Advice? - First D&D with sons, ages 5 and 3

[Snoweel]

how about using the hare and the tortoise also.

teach lessons subliminally.

the fast approach gets you to point A faster...but the slow and steady gets you the bigger reward.

...or the parable of 'the old bull and the young bull':

"No mate. Let's walk down, and..."

 

[diaglo]

...or the parable of 'the old bull and the young bull'

i love that one too.

my favorite lesson tho would be the Frayed Knot one:

no matter how hard you try to exclude certain types they still find a loophole.

but maybe that wasn't the lesson. i'm still trying to figure that one out.

 

[JoeBlank]

I said "In case you can't tell, the boys are having fun and their dad is having a great time too."

DaveMage responded:

And that's what it's all about, isn't it?

My sentiments exactly.

Which should answer notjer's statement that he can't see anything good in playing D&D with 3-5 year old kids.

I certainly won't turn this into a debate, but I live by the rule of "All things in moderation." Too much of any one thing is not good. That goes for too much coffee (I'm dangerously close on this one), food, D&D, television, video games, work, etc. It's not like the boys are giving up playing outside and being kids. Sometimes we just play D&D instead of Candyland, Chute & Ladders, or a video game. No harm there.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Great Story.
I have a 5 and 2 year old and can't wait to get them playing. They already love my mini's. My two year old is obsessed with the shambling mound for some reason. I think I might try and start a 1 character mini game with my oldest.

Silver Moon - consider that character sheet stolen

hey! I'm 27 and I thought that shambling mound was pretty cool!

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

ehhh playing D&D at only 3-5 years old kids? are you sure thats a good idea? IMO is that to early... kids shall out and play(not D&D) with other kids when they are young and full of energy... I cant see any good things in that, thats more sick then it isfun :/

I'm sure his kids play with other kids, and go outside as well.

Spending some quality time doing something that is not only bonding time with their father , but also teaching them skills such as reasoning, group problem solving, math and reading (to name a few) is a wonderful thing.

All children should be so lucky as to have parents who share their pasttimes with their children and take time out of the "adult" world, to play with their kids.

 

[SinisterMinister]

Can't tell you all how encouraging this is. My son is a precocious 22 month-old, and his daddy can't wait until he's old enough to learn some of his favorite games.

Looks like I might not have to wait as long as I thought.

Great thread

 

[JoeBlank]

Thank you for the comments and kind words. A few of you offered some advice, and now I am starting to think in more detail about what I am getting myself into. I would appreciate any general suggestions you might have on running games for such a young group of players, as well as your thoughts on these issues:

1. PC death: When we were only playing mini skirmishes, the boys seemed fine with their minis getting "killed", but they had several and did not identify with the minis on a personal level. Now that they are playing one PC per player, I think they might take PC death a little harder. My tentative plan is to have PCs be "knocked out" when they go below 0 HP. Healing to postitive HP will wake them up. I think I'll avoid negative HP for now, and just go with 0 or below as knocked out, and maybe throw in the concept that "Regdar needs some healing soon" if they seem to be handling that well. Thoughts?

2. Adventures: The adventures in the Adventure Game should keep us occupied for 6+ sessions of gaming. My plan is to stick with letting them pick an iconic to play each session, so there will be little or no continuity between sessions. Once these are exhausted, I'll probably help them generate PCs to begin playing in a "campaign". So I'll have to decide what to do for adventures. Of course, there is not much out there targeted at the pre-school age player, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any short, fairly simple adventures that they think are appropriate or easily modified for this purpose. I'm also curious about Redhurst Academy, as they are somewhat into Harry Potter and might enjoy playing young wizards at school. Anyone run a game in Redhurst?

3. Handy hints: Finally, any other general suggestions that just help things at the gaming table, taking into account that we have one non-reader and one learning to read. For instance, we are using poker chips in a cup for HP, so when they lose HP they give me the chips, and I give them back when they heal. It looks like we may be doing the same thing for gold pieces, so I'll need to buy more poker chips. Any other ideas along these lines to make the game run more smoothly?

Thanks again for the kind words and suggestions.

 

[Mark]

Intelligent NPCs or creatures can always have reasons to use non-leathal damage, but that is tougher to explain with animals.

For an outdoor adventure, rounding up a herd or flock of escaped livestock can fill a session and include a lot of skill checks and non-lethal grappling and such.

Get them use to describing their actions in relation to terrain, cover, concealment, and the various circumstance boni and penalties early, even if it is only in how they describe their actions and not in their taking advantage of the actual mathematics, just yet. It'll add some depth to the game that they can ponder and control, giving them a stronger feeling of control over situations, and a grander feeling of success when they do well.

Anywho, just some thoughts, Joe. Hope it helps and have fun!

 

[diaglo]

1. PC death:...Thoughts?

knocked out...or sent back to the start of the adventure. much like they do in video games. death is a bit too much for the age you are dealing with.

2. Adventures: The adventures in the Adventure Game should keep us occupied for 6+ sessions of gaming.

scale back the xps. ...really with the Adventure game they will level before you finish. unless you prepare them for what happens when they gain a level. for the melee types it isn't too bad...but for the spellcasters. you have just added a new level of complexity. KISS..keep it simple simon.

3. Handy hints:...Any other ideas along these lines to make the game run more smoothly?

chocolate coins in the gold sacks they sell also make great treasure. i already told you about the potions w/food coloring idea. the colored sugar water jugs make great potions too. use pictographs/hieroglyphs for scrolls for the nonreader. it is almost like reading magic trying to figure out daddy's drawings.

 

[JoeBlank]

use pictographs/hieroglyphs for scrolls for the nonreader. it is almost like reading magic trying to figure out daddy's drawings.

If you had seen how poorly I draw you would realize the truth of this statement. Good idea though, especially for treasure maps and the like.

I'll have to look for those little sugar water "potions" too. Thanks.

And Mark, I like the livestock idea. They need more adventures where the goal is something other than "kill the bad guys and take their stuff." Not that there's anything wrong with that . . .