My older brother used to do a lot of AD&D when he was younger, then eventually fell out of it during college. Growing up, I used to love hearing the wacky stories that came out of each session.
After I got into 5e about two years back (thanks to TAZ and @mcgratrd), my brother's rekindled his interest in the game and started DMing with his kids (aged 7, 7, and 10).
So far the kids love it. A couple notes he's made:
Brother: Kids finished their first DnD intro "Monster Slayers: The Champions of the Elements"
Characters are pre-created, and rules are simplified
Me: That's awesome What did they like? What didn't they like?
Brother: Well, we didn’t have any healers so they were stressed out about that. The mechanic was supposed to be that after the first player either dies or is unconscious, then you wait until the next monster is defeated, then all players get full health potions. That was not sitting very well, so I just made a change where a blinding light randomly happened and dropped heal potions around the battlefield (sort of a strong hint that something red and shiny was at certain locations) that they could go find and pickup. [Kid 1] went and got them all while they fought and distributed them.
Also bad rolls weren’t their favorite lol, but to be fair the end boss guy I rolled like absolute crap on him so they got off easy there.
[Kid 1] went rogue at one point, it was hilarious
He collected all the health vials, then ran away from the battle laughing
Me: hahahaha
Brother: Then the monster mind controlled the NPC and used him as a human shield Since the monster was at like 1hp Meanwhile, [Kid 2] was dead lol At first he got really upset and tried to storm off, but I pulled him aside and let him know there was “a way” to come back, he just didn’t know it yet
Me: Was worried about that
Brother: Decided to just accelerate that part
Overall they seemed to have a lot of fun. There is another campaign for this easy version, then I was going to buy the starter set
This is apparently a compressed version of the ruleset which is a good way to start them off
The things we are doing don’t offer much chance for role playing
I met up with him recently for lunch and he'd bought the starter set. His birthday's this weekend, so I'm considering getting him another piece of the D&D set.
Had two questions:
Any suggestions for DMing a group of kids? What works, what doesn't? Roleplay tends to be the fun part for myself and my brother, but maybe kids might be more into the tactical and adventuring side. Curious to hear what people have seen in their own experiences.
Wanted to get him a gift that's D&D-related. Maybe a monster manual? Or one of those dry-erase mats for sketching out rooms and such?
For the gift, I ended up going with "Dungeon World", which is like a slightly more accessible D&D-style campaign that I've played once before. Enjoyed it quite a bit, and I think it'd be a good fit.
When playing D&D with kids that young, I tend to be more forgiving with potions and other things like that because to be honest when I was younger I wanted to play combats more than roleplay, A complete 180 as of today.
So to avoid having them have a healer because spellcasting can be annoying to understand (I am 28 and think this still), let them pick their characters and give them each about 5 potions. I would change them to basically heal double so 2d8 + 5 or something like that.
The next thing I would change is the death saving mechanic unless you want character death, just change it to when you get 3 success make it so you can stand back up with 1d8 hitpoints.
Lastly, I would probably fudge my rolls, which I refuse to do for adults. Not so that the kids never go down, but so its less likely to kill them.
If they stay interested I would start making bringing the rules back to normal as they play.
It's more comprehensive then Monster Slayers which I found to be kind of lacking. Other things I have done with kids is getting some of the endless quest books (choose your own adventure style d&d books). They make fun nighttime reading for kids.
Hi all,
My older brother used to do a lot of AD&D when he was younger, then eventually fell out of it during college. Growing up, I used to love hearing the wacky stories that came out of each session.
After I got into 5e about two years back (thanks to TAZ and @mcgratrd), my brother's rekindled his interest in the game and started DMing with his kids (aged 7, 7, and 10).
So far the kids love it. A couple notes he's made:
I met up with him recently for lunch and he'd bought the starter set. His birthday's this weekend, so I'm considering getting him another piece of the D&D set.
Had two questions:
Thanks!
For the gift, I ended up going with "Dungeon World", which is like a slightly more accessible D&D-style campaign that I've played once before. Enjoyed it quite a bit, and I think it'd be a good fit.
When playing D&D with kids that young, I tend to be more forgiving with potions and other things like that because to be honest when I was younger I wanted to play combats more than roleplay, A complete 180 as of today.
So to avoid having them have a healer because spellcasting can be annoying to understand (I am 28 and think this still), let them pick their characters and give them each about 5 potions. I would change them to basically heal double so 2d8 + 5 or something like that.
The next thing I would change is the death saving mechanic unless you want character death, just change it to when you get 3 success make it so you can stand back up with 1d8 hitpoints.
Lastly, I would probably fudge my rolls, which I refuse to do for adults. Not so that the kids never go down, but so its less likely to kill them.
If they stay interested I would start making bringing the rules back to normal as they play.
There is a good module for kids on DMsguild it's called "Ogre and his Cake"
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/245793/An-Ogre-and-His-Cake--Digital?term=ogre+and
It's more comprehensive then Monster Slayers which I found to be kind of lacking. Other things I have done with kids is getting some of the endless quest books (choose your own adventure style d&d books). They make fun nighttime reading for kids.
I’ll second that. I’ve run Monster Slayers, Ogre and his Cake and a couple of sessions into LMoP with my kids.
The same author has produced “kid friendly” character sheets which are IMO really helpful: https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/245446