Kids' adventure recommendation(s) requested

[CanadienneBacon]

My children are on winter break. While the baby naps each day for roughly two hours, I'm looking at running the kids' first D&D game. I want to use 3.0 or 3.5 D&D rules. The children are three girls, ages 6, 5 and 5 (twins).

A ten-minute search session on EN World didn't produce the results I'd hoped for in terms of a quickie children's adventure for beginning players. My kids have the imaginative chops to get into a fantasy game but they've never played before. What with us on the mend from a bout of colds during the month of December and the three of them stuck indoors on their winter break, I'm looking for something they'll enjoy doing while the toddler naps.

For those parents or uncles/aunties who've run kids' games before, you got a starting adventure to recommend? Something downloadable for free or for cheap. I confess I was also looking at the 3.5 Basic Game boxed set. Anyone use that for young kids and, if you did, how'd it pan out. At $24.95 it's a bit of a stretch on my budget but I could probably wrangled the money if a couple of you say it's a slam dunk.

Thanks for any help you're willing to provide. I've written modules for my adult tabletop in the past but am not really looking to get that entailed for the kids. Just something quick that I roll out when they're getting squirrely and restless one day. Or days, if they like playing.

 

[jdrakeh]

Thieves in the Forest by Atlas Games may work if you play up the Wereboar as friendly and the thieves as somewhat comedic villians in the vein of the Sheriff of Nottingham (as portrayed by Alan Rickman). Alternately, if you're not adverse to using a D&D variant you can nab the d20 version of Grimm at RPGnow for $5.00. Link.

 

[rom90125]

Not really a kid-friendly adventure, as much as a kid-friendly setting, but I would recommend Grimm by Fantasy Flight Games. The d20 version can be purchased from rpgnow.com for $5. The 'new' version (non-d20) can be purchased for ~$40 via Amazon. My kids (11-year-old twins plus the next door neighbor's son, also 11-years-old) have enjoyed the sessions thus far.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Would you recommend Grimm for the ages I have (6 and 5)? That's potentially a pretty big age gap, going from 11 to 6.

 

[jdrakeh]

Would you recommend Grimm for the ages I have (6 and 5)? That's potentially a pretty big age gap, going from 11 to 6.

I would, yes. I know people who have played it with children of ages ranging from five to 14. I have the new edition which is a self-contained game (and not d20) but I'm still a big fan of the d20 version, as well.

The best part is that kids can identify with the characters -- even if Rapunzel may be an animated corpse full of tiny spiders. Not all of the notables are nearly that dark, so depending upon what you think your kids can handle, you're free to switch it up.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I checked the link to Grimm. It seems a bit...well...grim! Not sure I'd want my three little girls to even see the book's cover (it's scary). If this is a misinformed opinion, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Digging around at rpgnow.com, I came across Faery's Tale Deluxe. No reviews for this product, though. Anyone have any experience with it, particularly with the three adventures it's supposed to come with?

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I'll reconsider Grimm, since you're saying it's kosher. If I bought the five buck .pdf, would I need anything else or would that do it? I'm looking for a self-contained product.

 

[jdrakeh]

Digging around at rpgnow.com, I came across Faery's Tale Deluxe. No reviews for this product, though. Anyone have any experience with it, particularly with the three adventures it's supposed to come with?

I believe that this has been reviewed a couple of times at RPGNet.

 

[jdrakeh]

I'll reconsider Grimm, since you're saying it's kosher. If I bought the five buck .pdf, would I need anything else or would that do it? I'm looking for a self-contained product.

Just the D&D 3.5 PHB and, really, that's arguably optional if you can explain to your kids how characteristcs are generated. You can also port in D&D monsters from the MM. As far as tone. . .

Grimm can be the RPG counterpart to The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth in terms of tone or scariness. It's dark, yes. It doesn't have to be frightening. Indeed, one of the people whom I know that ran it borrowed heavily from Labyrinth.

 

[jdrakeh]

Hmmm. . . in fact, mentally envisioning the critters as muppets when designing encounters (and describing them as such when playing) is probably a very useful tool for taking some of Grimm's edge off.