Meddling Kids

[Crothian]

What is Meddling Games?
Well, since you came this far, I’m going to assume that you know that it is the new imprint from Pandahead Productions, but past that...
Meddling Games is an imprint dedicated to making games—specifically role-playing games—for young and/or inexperienced gamers. The completed game line will provide a variety of jumping-on points for different ages and different skill levels. Each of the three games initially planned in the line will progress the players through the different aspects of the games, taking you from neophyte to veteran in no time.

How’s it going to take advance people?
There are several different aspects to role-playing games. And we start at the most basic: the rules. The rules for the different Meddling Games products start with the most basic system we could come up with, and then get progressively tougher with each release.
But that’s just the start. The ideas behind the games get tougher as you go along, too. It starts with simple goals, and then gets more complicated as it goes. Your responsibilities get bigger and your characters get bigger with them.

So, what’s the first game?
The whole thing starts with Meddling Kids. It’s a game where you get to play teenage characters running around with an odd character—we call him The Wild Card—solving mysteries and generally meddling into the lives of other people.

Wow! This sounds just like my favorite cartoon, you know...
Okay! Don’t go there. Actually, this game is like any cartoon. Think about it. It doesn’t matter if you are a bunch of kids running around with a talking dog, a robot warrior, or even a small electric mouse, the same premise applies. The important thing is to have fun.

So, do we get to fight the bad guy?
Not really. You get to catch the bad guy. In Meddling Kids there is no real fighting. You are just trying to figure out the mystery and catch the person behind it. You aren’t a police officer or anything, just a bunch of kids trying to find out what’s really going on out there. The police and other officials take care of things from there.

 

[Wystan]

That sounds great! When will they be out?
Meddling Kids is out now!! Meddling Spies will be out in the fall of 2004, and Meddling Heroes will be out in the spring of 2005.

Umm? Ummm This is Summer 2005?

 

[Crothian]

[imager]http://www.pandahead.com/Pandahead/catalog/images/mk_cover.jpg[/imager]

One of the biggest obstacles of gaming is having a way for new people to find the hobby. While there are many great games out there these days, they are mostly complex in rules or setting. The most popular games have dozens and dozens of supplements and it can be confusing to people new to the hobby. There have been a few attempts to have a basic game but really it has been a while since I saw one that truly did a good job. That is until Meddling Kids crossed into my sights. It is simple for kids and adults and easy to play and use.

Meddling Kids is a new game for player’s ages seven and up. It is written by Pandahead Productions the makers of the X Crawl. The book half sized and little less then a hundred pages long. The art and layout are good with the art being rather cartoonish and that fits the style of the game. For ten dollars it is a good price.

This game I actually had a chance to run a full adventure. I do not always have the chance to actually run a game I review usually I just make up characters and compare and contrast the book with ones one a similar topic. Character generation is really ewasy and open ended. There are only four attributes and it allows for pretty much any type of character to be made. The characters are assumed to be high school kids and the this is not a combat oriented game. We had a typical jock, smart kid, and popular rich girl. Character creation is point based and went really fast. There are a list of character abilities that can be bought in the back of the book to further help define the characters.

The game is very similar to the Scooby Doo cartoons. They even have a Wild Card character option for the GM to run that is supposed to be a odd character like a talking dog or a pirate ape or a flying intelligent toaster. It can really be anything and while it is a neat idea I felt the game I ran would be better served with out it. We wanted a more serious game then the Wild Card character offered. It played well with out it.

The game works on rolling 3d6 and adding ones attribute to it. There is a list of target numbers and how challenging that target number represents making it really easy for a GM to set the target numbers. Different skills the characters get can add a bonus to certain rolls or even add in another d6 roll. It was easy for us to get accustomed to rules and things when very smoothly especially for the first time we have ever played this game.

The game has a simple adventure in the back and two sample adventures on their websites. These are nice and short. If they are run as is they would only last a couple hours which is good for those trying to introduce the game to kids. The adventures though can easily be expanded on to make them longer though there are no guidelines for that in the book.

The game is not d20 as one can probably tell by the description. It is easier to learn and play then d20 or for that matter HARP, the new World of Darkness Games or Exalted, Hero, GURPS, Palladium, or any of the other popular games on the market these days. That alone should make the game very tempting for people who are looking for something simple for their kids or to introduce new gamers to.

 

[Crothian]

Umm? Ummm This is Summer 2005?

That is from their website, I edited that out since I'm not sure they got those to print.