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Message: <blockquote data-quote="buddhafrog" data-source="post: 5391523" data-attributes="member: 86605">This is exactly right IMO.  4/5 PC can make a difference certainly.  And if in doubt, significantly lower the monsters HP if needed - it'll make the combat much faster than lowering the monsters' damage.  Making it easy at first is not a bad idea for any beginning player, but especially a kid.  Later, and soon, you'll have plenty of chances to bring death and fear!  Also, if the PC's are winning and the combat is taking too long, make the monsters retreat - they don't all have to fight to the death.  I've been known to change monsters into minions on the spot if I think the PC's are overwhelmed or the battle is taking too long.  This works well.But what DEFCON 1 said is correct.  Try not to run the PC's - it's just too tough to do it justice, it'll take too much time, and take away some of the fun for you.  And if your fun is lessoned, your players' fun will be lessoned -- probably even more so if that player is your son.Have your son invite at least one friend.  Adding one other voice to the group will make all the difference in the world - I promise.  I play with my son and several kid games every week (through my ESL classes).  I've tried doing one PC games but it just doesn't have the energy.  I've tried running PC's but it makes me less of a DM.Ideally, even if you have just one friend join you, both PC's can 1/2 control another PC.  For some of my 2 PC groups, when they reached 2nd level I gave them a trimmed down 1st level player that the PC and I shared control.  It added a lot of role-playing, it provided PC's that could die before the kids' PC's, allowed to run adventures that were not so weak trying to adapt to only 2 PC's, and also gave new players the feel of playing different classes (my one rule was that their other character had to be a different class).  Lastly, during game play I often emphasize the difference b/t their character "you" and the other character "He".  This helped them to keep their major focus on one player and to become immersed in that player's story.</blockquote>

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