I have been playing D&D for about 2 years. my 10 and 8 year old want to learn how to play a long with 2 of their friends. I am looking for advice and ideas on introducing these kids to the game. I love playing and have played the essential box and the starter box. I was thinking of starting with one of them but want to make sure that I keep them involved with the role play as well as the combat.
I once ran The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan for fourth and fifth graders. They loved it.
My advice is to make it more about exploration. Give them a location and a motivation. Present them with traps and obstacles. The occasional monster. Keep it simple. Kids that age typically aren't going to stay engaged if things are too dependent on their remembering the intricacies of some expansive backstory.
Don't get into the rules until they come up in play. Provide the players with characters and go around the table explaining to them what each is capable of. Keep that simple as well. Don't overburden them by giving them characters with too many skills or spells. You will find if you do that you might have to constantly remind them of what they can do when doing something they can do might make sense and this can then defeat the purpose of giving them their first taste of what it's like for them to be in control of a character of their own. You don't want to make them feel as if they're sat in front of the game console and you're sitting there telling them what to do. That can ruin the experience.
Have fun and best of luck making lifetime players out of them!
I played it at nine or ten years old.and I just played with advice from my father, I was on turn in the cragmaw hideout with the wolves, and decided to break the chain with a knife, so try to keep it simple and throw in soem funny things
The major thing I'd say is be really on the "yes, and..." technique. Make the results as humourous as you can get them. Make sure there's always something happening. Kids don't enjoy being told no, and they get distracted if there isn't something holding their attention, and it's a lot harder to grab their attention again once you've lost it.
You'll come out with some whacky events as their imagination runs wild, so be prepared for that. Just make it funny, fast paced and let their imagination work its magic, and they'll love it.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I started playing when I was 8 years old in the days of Basic and AD&D. I remember one of my first serious games was Tomb of Horrors, which was DMed by a friend's older brother. It spared us no pain, and I loved it. However, now I usually DM my nephews who are between 8 and 12 years old, and I do it very differently. For example, I never kill the PCs. Death Saving Throw are "Unconscious Saving Throws". If they fail the third, they are knocked out but don't die. I don't include monsters that can scare them, like liches. The tone of the games is much more "noblebright" or "hopepunk". And I give them a lot more freedom outside of the rules than I do with my adult groups. Sometimes I wonder if it is the children of today who have changed, or are we as adults who overprotect them. I don't remember getting frustrated because my PC died over and over again. Sometimes unfairly. I don't remember having nightmares or being scared by horrible creatures (the DM not only didn't avoid them, but he took pleasure in describing them as terrible as possible). I don't remember having problems managing my character sheet. Etc... But it is true that in general children are more protected today against violence, death, sex, etc... than we were when I was 8 years old. And it is also true that, at least in my country, the school curriculum is much more relaxed than in my time. I don't want to get into the debate about whether that's better or worse, since I don't have any kind of training in child sociology or pedagogy. What I will say is that when it comes to TTRPGs, I see them as less prepared to deal with some things than we were in my day. Or maybe it's not them, it's me who sees them like this with my adult eyes. In any case, they enjoy the games as much as I did. And that is what matters.
Most of the recent adventures are written more for an 8 year+ and up audience. You'll do fine using most of them. Doing Phandelver works generally well.
Frankly though, for the ages listed, you can go with the Young Adventurers Collection. D&D's own site shoots you to Amazon but it looks like that would probably work for your audience a little bit easier to start.
I have been playing D&D for about 2 years. my 10 and 8 year old want to learn how to play a long with 2 of their friends. I am looking for advice and ideas on introducing these kids to the game. I love playing and have played the essential box and the starter box. I was thinking of starting with one of them but want to make sure that I keep them involved with the role play as well as the combat.
Thank you all, all ideas and advice is welcomed.
Thanks again.
Short games because they start to be distracted soon.
They are more impulsive, reckless and thoughtless but also more cowardly. Show options to be chosen, like a gamebook style "Endless Quest".
You could mix the lore of Witchlight and Changeling: the Dreaming. You should can read in the fandom wiki.
You can reward with XPs if they create new stories, or answer rightly about school lessons.
You could add a kercpa as DMnPC, weak in the fight but working as advicer.
O mythu'nn folk (from Savage Coast/Red Steel) as nPC allies.
I once ran The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan for fourth and fifth graders. They loved it.
My advice is to make it more about exploration. Give them a location and a motivation. Present them with traps and obstacles. The occasional monster. Keep it simple. Kids that age typically aren't going to stay engaged if things are too dependent on their remembering the intricacies of some expansive backstory.
Don't get into the rules until they come up in play. Provide the players with characters and go around the table explaining to them what each is capable of. Keep that simple as well. Don't overburden them by giving them characters with too many skills or spells. You will find if you do that you might have to constantly remind them of what they can do when doing something they can do might make sense and this can then defeat the purpose of giving them their first taste of what it's like for them to be in control of a character of their own. You don't want to make them feel as if they're sat in front of the game console and you're sitting there telling them what to do. That can ruin the experience.
Have fun and best of luck making lifetime players out of them!
I played it at nine or ten years old.and I just played with advice from my father, I was on turn in the cragmaw hideout with the wolves, and decided to break the chain with a knife, so try to keep it simple and throw in soem funny things
The major thing I'd say is be really on the "yes, and..." technique. Make the results as humourous as you can get them. Make sure there's always something happening. Kids don't enjoy being told no, and they get distracted if there isn't something holding their attention, and it's a lot harder to grab their attention again once you've lost it.
You'll come out with some whacky events as their imagination runs wild, so be prepared for that. Just make it funny, fast paced and let their imagination work its magic, and they'll love it.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I started playing when I was 8 years old in the days of Basic and AD&D. I remember one of my first serious games was Tomb of Horrors, which was DMed by a friend's older brother. It spared us no pain, and I loved it.
However, now I usually DM my nephews who are between 8 and 12 years old, and I do it very differently. For example, I never kill the PCs. Death Saving Throw are "Unconscious Saving Throws". If they fail the third, they are knocked out but don't die. I don't include monsters that can scare them, like liches. The tone of the games is much more "noblebright" or "hopepunk". And I give them a lot more freedom outside of the rules than I do with my adult groups.
Sometimes I wonder if it is the children of today who have changed, or are we as adults who overprotect them. I don't remember getting frustrated because my PC died over and over again. Sometimes unfairly. I don't remember having nightmares or being scared by horrible creatures (the DM not only didn't avoid them, but he took pleasure in describing them as terrible as possible). I don't remember having problems managing my character sheet. Etc... But it is true that in general children are more protected today against violence, death, sex, etc... than we were when I was 8 years old. And it is also true that, at least in my country, the school curriculum is much more relaxed than in my time.
I don't want to get into the debate about whether that's better or worse, since I don't have any kind of training in child sociology or pedagogy. What I will say is that when it comes to TTRPGs, I see them as less prepared to deal with some things than we were in my day. Or maybe it's not them, it's me who sees them like this with my adult eyes. In any case, they enjoy the games as much as I did. And that is what matters.
Most of the recent adventures are written more for an 8 year+ and up audience. You'll do fine using most of them. Doing Phandelver works generally well.
Frankly though, for the ages listed, you can go with the Young Adventurers Collection. D&D's own site shoots you to Amazon but it looks like that would probably work for your audience a little bit easier to start.
https://www.amazon.com/Adventurers-Collection-Dungeons-Dragons-4-Book/dp/1984859544?ref_=ast_sto_dp