Help getting old 2nd player to DM for 8 and 10 year old daughters

[TheGlow]

Hey everyone,
I haven't played much since 2nd edition. I dabbled in a session of 4e but the DM running it was horrible. Misread a green dragon having ACID reduction and made ALL attacks resist 10 damage for a group of lvl 3's or so.

Anyways, I figured this would be something fun to spend time with the kids because I always have problems. My bro in law is down as he said he's done some 4e and has the books.
But I remember them coming out with some premade modules.
Can anyone recommend some? Are there some free resources I can print out using the good printers at work and bring home?
I got them the dice yesterday and showed them my old 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition books and theyre going nuts with hype already.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

There are some pretty decent pre-published adventures. The HPE series they came out with when 4e was released are somewhat iffy. Mostly there's just more combat grind than is good for the game. The adventures that were released with the Essentials material (there's one in the DMK, one in the MV, and one in the Red Box) seem pretty good. Orcs of Stonefang Pass was also given decent reviews. You can also get ahold of the RPGA modules (Living FR stuff), which are free to download and some of them are pretty good. Also if you sign up for a month of DDI you can download as much of the adventures from dungeon as you want, there are a lot of them, and some are pretty decent.

Which books do you have? I can definitely say that some of the Essentials classes are pretty easy to figure out and run, like the Slayer and the Knight, and the Scout. All of them work reasonably well and you might consider picking up one or both of the Heroes of the... books if you haven't already. The Monster Vault is a pretty good monster book too, with pogs and an adventure.

 

[TheGlow]

I dont have any 4E books on hand. I used to have a bunch in pdf format, but deleted them thinking I wouldn't be playing anytime soon, or where I went they had them anyways.
My friend says he has all but 2. Not sure wtf that's supposed to entail exactly, but I'll find out shortly.
I figure Ill go back to comic store today and try at least to get the players handbook to start char building. As my 10 year old said "I want to be pretty, and an assassin. Can you be a pretty assassin?"

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Well, I think I'd recommend that you pick up Heroes of the Fallen Kingdoms and Heroes of the Forgotten Realms (Essentials player books), and the Dungeon Master's Kit (a box that includes a softcover DM Guide, a screen, an adventure, and some other accessories). You COULD get a Monster Vault, another box with an adventure, a book, and a bunch of punch-out monster counters (pogs), though all the adventures publish whatever monsters they use, so you don't HAVE to get the monster book right off. Those 3 books alone will give you a number of classes and all the core rules of the game. Your friend probably has the hardback 4e books. They are all compatible, but the hardback stuff has more options and generally the classes are a little more complex. You can mix-n-match freely though and it all works well together. There is a hardback called Heroes of Shadow BTW which has the assassin in it. Some people didn't like that book for whatever reasons, but it has some interesting stuff in it. WotC has also since published Heroes of the Feywild and Heroes of the Elemental Chaos, which are hardbacks but contain a lot of material that is closer in style to the Essentials books. Anyway, that's one possibility and one that I think is a good option for newer 4e players.

 

[haakon1]

Just curious . . . if you don't have 4e books, but you do have older editions, and you don't know 4e rules, but you do know older editions . . . why not just run an earlier edition?

 

[Balesir]

Well, I think I'd recommend that you pick up Heroes of the Fallen Kingdoms and Heroes of the Forgotten Realms (Essentials player books),

That would be "Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms" and "Heroes of the Fallen Lands", but you were close

Just curious . . . if you don't have 4e books, but you do have older editions, and you don't know 4e rules, but you do know older editions . . . why not just run an earlier edition?

Just curious... but why not 4E? It's easier to DM, the rules are more straightforward and it's the current version, after all.

 

[adamc]

I started DMing 4e when my daughter and her friend were 10 going on 11. I started with the Red Box. The problem with that is that the initial book is kind of confusing. The essentials rules compendium is a lot easier to follow.

Other than the initial redbox, I've always rolled my own adventures (that's part of the fun, for me). But I do recommend considering the subcribing to D&D Insider -- worth it for the character builder and the adventure tools, IMO, not to mention the compendium.

If you like podcasts, I recommend listening to Critical Hit -- it's a great way to learn about 4e. But definitely start at the beginning (well, you could probably start at episode 3 or so).

 

[TheGlow]

My friends bringing over the books he has. I usually like staying up to date, and it makes it fresh for me too.
Explaining Thac0 to kids isn't the most fun either.
I picked up the Red Box yesterday and got the 2 kids through the beginning, now the wifes hounding me.
I see some errors between them. My 10 year old wanted to be a Ranger, so I had her follow it as a fighter, and then used an old char builder I remember when it used to work offline.
The 8 year old sadly doesnt seem too interested. Hopefully when we have them all together it will come together.
10 year old even started crying when the goblin she interrogated died. DM had to step in and make him have a 2nd win, get schooled on good and bad and run away.

 

[TheGlow]

2 kids and Wife finished introduction. My bro in law and friend opted to join at the DM guide/2nd part portion. Youngest kid wasn't interested. 1 less, not too bad.
Is it me or do some of these monsters do some insane damage?
According to Red Box rules, Gray Wolves get +7 v AC, 1d6+5 and free shift 4 squares. Monster Manual is still +7 v AC, but only 1d6+2. Not +5, no free shifting around.
Thats one example. A few others had just some very off damages. I got to the point I had to just fudge attacks to not murder everyone out of the gate.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=68620]TheGlow[/MENTION] What your noticing is part of a shift in monster design that began with MM3. Many groups were noticing monster damage was low (and that was increasing fight lengths), so they upped damage to around level +8 on average.

Of course it was groups of older players with more optimized characters that were noticing this problem. For your family group it may indeed seem too lethal.

Btw my handy 4e cheat sheet addresses this and covers lots more: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?307923-4e-DM-Cheat-Sheet