Encounters for adolescent PCs

[RangerWickett]

When I start my next campaign, I have an idea like something out of Kingdom Hearts or Fable, wherein the PCs begin as children, and spend the first session growing up and getting to know the folk of their town, deciding what they like and how they interact with their neighbors, and so on.

I want some ideas for short encounters I can run the players through. Specifically, I need things that could inspire a young'n to join a particular D&D class.

 

[Rhun]

As a specific one for an arcane caster, you could have a mage in town send the young one to gather some spell components from various places around the town.

For a rogue, you could have someone offer to pay the young one to steal a certain item, as the child would never be suspected.

For a divine caster, the child could become lost or locked in the local church/masoleum/etc. and have some type of experience there that would set him up for the cleric class later. Perhaps the god that the church is dedicated to speaks to him while he is there.

For a fighter, perhaps the child is hired by a knight to help outfit and carry his equipment for a nearby tourney...

 

[BiggusGeekus]

1) they play hide-n-seek in a graveyard. One of them gets lost. they have to find out where the missing kid is

2) Uncle Harvey dies leaving one of them a book of children's tales. but they open the book and find a treasure map

3) They do their big evening of meditation before they become "adults" in the community. they are supposed to be left alone. but they are attacked by a band of outcasts determined to ruin the ritual.

 

[hong]

4) The cootie monster.

 

[shadow]

Wasn't their a d20 book that dealt with fairy tales and adventuring as children? I think it was called Grimm. You might want to check that out.

 

[Mycanid]

I like both Rhun and Geekus' ideas ... I would especially flesh them out in the sense of tailoring them to the individual classes the pc's will become to make it more believable.

 

[Agent Oracle]

Heh. What about that place of all childhood maturing, School? Get your hands on some of that old writing paper (with the two-inch-wide lines) and pass it out to each player and tell them to write a "what I want to be when I grow up" in their best childhood scrawl. Give them crayons to make it look authentic, and offer bonus EXP for authenticity.

 

[Mycanid]

Too hard Oracle, too hard.... Some challenges are just too difficult.

 

[domino]

Something with a bully, maybe, where he's picking on some kids, and the PC can either stand up to him, or run away.

 

[Khayman]

1) Have a recruiter from Redhurst Academy come through town. That is, if he really is from the academy...
2) Have a rival or friend slain by vampires and return as a recurring Buffy-esque villain...
3) Girls. Or boys, if so inclined. Seriously, as the hormones rage, the other sex makes for great plot hooks and complications, as fickle as you like. Like traps, their CR scales to the party level...
4) As a PC goes through puberty, they realize that some of the changes are not entirely human...
5) A cult or monster controls the adults of the town, ignoring the weak and infirm. The kids have to sneak about to gain their freedom. I might recommend Formians or Keepers (from Fiend Folio)...
6) A chance befriending of an Abeil young queen (or a fey if your tastes lean that way) leads the kids into the strange rituals of that alien court...
7) A travelling bard (or troupe of players) appears to have beguiled and kidnaped one of the PCs or a friend...