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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Al'Kelhar" data-source="post: 5508979" data-attributes="member: 7884">One of my 9-year-old sons expressed interest in playing D&D with me some months ago, after I got all my miniatures out of compartmentalised boxes and stuck them on a shelf in my office.  It's amazing how imaginative kids are when they see little men and monsters in plastic - I guess it's always been the way with dolls, toy soldiers, etc.Anyway, I started playing very simply. You have 1 miniature, 1 d20, and 1 damage die. Your miniature has an AC and some hp, and one melee attack (sword, claw, bite etc.) with a fixed attack and damage bonus. It was a simple maths game - you roll the d20, add your attack bonus, and if it is more than the my miniature's AC, you hit me. You roll your damage dice and add your damage bonus, and that's how much damage you do to my guy. Subtract your damage from my guy's hp. My guy then gets to attack your guy. Rinse, repeat.But it wasn't just a maths game for him. Every battle was accompanied by descriptions of the "epic moves" the miniatures were making, along with noises for clashing steel, roars, screams of pain, etc. Very evocative.I slowly introduced bits and pieces over the months. The miniatures got different melee attacks. Then we moved onto playing on a map board, so the miniatures got a speed (in squares). This opened up ranged attacks, and close attacks, and area attacks. Terrain. More miniatures. Tactical movement and positioning. Focus-fire. Etc. Much joy was had.Then I built my son a couple of full-blown D&D 4E characters, and ran them through a couple of battles. He didn't enjoy them as much. Too complicated. He just wanted to grab a miniature, look at it, tell me what attacks it had, and fight the bad guys.So we're back to the simpler version. He usually plays two good guys, beating on the zombies in the graveyard, fighting the bandits, killing the orcs that are stealing the peasants' sheep etc. I play the bad guys - 5 or 6 of 'em. I keep hit points low, damage low, and the attack options simple. Only one defence - AC. Bad guys get 1 attack type, or 2 at most. The good guys gets 2 attack types, or maybe 3. One is usually a "recharge" power (recharges 4+ on a d6) that does serious damage. My son loves them. No Fort, Ref, Will, no healing surges, no action points, no daily powers, nothing to track.My son's smart, he thinks tactically, he works out which attack is best in what situation, his two good guys help each other and work together. But he doesn't want, or need, the complexity to have fun. In his mind, his ninja is a whirling black-clad assassin, and when he's on 4hp, there's three bloodied bad guys left, and he rolls that 4 on a d6 to recharge his Whirling Storm Sword attack, and dices those goblin mooks like so much sushi, he's a happy camper. And so am I.Cheers, Al'Kelhar</blockquote>

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