Hey everyone! I work at a boardgame cafe where a dnd birthday party for an 11 year old girl is being held and they’ve asked me to dm for them as none of the kids have ever played before. The thing is I’ve only DMed 6 sessions for my 3 best friends, my employer knows this but I’m apparently the only one who would dm for a group of 11 year old girls. There will be 6 of them and it is only scheduled of 2 and a half hours. Please help!
Does anyone have any suggestions for what I could do for that short of a period that they would like? Any other general tips on how to explain dnd quickly and make the game as fun as possible would also be greatly appreciated! I’m being payed for this and I REALLY don’t want to mess up some little girl’s birthday.
Wow dude that's hard. I would go very easy on the rules, basically let them save some prince or something. Keep it very simple and fairy tail like.
I would premake the characters and make them bad ass. Over powered for what you are throwing at them. Maybe stay away from casters and complicated classes.
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The email I got cc’ed on said 6-8 kids but my boss said 6 after so hopefully it’s just 6 because 8 is uhh too many. As for what the kids are like I know literally nothing about them which makes it hard to premake characters... I think my boss is going to give me the number for the mom of the girl so I can get an idea of what she and her friend might like so hopefully that helps.
Ooh yea overpowering them makes sense because that last thing I want is one of them to die and all I wanted to be when I was an 11 year old was a powerful badass aha
I like the idea of rescuing a Prince or King or something. He's been kidnapped by a cult, or goblins, whatever, and they have to fight through the caves/camp down to the Boss.
OR, something I'm going to be doing in my campaign, is that my players are protecting the princess (cleric/rogue tiefling) (could be the birthday girl?) on a little tour around the country to check in/do ambassador kinda things, and while she's gone a rogues/thieves guild attacks the castle, the leader of the guild disguised as the Princess and they take over the castle in the Princess' (guild leaders) name. The group is going to have to go and get the castle back.
I ALSO second the premade sheets or you'll spend that whole 2.5 hours doing nothing but sheets. I would make more sheets than there are girls, just so they can sort through and pick one that suits them and there is hopefully no fighting. Birthday Girl gets first pick of course, maybe even ask the birthday girl to assign her friends the rest of the sheets?
If you can find out where their interest in D&D comes from you tailor it from there (even at the last minute). You have to do a really quick session zero as soon as they sit down.
Are they fans of the Avengers? Have Tony Stark the Paladin (or maybe Pepper has borrowed his plate mail for the day) and Bruce Banner the Barbarian and Natasha the Monk and Clint's wife can be a Ranger....
Lord of the Rings ? Too Easy! Shrek? Birthday girl will want to be donkey! (He can be the bard pre-gen you had prepared.) Shrek is the Barbarian, fiona the cleric, Prince charming the Paladin. Still got a halfling thief or fighter going spare? Lord Farquaad. Tomb Raider? They can all be versions of Lara.
The Sims : Have the adventure revolve around their houses or a relatively mundane job. (Take the pet dog/cat down into the cellar to deal with rats...)
The point is to give them a solid frame to attach all the numbers and abilities to. Using their own heroes is the best way to do it.
Use every cliche in the book. There is a reason they are over-used (in our jaded eyes.)
DO NOT underestimate them. Last weekend I ran a low level super hero game for an 11 year old girl, a 13 yr old boy, and a 17 yr old girl. Didn't dumb it down. Death was on the table. They loved it. 3 days later I am running a Frostgrave (Skirmish Warfare) for the two youngest - fully competitive, and 2 days after that, all three were back to play a semi-cooperative version of Frostgrave where the three of them had a single wizard and 3-4 lackeys each, and were in a race to kill my monsters and steal my treasure. The two girls concentrated on grabbing the treasure(that's what would win the game), made a deal, and then tried to backstab each other towards the end. They loved it! The boy headed for a hill and rained death down upon his foes with spells and arrows from behind a wall or two.
Sure, they come from gaming families, but kids have fantastic imaginations and a willingness to suspend disbelief. Don't patronise them. Don't try to hard to "aim it at their level." Be prepared to just sit there and listen.
If the players are talking and seem excited - job done. Whatever their age. Make sure the parents take your contact details on the way out if you did a good job. Make sure your boss doesn't notice. :D
Premade characters will shave hours off of explanation. I recommend level 3 characters based off of cool and simple concepts.
Beast master ranger (this will probably be popular, have multiple),
Way of four elements monk (base it off avatar, briefly explain ki or ignore it, your call),
Arcane archer fighter (simple and cool bow Magic),
Oath of devotion paladin or champion fighter (pitched as a knight in shining armor, protection fighting style, pick healing and support spells),
Rogue swashbuckler or scout (charming or sneaky, simplify sneak attack).
Spellcasting is inevitable really, avoid sorcerers, warlocks, and druids (too much to explain), if you make a wizard keep it simple, take only as many non-rituals as can be prepared. Make a spellcaster based on Elsa (from frozen) or Moana (they will eat that up).
For each character, have a sheet of all the things they can do in battle (spells separate) with check boxes next to limited use abilities (similar to the actions tab of DDB's character sheet).
Make the story set up simple, they are already adventurers that know each other and take quests from a guild. Today's quest shoupd be something simple like gather, investigate, or transport (if they are out for blood, just give them a quest for your planned encounter). During the quest they are attacked by (or hear an attack (I recommend fairy victims)) a pack of wolves lead by a dire wolf.
Some RP, 1 encounter, and completing the quest hopefully fits in the time scale.
Micro manage their characters abilities for them and cover rules as they pop up.
Had a idea, this morning my daughter was watching the new shera princes of power on net flicks. I would suggest watching a few episodes to get a game idea.
Not sure if you still need ideas, but if you want to keep it simpler. How about doing something similar to Disney's Tangled, make the quest about trying to find proof she is the princess and her friends are trying to get her onto the throne. And if the mom is willing, a friend of mine did this for his son's B-day, have her find a chest and roll a D20 to see what her present is (He rolled a crit miss)
Does anyone have any suggestions for what I could do for that short of a period that they would like? Any other general tips on how to explain dnd quickly and make the game as fun as possible would also be greatly appreciated! I’m being payed for this and I REALLY don’t want to mess up some little girl’s birthday.
I'd minimize the combat encounters and stick to puzzles and riddles. This will get them working together out-of-character to think and solve problems together. Give them time limits on some of the obstacles with humorous results if missed (ex: an explosion of a colored cloud - dying them all that color) so the one-shot doesn't spend the whole time on an individual challenge. Puzzles where their characters have to work in tandem would be ideal; any props you could print out would be "icing on the cake," pun intended.
This could be tough but it doesn't have to be. The good news is you can lean into every time-honored fantasy trope out there. Have a talking door, drink from a magic fountain, find a magic sword or a wand and defeat the bad guys. I'm with Sedge. Save the combat for the final fight, which they will win of course. Make a good variety of prefab character and hand them out. This is your only option for a game this quick. In two and a half hours, you're looking at three encounters. Start by solving a riddle. That should give you a good clue to the level of buy-in the kids have with this story. Then have them break into the enemy's base/house/cave/castle. Finally, have the party fight the enemy. Always keep a Deux Ex Machina handy in case the action slows down or if the group is spending too long on one of the encounters.
Saving the prince or a child is good if they want something vanilla and there is nothing wrong with vanilla. If the mood is more silly and light-hearted, have a group of goblins crash their party and run off with the birthday cake. Now the party has to defeat the goblins, rescue the cake, and win the game....and then bring out the actual birthday cake.
And if you want to make the birthday girl super happy, let her find a pet dragon/unicorn/tiger/??? (which she commands and you control to keep the game moving). Kids love pets and since it's her birthday, it's fine to single her out. But if everyone gets a pet, you may regret bringing it up, so proceed with caution.
Don't shy away from spell casters. Using Wizards, Druids, and Clerics is easy and girls love them.
Nothing wrong with starting at level 1 either, higher starting levels either takes away player choice or makes it harder for you to pre-gen.
It's ok to have the party be kidnapped princesses, they can puzzle out how to escape (make it easy) and in turn rescue the princes who got captured trying to save the poor "helpless" girls.
You want to be careful if you are tempted to connect to the children by borrowing from anime or popular books and shows that the children might know. They will, of course, get how fairytales generally go. But, trying to fake some kind of pokemon beast you'll quickly discover how detailed the kids knowledge of these things is and you'll be in over your head. An 11-12 year old's game that started spontaneously at my daughters school revolves around greek mythology and all the characters are demi-gods and gods. Their typical campaign lasts about 2 sessions until someone destroys the world (again). So, they have a really well-developed and unbounded sense of the fantastic and are interested in pushing these limits. They are not at all interested in complex, rigid rules and balance.
Hey everyone! I work at a boardgame cafe where a dnd birthday party for an 11 year old girl is being held and they’ve asked me to dm for them as none of the kids have ever played before. The thing is I’ve only DMed 6 sessions for my 3 best friends, my employer knows this but I’m apparently the only one who would dm for a group of 11 year old girls. There will be 6 of them and it is only scheduled of 2 and a half hours. Please help!
Does anyone have any suggestions for what I could do for that short of a period that they would like? Any other general tips on how to explain dnd quickly and make the game as fun as possible would also be greatly appreciated! I’m being payed for this and I REALLY don’t want to mess up some little girl’s birthday.
Wow dude that's hard. I would go very easy on the rules, basically let them save some prince or something. Keep it very simple and fairy tail like.
I would premake the characters and make them bad ass. Over powered for what you are throwing at them. Maybe stay away from casters and complicated classes.
I've never tried to DM for kids, but YouTube apparently is swimming with advice on the topic.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dnd+for+kids
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
The email I got cc’ed on said 6-8 kids but my boss said 6 after so hopefully it’s just 6 because 8 is uhh too many. As for what the kids are like I know literally nothing about them which makes it hard to premake characters... I think my boss is going to give me the number for the mom of the girl so I can get an idea of what she and her friend might like so hopefully that helps.
Ooh yea overpowering them makes sense because that last thing I want is one of them to die and all I wanted to be when I was an 11 year old was a powerful badass aha
I like the idea of rescuing a Prince or King or something. He's been kidnapped by a cult, or goblins, whatever, and they have to fight through the caves/camp down to the Boss.
OR, something I'm going to be doing in my campaign, is that my players are protecting the princess (cleric/rogue tiefling) (could be the birthday girl?) on a little tour around the country to check in/do ambassador kinda things, and while she's gone a rogues/thieves guild attacks the castle, the leader of the guild disguised as the Princess and they take over the castle in the Princess' (guild leaders) name. The group is going to have to go and get the castle back.
I ALSO second the premade sheets or you'll spend that whole 2.5 hours doing nothing but sheets. I would make more sheets than there are girls, just so they can sort through and pick one that suits them and there is hopefully no fighting. Birthday Girl gets first pick of course, maybe even ask the birthday girl to assign her friends the rest of the sheets?
If you can find out where their interest in D&D comes from you tailor it from there (even at the last minute). You have to do a really quick session zero as soon as they sit down.
Are they fans of the Avengers? Have Tony Stark the Paladin (or maybe Pepper has borrowed his plate mail for the day) and Bruce Banner the Barbarian and Natasha the Monk and Clint's wife can be a Ranger....
Lord of the Rings ? Too Easy!
Shrek? Birthday girl will want to be donkey! (He can be the bard pre-gen you had prepared.) Shrek is the Barbarian, fiona the cleric, Prince charming the Paladin. Still got a halfling thief or fighter going spare? Lord Farquaad.
Tomb Raider? They can all be versions of Lara.
The Sims : Have the adventure revolve around their houses or a relatively mundane job. (Take the pet dog/cat down into the cellar to deal with rats...)
The point is to give them a solid frame to attach all the numbers and abilities to. Using their own heroes is the best way to do it.
Use every cliche in the book. There is a reason they are over-used (in our jaded eyes.)
DO NOT underestimate them. Last weekend I ran a low level super hero game for an 11 year old girl, a 13 yr old boy, and a 17 yr old girl. Didn't dumb it down. Death was on the table. They loved it. 3 days later I am running a Frostgrave (Skirmish Warfare) for the two youngest - fully competitive, and 2 days after that, all three were back to play a semi-cooperative version of Frostgrave where the three of them had a single wizard and 3-4 lackeys each, and were in a race to kill my monsters and steal my treasure. The two girls concentrated on grabbing the treasure(that's what would win the game), made a deal, and then tried to backstab each other towards the end. They loved it! The boy headed for a hill and rained death down upon his foes with spells and arrows from behind a wall or two.
Sure, they come from gaming families, but kids have fantastic imaginations and a willingness to suspend disbelief.
Don't patronise them. Don't try to hard to "aim it at their level." Be prepared to just sit there and listen.
If the players are talking and seem excited - job done. Whatever their age.
Make sure the parents take your contact details on the way out if you did a good job. Make sure your boss doesn't notice. :D
Roleplaying since Runequest.
Premade characters will shave hours off of explanation. I recommend level 3 characters based off of cool and simple concepts.
Beast master ranger (this will probably be popular, have multiple),
Way of four elements monk (base it off avatar, briefly explain ki or ignore it, your call),
Arcane archer fighter (simple and cool bow Magic),
Oath of devotion paladin or champion fighter (pitched as a knight in shining armor, protection fighting style, pick healing and support spells),
Rogue swashbuckler or scout (charming or sneaky, simplify sneak attack).
Spellcasting is inevitable really, avoid sorcerers, warlocks, and druids (too much to explain), if you make a wizard keep it simple, take only as many non-rituals as can be prepared. Make a spellcaster based on Elsa (from frozen) or Moana (they will eat that up).
For each character, have a sheet of all the things they can do in battle (spells separate) with check boxes next to limited use abilities (similar to the actions tab of DDB's character sheet).
Make the story set up simple, they are already adventurers that know each other and take quests from a guild. Today's quest shoupd be something simple like gather, investigate, or transport (if they are out for blood, just give them a quest for your planned encounter). During the quest they are attacked by (or hear an attack (I recommend fairy victims)) a pack of wolves lead by a dire wolf.
Some RP, 1 encounter, and completing the quest hopefully fits in the time scale.
Micro manage their characters abilities for them and cover rules as they pop up.
Had a idea, this morning my daughter was watching the new shera princes of power on net flicks. I would suggest watching a few episodes to get a game idea.
Not sure if you still need ideas, but if you want to keep it simpler. How about doing something similar to Disney's Tangled, make the quest about trying to find proof she is the princess and her friends are trying to get her onto the throne. And if the mom is willing, a friend of mine did this for his son's B-day, have her find a chest and roll a D20 to see what her present is (He rolled a crit miss)
I'd minimize the combat encounters and stick to puzzles and riddles. This will get them working together out-of-character to think and solve problems together. Give them time limits on some of the obstacles with humorous results if missed (ex: an explosion of a colored cloud - dying them all that color) so the one-shot doesn't spend the whole time on an individual challenge. Puzzles where their characters have to work in tandem would be ideal; any props you could print out would be "icing on the cake," pun intended.
[ Site Rules & Guidelines ] --- [ Homebrew Rules & Guidelines ]
Send me a message with any questions or concerns
This could be tough but it doesn't have to be. The good news is you can lean into every time-honored fantasy trope out there. Have a talking door, drink from a magic fountain, find a magic sword or a wand and defeat the bad guys. I'm with Sedge. Save the combat for the final fight, which they will win of course. Make a good variety of prefab character and hand them out. This is your only option for a game this quick. In two and a half hours, you're looking at three encounters. Start by solving a riddle. That should give you a good clue to the level of buy-in the kids have with this story. Then have them break into the enemy's base/house/cave/castle. Finally, have the party fight the enemy. Always keep a Deux Ex Machina handy in case the action slows down or if the group is spending too long on one of the encounters.
Saving the prince or a child is good if they want something vanilla and there is nothing wrong with vanilla. If the mood is more silly and light-hearted, have a group of goblins crash their party and run off with the birthday cake. Now the party has to defeat the goblins, rescue the cake, and win the game....and then bring out the actual birthday cake.
And if you want to make the birthday girl super happy, let her find a pet dragon/unicorn/tiger/??? (which she commands and you control to keep the game moving). Kids love pets and since it's her birthday, it's fine to single her out. But if everyone gets a pet, you may regret bringing it up, so proceed with caution.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Don't shy away from spell casters. Using Wizards, Druids, and Clerics is easy and girls love them.
Nothing wrong with starting at level 1 either, higher starting levels either takes away player choice or makes it harder for you to pre-gen.
It's ok to have the party be kidnapped princesses, they can puzzle out how to escape (make it easy) and in turn rescue the princes who got captured trying to save the poor "helpless" girls.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
You want to be careful if you are tempted to connect to the children by borrowing from anime or popular books and shows that the children might know. They will, of course, get how fairytales generally go. But, trying to fake some kind of pokemon beast you'll quickly discover how detailed the kids knowledge of these things is and you'll be in over your head. An 11-12 year old's game that started spontaneously at my daughters school revolves around greek mythology and all the characters are demi-gods and gods. Their typical campaign lasts about 2 sessions until someone destroys the world (again). So, they have a really well-developed and unbounded sense of the fantastic and are interested in pushing these limits. They are not at all interested in complex, rigid rules and balance.
Adventure Time gives you some ideas!
the cartoons from nowday are very D&D inspired.
Member of Calabozo Criollo VENEZUELA
Roleplaying in Venezuela since 2000! #WEDOPLAY