Hi all im planning a d&d campaign for a couple of 9 year olds with a few homebrew elements any advice on how to maybe simplify/modify the game mechanics to keep it flowing and keep them interested or any interesting features to add would be great i was thinking of maybe starting them as a little over powered so thier first campaign isnt too challenging if anybody thinks thats a good idea
I DM for my brother and his kids, one of whom is 9. My #1 piece of advice is introduce the mechanics in pieces. We started with the simple stuff like attack and damage rolls obviously. As they've gotten more comfortable in the game, I've introduced more things like attacks of opportunity and areas of effect. (One of the kids plays a dragonborn and his breath weapon came out to play. I introduced the possibility of him hurting allies with the weapon. But this was many sessions in to our adventure.) I've slowly started requiring skill checks when they want to do something really cool. But I tend to keep the DCs on the low side so there's a greater chance of success. I've implemented a house rule where if they act out or describe in good detail what they want to do, I give them advantage on whatever roll I require to see if it occurs. I have been slowly introducing them to the concept of ACs for materials like stone and wood.
Rule of fun should always prevail in any game, IMO, but especially one where you've got kids at the table. Satine Phoenix had a DM video talking about having kids at the table that was really good. It basically boiled down to the first sentence of this paragraph. Kid wants to roll up that ninja assassin character? Great. Work with them to figure out how best to make that happen. Don't crush the imagination, encourage it.
Keep the game light even if they're facing dark things. (We're running through HotDQ and RoT. There's unpleasantness in that storyline. But I don't dwell on the gruesome. I hint at it. The bad guys are doing things. But I keep it age appropriate. I'm probably going to let them get to the Well in ample time to free all the prisoners before any are sacrificed so that a) I don't get too dark for the kids and b) I give them a greater chance of being awesome heroes.) The darkness can be there at the edges but I don't reveal the details. The bad guys are doing sinister things but the heroes have ample opportunity to prevent the worst of it.
They're probably coming to D&D having exclusively played video games. They're going to want to kill everything and then loot it. It's up to you if you want to reward that or discourage it. I do a mix. If it's reasonable that bad guy would have loot on them, they get some. If it's nonsensical for it to happen, there's nothing. I ignore encumbrance rules and coin weight on the characters. In fact, I've given them a handy haversack and a bag of coinage super early on in the game just cause I could. They all have amazing magic loot and I just gave them homebrew items that tie into their characters more closely. (One's got the soldier background and was a cook in the army. He's always buying cooking supplies so I just gave him a magic skillet that he doesn't know is magic yet. The other always fights with a longbow so I gave him a magic bow that will grow with him and unlock certain abilities over time. They both know there's some sort of faint presence on these items but they don't know what that means or anything.)
I had an idea similar to Cosplaywrite’s “giving them the rules in pieces “. What if your starting adventure was played out sort of like a video game tutorial? For example, it may begin with things like skill checks and social interaction to combat and spellcasting.
I’ve played with a 9-year-old before and they tend to get bored quickly, so perhaps large variety in the monsters you use in an adventure would help.
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Devious serpent folk devoid of compassion, yuan-ti manipulate other creatures by arousing their doubts, evoking their fears, and elevating and crushing their hopes. From remote temples in jungles, swamps, and deserts, the yuan-ti plot to supplant and dominate all other races and to make themselves gods.
I was thinking they baisically get involved with a 'biker' type gang of raptor riding halflings early on in the game to give the game a GTA meets skyrim feel to keep them interested
I just ran a game that included my little cousins (8 and 11 years old) the other week! The biggest thing is that you jump into the game right away while also giving them the chance to make their own characters.
I used simplified character sheets that you can find on DMsGuild here. Once filled out, the character sheet lays out all the math needed for attack rolls and skill checks. I filled in stuff like HP and AC, but I let them pick their weapons and race. I told them to pick any 4 skills--no backgrounds here! Using a simplified standard array of +3|+2|+2|+1|0|-1, we were able to make characters together within 10 minutes and jump right into the game--which was really important in keeping their attention and excitement up.
Of course, the youngest wanted to be a magic caster. Knowing we couldn't go through all the spells, I told them to just tell me what kind of spell they wanted to cast. I didn't want to deal with spell DCs right off the bat so basically every attack spell was a re-skinned version of firebolt (so they could easily find which dice they needed from their character sheet. You hit with fire? d10. You want to use your magic trumpet? d10.). Even if the kids aren't super powerful mechanically, if you're descriptive they'll feel really powerful. All we did was fight some goblins from the starter set--nothing crazy--but everyone still had a blast.
I’d also encourage them think of the game in terms of what they want to do and you adjudicate the mechanics. I ran an 8-11 group and this worked wonderfully.
They will probably think of it like a video game (side quests vs main quests, grinding, cleared areas are safe, etc). Use this to throw them off their footing. My party had started to fight some bandits at a tower. They were getting beat down pretty bad so they went back to town and came back the next day after a rest. Well, the bandits had time to fortify, trap, and generally prepare the place. It turned from a pretty straight up fight into infiltration of the tower, navigating the traps setup for them. The kids were not expecting that the world continues to move without their direct involvement.
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Hi all im planning a d&d campaign for a couple of 9 year olds with a few homebrew elements any advice on how to maybe simplify/modify the game mechanics to keep it flowing and keep them interested or any interesting features to add would be great i was thinking of maybe starting them as a little over powered so thier first campaign isnt too challenging if anybody thinks thats a good idea
Regards
Lee
I DM for my brother and his kids, one of whom is 9. My #1 piece of advice is introduce the mechanics in pieces. We started with the simple stuff like attack and damage rolls obviously. As they've gotten more comfortable in the game, I've introduced more things like attacks of opportunity and areas of effect. (One of the kids plays a dragonborn and his breath weapon came out to play. I introduced the possibility of him hurting allies with the weapon. But this was many sessions in to our adventure.) I've slowly started requiring skill checks when they want to do something really cool. But I tend to keep the DCs on the low side so there's a greater chance of success. I've implemented a house rule where if they act out or describe in good detail what they want to do, I give them advantage on whatever roll I require to see if it occurs. I have been slowly introducing them to the concept of ACs for materials like stone and wood.
Rule of fun should always prevail in any game, IMO, but especially one where you've got kids at the table. Satine Phoenix had a DM video talking about having kids at the table that was really good. It basically boiled down to the first sentence of this paragraph. Kid wants to roll up that ninja assassin character? Great. Work with them to figure out how best to make that happen. Don't crush the imagination, encourage it.
Keep the game light even if they're facing dark things. (We're running through HotDQ and RoT. There's unpleasantness in that storyline. But I don't dwell on the gruesome. I hint at it. The bad guys are doing things. But I keep it age appropriate. I'm probably going to let them get to the Well in ample time to free all the prisoners before any are sacrificed so that a) I don't get too dark for the kids and b) I give them a greater chance of being awesome heroes.) The darkness can be there at the edges but I don't reveal the details. The bad guys are doing sinister things but the heroes have ample opportunity to prevent the worst of it.
They're probably coming to D&D having exclusively played video games. They're going to want to kill everything and then loot it. It's up to you if you want to reward that or discourage it. I do a mix. If it's reasonable that bad guy would have loot on them, they get some. If it's nonsensical for it to happen, there's nothing. I ignore encumbrance rules and coin weight on the characters. In fact, I've given them a handy haversack and a bag of coinage super early on in the game just cause I could. They all have amazing magic loot and I just gave them homebrew items that tie into their characters more closely. (One's got the soldier background and was a cook in the army. He's always buying cooking supplies so I just gave him a magic skillet that he doesn't know is magic yet. The other always fights with a longbow so I gave him a magic bow that will grow with him and unlock certain abilities over time. They both know there's some sort of faint presence on these items but they don't know what that means or anything.)
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
Nice i love the idea of the weapon levelling up with characters and unlocking abilities and thanks great advice
I had an idea similar to Cosplaywrite’s “giving them the rules in pieces “. What if your starting adventure was played out sort of like a video game tutorial? For example, it may begin with things like skill checks and social interaction to combat and spellcasting.
I’ve played with a 9-year-old before and they tend to get bored quickly, so perhaps large variety in the monsters you use in an adventure would help.
Devious serpent folk devoid of compassion, yuan-ti manipulate other creatures by arousing their doubts, evoking their fears, and elevating and crushing their hopes. From remote temples in jungles, swamps, and deserts, the yuan-ti plot to supplant and dominate all other races and to make themselves gods.
I was thinking they baisically get involved with a 'biker' type gang of raptor riding halflings early on in the game to give the game a GTA meets skyrim feel to keep them interested
I just ran a game that included my little cousins (8 and 11 years old) the other week! The biggest thing is that you jump into the game right away while also giving them the chance to make their own characters.
I used simplified character sheets that you can find on DMsGuild here. Once filled out, the character sheet lays out all the math needed for attack rolls and skill checks. I filled in stuff like HP and AC, but I let them pick their weapons and race. I told them to pick any 4 skills--no backgrounds here! Using a simplified standard array of +3|+2|+2|+1|0|-1, we were able to make characters together within 10 minutes and jump right into the game--which was really important in keeping their attention and excitement up.
Of course, the youngest wanted to be a magic caster. Knowing we couldn't go through all the spells, I told them to just tell me what kind of spell they wanted to cast. I didn't want to deal with spell DCs right off the bat so basically every attack spell was a re-skinned version of firebolt (so they could easily find which dice they needed from their character sheet. You hit with fire? d10. You want to use your magic trumpet? d10.). Even if the kids aren't super powerful mechanically, if you're descriptive they'll feel really powerful. All we did was fight some goblins from the starter set--nothing crazy--but everyone still had a blast.
This thread might have some useful links. https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/tips-tactics/40096-dungeons-dragons-in-the-classroom#c9
I’d also encourage them think of the game in terms of what they want to do and you adjudicate the mechanics. I ran an 8-11 group and this worked wonderfully.
They will probably think of it like a video game (side quests vs main quests, grinding, cleared areas are safe, etc). Use this to throw them off their footing. My party had started to fight some bandits at a tower. They were getting beat down pretty bad so they went back to town and came back the next day after a rest. Well, the bandits had time to fortify, trap, and generally prepare the place. It turned from a pretty straight up fight into infiltration of the tower, navigating the traps setup for them. The kids were not expecting that the world continues to move without their direct involvement.