Making D&D cool for skater teenagers - feedback requested

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

I have two cousins that I do not know very well, and I will be spending Christmas eve with them- aged 12 and 13. From my initial impressions, they can probably be categorized as your typical wanna-be skater punks. Nice kids though, with a good family.

They are from my wife's ( of three years ) side of the family, and we see each other once a year at Christmas, and that's about it. Last year, for Christmas, I gave them some comic books ( 6-7 each of the Avengers and Thor ). This year, I'm giving them games. One is a board game "Pirateer", which seems pretty neat, where you move your ship through the tradewinds chasing after treasure and each other.

The other game is the Intro D&D boxed set. With LoTR riding the publicity wave, I'm thinking most anyone might think that being a elven archer for an hour or two might be cool. I'm gonna try and convince them to play it with me that night, so we will probably have an hour & 1/2 to two hours max. I have no idea what is included in the boxed set ( it's already giftwrapped anyway now), but don't wanna spend too much time going over the rules beyond races, classes and ability scores, I'll just go over the others on the fly as needed. BUT - I'd like to teach them enough so that they can play without me.

Your quick impressions & thoughts would be be helpful for my preparation! Issues:

1) The time constraint to teach the game & get them interested:

2) I am completely unfamiliar with what is in the box set : should I bring more dice etc...??

3) Combat : I know some people are sensitive to teaching a non-combat oriented roleplaying style for newbies and kids. I'm thinking I'd rather get them semi-proficient with the combat rules and not worry too much about this.

4) Scenario : I 'm not sure if the boxed set has an adventure ( I'm guessing it probably does ) or if it is appropriate for my situation. One thought I had was to use the gladiator arena map from the new Dragon Mag and create a competition, with perhaps some opportunity for roleplaying before/between/after matches. I'm not married to this idea though, so if someone suggests something else that is better...

Thanks in advance for your suggestions. 22 years ago, I learned D&D in about an hour in a comic book shop, and was hooked for good. I'm hoping to do the same thing for these kids.

 

[Neowolf]

From what I understand, the boxed set does indeed include a basic, level 1 adventure with a fairly simple dungeon along with a few monsters that should be pretty familiar (goblins and orcs, if memory serves). The material itself doesn't go very in-depth with the rules, and includes several (don't know how many) pre-built characters. I would think it has miniatures of some sort in it, but whether they're paper fold-ups or actual metal ones is anybody's guess. Good luck!

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

The Adventure Game has a small booklet with several very small adventures (some are only two rooms). The last one uses the entire dungeon. It also has several basic characters already created at first level.

There are some card-stock counters to use for both the pre-generated PCs and the monsters, and one set of dice.

Also comes with a nice map to use for the dungeons; the flip side is a blank grid.

I would suggest running two of the small adventures, then letting them "level up" to 2nd level. Run 3 more, level up to 3rd, then run the final dungeon (Adventure #6--it uses the entire map).

There are no feats in this stripped-down version, and I don't think there are any skills, so it's pretty easy to learn.

You just need a few minutes to read the adventures before you run them.

Have fun!

 

[Cyragnome]

Mostly what Barendd said. There are feats, though, but a very limited selection. The characters provided are mostly the "Iconics" (but no Jozan or cleric as I recall).

We used it teach my nephew and niece to play last year (they are 11 and 12 now) and they loved it...it's pretty easy to get into, although if you are DMing I'd read through the booklet before hand. They clamor to play whenever they come to visit but don't play at home...so I'd say it's a good choice.

Happy Gaming!

 

[AuroraGyps]

Don't forget to bring some of your own D&D stuff to show them what's beyond the boxed set and I'd bring extra dice. And, if they have a PC, give them ENWorld's address so they can read more about D20 later on (as skater punks, they might be interested in D20 Modern.

 

[Fiery Todd]

The box set also has counters, which is always a neat selling point to new players. All-in-all, the box set is great for starters. I'm finally introducing my nephew to gaming this Christmas as well.

Nice icon by the way...



Cheers!

 

[megamania]

For another d20 game they have have interest in is X-crawl which seems very Running Man meets Rollerballish. It may speak volumes to them.

 

[Drawmack]

The boxed set comes with everything you need to play.

Counters for the monsters and heroes (but bring little plastic bags to seperate them into).
Player sheets (1st and 2nd level) for all the iconic characters.
A map of the dungeon.
A trimmed down rulebook.
6 adventures.
1 set of diec (the multicolored ones pictured in the PHB so you can say roll the red one)

I would recommend that you purchase another box set for yourself and do the following.

1) Read all 6 adventures.
2) Read the rules some of them are vastly different in the name of simplicity (for example you do not roll initiative you simply read if off of the sheet.)
3) Prep your counters as this can take some time with the time constraints you've mentioned it might be a good idea to get then ready ahead of time.


Then I would go out and buy them each a D&D novel. But don't wrap these and smuggle them in a pocket or something and buy them different novels so they can share.

Now you start with the first adventure and run through them in order. Each adventure teaches one important aspect of battle mechanics and builds on the last ones. The sixth adventure is an introduction to real role-playing.

Get as much time as possible for the game. Once you are done playing the game for the evening, getting through as many adventures as possible then hand them each the books and say this is what the full-version of the game is like and offer to help them get the books as the three books rank in at $90 thats a bit steep for a 12 and a 13 year old.

 

[cthuluftaghn]

The box set is worth the $10 just for the 1" grid, the dice set and counters. It's also a good way just to introduce the game. Characters are pre-made, and it's ready to pretty much play right out of the box.

HOWEVER... it is VERY watered down rules. An experienced player such as yourself should be careful not to overwhelm the newbies by saying things like "well, in REAL D&D, it's like this". Try to stick to the simplified version presented in the box and then after they get a taste for what RP'ing is about, as previously suggested, show them your books and point them to www.enworld.com.

That way, if D&D isn't their thing, but they liked, for example, LotR... maybe they'll at least take in interest in the LotR RPG, or the Wheel of Time RPG, or something similar.

 

[Kamard]

You know, these kids aren't going to like D&D any more or less just because they're "wanna be skater punks."

Most of the kids I knew when I was that age who played anything remotely related to D&D were skater kids.