Fieari
Explorer
Fantasy novels don't always have heroes aged 16 or more. Sometimes, children get the spotlight of their own. Children can have adventures too, afterall, even if those adventures aren't quite as lethal (hopefully!) as older adventurers. There is a lure to roleplaying as children (in my mind, at least)...
1) The "secret society" element.
Anything REALLY extraordinary that a kid does is likely to not be believed by adults, thus there's the lure of "knowing something no one else does."
2) The necessity of working around limitations
I'm not just talking about limitations of strength penalties. I mean Bedtimes, and having to do Chores... maybe even go to school. There'd be a certain strategic element to working in an enviornment where your lives are ruled by masters more or less infinitely more powerful than you in the world.
3) The sheer EPICness that would be involved with children defeating a grownup in whatever manner is available.
4) The terror that lethal combat should inspire remains when you can never get more than 1d4 HP.
5) Puzzle solving is more in depth when you can't just hit everything with a big metal stick and call it a day.
Well, enough of my reasoning. I now need RULES to cover this. The SRD has some basics, but the lack of ANY advancement, the lack of ANY skills, the lack of ANYTHING really kindof hinders things. It doesn't really make sense though... when you turn 12, you magically gain skill ranks? Shouldn't you be getting those gradually throughout life? And you start out at lvl1 with at least 1 feat. Couldn't that be gained a little earlier as well? Maybe?
Anyway, I started out with some minor SRD changes, and an alignment overhaul.
Children
Children (newborns to age 11) are handled differently from other characters. They are restricted to Children Classes (below). They begin with the same ability score package as ordinaries (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), but their ability scores are reduced as follows: -3 Str, -1 Dex, -3 Con, -1 Int, -1 Wis, -1 Cha.
Children have 1d4 hit points plus their Constitution modifier (minimum 1 hit point). They have no occupations aside from chores. Their base attack bonus is +0, they have a +0 modifier on all saving throws (plus any modifiers for high or low ability scores), and their Reputation bonus is +0. Children have a +0 modifier to Defense and a normal speed of 20 feet.
Children may gain experience, but never levels. As such, HD never increases (lethal battle of ANY sort should be utterly terrifying). The child's class defines how experience is used.
All experience is reset to 0 when the child grows up.
Alignment: Children don't deal with the law of the land as much as they do with a much more real and personal law, one that effects their every movement: Adults, and Parents in specific. As such, replace "Lawful" with "Obediant" and "Chaotic" with "Rebellious". On the other hand, good and evil are as real to children as they are to adults, although their experience with such matters tends to be more focused on their relations with peers than with the overall world around them. Never the less, good children are good, and evil children can find so many ways to ruin your day.
Obedient Good, "An upstanding young boy"
------------------------------------------
An obediant good child acts as every parent wishes their child would. She is kind, shares his toys, and always does what she is told, no matter how boring it may be. She is honest, and while not a tattletale, she might go running to get an adult when real trouble rears. Obedient Good is the best alignment you can be because it shows respect to both your elders and your peers.
Neutral Good, "A good kid"
--------------------------
He tries hard, but sometimes just can't quite do everything that he is asked to do. This may be because something else was more interesting at the time, or perhaps his own conscience started tugging at him. Perhaps as a defender of the weak, he will disobey his parents and get into a fist fight to prevent the school bully from picking on a smaller kid. Neutral Good is the best alignment you can be because you are trying your best in all situations, and beginning to think for yourself.
Rebellious Good, "A rambunctious child"
------------------------------------
Boistrous and roudy, the disobedient good child does what is fun as long as nobody gets hurt. School, erands, chores... avoiding these wherever possible is always in one's best interests. Finding ways to confuse and perhaps annoy adults is also fun. But she still recognizes what is Right and Wrong, and can show kindness and compassion that might shock an adult onlooker who wouldn't have thought her capable. Rebellious good is the best alignment you can be because it allows you to do what you want, while ensuring that what you want is good... even if your parents don't agree.
Obediant Nuetral, "Tattletale"
------------------------------
Obedient Nuetral children believe in the power of grownups more than the concepts of right and wrong. They aren't above manipulating the adults to get what they want, but will back down when given an order. They are the first to curry favor with those more powerful than themselves, and are often labeled as "Tattletales" as they go running to find an adult at the first sign of disobedience in others. Obedient Nuetral is the best alignment you can be because you can use the resources of the adult world with enough respect given to the grownups.
Nuetral, "Gullible"
-------------------
Nuetral children are constantly tossed about in a sea of what other people think. Without an anchor of belief, without a will to deliberately break rules, without a strong trust in adults, she tends to go along with whatever group she is with at the time wants to do. She sometimes means well, but would likely be right alongside the gang tripping old ladies or throwing rocks at people if they chose to do so. Nuetral is the best alignment you can be because it frees you from the worries and internal struggles go through, allowing you to just follow along.
Rebellious Neutral, "Little devil"
-----------------------------------
Consequences, shmoncequences. Disobedient Nuetral children do more than what they want, when they want it. He will actively seek out rules in order to break them. This may have hurtful consequences to others, or perhaps beneficial... but it isn't others that are his focus-- it's the rules themselves. Rules are constantly being tested and pushed and prodded at, and should be. Discovering the limits to authority is the begining of understanding power. Rebellious Nuetral is the best alignment you can be because it grants you as much power as you can hold.
Obedient Evil, "Manipulator"
----------------------------
Obedient evil children are like Eddie Haskell from "Leave it to Beaver," only more calculating, more hurtful, and more of a terror to other children. Not only does she find little ways to hurt others, she also involves adults in her plans, wrapping them around her disingenuous little finger until it is clear (to the grownup) that the OTHER kid was to blame, and that it's those OTHER children who need to be punished, not HER... Obedient Evil children are the nastiest because they turn the power of the adult world against you.
Neutral Evil, "Spiteful Child"
------------------------------
The spiteful child is meanspirited and likes to hurt other children however they can, usually psychologically more than physically, but whatever works, works. Whatever they can get away with out from under the watchful eyes of an adult they'll try, but the reprecussions of his actions is always at least in the back of his mind, and he'll try to keep out of punishment as much as possible. Nuetral Evil children are the nastiest because they hurt you and you can't prove it.
Rebellious Evil, "Bully"
-------------------------
The Disobedient Evil child is the school yard terror, and everyone knows it. Supervising adults are helpless to stop her from doing what she wants whenever she can get away with it, and no matter how much punishment is given to her, she just thinks up worse and worse ways to torment the others. Rebellious Evil children are the nastiest because the only way to excape them is to not be around them, and even then you need to watch out for "pranks" and traps from afar.
Now then... I just need some rules for gaining skills, which would make sense to have classes for. I was thinking to make equivelent classes for each of the adult classes. Need some work though.
Children's Classes
Bright (Wizard/Sorcerer Equivelent)
----------
General Concept: Only children's class able to "Use Magical Device"
???? (Cleric Equivelent)
----------
General Concept: Access to First Aid
Prankster (Rogue Equivelent)
----------
General Concept: Hmm... giving access to all the rogue skills would make this class too powerful in comparison to the others. Either I need to nerf them somehow, or buff the others. Either way, I'll need to playtest it at some point... but 'till then, any suggestions?
Roughhouser (Fighter/Monk Equivelent)
----------
General Concept: Limited weapon selection (stick picked up off the ground, thrown stone, thrown food, etc)
Less penalties to both melee and ranged (but still penalties)
Fistfighting? How about dirty fighting (biting, etc)?
Young Paladin (Paladin Equivelent)
----------
General Concept: Like a roughhouser with a little diplomacy and first aid who must be Obedient Good (or Nuetral Good?)
Hunter (Ranger/Druid Equivelent)
----------
General Concept: Only class with access to leathal weapons (bow hunting)
I'd be open to suggestions for specifics on the classes...
1) The "secret society" element.
Anything REALLY extraordinary that a kid does is likely to not be believed by adults, thus there's the lure of "knowing something no one else does."
2) The necessity of working around limitations
I'm not just talking about limitations of strength penalties. I mean Bedtimes, and having to do Chores... maybe even go to school. There'd be a certain strategic element to working in an enviornment where your lives are ruled by masters more or less infinitely more powerful than you in the world.
3) The sheer EPICness that would be involved with children defeating a grownup in whatever manner is available.
4) The terror that lethal combat should inspire remains when you can never get more than 1d4 HP.
5) Puzzle solving is more in depth when you can't just hit everything with a big metal stick and call it a day.
Well, enough of my reasoning. I now need RULES to cover this. The SRD has some basics, but the lack of ANY advancement, the lack of ANY skills, the lack of ANYTHING really kindof hinders things. It doesn't really make sense though... when you turn 12, you magically gain skill ranks? Shouldn't you be getting those gradually throughout life? And you start out at lvl1 with at least 1 feat. Couldn't that be gained a little earlier as well? Maybe?
Anyway, I started out with some minor SRD changes, and an alignment overhaul.
Children
Children (newborns to age 11) are handled differently from other characters. They are restricted to Children Classes (below). They begin with the same ability score package as ordinaries (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), but their ability scores are reduced as follows: -3 Str, -1 Dex, -3 Con, -1 Int, -1 Wis, -1 Cha.
Children have 1d4 hit points plus their Constitution modifier (minimum 1 hit point). They have no occupations aside from chores. Their base attack bonus is +0, they have a +0 modifier on all saving throws (plus any modifiers for high or low ability scores), and their Reputation bonus is +0. Children have a +0 modifier to Defense and a normal speed of 20 feet.
Children may gain experience, but never levels. As such, HD never increases (lethal battle of ANY sort should be utterly terrifying). The child's class defines how experience is used.
All experience is reset to 0 when the child grows up.
Alignment: Children don't deal with the law of the land as much as they do with a much more real and personal law, one that effects their every movement: Adults, and Parents in specific. As such, replace "Lawful" with "Obediant" and "Chaotic" with "Rebellious". On the other hand, good and evil are as real to children as they are to adults, although their experience with such matters tends to be more focused on their relations with peers than with the overall world around them. Never the less, good children are good, and evil children can find so many ways to ruin your day.
Obedient Good, "An upstanding young boy"
------------------------------------------
An obediant good child acts as every parent wishes their child would. She is kind, shares his toys, and always does what she is told, no matter how boring it may be. She is honest, and while not a tattletale, she might go running to get an adult when real trouble rears. Obedient Good is the best alignment you can be because it shows respect to both your elders and your peers.
Neutral Good, "A good kid"
--------------------------
He tries hard, but sometimes just can't quite do everything that he is asked to do. This may be because something else was more interesting at the time, or perhaps his own conscience started tugging at him. Perhaps as a defender of the weak, he will disobey his parents and get into a fist fight to prevent the school bully from picking on a smaller kid. Neutral Good is the best alignment you can be because you are trying your best in all situations, and beginning to think for yourself.
Rebellious Good, "A rambunctious child"
------------------------------------
Boistrous and roudy, the disobedient good child does what is fun as long as nobody gets hurt. School, erands, chores... avoiding these wherever possible is always in one's best interests. Finding ways to confuse and perhaps annoy adults is also fun. But she still recognizes what is Right and Wrong, and can show kindness and compassion that might shock an adult onlooker who wouldn't have thought her capable. Rebellious good is the best alignment you can be because it allows you to do what you want, while ensuring that what you want is good... even if your parents don't agree.
Obediant Nuetral, "Tattletale"
------------------------------
Obedient Nuetral children believe in the power of grownups more than the concepts of right and wrong. They aren't above manipulating the adults to get what they want, but will back down when given an order. They are the first to curry favor with those more powerful than themselves, and are often labeled as "Tattletales" as they go running to find an adult at the first sign of disobedience in others. Obedient Nuetral is the best alignment you can be because you can use the resources of the adult world with enough respect given to the grownups.
Nuetral, "Gullible"
-------------------
Nuetral children are constantly tossed about in a sea of what other people think. Without an anchor of belief, without a will to deliberately break rules, without a strong trust in adults, she tends to go along with whatever group she is with at the time wants to do. She sometimes means well, but would likely be right alongside the gang tripping old ladies or throwing rocks at people if they chose to do so. Nuetral is the best alignment you can be because it frees you from the worries and internal struggles go through, allowing you to just follow along.
Rebellious Neutral, "Little devil"
-----------------------------------
Consequences, shmoncequences. Disobedient Nuetral children do more than what they want, when they want it. He will actively seek out rules in order to break them. This may have hurtful consequences to others, or perhaps beneficial... but it isn't others that are his focus-- it's the rules themselves. Rules are constantly being tested and pushed and prodded at, and should be. Discovering the limits to authority is the begining of understanding power. Rebellious Nuetral is the best alignment you can be because it grants you as much power as you can hold.
Obedient Evil, "Manipulator"
----------------------------
Obedient evil children are like Eddie Haskell from "Leave it to Beaver," only more calculating, more hurtful, and more of a terror to other children. Not only does she find little ways to hurt others, she also involves adults in her plans, wrapping them around her disingenuous little finger until it is clear (to the grownup) that the OTHER kid was to blame, and that it's those OTHER children who need to be punished, not HER... Obedient Evil children are the nastiest because they turn the power of the adult world against you.
Neutral Evil, "Spiteful Child"
------------------------------
The spiteful child is meanspirited and likes to hurt other children however they can, usually psychologically more than physically, but whatever works, works. Whatever they can get away with out from under the watchful eyes of an adult they'll try, but the reprecussions of his actions is always at least in the back of his mind, and he'll try to keep out of punishment as much as possible. Nuetral Evil children are the nastiest because they hurt you and you can't prove it.
Rebellious Evil, "Bully"
-------------------------
The Disobedient Evil child is the school yard terror, and everyone knows it. Supervising adults are helpless to stop her from doing what she wants whenever she can get away with it, and no matter how much punishment is given to her, she just thinks up worse and worse ways to torment the others. Rebellious Evil children are the nastiest because the only way to excape them is to not be around them, and even then you need to watch out for "pranks" and traps from afar.
Now then... I just need some rules for gaining skills, which would make sense to have classes for. I was thinking to make equivelent classes for each of the adult classes. Need some work though.
Children's Classes
Bright (Wizard/Sorcerer Equivelent)
----------
General Concept: Only children's class able to "Use Magical Device"
???? (Cleric Equivelent)
----------
General Concept: Access to First Aid
Prankster (Rogue Equivelent)
----------
General Concept: Hmm... giving access to all the rogue skills would make this class too powerful in comparison to the others. Either I need to nerf them somehow, or buff the others. Either way, I'll need to playtest it at some point... but 'till then, any suggestions?
Roughhouser (Fighter/Monk Equivelent)
----------
General Concept: Limited weapon selection (stick picked up off the ground, thrown stone, thrown food, etc)
Less penalties to both melee and ranged (but still penalties)
Fistfighting? How about dirty fighting (biting, etc)?
Young Paladin (Paladin Equivelent)
----------
General Concept: Like a roughhouser with a little diplomacy and first aid who must be Obedient Good (or Nuetral Good?)
Hunter (Ranger/Druid Equivelent)
----------
General Concept: Only class with access to leathal weapons (bow hunting)
I'd be open to suggestions for specifics on the classes...
