D&D 5E Running a game for a 6 year old

[Scurity]

My kids have been role playing with simplified versions of Pathfinder/D&D since they were 5 yrs old and they handled it really well. WoTC came up with "Monster Slayers" recently based on the original "Monster Slayers: The Heroes of Hesiod". I haven't tried it, but I would if they were 6 again.



Oop, Looks like someone beat me to it.

No wait, that's the original. This link is a new one. Get both!

Downloading the updated version now!
Glad to hear your kids did well.

 

[PnPgamer]

If you can manage it go for it. Myself i wouldnt pull for a child until his age is in two digits.

 

[Nytmare]

Lots of good tips here. I know a lot of the shows she likes and I'm the one who reads the bedtime stories so I've got a handle on that as well. I draw the line at The Winx, though! Did you ask what sort of character he wanted to play, or did you make the character for him based on what you know of his interests?

Yeah, they were all based off of his choices and decisions. For the solo games, I also had him help me make a DMNPC sidekick/mentor.

 

[Uchawi]

Play the dungeon board game.

 

[alexrawlins]

My son is 7 and my daughters 5 and 4.

My son really wanted to play and the girls chimed in. One thing I did was follow the rule "say yes". Usually actions are roll a d20 add a modifier then roll damage. Much additional complexity didn't work.

For my girls I actually used a character "companion" sheet by DNDUI which is much simpler and with less abilities. They aren't really designed to level up much or track many resources. My 5 year old wanted to play a character Rainbow who has a rainbow attack and a rainbow heal. Those and the 6 stats, HP, and AC are the only thing really on those sheets, I handle any other abilities she wants to try on a case by case basis. The character will have proficiency scale up as my son's more full featured character does. Luckily we are only playing 1-3rd level characters so there are fewer options he has to track.

The other thing is that they pop in for an encounter, get bored and leave which works fine.

For my son, playing a cleric, much of his abilities besides healing and cantrips at his level are actually a second character (fox) he can summon and do things, this allows him to be effective with more actions a turn but not more complexity of tracking different class abilities.

As we play more I will come up with some additional stuff and we will see how it goes.

Hero Kids was mentioned, but the biggest drawback is my son wants to use the cool full color books dad uses, and he wants something a bit more complex. He may also play a WEG Star Wars D6 game next weekend, we will see how that goes.

 

[aries04]

found Heros of Hesoid (I'm too new to post the link). I was planning on running my 5 year old daughter through it. Much lighter than the full rules and the artwork is more playful. Also, it's free.

Might be worth a shot.

 

[Li Shenron]

My first thought is to leave a lot of detail of the character sheet and I can manage that behind the scenes. I thought this could be extended to possible actions, and I could have the little one narrate what she wants and I convert that into actions.

Definitely. I don't think you should use a regular character sheet, there is way too much on it. Rather, use a simple summary of special stuff her character can do (the list of her spells, in this case, with the spell's name and a one-line description of it).

She doesn't need to know the rules behind the actions, it's easier to just ask her what she wants to do, and then if needed tell her "to see if you succeed, roll this dice and you have to score at least XX".

And for spells, forget about the details, just let her creatively decide what to do with them, and then tell her if it works or not. So if she wants to turn on the fireplace with a fire spell that technically targets only creatures, avoid the b* of RAW and let her do it. And when sometimes you decide that something shouldn't work, if she's disappointed try to tell her that "her wizard is still learning how these spells work!".

Given she will almost certainly want to have magic, vancian casting could be messy.

No, vancian magic is not a problem at all. It's very easy for a child to understand "you can only cast your spells 3 times, so choose wisely".