D&D 5E Modding Lost Mine of Phandelver for younger kids

[Tako]

Hello everyone, this is Tako from Tokyo. New to D&D and EN World, this is my first post here.


I have recently started on buying into and reading up on D&D5e. I have dabbled a little in D&D as a teen, but have never really gotten into it. The interest lingered on though, and now that I have kids myself I want to have another go at it with me as a DM for my kids and some of their friends.


I am currently go through the starter set adventure (Lost Mine of Phandelver) and am modding it a bit to make it a little more age appropriate. My son is 6, which I realize is perhaps a little early for D&D, but I believe with a few adjustments and the right amount guidance where required, he and is mates will very much enjoy this adventure.


So I thought I start a thread here to post a little about what adjustments I make to the adventure to make the story somewhat more appropriate for my young audience, mostly from a story telling perspective. I have just started, but I would be very glad to hear any ideas from other new players or veterans on what else I should be considering. There is not real structure for this, I just want to post, discuss and flesh out some ideas as they come about.


So here is my first one: I want to give the party an animal companion, an NPA so to speak, at the very start of the adventure. I think this will help the kids to emmerse themselves better and also should give them a hint that not all is what it might appear as at first sight.

An animal friend

• One of the Gundren’s felled horses on the road has been slaughtered, a trail of blood leading away from the road and pointing towards the goblin trail. This meat was taken by 2 goblins who were part of the Gundren ambush and are now guarding the cave entrance in the brushes. After fighting the goblins, the PCs should find the left-overs of the on a camp fire and in a bag nearby.
• In the 1st cave, one of the 3 wolves is very young and has a white back. Unlike the other 2, older and shaggy wolves, this one can be befriended by a PC. If the wolves are being offered food (e.g. the horse meat from the goblins at the cave entrance), they will eat and calm down. The younger wolf however will ignore the food and keep pulling on his chain, trying to get to one of the PCs (my son). Should the PC free him, he will jump at him and… lick his face and be playful. He will then join the party as an NPC(A), fighting with them until they leave the cave (potentially getting them into occasional trouble through his frolicking and yapping).
• After the cave is cleared out and the PCs exit it, the wolf will head off into the woods. I intend to bring him back later though, perhaps again prior to the last act: Perhaps I will have the group run into a tough and desperate outdoor encounter, when their wolf will suddenly re-appear to save the day and then stay with the party until the end of the campaign (or maybe longer).

Any thoughts from you guys on this or any other ideas for the adventure? Thanks!


Tako

 

[Tyranthraxus]

Why not make their friend a Goblin?

There are a few choices. They could come across one of the Dead Horses (and if you dont want the dead horse you could always have them come across a Goblin chasing a Horse with a Knife and Fork).

Part 2 can get a little dungeon Crawlery with the attack on the ex Mansion and the Redbrands. you could use your point 2 to cause trouble in Part 2. Ie have the goblin start stealing from shops or just causing trouble by trying to eat the shop cat. Then perhaps he might get kidnapped by the Redbrands or happens across the Redbrands up to no good

You need to create an emotional tie to such a character though. If hes just mean and nasty all the time then players wont feel connected to him at all. So maybe get him to the occasional nice thing or help them out in combat.

In Part 3 (which is my fave part) the possibilities are just so open and its hard to give any advice here

I tend to find the small little humanoid guy tends to be the jokester in many an animated movie... Animals are all well and good but I dont know how well they go in tight spaces or inside shops.

 

[Motorskills]

I think having a goblin friend will be too confusing (since gobbos are bad m'kay?), but maybe Sildar could assign a veteran warrior, who is recovering from injury to accompany and mentor the PCs.

He can be the DM's voice inside the party, and the guy can intervene in a fight if things go horribly wrong at any point.

Young players can be very sharp, but things I would look out for:
a) lack of tactical awareness. Charging in and having a fight is fun for a kid....but bad from an adventuring perspective. Get them to appreciate the fun that comes from planning assaults etc.

b) getting fixated on character detail, to the detriment of teamwork. For example, the rogue doesn't have to scout ahead all the time, don't split the party until it's a good idea to do so. The fighter with Intimidation proficiency doesn't need to threaten every NPC...just talk to most of them. Save the Intimidation for the bad guys.

c) Intra-party squabbling, IC thievery etc. Make sure the PCs are pre-scripted to be loyal friends.


Best of luck!

 

[Rabbitbait]

I give you my cautionary tale: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?466835-Very-little-kids-take-D-amp-D-VERY-seriously

But seriously - I'm playing with a 7, 5 and 3 year old and they love it. The 7 year old chose to be a wizard and we did some simple character generation and he chose the spells. With the other two I just wrote up the characters for them as NPCs and let them know their options when appropriate, or let them go with whatever they want to try.

I'm not bothering with the role-play aspect at the moment - I don't think the younger two could handle it. I am just running the dungeons with some explanation in between of how they got there and what the mission is. For the little ones I am simplifying the rolling as well. They just roll the dice - no adding for them. If they roll high, they hit. The older one has to do lots of adding and it is good for his maths skills. We use a dry erase map and lots of minis (left over from when there was no other option). Having actual figures to move around works better for little ones.

They all have a good concept now of what hit-points are now.

They absolutely love gaming. I would do it more often, but it is actually quite harrowing even though I enjoy it too - they get into it WAY too much and it is exhausting managing the emotional ups and downs. If one loses hit points, its tears and sadness, if the other heals them its cuddles and love. If they do a good hit they jump up and down in excitement, shouting at the top of their lungs. Phew.

The other reason I don't game with them much is because I also run my campaign, and I only have so much time that I want to put towards D&D.

Good luck

 

[S'mon]

I find my son (8.5 now) is much readier to recruit monsters than are my older players, so pet wolf, goblin etc should work well. I think low level 5e works pretty well for younger players, you probably want to tone down the lethality a bit - don't have the goblins optimise tactics, maybe use fewer Redbrands - but young players can be good tacticians too, often better than older ones. Maybe house rule the insta kill rule so 1st level PCs only die if damage beyond 0 hp equals the higher of max hp or CON score - it's very easy to kill an 8 hp 1st level PC in one blow, whereas taking them to -12 or -14 is much less likely.

Edit: I like your friendly wolf idea a lot, and would run with that. Once he joins the party, if you
use XP then give him an XP tally, and let him gain hit dice when 'levelling up' so he stays viable.

 

[akr71]

I played LMOP with my family (and introduced them to D&D) when my son was 6 and daughter 11. Their creativity will blow you away - when interrogating a goblin my son (and dwarf barbarian) said he wanted to intimidate the goblin. I said, "OK, what do you say to him?" With that he stood up, pointed at me and shouted "Tell us what you know or die!"

They were also very receptive to mercy and that not all 'monsters' are evil. They gladly rescued the goblin being bullied by bugbears (Droop), and brought him along on subsequent missions. Droop is now their butler/steward and looks after their estate while they adventure.

Another example of the kids creativity when role-playing: in another adventure I had them on one side of a river with an orc camp on the other. They needed to infiltrate the camp, but the river was too swift to swim across. I expected them to sneak back into the forest and build a raft, but no, my son (playing a druid) says he shapeshifts into a crocodile, swims across the river and kills the orc sentry by dragging it into the water (stealth check successful). He then grabbed the rope of one of the orc boats and dragged it back across the river to the rest of the party. I looked at him with my jaw hanging open while my wife and daughter hi-five him.

 

[Bawylie]

I tend to not play with kids younger than 8.

For young groups I make sure situations are very clear, straightforward problems. I don't mean they aren't complex, I mean there aren't any hidden motives or secret conditions or stuff like that. And I do voices, use minis, and play-act.

 

[mlund]

When I ran the Lost Mines I actually had one of the PC's encounter an abused Mastiff Hound. He turned out to have originally belonged to the farmer that the Redbrands had captured and fed to one of the monsters lurking in the basements. That's kind of dark for a kid, so I'd just have the farmer still held prisoner. This scenario does several things:

1 - "Kick the dog / pet the dog" - Loyal animals elicit a lot of sympathy from decent folks, and hurting them is a pretty clear indication that someone is a bad guy in a simple story. Goblins will want to torment or eat the animal. The Redbrands hurt the dog. It'll convey the message without having to delve into darker subject matter like rape, murder, arson, and jaywalking.

2 - "My dog doesn't like you" - It's got good senses, survival instincts, and it's hostile / fearful of things the PC's should be on the lookout for.

3 - "Got to keep him safe" - Sometimes players think of things too much like a video-game or a novel to the point where their characters take unreasonable personal risks. The hound, however, has already seen some obvious harm. Do you really want to stage a frontal assault and risk him getting hurt or killed because you were reckless?

4 - "It's a small world after all" - When the PCs take down the Redbrands they'll discover that the dog actually came from somewhere, has an owner, etc. It seems like a small thing, but those interconnected details make a tabletop RPG something far more dynamic than a series of hallways, fights, and puzzles.

Plus that's also a logical opportunity for the companion-animal / character to exit the party if it has served its purpose. The Mastiff can go back with its family. Or if it is working out well and the PCs are attached to him, the owner may insist that the dog stay by their side. It's flexible in both directions.

Good luck!

 

[Rabbitbait]

I played LMOP with my family (and introduced them to D&D) when my son was 6 and daughter 11. Their creativity will blow you away - when interrogating a goblin my son (and dwarf barbarian) said he wanted to intimidate the goblin. I said, "OK, what do you say to him?" With that he stood up, pointed at me and shouted "Tell us what you know or die!"

They were also very receptive to mercy and that not all 'monsters' are evil. They gladly rescued the goblin being bullied by bugbears (Droop), and brought him along on subsequent missions. Droop is now their butler/steward and looks after their estate while they adventure.

Another example of the kids creativity when role-playing: in another adventure I had them on one side of a river with an orc camp on the other. They needed to infiltrate the camp, but the river was too swift to swim across. I expected them to sneak back into the forest and build a raft, but no, my son (playing a druid) says he shapeshifts into a crocodile, swims across the river and kills the orc sentry by dragging it into the water (stealth check successful). He then grabbed the rope of one of the orc boats and dragged it back across the river to the rest of the party. I looked at him with my jaw hanging open while my wife and daughter hi-five him.

Yes - I love the imagination and the lack of fear that kids bring. In my 7 year old's very first session, he decided the best way to approach the goblin cave in LMOP was to gallop up the stream and into the cave on his horse. When he saw that someone was firing an arrow at him from an overhead bridge, he climbed up and stood on the saddle, leapt onto the bridge, grabbed the bow and beat the goblin to death with it. There was a heap of rolling, but he had lucky rolls and succeeded at every aspect of what he tried.

I don't think any of my adult players would ever try something so risky....

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Hi, and welcome!

I too think having a friendly animal at that age is easier to engage with. Good idea.

The RP aspect of the town when they get there may be a bit beyond them so i would ignore the Factions. Maybe concentrate all the various plot points into a more episodic format - eg go after Redbrands then find out about Thundertree when that job is done; then Agatha; and so on.

In Cragmaw, you could have a similar setup to the wolf re: the owlbear. My table set the owlbear on its former masters and it worked well.

One thing for sure, they will surprise you constantly, so for all that I have advised a more railroady approach, they will jump the tracks when you least expect it!

Have fun!