Turning Children's Books into D&D Adventures

[Al'Kelhar]

Shaun the Sheep.

Those damned pigs would be orcs, right?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Works for me!

 

[Mark Hope]

How many of you have done this (like with Scooby Doo or Goodnight Moon?) How did it turn out? Did your players catch on?

I did this in a Dark Sun game some years back. I took one of the plot hooks from the back of City State of Tyr (Night on Traders Way, iirc) and ran it as if it were a Scooby Doo episode. It was great fun and the players didn't catch on until the very end, when the corrupt templar was dragged away by the city guards, shouting "I would have gotten away with it too, if wasn't for you meddling kids and that damn rasclinn!"

 

[amerigoV]

I ran an adventure called The Grinch Who Stole Festivus...does that count?

 

[Tonguez]

Pick up a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Plenty of instant adventures there ...

Grimms Tales are mythology not childrens stories (though the sentiment stands)

personally I've used scenes from Bad Jelly the witch, Noddy and the Famous Five (Kinton Qirrin is a human inventor who live in a cottage on Qirrin Island with his half-fey daughter Jothe). Also Captain Beakey and his Band are an NPC mercenary band I've used (as humanoids rather than forest creatures)

 

[Sadras]

Pick up a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Plenty of instant adventures there ...

To be fair, there already is an RPG for that aptly called "Grimm"

I fancied books from kid's author Douglass Hill
Blade of the Poisoner and its sequel Master of Fiends as well as his Colsec Trilogy.

Of course there always BFG by Roald Dahl.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Tonight, I just re-read the Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree. As a little kid I enjoyed it, because it was spooky. As an adult and D&D player, I still enjoy it, particularly because the three little bears are like dungeon explorers. They encounter dangerous situations and creatures. They even get in over their heads and have to run for their lives.

Years ago, I used the book as inspiration for a D&D Adventure. The "Spooky Old Tree" became the lair of a powerful necromancer, but the creatures from the book remained the same. I even detailed areas that the book did not explain.

I'd love to see a condition called "the Shivers"!

I watch Disney Junior and Treehouse TV with my two and a half year old twins.

I think Adventure Time would be a wonderful setting for a Gamma World game.

 

[Gilladian]

Cornelia Funke's newest book "Ghost Knight" seems really adaptable.

The idea is that a school kid is haunted by ghosts who hated an ancestor of his; he calls upon a ghostly knight to aid him in killing them. Until he (as the proper descendant) and the ghost (with knightly training) unite into one being, neither can defeat the villain and his minion ghosts. The minions take over the bodies of recently slain humans, and the ghost leader just keeps "peeling off" his latest skin and regenerating. It was cool and very scary.

 

[jasper]

Since someone mention cartoons. The jackie chan adventurers was great source of ideas.

 

[Herobizkit]

^ As was Xiaolin Shodown.

I just thought of Charlotte's Web as the new Night Below. Not sure how that fits though.