D&D for very young kids

[WSmith]

Here are a couple of suggestions, from one who has been there.

Rules, depending on the maturity and intelligence of the kid, they may or may not get even the basics at 5 or 6 years old, no less adding 1.5x you STR bonus and that if you BAB is +1 or better you can draw your sword while moving. I say keep it simple.

Pokemon Jr., call me names if you want but this is one of the most underrated products for introducing young kids to RPing. I have used it and it is great. The child doesn't really play a character, but they are a trainer, with Pokemon monsters to do the actual fighting.

I agree with the LARPing angle. Go get some foam swords and bow and arrow sets, NERF launchers, etc. and actually play in character with your children. They have the whole adolescense to sit around a table and roll dice. Take advantage of their imagination and willingness to play a role in uninhibited while you have the chance. They will get to an age where they think foam swords are kids play. Heck most adults do to, that is why a lot of LARPers (I am not one and I don't play one on TV ) seem to get a worse rep' than us tabletop gamers. But, if you are running around the backyard with you 6 y.o. slaying imaginary dragons and saving fair madiens from towers, no one will think twice about you being kooky, heck they will probably say you are a good parent for playing and taking interest in your child.

The Violence: I like to curb it. (yes even though kids will surprise you, but that is a whole other thread) There is no Braveheart like slaughter and carnage. Remember in the movies of old, shoot even the Scorpion King. You wouldn't see the sword evicerate the victim, just the weilder holding the sword and plunging it into something of camera, then the next shot would be a glimpse of the ground and the sword of the foe falling to it. You didn't see the foe killed, but you knew it happened.

There are two rules I like to follow to curb violence in any game:

1. The pokemon rule: damage knocks you and others out, it doesn't kill you.

2. The Mummy Returns rule: When a creature if ill irk is struck with a sword, it is not cut or injured, it just disappears or crumbles into sand, or disapates into a mist, like Anubus' minions in the Mummy Returns during the battle with the Magi. This factor also add to the fantasy aspect of it.

If I can think of more I will post them.

 

[Valmur_Dwur]

As another who has 2 kids girl-8 boy-6 that want to play here's what I did. I walked them thru the character very lightly explaining as I went. We used the 3e box system so we had iconic characters to use. My son wanted to play Regdar and my daughter chose Mialee. Using the mini-modules in the set the first is to rescue an unicorn. The goblins were not that tough for them but funny story. Mialee cast sleep and caught Regdar and the goblin he was fighting in the AoE. Both failed their saves and boy did that make Regdar mad . Anyway I've decided that it's very hard to have any type of campaign just let them Hack n Slash

 

[Arken]

For someone really young I would use as basic a system as possible and focus more on the story/exploring. When i was running RPGs for kids younger than me i just used the old Fighting Fantasy rules (just skill and stamina with dice rolling, really basic combat) with a few additions and modifiers for interest. I think anything more complex would have got boring and confusing too quickly. At least then they're introduced to the idea of rolling dice and imagining the settings and Rping in them even if all the DnD rules are removed...

 

[Templetroll]

My suggestion would be to use a plot from a show they enjoy. This way they have a chance to recognize the problem and 'know' what to do.

Another idea is Toon; playing cartoon characters with simple rules should work.

 

[Richards]

I, too, used the Hero Quest board game to introduce my two sons to the concept of RPGs. Then, after they were accustomed to the basics (it's a good idea to search for traps before opening treasure chests; fighting a ton of monsters is easier in an open doorway, etc.), I graduated them to AD&D (2nd Edition). They were both thrilled by the fact that their PCs could do virtually anything they wanted to do. (Hero Quest, I believe, has only six possible actions: move, attack with a weapon, cast a spell, search for traps, search for treasure, search for secret doors.)

I also started them on a Champions campaign while they were still quite young.

Johnathan

 

[mmadsen]

I suspect that you can't present the same difficulty of puzzles and encounters to younger players, as they might not be able to deal with them as easily as adults. Is this concern unwarranted?

Unwarranted? Hardly! If I look back at my fond D&D memories from childhood, I can map out my own cognitive development with amazing accuracy.

At age six, I could roll the dice my older brother told me to roll. I was happy to kill the same goblin and die to the same carnivorous ape over and over again. Sitting down and reading the Basic D&D rulebook was still out of the question. If someone sat with me and made me read it, I might've been OK.

A year later, I was devouring the Player's Handbook and memorizing easy-to-memorize rules (e.g. how many magic items a Paladin could have). Anything abstract was still out of the question, especially long, dense, tracts of text. Tables of magic items and lists of spells were great though.

By age eight, I basically knew the rules, and I could DM my friends through simple adventures, often mimicking my older brother and using snippets of his adventures -- the snippets I could understand, I'm sure.

By nine or ten, my characters finally stopped all being clones of famous characters I liked: Bilbo, Robin Hood, Arthur, etc. I'd been playing for awhile, but I still had zero grasp of reasonable tactics and no capacity for analyzing a situation, comparing my party's strengths to the enemy's weaknesses, etc. My brother, as DM, would stare at me dumbfounded as my Paladin with a magic sword and a mundane bow would trade arrows with a party of Drow with magic crossbows.

So, definitely your concern is warranted, but I feel some DM guidance can (a) get around the problem, and (b) teach the kids some critical thinking skills. Ask them what they think their options are, tell them when they have no of defeating the troll, etc.

 

[kenjib]

Thanks for all of the great feedback so far everyone. It does seem that the approach to the game is drastically different. I like many of the ideas for lowering the violence level - especially as regards creating alternate ways to solve problems (i.e. answering riddles, finding the weakness like witches and water, etc.) rather than fighting. I think it's also interesting hearing suggestions that it might be better to just have some make-believe fun instead and not worry about D&D. That's a very good point. Hmmm...much to think about.

 

[Kargin el Tomath]

I think we need to take a step back and consider the situation. Not only do most parents frown on D&D (due to rumors spread for the last 20 years of it supposedly dealing with the occult) but also the fact that most five year olds not only don't have the attention span for it, but also hop from fad to fad to fad (Poke'mon to Digimon to Dragonball Z to Harry Potter). The chances of anything like this even being made are slim to none, and the odds that it would actually go over well withfive year olds are even worse. I have a 4 year old daughter. She can count to 20. This is just a hair above average for someone her age. I haighly doubt that even if she were 3 months older (She'll be 5 on September 10th) that she could even begin to comprehend the differences in the races let alone in complex levels and attack bonuses.

 

[WSmith]

There was one thing I forgot to mention, and maybe someone can help me out. There was a card game somebody brought up on the old boards maybe over a year ago and I don't remember the name of it. I was going to order it, but can't find it anywhere and must not have saved the link.

It was a deck of cards. You draw the card and have to tell a story about the card. Them the next person draws a card, and builds upon the story the first person started. This continues as long as desired.

If anyone remembers the name please remind me.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

forget using rules, they won't understand them or even care about them.

I completely disagree. If you want them to learn the rules eventually, start right away. First level characters (especially just the four core classes) aren't that complex. My son started playing when he was about 5 1/2. This was with his sister (about 10 at the time) and the "Adventure Game" set, with me as DM. It's 3e Light, but a good solid introduction.

Shortly after he turned 6, they had outgrown that set, and we moved on to "real" characters. Character creation took a long time, but they learned about B.A.B., Saving throws, Spells, etc. They had to pick classes and races using the stats they had rolled up. The Adventure Game had done a decent job of H.P. and AC issues. They had to spend time picking feats and skills. I offered as much advice as they would take, but ultimately they had to decide which feat(s), which skills, etc.

It took us forever to get through Sunless Citadel but they had a blast. And they're very attached to these characters. They can't wait to level up, so they can roll more hit points, and check the PHB to see if they get better attacks and/or saves, or other class features. They (with much DM guidance ) have learned that sometimes it's better to talk to a creature first, instead of just trying to kill it. My daughter (now 11) has already complained that there's too much combat and not enough "role"-playing. LOL

We have also finished U1-The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, and are currently playing U2-Danger at Dunwater. That should help with the "not enough role-playing" complaint--module U2 is a killer if players try to kill everything. They will have to role-play to survive.

Eventually, they will go through some epic module--either G-D-Q or RttToEE (or maybe both! ), but we are many levels away from that.