D&D General Advice for DMing for children

[Zaukrie]

I might be doing paid DM work for 8-12 year olds in a couple months.... Any advice for running games for your age? Sessions will be two hours, with a break in the middle.... I'm big in minis and maps, so we'll have that for sure. Might be one shots, might be mini campaigns.

Thanks

 

[Deset Gled]

I might be doing paid DM work for 8-12 year olds

This statement leads me to so many questions: Are you being paid to babysit and are DMing, or being paid to just DM? Are other adults/parents present? How many kids? Where (FLGS, your home, a birthday party, etc)? All that aside, here's a couple tips.

If at all possible, have another adult present. That adult can be in charge of adulting, while you're in charge of gaming. My spouse and I did this with our kids (and their friends), and tag teaming with an extra adult went a long way to minimize stress.

If you're playing with minis, have a couple extra designated for the kids to fiddle with in front of them. They're going to want to play with the minis on the board, and having extras to act as fidgets will go a long way to minimizing unnecessary touching of the game space.

Plan on extra time for shopping.

Feel free to abuse the basics. You can use the most cliche and overused gaming tropes and the kids will think it's amazing and original. Monsters that you think are boring will be amazing. Make the most of that wonder.

Don't allow any food or drink at the gaming table unless you're okay with your minis getting sticky. Even then, plan on your minis getting sticky.

If possible, I recommend having characters that are ~75% made ahead of time. Character sheets with classes, spells, feats, etc, picked out. But no names, no ability scores, and maybe a couple other choices left blank. Let the kids feel like it's their character by rolling/buying scores, giving names, choosing weapons, and maybe a couple of other things. But don't expect them to actually build something from scratch.

And very much a personal preference of mine: start at level 1.

Good luck!

 

[Zaukrie]

FLGS, he has another DM running games, but they are always over booked.....

 

[Rabbitbait]

Get ready for some big emotions. Some kids of that age take it VERY seriously when things don't go their way. Explain to them beforehand that things going wrong is part of the fun of the game and that there is a very real chance that their characters will die (but try to avoid killing them). Tell them up front that this is a cooperative game and PvP (including pickpocketing) is not acceptable.

Kids generally don't know the unwritten rules of table etiquette. They will need to be told when they are doing something that is disruptive.

Don't be a rules lawyer - kids are far more likely to try something completely off the wall. Just go with it. Learning the rules is good, but having fun is better. Go with the flow and be willing to go completely off plan.

Go with the tropes - be as stereotypical as you like. They are not stereotypes for the kids - this is ALL NEW.

I used to play with my three kids from the ages of 7, 5 and 3. It was fun but it was exhausting to manage. Good luck.

 

[aco175]

I would try to touch all three pillars. Easy riddles might be cool to some of them to figure out and others might like the roleplay part. Not sure on combat if you feel like limiting killing humanoids and should stick with oozes, undead and giant bugs. I think my sone was about 8 when he first started playing and was fine with it, so judge the table.

I ran something at the local convention and had a two part adventure where each was 2 hours and the PCs advance a level between the two parts. The players liked that and I'm guessing kids would like the feeling of advancement as well.

Handouts are fine like cards listing items such as potions of healing with the numbers on them. The handing them back in when used seems like a thing. I also give out a reroll each game that seem to limit arguments.

 

[Zaukrie]

Definitely plan not to have animals and children around for "fighting". I may or may not have humanoids? Probably?

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I've run summer camp games for the age group, and will hopefully be running a game shop campaign for a similar age group starting later this month. My thoughts, in no particular order:

I'd say the key thing to anticipate is that a "do whatever you like" game hits different for people who don't get to make major decisions in their own lives. On this front my most actionable and universal piece of advice for the age group is to prep a pet shop, because some of them, possibly all of them, will really want pets. While most of the unfulfilled things they want in real life don't readily translate to D&D, a menagerie of exotic pets 100% does. Obvioulsly the pets can never die.

The other side of the "do whatever you like" aspect is that you will likely get some murder-hobo behavior, because a kid whose mom tells him what clothes to wear in real life has suddenly been entrusted with freedom to do whatever he wants, the capacity to do violence (in a game whose rules mostly adjudicate how to do violence), and the instruction to have fun. I think the best thing you can do for this is create a world full of consequences. If the first person they try to rob turns out to be a retired level 5 adventurer, they will not be so quick to murder hobo their way through things. Other times it may be best to just lean into the chaos, if everyone is having fun. Build off of whatever they are doing.

Making sure spotlight is being shared can be a key problem with younger players, as the players are less likely than adults to monitor if they are monopolizing the table's time, or to speak up for themselves if they are being ignored. So remind them all about sharing spotlight and take a firm hand on it.

While I don't generally believe in punishing out of game behavior with in game consequences, this is an age group where, for the right kid, it may make sense and be highly effective occasionally (it could also be a horrible mistake with the wrong kid). If you feel like you have a good handle on the personality of a troublemaker at your table and think it might be effective, don't rule out in game punishment as readily as you would with adults.

Kids, particularly in this age group, generally have a far lower need for rules in their imagination games than adults in order to have fun. A level of rule of cool which would long term undermine the game being enjoyable for the average adult player probably won't bother an 11 year old.

Scheduling will hit a bit different than with adults, because the kids don't actually control their own schedules, and their parents might be viewing the sessions as a babysitting arrangement. So aiming for sort of a Westmarches light structure might be good, at least until you establish that they are all actually going to consistently show up (but even after they do for a while, remember that you might not be warned of an upcoming family vacation).

I ran one kids campaign off a fantasy map one of the kids had drawn. He felt super cool about it, and it set a tone of collaborative creation which I think kids thrive in but are unlikely to get in the mindset for if you are presenting published materials to them.

If the dice fall wrong and you accidently kill a player's character, congratulate them on passing that milestone as a D&D player.