Introducing 10 year olds to D&D

[Ted Sandyman]

Player base matters. I run one-on-one D&D games for my son, who's just shy of 5 years old, pretty frequently. They're railroady, somewhat nonsensical, with lots of off the cuff improvisation, and a high degree of willingness to listen to what he wants and make adjustments at any moment. I also run games for groups of friends roughly my age--30 something, more or less. In those games, I aim for a consistent, sensible world, where situations make sense and players can figure out what's going on or how to pursue their goals, and where they face tough choices. In those games, I'm not very inclined to cheapen the players' experience by handing them what they want on a silver platter.

CP speaks the truth! I also vary my style a great deal depending on who my players are.

That being said, there is a spectrum of styles between referee and director of course. With my men-with-beards group all dice rolls are open and no punches are pulled, but I use the very director-aligned technique of "narrative initiative" (if the players aren't seizing the day by making choices that NPCs have to react to, then the villains begin to move their own agendas forward and the players are the ones who have to struggle to foil their plans). Random charts can play a big part in establishing a middle ground that is best tailored to your group too. Maybe, as a director, I decide that the pace at the table is too slow and it's time for something significant to happen. Will it be an opportunity or a threat? I'll toss a die to decide. From there I may make a roll on an encounter table to select just what the boon or danger is.

Bullgrit, are you still running games these days?

Has your approach to DMing shifted since running B1 for the boys?

 

[Janx]

...snip...
So, really, in BD&D, all that loot hauled out of the dungeons isn't of much use after getting the xp for it.

...snip...

Also, I gave the cleric a staff of healing -- heal 2-7 hit points for each person once a day. I think every PC got healed by this, plus one cure light wounds spell used on one fighter.

...snip...

It's amazing what max hit points and one healing spell per person can mean for a party's staying power at 1st level.

I also allowed one fighter to be revived by the healing potion from -1 hit point. This fighter was played by the 7 year old boy, and he had been killing goblins left and right.

Bullgrit

This tale's a bit dated, but since somebody else necro'd it...

One interesting thing I see from reading it is that the items I highlighted are the things that later versions of D&D adopted/changed to.

BG found some factors in the game that weren't as much fun for his audience (kids), so he gave more hit points/healing, and allowed a PC to come back into the fight after a KO.

Nothing wrong with that. But if anybody was complaining about why the game changed, here's the kind of impetus for those changes. For certain audiences, the original design wasn't as suitable to the desired goal and play style needs.