A couple of years ago, I posted about my successful endeavors to introduce my kids (Ages 5 & 10 at the time) to table-top RPGs. That first step was a rousing success, resulting in multiple ongoing Pathfinder campaigns and a toe in the water with the beginnings of a Mutants & Masterminds 3e campaign. Aside from the joy of bringing the next generation onboard, it’s been highly entertaining to me to observe the behavior of kids playing RPGs. My youngest, despite his young age, had incredible recall of details from earlier sessions that his big brother had overlooked, for example.
My eldest’s best friend was quickly brought into the mix of one of the Pathfinder campaigns and things had settled into something of a pattern, albeit an infrequent one given school and kids sports activities. Until yesterday…
The Skyrim Effect
One of the biggest hurdles to RPGs, is explaining the concept to someone who hasn’t encountered it before and doing so in a way that generates interest. Enter Skyrim. Two years ago, my kids would explain Pathfinder with varying degrees of success. Now, however, it’s easy – “It’s like Skyrim, but it’s not a video game.” Kids can visualize the framework immediately and then the questions start rolling and interest can be quickly hooked.
As kids’ free time is often a fluid thing in summertime, it so happened that we ended up with both boys having friends spend the night on Friday. Unbeknownst to me, amidst the video games, movies, and board games, my eldest was Pathfinder recruiting. By morning, while trying to restore life via the miracle of coffee, I was descended upon with requests to run a Pathfinder session for 7 kids, ranging in ages from 7-14.
The Importance of Pre-Gens and the Joys of Hero Lab
I wrestled with what to do for a scenario and the prospect of generating 7 PCs in short order. Ultimately, I decided that 1) the session didn’t have to be great campaign starter, it just had to entertain & spark interest, and 2) the sooner they were playing the better given the size and age range of the players. My kids and one of their friends were currently playing through the classic module U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, which I had converted to Pathfinder and they had ended their previous session in the town. It seemed better to run with that. 3 kids now had characters already, they were in a town where new PCs could easily come on-board, and I was very familiar with the module so could improve more easily.
Previously, I had spent some time generating a bunch of 1st-level pre-gens just so I had a stable of characters on hand in case one of my kids’ friends decided they wanted to give it a try but time-constraints would have made generating characters unfeasible.
Of the four new players, one was 7. I asked him what he wanted his character to be able to do and 4 questions later, we settled on a human fighter that fought with a sword & shield. I modified the greatsword-wielding pre-gen quickly in Hero Lab and boom, the kid had a ready-to-go 1st level character in less than 10 minutes.
Moral of the Story: A GM should always have a selection of pre-gens available!
Next up, the 11-year old. I gave him the option of pre-gen or creating. He wanted to create his own PC. Fifteen minutes later, he had an Elf Rogue fully kitted-out. It would have been faster but his older brother and he were asking questions a lot of questions as we were going.
Big brother, age 14 came next. This guy was constantly geeking out as he’d ask “Can I do this?”, “can you do this in the game?”, “can I make this kind of character?” and was dumbfounded that almost every answer was “yes” or “your character can attempt it”. His PC took 20 minutes to create because he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go the arcane or divine caster route. He settled on a Halfling Wizard (Necromancy specialty). Now there’s a first-character combo I had never encountered!
Last up, a 12-yr old who arrived a few minutes late after having to go home briefly. We had just sat down to get started, so time was of the essence to avoid losing the others due to idle time. A rapid fire character-creation Q&A later, we had a complete character sheet for his Elf Wizard (Universalist) coming of the printer 5 minutes later.
Moral of the Story: Hero Lab is an incredible product. Anyone who thinks that PC/NPC/Monster generation takes too long in PF should look into this product. Even if you only purchase the base package, it’s a TREMENDOUS value & time-saver.
Actual Play: Wide-eyed wonder, playing for laughs, and (thankfully) some things never change…
It wasn’t the most efficient session. The story moved at a glacier’s pace at times, and I’d forgotten how much rust had formed on my Running-for-large-PC-group Skills, but boy was it fun! Highlights included:
Wide-eyed wonder at true Open-World gameplay.
I can do that? You mean there might be secret doors? I can steal from someone? I don’t have to go where they go?
<newbie>Why does he have a horse? <me>His character is a cavalier so he has a trained warhorse. <other newbie> So can I buy a horse?
<me> Sure when you have enough money.
<another newbie> Wait, wait… Can I steal a horse (said with total angelic sincerity yet accompanied by a
-eating grin)
Playing for Laughs
1. My youngest hamming-it-up when his cavalier encountered an audible illusion by having him scream in surprise, thus alerting the whole house.
2. The Halfling Necromancer choosing to tumble down a set of steps, and promptly falling off the edge that didn’t have a railing. “You mean I could fall off these stairs and DIE?!?”
3. “Wait, I have a Command Undead power! Can I use it on the skeletons? I can?! Ok, how long do I get to control them…”
4. <note slipped to me by newbie player> I try to steal Jeremy’s wand (wizard’s bonded item)
5. Upon seeing a hidden barracks with footlockers at the end of each bed, <newbie elf rogue> “I go for the closest chest!”, which resulted in a chorus of “I go for the next closest one!” by everyone else in the group.
Things that never change (or the downside of the Skyrim effect)
Since Skyrim is largely open-world and supports playing as a hero, a mercenary-at-heart, or a villain; many kids apparently take the opportunity to run rampant across the world and the collection of loot is deeply ingrained…
<me> So this is a cooperative game. You’re not trying to beat the other players like in a board game. If they “lose”, chances are whatever killed them is going to kill you next. Unlike Skyrim, you can’t go back to a previous save (Followed by complete silence as all side conversations stop….)
<me> “Y’know guys, you might just want to pool the treasure and then divide it into shares at the end of the adventure instead of competing with each other for every coin…
Players look around at each other for a moment and then one of them says “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
Scene-stealing moment of the day (aka the separation of player-knowledge from PC-knowledge):
Leaving the barracks, the PCs find 2 doors. The group selects door A. Elf rogue newbie, let’s call him “Sneaky”, decides to hang back and pick the lock of door B. I describe what is behind door A and the group, sans Sneaky is engaged in combat. I then describe room B to Sneaky, which immediately catches the attention of his older brother (the Halfling wizard) when he hears there are books in the room. Convinced that valuable tomes of magic are about to be pilfered by his brother, our intrepid necromancer’s player is dying to resolve the combat so he can get to the room so his PC can learn about the books.
Meanwhile, Sneaky is looting the room as fast as he can. Realizing that someone is going to ruin his fun shortly, he proceeds to use Disable Device to lock the door. He then calmly loots the room while his brother uses his enslaved skeleton to hack through the door…
All in all, an instructive and highly enjoyable session. I’ve also received calls from the kids parents wanting to know what they need to buy for this Pathfinder-thing that their kids haven’t stopped talking about. Two more Pathfinder Beginner’s Boxes to go, please!
(The fact that the Hero Lab Beginner Box version is free is just icing on the cake.)
Happy Father's Day
My eldest’s best friend was quickly brought into the mix of one of the Pathfinder campaigns and things had settled into something of a pattern, albeit an infrequent one given school and kids sports activities. Until yesterday…
The Skyrim Effect
One of the biggest hurdles to RPGs, is explaining the concept to someone who hasn’t encountered it before and doing so in a way that generates interest. Enter Skyrim. Two years ago, my kids would explain Pathfinder with varying degrees of success. Now, however, it’s easy – “It’s like Skyrim, but it’s not a video game.” Kids can visualize the framework immediately and then the questions start rolling and interest can be quickly hooked.
As kids’ free time is often a fluid thing in summertime, it so happened that we ended up with both boys having friends spend the night on Friday. Unbeknownst to me, amidst the video games, movies, and board games, my eldest was Pathfinder recruiting. By morning, while trying to restore life via the miracle of coffee, I was descended upon with requests to run a Pathfinder session for 7 kids, ranging in ages from 7-14.
The Importance of Pre-Gens and the Joys of Hero Lab
I wrestled with what to do for a scenario and the prospect of generating 7 PCs in short order. Ultimately, I decided that 1) the session didn’t have to be great campaign starter, it just had to entertain & spark interest, and 2) the sooner they were playing the better given the size and age range of the players. My kids and one of their friends were currently playing through the classic module U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, which I had converted to Pathfinder and they had ended their previous session in the town. It seemed better to run with that. 3 kids now had characters already, they were in a town where new PCs could easily come on-board, and I was very familiar with the module so could improve more easily.
Previously, I had spent some time generating a bunch of 1st-level pre-gens just so I had a stable of characters on hand in case one of my kids’ friends decided they wanted to give it a try but time-constraints would have made generating characters unfeasible.
Of the four new players, one was 7. I asked him what he wanted his character to be able to do and 4 questions later, we settled on a human fighter that fought with a sword & shield. I modified the greatsword-wielding pre-gen quickly in Hero Lab and boom, the kid had a ready-to-go 1st level character in less than 10 minutes.
Moral of the Story: A GM should always have a selection of pre-gens available!
Next up, the 11-year old. I gave him the option of pre-gen or creating. He wanted to create his own PC. Fifteen minutes later, he had an Elf Rogue fully kitted-out. It would have been faster but his older brother and he were asking questions a lot of questions as we were going.
Big brother, age 14 came next. This guy was constantly geeking out as he’d ask “Can I do this?”, “can you do this in the game?”, “can I make this kind of character?” and was dumbfounded that almost every answer was “yes” or “your character can attempt it”. His PC took 20 minutes to create because he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go the arcane or divine caster route. He settled on a Halfling Wizard (Necromancy specialty). Now there’s a first-character combo I had never encountered!
Last up, a 12-yr old who arrived a few minutes late after having to go home briefly. We had just sat down to get started, so time was of the essence to avoid losing the others due to idle time. A rapid fire character-creation Q&A later, we had a complete character sheet for his Elf Wizard (Universalist) coming of the printer 5 minutes later.
Moral of the Story: Hero Lab is an incredible product. Anyone who thinks that PC/NPC/Monster generation takes too long in PF should look into this product. Even if you only purchase the base package, it’s a TREMENDOUS value & time-saver.
Actual Play: Wide-eyed wonder, playing for laughs, and (thankfully) some things never change…
It wasn’t the most efficient session. The story moved at a glacier’s pace at times, and I’d forgotten how much rust had formed on my Running-for-large-PC-group Skills, but boy was it fun! Highlights included:
Wide-eyed wonder at true Open-World gameplay.
I can do that? You mean there might be secret doors? I can steal from someone? I don’t have to go where they go?
<newbie>Why does he have a horse? <me>His character is a cavalier so he has a trained warhorse. <other newbie> So can I buy a horse?
<me> Sure when you have enough money.
<another newbie> Wait, wait… Can I steal a horse (said with total angelic sincerity yet accompanied by a
-eating grin)Playing for Laughs
1. My youngest hamming-it-up when his cavalier encountered an audible illusion by having him scream in surprise, thus alerting the whole house.
2. The Halfling Necromancer choosing to tumble down a set of steps, and promptly falling off the edge that didn’t have a railing. “You mean I could fall off these stairs and DIE?!?”
3. “Wait, I have a Command Undead power! Can I use it on the skeletons? I can?! Ok, how long do I get to control them…”
4. <note slipped to me by newbie player> I try to steal Jeremy’s wand (wizard’s bonded item)
5. Upon seeing a hidden barracks with footlockers at the end of each bed, <newbie elf rogue> “I go for the closest chest!”, which resulted in a chorus of “I go for the next closest one!” by everyone else in the group.
Things that never change (or the downside of the Skyrim effect)
Since Skyrim is largely open-world and supports playing as a hero, a mercenary-at-heart, or a villain; many kids apparently take the opportunity to run rampant across the world and the collection of loot is deeply ingrained…
<me> So this is a cooperative game. You’re not trying to beat the other players like in a board game. If they “lose”, chances are whatever killed them is going to kill you next. Unlike Skyrim, you can’t go back to a previous save (Followed by complete silence as all side conversations stop….)
<me> “Y’know guys, you might just want to pool the treasure and then divide it into shares at the end of the adventure instead of competing with each other for every coin…
Players look around at each other for a moment and then one of them says “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
Scene-stealing moment of the day (aka the separation of player-knowledge from PC-knowledge):
Leaving the barracks, the PCs find 2 doors. The group selects door A. Elf rogue newbie, let’s call him “Sneaky”, decides to hang back and pick the lock of door B. I describe what is behind door A and the group, sans Sneaky is engaged in combat. I then describe room B to Sneaky, which immediately catches the attention of his older brother (the Halfling wizard) when he hears there are books in the room. Convinced that valuable tomes of magic are about to be pilfered by his brother, our intrepid necromancer’s player is dying to resolve the combat so he can get to the room so his PC can learn about the books.
Meanwhile, Sneaky is looting the room as fast as he can. Realizing that someone is going to ruin his fun shortly, he proceeds to use Disable Device to lock the door. He then calmly loots the room while his brother uses his enslaved skeleton to hack through the door…
All in all, an instructive and highly enjoyable session. I’ve also received calls from the kids parents wanting to know what they need to buy for this Pathfinder-thing that their kids haven’t stopped talking about. Two more Pathfinder Beginner’s Boxes to go, please!
(The fact that the Hero Lab Beginner Box version is free is just icing on the cake.)
Happy Father's Day
