Fantasy RPGs for Kids

[pukunui]

Hi all,

I'm looking for a simple "Junior D&D"-style game that I can use to introduce my two older daughters (ages 6 and 9) to RPGs. I've tried playing D&D 5e with my oldest, but she found it a little too daunting. I've considered trying again with D&D 4e, since it's much more visual and presents everything in bite-size chunks, but I think even that game might be a little too advanced. I've also looked at a bunch of different kid-oriented options online (Little Wizards, rpgKids, Hero Kids, Sidekick Quests [which looks fantastic but isn't in playable form yet]). Unfortunately, many of them are a little too simple or bare bones - with little-to-no math, character advancement, and/or adventure support.

I'm looking for a kid-friendly RPG that has the following:
- An additive dice mechanic and hit points (so my girls can practice their addition and subtraction while we play)
- Some character advancement (so they can experience the fun of leveling up their characters)
- At least a few prewritten adventures (so I can get a feel for the game's playstyle before trying to come up with my own stuff)

I'd also like something that has a traditional fantasy feel, preferably with dragons, elves, goblins, dungeons, and the like.

Hit me with some suggestions please!

Thanks,
Jonathan

 

[GMMichael]

I haven't played it but check out Far Away Land.

http://www.faruniverse.com/fal-rpg.html

 

[pukunui]

Hmm. Some of the artwork doesn't look particularly child-friendly. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

 

[Gilladian]

Take a look at Dungeon World. It has a very "we create together" kind of feel for world-building and interaction with the environment. It also has a mechanism where you can "fail forward" on rolls; it's all 2d6, so if you roll 10 or higher, you succeed on a roll, rolls of 7-9 are "you succeed but there's a complication", and 2-6 are "you fail" in some way or other. Some actions (called "moves") have a list of "success" results and "fail" results, so they're easy to adjudicate, but other moves (defy danger, for example) are up to the DM and/or players to decide what the complication or failure is.

Another nice thing is that character leveling is very simple. character options are shown on the sheets, and you just select what you want and "check it off" as your selected option. XP is earned when you fail a roll, also, so even if a character is "unlucky", they will go up levels faster.

 

[pukunui]

I've heard good things about Dungeon World. I just had a look at the character sheets that are available for free download, and they don't look all that kid-friendly to me. Lots of text, lots of fiddly mechanics, lots of big words. I think it would take some work to "kiddify" it, and if I'm going to spend the time doing that, I think I'd be better off using a ruleset with which I am familiar. Thanks though.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Roleplaying, as a hobby game genre, is quite possibly going to be a challenge to any child that young. There is strong evidence that children’s cognitive ability to perceive ideas from another person’s point of view is still very much in development. So it’s not just an issue of finding a simple or rules-lite game system.

A game that may work better is something like Once Upon A Time (Atlas Games), which still engages players to create a story, but has plenty of cues from the cards and gives children more of a frame to capture their imaginations. There is a similar game version of The Hobbit (Cubicle 7) also.

 

[pukunui]

I'm not really concerned about that. I think my children are imaginative enough.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I'm not really concerned about that. I think my children are imaginative enough.

Imagination isn’t the issue.

 

[pukunui]

What is the issue then?

 

[BigVanVader]

Call of Cthuhlu and Changeling: The Lost. Kids need misery, they love it.