Welcome everyone to a bit of a slower paced weekend and maybe some simpler D&D. Tonight after some time spent with friends the prospect of playing Dungeons and Dragons with kids. The one thing that stands in our way is the age.
When looking at D&D it takes understanding of social queues, maths and tactics to play D&D at its core. These concepts may be to difficult for children under seven or so to understand. But there are some simple adjustments we can make that will reduce the complexity for kids.
The d20 System is relatively simple but the concept of “pass/fail” can be hard for kids. Open legends RPG and a few other systems have the concept of ‘yes, but’ or ‘no, however’ where success can grant an additional benefit and failure… Isn’t always a failure. These shades of grey make RPG games with kids a bit easier. The wrong choice strategically may have a positive outcome that rewards child-mind problem solving and can even teach us how to be better DMs.
So having a miss or fail, still do something that progresses the encounter or story, and hyping up those big successes can be all it takes. Take away the math and use a scale of easy, medium or hard and make easy dc10, medium dc14, and hard dc18. To make it easier again, instead of adding modifiers to their dice rolls modify the DC down. As DMs and guides on their story let us handle the complexity and let them just roll dice and have fun.
The other concept is death in RPGs… As the noble hero you destroy undead, kill bad guys and thwart evil. But what if your child, or a friends child is not ready for that situation make it a food quest. Fighting walking foods who want to make them food. That chicken nugget may look brown and crispy.. but it fights like a goblin. Or make it a non lethal encounter and the party the elite police who have to capture the baddies.
Tailoring the adventure for your audience is a key skill for DMs, and even more so when your party consists of children.
Thanks for exploring the tip of this thought bubble tonight, come back again tomorrow for a long over due adventure as I play a bit of catch-up.
The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 