Appropriate Material for Younger Players

[TheAuldGrump]

On a now closed thread on the D20 Modern, D20 System & OGL Forum on this board there was a description of a game that was fairly obviously unsuitable for the young (13 years or so) players it was being run for.

However it reminded me that the hobby needs to grow, and bring new players into the fold. So, what are appropriate themes for a younger game, say at a community center?

I have been running an RPG game at a summer program every year for five years now, and have had no screaming parents yet, so I think that I have a firm grasp, but I would also like to see what people come up with.

For my purposes the themes include:

1. The PCs are the good guys - I am not training young terrorists here!
2. Thinking before violence - like in a movie violence is sometimes required in the game, but I try to leave alternatives.
3. Non-violent conflict and challenges - not every conflict or challenge needs to have somebody getting beaten up, in fact most don't.
4. Consequences - actions both good and bad have consequences that come back to affect things in the future.
5. Goals - the NPCs have goals, not just the villains, but all the important NPCs.

Assuming that I am aiming at an audience that watches prime time television, what else would be appropriate or a younger audience?

The Auld Grump

 

[Corsair]

Avoid complicated moral dilemmas. If you're gonna have bad guys, make them obvious bad guys. Hordes of blood thirsty orcs, or legions of faceless storm troopers. Non-anthropomorphic foes work well too.

 

[S'mon]

13+ doesn't raise any issues unless maybe you have a creepy adult DM. My experiences at that age were the games were often far more graphic and 'mature' (in the immature sense) than nowadays.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

13+ doesn't raise any issues unless maybe you have a creepy adult DM. My experiences at that age were the games were often far more graphic and 'mature' (in the immature sense) than nowadays.

If you read the thread I referred to you will see what I mean. In this case a 'Creepy 17 year old DM'. And the complaint was that the Community Center was upset... Sheesh! I wanted to smack him.

Avoid complicated moral dilemmas. If you're gonna have bad guys, make them obvious bad guys. Hordes of blood thirsty orcs, or legions of faceless storm troopers. Non-anthropomorphic foes work well too.

I also like to throw in redeemable foes, ones that can become allies and support later. To continue the Star Wars motif of Storm Troopers - Darth Vader is eventually redeemed. But I do keep the dilemmas simple, and provide clues that the salvageable ones can be 'brought back into the light'.

*EDIT* Another thing to add of course is humor. SOmething that can break up tension between the PCs.

The Auld Grump

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Look to the major mainstream sci-fi/fantasy stories: Star Wars/Star Trek/LOTR/Conan/Harry Potter- good & evil are fairly obvious, foes may or may not be redeemable.

As players mature, they may be more able to handle darker fictional tropes, like sexual situations, betrayal or amoral characters- like Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion books, or Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories.

 

[D-rock]

From what I remember, when I was twelve, the games I played where pretty mature. Its hard to tell how far you can go with each person. One parent will blow their top off while another will be just fine with it. The stuff you posted sounds pretty reasonable though. (if a little unrealistic in a real world sense, but they are just kids) I might suggest that you take care not to make the violence in it cartoony. That might make it seem more ok, and lessen the impact of the consequences it creates.

 

[zakon]

Do you have a link to that old thread?

 

[Mark]

For my purposes the themes include:

1. The PCs are the good guys - I am not training young terrorists here!
2. Thinking before violence - like in a movie violence is sometimes required in the game, but I try to leave alternatives.
3. Non-violent conflict and challenges - not every conflict or challenge needs to have somebody getting beaten up, in fact most don't.
4. Consequences - actions both good and bad have consequences that come back to affect things in the future.
5. Goals - the NPCs have goals, not just the villains, but all the important NPCs.

Assuming that I am aiming at an audience that watches prime time television, what else would be appropriate or a younger audience?

Those are the same as my goals and themes, regardless of the age level. I just package it a bit more provocatively for my adult players.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Do you have a link to that old thread?

Yes. It was where the game was being run that makes the content particularly dubious.

Look to the major mainstream sci-fi/fantasy stories: Star Wars/Star Trek/LOTR/Conan/Harry Potter- good & evil are fairly obvious, foes may or may not be redeemable.

As players mature, they may be more able to handle darker fictional tropes, like sexual situations, betrayal or amoral characters- like Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion books, or Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories.

Yep, always good, and see how the bad guys are expressed.

I also try to throw in one NPC of ambiguous moral character, more to leave the players guessing than anything else, and wondering if they can trust him. (Sometimes yes, sometimes no.) Han Solo would be an example, as would Lando to continue with SW as the example du jour.

The Auld Grump

 

[S'mon]

If you read the thread I referred to you will see what I mean. In this case a 'Creepy 17 year old DM'. And the complaint was that the Community Center was upset... Sheesh! I wanted to smack him.

Wasn't the GM a 'her'? Anyway I read the thread, yup, it wasn't exactly appropriate for a 1-off public game with strangers. I can slightly sympathise with the creepy GM in that this whole "community service for everyone!" thing sounds horrible, it sounds like they were 'acting out'.