D&D 5E Kids playing dnd?

[The Green Hermit]

I started with my dad & brother around 8 or 10. My kids started at 6 and 11 and I ran a game for my daughter's birthday party (a bunch of 11 & 12 year old girls). That was 4 years ago & we still play as a family - here is what I've learned.

1) Short sessions, especially for younger kids. Be prepared to end the session when you notice attention waning, but not in a negative way - don't say "you aren't paying attention, we're done" - find a hook to engage them and say you'll pick up there next session.

2) They get really attached to their characters, so be careful of the difficulty of the encounters. Again, this is especially true for younger players.

1) We do mention that attention is wandering so we are ending for the day, but my kids (and husband) don't react poorly to that. They just shrug and agree. We will usually finish what we are doing, though, so we don't have to restart in the middle of a battle or anything like that.

2) Our house rules are that a full TPK gets an automatic save/restart at the beginning of the battle-scenario. If at least one character lives, though, the others all have to re-roll. If you are starting with ready made characters/stats this also gives kids the experience of creating characters more and more on their own.

 

[Oofta]

I started playing with nieces and nephews from ages 9-13. I pretty much just explained the basics and we started talking about what kind of PC they wanted.

So for backgrounds? Let them tell you. Work with them and give some ideas of where they could start and work out an origin story together. If a background doesn't fit, make one. I'd try to keep the PCs fairly simple, at least at first.

When it came to playing I focused a lot on painting pictures and descriptions. Fights were fairly straightforward but other than that I just ran a normal game.

I must have done something right because we just started another campaign online and the oldest one turned 30 last year.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Depends on the age, but largely strip out most math, unless they're actually learning that math in school.

So it's going to be taking whatever they roll, and deciding if it is successful based on that natural result.

 

[abe ray]

Would you rename spells to make them more or less inoffensive to your religion (in other words:renaming find familiar as bind life link or changing the name of other spells similarly)

 

[Eltab]

Would you rename spells to make them more or less inoffensive to your religion (in other words:renaming find familiar as bind life link or changing the name of other spells similarly)

"Find Pet"
Then you have to explain why you get spiders, snakes, frogs, rats, and similar icky animals instead of cats, dogs, hamsters, or goldfish.

Hunger of Hadar --> Floor Full of Octopus Tentacles
Witch Bolt --> Lesser Lightning Bolt

For my 4e Star Pact Warlock, I re-wrote the fluff text on most of my character's powers to be something about astronomical features, not about Far Realm lore. My big zone attack that blew things around became "Sucked Into the Great Red Spot".

 

[Ancalagon]

Would you rename spells to make them more or less inoffensive to your religion (in other words:renaming find familiar as bind life link or changing the name of other spells similarly)

only if the religion isn't against all spellcasting. Because if it is, changing the name doesn't really change the fact that spellcasting is forbidden.

that being said, that consideration is less important than doing what works best for the kids.

 

[Unwise]

I started with Tales of Equestria, the My Little Ponies RPG. My daughter is seven and enjoyed a 30-40 minute gaming session with her mum. I purposely kept it quick, get her to solve one problem. Then called it quits, leaving her wanting more rather than waiting until she was bored.

It was handy having lore that they cared about, also the lack of killing is important. We want them to think of problem solving solutions outside of the violence that D&D pushes us towards. MLP or Scooby Doo crew defeating a villian is never as simple as "I hit him with my sword". They always need to succeed via good RP, good problem solving, or a clever trap.

Case in point, there was a rampaging bear-like creature. My daughter remembered that somebody was making a huge toffee for the upcoming faire. She lured the bear over near the pot, then tipped it over, sticking him to the ground (I did not bring up what a horrific way to die being covered in molten toffee would be, as that was not her intent). That is a much more fun game than "I hit it with my sword" for the fifth time.

 

[thundershot]

My kids are now 11 and 13 and we’ve played steady (About once a month because of my sister’s schedule) for 4 years. It was a little rough at first as they were getting the hang of it but now they love it. My youngest has issues remembering things but between my wife and sister things go smoothly. I will let them do abnormal things for the sake of the fun. I don’t coddle them but I don’t get brutal either. My daughter cried her eyes out when they were going to kill an Owlbear, but she had her character hold her ground and long story short, the Owlbear is now her ranger companion/sidekick/mount.

 

[overgeeked]

We started with fantasy bedtime stories and books from day one. I don’t remember exactly how old they were when we busted out dice, but in the 4-6 range. All it took was a white board and a d20. I drew a simple map with a castle, moat, and bridge. A few obstacles to get through and some reward at the end. Anything over a ten succeeded; anything under that failed. It was only 30-45 minutes of playing, but it was enough. We started doing that on the regular and in a few years they joined our D&D5E group and they’re running games for their friends now.