seemed like she had the upper hand. She was dishing out lots of damage and he was missing constantly (no fudge either). Finally, he hit, and it was a big one and she dropped unconscious. The bugbear walked away when she fell and was heading towards the sound of the other battle, he gave the goblin a little kick as he walked passed. As soon as his back was turned the goblin (who had seen the girl drop and was feigning unconsciousness up to that point) jumped up, grabbed a javelin from the bugbear and BAM natural 20 dropped him (cheers from everyone! I was super hot and super cold all night). I had the little goblin stabilize and heal the 4year old. He said that because she saved him from the bugbears, he was trying to pay her back and save her. At this point, they too heard the battle taking place in the other room so she ran down the hall with the goblin close behind…

As I said, the 7 year old dropped and the 10 year old just stood up and was not even close to full HP. On her turn she was able to finish off Mosk, but the other bugbear was ready to attack. Any hit would’ve taken her down again. But just in the nick of time, the 4 year old burst in. I asked what she wanted to do and her words were “I bust in. I kick him in the butt and then stab him with my sword!” So that’s what she did. She hit and the damage took the bugbear down to 1hp, but what the heck, I ruled that she got him. (cheers again!) And she had the biggest grin on her face for saving the day.

They stabilized their brother, healing potions were passed around, and they got some useful information from Droop the goblin. Since they had been in every room (but one) within the manor I just ignored the Key that would open all the doors. Also, per the adventure it says the Bugbears know where Wave Echo Cave is but the goblin doesn’t. Also it says that the goblin isn’t quite sure how to get to Cragmaw Castle. The kids asked if he knew where the cave was and he said, “No. Only bugbears know. But…you killed them” The look on their faces was priceless. Aw man! They asked him if he knew how to get to Cragmaw Castle and I just couldn’t say no. I needed something to rope them in. So yep, of course he knew the way and would gladly show them for saving his life. He was tired of being their servants and cleaning up poop. “Clean up the poop, Droop” is all he ever heard and was ready to be free. My son gave him money because he felt bad for him.

After they told Droop what they’ve done in the Manor, Droop figures there are only 2 more Redbrands left. I’m not quite sure what to do with them yet. I may just have them surrender or make a last stand. Not sure. I’m not keeping track of XP and am leveling them up at milestones so when they exit the Manor they will be at level 3.

My plan is to have them go to Cragmaw Castle. I’ll probably make it a pretty quick trip and not worry too much about overland travel. I want them to meet up with Gundren because that seems to be their biggest concern, more so than the Wave Echo Cave.

Once they meet up with Gundren and clear out the Castle I think I’m going to have to really redesign the campaign. I’ve mentioned before that they really want to explore their backstories and in the meantime I’ve written up a way in which all their backstories mesh. At some point I’m going to have them meet a wizard from their past (who they don’t know because they were babies) who has been keeping an eye on all of them. Somehow they will encounter him and he will help lead/guide them on their next adventure, which involves a Temple that needs to be passed through to access a Hidden Kingdom, which will be guarded by a green dragon.

This will be away from Phandalin. I’m not sure if they will have the patience to go through Wave Echo Cave. But I think I will use Venomfang as the dragon, and possibly Wave Echo Cave as the Temple, although I’d like it to contain more booby traps and tricks via Indiana Jones.

 

[halfling rogue]

So my game with 3 of my children is about to pivot from Lost Mine to a homebrewed adventure. As I mentioned above I really felt like the kids were getting somewhat restless with the written adventure because they were wondering when they were going to start doing the things related to their character.

When we did character creation, I simply just sat them down and asked questions. One of the questions related to the "Bonds" trait and this is where they developed the ideas around their characters. For me I just saw it as a way for them to play their characters, but for them it became the goal of the game.

So from our last session, they finished clearing out the Redbrand Hideout, and they have a little goblin friend named Droop who has promised to show them to Cragmaw Castle.

When they exited the Manor and were passing by the Sleeping Giant tavern, the woman that they rescued from the Redbrand prison saw them and made a scene of much thanks. The townspeople gathered to see the commotion and soon it was discovered that these three adventurers wiped out the Redbrands. The town of Phandalin hails them as heroes.

I made it so the owner of the Sleeping Giant was a large gruff man (rather than the dwarf per the adventure) whose tavern was shabby and gross, on account of the Redbrands. When he was speaking to the party he offered them free rooms and food for thanks in defeating the Redbrands. They remembered that they were originally staying at the much nicer Stonehill Inn down the way, but they offered money to the proprietor so that he could renovate and start anew. This was unexpected but awesome. If ever they return to Phandalin I'm going to have the Sleeping Giant be the best place to visit and a mark of the town's prosperity.

Before I pivoted the adventure I needed to tie up some loose ends:

While they were eating, Sildar Halwinter came to see what all the hubub was about, discovered his friends, and got the downlow on Iarno. I may have them encounter Iarno later, but Sildar promised to have his alliance look into it, and without the aid of his Redbrand thugs Iarno couldn't do much more harm to Phandalin. The kids seemed satisfied with this so that storyline is tied up for now.

Also, early on I had Edermath the former adventurer spur them on to defeat the Redbrands. I had him also enter to eat with them as he had heard of their success. Edermath was curious about their backgrounds and as they spoke he seemed to know just as much about them as they did and they were all wondering how this could be. He would say things to himself like, "So it is true" and "I thought as much".

I am going to have Edermath be the pivot. He is an old adventurer and I'll have it that he knows of a wizard who more or less is connected to all three of the party characters. Edermath has heard tales of these and after confirming their backstory he is going to contact the wizard (who has been looking for them). Edermath tells them that they must continue their quest to find Gundren and rid the Cragmaw Castle of its inhabitants. Once this is done, they will find an old ruin not too far away. After they deal with Cragmaw Castle, they are to "meet someone who can explain more". This will be the wizard who will more or less send them on their new quest.

I think I'll not have the doppleganger at Cragmaw when they come. I'm also considering whether or not to include the Black Spider, as the kids have heard him once or twice. The idea is that after Cragmaw if they can save Gundren, that Edermath will send Gundren's brothers to fetch him and take him back to Phandalin to continue his discovery of Wave Echo Cave. Save Gundren, the map, find Sildar's sword. Once this is done, then Phandalin will be safe. So this now will be the end of our Lost Mine adventure.

I may post some updates every now and then. Partially to reveal some fun things the kids come up with, or challenges that take place with gaming with young kids, but maybe to track how the story goes if people are interested.

 

[halfling rogue]

The story will now most definitely pivot away from Lost Mine. I've followed what I outlined above and the kids are currently in Cragmaw Castle (they successfully snuck in disused as Redbrand emissaries, and battled it out with King Grol and a few hobgoblins...for now, they're holed up in the back room).

As part of the story the kids will be sent on a new Quest. We are going to be leaving "Forgotten Realms" and sailing away to more or less a homebrewed world. They will be sent to Neverwinter to find a ship to take them west across the sea.

During this sea crossing I'd like to have some encounters. One is obviously pirates...more on that in a second. The other thing I think would be interesting is some sort of encounter with a sea monster. Any ideas about how to go about doing that? I'm not too concerned with them actually killing it, but maybe allowing them to ward it off?

The other plan is a bit of a railroad. Pirates will attack their ship. The idea is that they sneak aboard at night, kill the crew, and no doubt a fight will ensue. But I'd really like the party to be captured rather than killed. My hope is that I can overwhelm them with pirates to the point where they are all knocked out. But even this sounds tricky.

Another idea with this is to have a sea creature destroy their ship and have them rescued by pirates. That might lead to better role playing.

The goal, however is to get them to their new destination. They are to meet a particular person at a particular place. My hope with the pirates is that they will capture the party and hand them over to a local slave trader. I think it would be interesting to have them wake up in a dungeon without weapons.

Fun is the goal for ages 10, 7, and 5. Any help or thoughts on this would be appreciated!