Introductory RPG for a 5yr. Old

[Greg K]

These are all supposed to be rpgs for kids.

Meddling Kids: Think 70's cartoons like Scooby Doo, Josie and the Pussycats, Captain Caveman, Jabberjaw, Speed Buggy, and Goober and the Ghost Chasers

Mermaid Adventures: This seems to be inspired by Little Mermaid and its TV series. Kids play mermaids, fight sea monsters and solve mysteries. Friendship is also important.

Adventures in Oz
Faery's Tale Deluxe
FirstFable
Hero Kids
Little Wizards

You can find the above games and others on this page:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse.php?filters=44530_2140_0_0_0

 

[Rechan]

Adventure Maximus is an RPG designed for kids, but it's also designed to encourage kids to DM games themselves.

Also Mice and Mystics, while primarily a boardgame, is pretty much an RPG. You might also consider Mouseguard, which is an RPG.

I also think Fate Accelerated would work. The math is very small and it's not only simple but thematic. Also it's nice because Fate and FAE are Pay-what-you-like (including free), so it's free to check out and then if you like, I'd suggest tossing some $ their way.

 

[malcolypse]

Toon

I played this many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had a couple of the books when I was in High School. My drama teacher was a gamer who had spoken to me about getting his (then) young children into gaming. After graduation I gave the books to him. I highly recommend it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toon_(role-playing_game)

 

[howandwhy99]

Dungeon! boardgame is probably better for ages 7 to 12, but includes many of the basics of D&D. It's relatively inexpensive and includes cooperative play though not as default.

If anyone from WotC is listening, they could go a long way towards promoting D&D at very early ages, even before kids ready for an introductory box, by making Dungeon! part of D&D.

 

[Katharine Williams]

Thank you for all of the responses. I picked up Hero Kids, a rules system and adventures specifically designed for 4-10 year olds rather than trying to heavily adapt a mature system. It had pre-fab classic heroes, and each character sheet is essentially a coloring page. The kiddo liked being able to color in his avatar and token (and so did his uncle and I). The adventure came with predrawn maps to print, but we eschewed that and let the kiddo build a dungeon out of our Legend of Drizzt tiles. That kept him nicely busy while we set up the tokens, etc. It also came with all the tokens we would need - just print and cut. The drawings of the kids are cartoony, and the monsters aren't too fearsome. Very simple mechanics. One major point of confusion was attacking versus blocking. Every time he had a successful roll, the kiddo expected to hit something and forgot that he was rolling a defense. However, giving him two sets of dice - one for defense and one for attack - might help him make the distinction. Overall it was a wonderful success. Everyone enjoyed themselves, and we'll be playing again soon.

Also, as soon as I get the wet erase markers, I plan to allow the kiddo to draw out his own dungeon design on our old Chessex battlemap - then just place monsters for him to battle. That should be interesting.

 

[Mark CMG]

http://www.tlucretius.net/RPGs/kids.html

 

[Katharine Williams]

Very nice guide. Thank you for the link.

 

[Cadence]

A huge thanks to @Katharine Williams , @Mark CMG , and everyone else who's posted in this one. I hadn't even realized such things existed and I'm sure my little one will appreciate it!

 

[dm4hire]

I will second Little Wizards which is definitely geared for kids.

Fairy Tales Deluxe and Harvester is good too.

Others I found on DriveThruRPG that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Hero Kids has had a lot of supplements.

Fantasy Adventures for Kids is another.

Fuzzy Knights

Woodland Warriors RPG

 

[nedjer]

A lot depends on what you want for the kid. One way lies following rules exactly, rewards mainly through combat and basing most outcomes on dice. The other focuses on player ownership/ imagination, rewards critical thinking skills and hands players more responsibility for outcomes.

Whatever your preference - free guide to Getting Started with RPGs, especially kids and young people, in another part of EN.