Introducing a Child to D&D

[Mark CMG]

Always nice to see new and/or young players joining the ranks of gamers!

 

[Rel]

My ears were burning...

I've pimped it before in my Samanth the Red threads but if you want a really simple ruleset for killing things and taking their stuff then get Descent by Fantasy Flight Games. It's an $80 boardgame but it's worth it for several reasons:

- It's a very fun boardgame!
- It comes with 80 miniatures that you can use in your regular games!
- It has a bunch of these cool, snap together dungeon pieces that already have 1 inch squares on them that can also be used in your regular games!
- It has a bazillion counters that you can also also use in your regular D&D games to mark everything from pits to fires to pits that are on fire!
- It has a super simple dice mechanic that resolves whether you hit, range, damage and special abilities in one roll.

The mechanics are simpler than D&D by far and you can transform it from a simple dungeon crawl game to a more in-depth story driven game by degrees as you go. My daughter (now nearly 6 years old) has been running one-shot games with this setup for over a year for my wife and I.

Things like equipment, treasure and advancement are easy to track as well. The only thing it lacked was a skill resolution system and that's now been incorporated with the Altar of Despair expansion. And it's easy enough to understand how to add that in even if you don't have the expansion.

 

[francisca]

RK, I'm disappointed in this thread.

It needs more "Sense of Wonder" sort of discussion.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Removed

 

[francisca]

How about, "I sometimes wonder if I'm making sense"?

(I still think that the approach the design team took on this edition was a poor choice for the game even if I can see that it is a good one for making money for WotC and Hasbro. I've simply given up on convincing anyone of this. It's too much like trying to decry Lolth to the drow.)

Naw, I'm just giving you a hard time.

I agree. IMO, there is no good entry level D&D RPG product.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Removed

 

[Asmor]

Hmm... She killed something, and she looted a dead thing, but have you really played D&D without looting something you killed?

Methinks not.

Joking aside, cool story. It always tickles me pink hearing about little kids' experiences with gaming.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Removed

 

[TarionzCousin]

RC, thank you very much for posting this and giving us some additional commentary. I haven't read the actual adventure yet, although I did download it. I may use it to introduce a friend's daughter to the game.

I look forward to reading more about your kids' experiences with D&D.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Sounds like you had a wonderful time. Reading about parents that play with their children makes me even more excited to, someday in the near future, have a child of my own.

For all you parents interested in introducing your young'uns to the game, you should pick up Faery's Tale. It's a great little book with some excellent rules for playing with youngsters.