D&D 5E Gaming with children without changing the game (much)

[BookBarbarian]

These are great tips.

It's funny, back in May I ran a game for several teens and 20 somethings, and ended up doing much the same thing.

 

[Li Shenron]

Kids can totally handle 5E's rules. The main thing is to keep the quests simple. Clear the dungeon. Go room to room. Don't worry about big meta-plots more complicated than you'd fine in a Voltron cartoon.

I agree with this... After running a one-shot introductory dungeon adventure ("A dark and stormy knight" from 3e) I eventually picked "Horror on the hill" (BECMI), which I think it's regarded as a poor adventure by adult standards, pretty much because it doesn't really have an interesting plot.

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

But in our case I thought that it was actually better to have a minimum plot to keep in mind: essentially only that their purpose on the hill is to find the ruined monastery and its treasure. Sub-quests are coming up (such as the witches asking the PCs to go kill an ogre) but are also basically engaged and completed straight away they are given.