Teaching your kids to play D&D

[NeuroZombie]

My suggestion would be to use the rules as-is, but keep things simple in terms of plot and interaction, at least to start. I taught my step son to play 2e when he was 9, and a few months later 3e came out. I bought the phb, dmg and mm, and bought my step son the adventure game. He ran the adventures in the adventure game before I was able to get something together using the full blown rules, so do not underestimate the mental strength of kids. I sure as heck never will now. My son is now 13, and he growing into one of the best players I have ever played with, and he is in the process of getting the WoTC adventure path adventures together to run (Sunless Citadal, et.al)

 

[Stockdale]

I run a monthly parent-kid game that includes a wide range of child players - from 13 down to 8. In so far a character generation is concerned - run the rules as written without any specials. you might not want to start them at 1st level since 1st level can be diffcult to live through. Then again character deaths can be an interesting learning tool as some of my characters, eaten by those terribly difficult darkmantles will tell you.

I would steer away from medium to long adventures. I have found that the kids lose interest after a few hours, especially if nothing exciting is occuring. Six to eight rooms - translated to 4 maybe 5 hours. And keep in mind that you'll have to stop to explain, again, certain rules or console an unhappy child. I agree with the earlier comments that you shoudl stick to black-and-white motives and steer away from a Role Playing game - kids like to Roll dice.

I hope this helps you. Your kids are the right age to start this.

 

[thullgrim]

I want to say thanks for all the suggestions and keep them coming!!

My daughter loves to roll the dice during my regular games, she will even sit there and watch and as whats going on so I guess I should include her in this venture, with her and the wife that makes 4 players.

Thullgrim

 

[Xorial]

The product is a good ways off, but the are coming out with a Basic D&D boxed set again. Scaled down rules for begginning players.

As to the type of adventures, watch a few episodes of Power Rangers. The stories have fairly simple plotlines, social interactions appropriate for younger kids, and fighting that typifies the "good vs evil". Sometimes even throwing in encounters that stretch the "good vs evil" concept enough to show younger people that sometimes it can be just a simple misunderstanding. I wouldnt steal the shows plot for an adventure, but it could give you ideas as to the level of play that may be appropriate for you kids.

 

[Salad Shooter]

You probably want to avoid TPKs or any character deaths, for that matter, all together. Kids tend to get irritated when their toys get broken. Good luck in corrup...err...training a new generation!

 

[Psion]

I started my daughter (now 8, she was 7) on D&D. I initially simplified things... like instead of making her allocate skill points, I had her pick the skills and just maxed them. Immediately upon leveling, she wanted to allocate points individually instead of using my simplified method.

The fact that she, as a 7-year old, eagerly embraced the more complicated route convinces me that statements that D&D chargen is overcomplicated for beginners is woefully overblown.

 

[Ylis]

I think that the dungeon crawl is great for a start. Then, I would say slowly implement the more social situations into the game. Since this will be their introduction into RPGs, you don't want to change the rules - they would have to relearn later, and old habits are hard to break (plus, they might get offended that you would "dumb down" the rules). Teach them that it's not all about hack and slash Implementing the social situations might actually help them steer away from that Playstation mentality as well....

 

[WanderingMonster]

My son is asking to play. I've told him that he couldn't play in our regular (read: adults) game, but that I would work on a special game for him. So I'm looking for the D&D Adventure Game, and maybe run a parent kid game as suggested above.

 

[BryonD]

My daughter turns 6 tomorrow and she has been playing for about 6 months.

I run a very qualitative game with her. Lots of descriptions and little in mechanics. She rolls d20 with higher being better rather than worrying about BAB and AC.

I started by describing the nature of the races and classes and let her pick then we worked up from there, always in general "really good at it"/"not good at it" terms.

She plays a halfling ranger named Seally (pronouced Silly) who has an alligator friend named Sally. They wander around in the forest and swamp helping animals and chasing off orcs.

We both have a lot of fun.

 

[Yokiboy]

Hi thullgrim,

I have a sister 12 years younger than myself, and when she was about 6 years old I ran her and a cousing (also 6 at the time) through a very cool Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles adventure. They used pregens, the real turtles of course, but the adventure was anything but a dungeon hack. It was full of puzzles, riddles and traps and they made it straight through the thing. The funny thing is that the same adventure wiped out the entire party in my regular group.

I do think you can use all the rules, and might want your kids to create their own characters, but don't force them to learn all the rules at once. You just let them know what happens as a result of their, and every know and then allow them to have a "take-back" in case they're doing something that's not very smart rules-wise.

A dungeoncrawl will definitely be fun for them though, and action probably very appreciated, but you should mix it up, so they don't think that's all their is to RPGs.

TTFN,

Yokiboy