I wanna be the coolest GM in the HISTORY OF THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD. Need rules.

July 5, 2009 5:13 PM

Help me put together a D&D game for an awesome bunch of 7-year-olds.

I've got a bunch of awesome kids in my neighborhood (including one of my own), in the area of 7-8 years old. Three or four kids, depending on the weekend. They've expressed an interest in learning D&D, and I'd like to start a totally awesome Sunday afternoon session.

Now, given that age range, I realize it'll have to be (a) very simplified rules-wise, (b) visual in some sense, i.e. miniatures, and (c) shortened, probably no more than an hour tops.

So, I'm looking for recommendations on what kinds of gear to buy - map tiles, miniatures, etc. - that will be fun but will not break the bank. I'm not looking to get into painting miniatures or anything like that - just want them to be cool and functional for the game.

Perhaps more than anything else, I need help figuring out a rule set to use - something that will provide an ample amount of dice-rolling to be fun, sufficient tension so that it's still a challenge, but not too difficult for seven-year-olds. Maybe one or two d20 tables for combat, one d6 table for random encounters? I dunno. Is there a simplified miniatures dungeon crawl game that exists in off-the-shelf format, without being a "board game" (i.e. I don't just want us to "play Dungeonquest every Sunday," I want to be able to improvise a new story each week).

Thanks in advance!

posted by jbickers to sports, hobbies, & recreation (19 comments total)

What version of D&D are you looking at?
posted by Decimask at 5:30 PM on July 5

Wil Wheaton recently wrote about his experiences running a D&D campaign for teenagers. A bit older than your target group, but it might have some insights for you.
posted by aparrish at 5:36 PM on July 5

They do sell a simplified "Basic" version of D&D for ages twelve and up. Boardgamegeek has user reviews that say eight and up is okay. Having casually looked over the rules some time back, I'd say they'd have to be pretty bright seven year olds for you to pull this off.

I think you could do this if you focus mostly on the storytelling, some basic rules to keep their options in check, and some dice rolls on a regular basis to keep things chancy.
posted by adipocere at 5:37 PM on July 5

What version of D&D are you looking at?

I have no preference at all, and am actually looking for a totally homebrew set of rules. I'm not looking to run a D&D game per se, but a role playing game for seven-year-olds. So I need to do dungeon maps and miniatures and skirmishes and dice-rolling and all that. But it in no way needs to hew to any official rules of any sort.

I basically just want to give these kids an afternoon of dungeon crawling and rolling dice and slaying monsters, all at a level that will make sense to them. Too many rules and it becomes math homework (it sometimes felt that way as an adult, too). So I'm looking for a good way to pare down the rules and the charts and whatnot to simply focus on the fun.

(You know, and it occurs to me now, if I were to find such a thing, it would probably appeal just as much to adults!)
posted by jbickers at 5:42 PM on July 5

So you're primarily looking for an adventure/module?

Adipocere's "Basic" suggestion is likely a good one--I haven't seen the Basic rules, so I can't actually come down on one side or the other of that one. I'll fire off a couple emails to a friend of mine who's a long-time DM.
posted by Decimask at 5:49 PM on July 5

At a WorldCon many years ago some friends and I participated in an early playtest of the "diceless" roleplaying system that Gary Gygax or someone was developing. It basically ended up being a collaborative improvisation in a RPG-type setting. There is no reason that you have to have adhere to any rules at all. I think the biggest challenge with that age group will be turn-taking. You will first and foremost need some kind of "The only person who can talk to me is the person I am pointing to" system to prevent mass chaos. Maybe a "Talking Stick" that can be passed around amongst the players?

Have a rough concept of the way the scenario will play out in your head, but be willing to shift and adapt based on your players' preferences and abilities.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:01 PM on July 5

Whatever game you decide on, I'd really recommend you get/make cards that have everyones powers/spells on them. You probably want to make them pretty basic like:

Fireball of Death and Destruction
Roll a six sided dice then add 2.
Can be used x times per day/encounter

I find it's easier to keep spells in order if they're color coded too. Daily spells have blue borders, encounter spells are yellow, YMMV.

Most of all, just have fun!
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 6:06 PM on July 5

Gabe on Penny Arcade has been running a 4e D&D game for a while with some handy tips and tricks. I'm scrolling back (and back and back...) to see if I can find the specific comments about what they were doing....

News, from Apr 29, 09--power cards, status stickers, etc.
posted by Decimask at 6:48 PM on July 5

"At a WorldCon many years ago some friends and I participated in an early playtest of the "diceless" roleplaying system that Gary Gygax or someone was developing. It basically ended up being a collaborative improvisation in a RPG-type setting."

See the late Erick Wujcik's website for more about diceless roleplaying.
posted by liet at 7:01 PM on July 5

Well the very basic design of the d20 system is just that - one die for resolution (mostly) and few other colored dice for damage etc. You can simplify it all you like. Brush up on the early d20 rule system and just bump it down a notch for the age range of your players.

And I'll add this: Make it a diceless system, not for them, for you. Let them roll the dice all they want. The events of the game should proceed exactly as you want them to, regardless of what the pretty dice say, with whatever cooperation and interpretation of your players as you deem appropriate. They should have fun and they should "win". While this might seem like I am suggesting that you somehow deceive them, this is far from the truth. As DM, you define the world. The world that you create is a lot different for a seven year old than for a seventeen year old or a 40-something year old original gaming geek like myself. Make it work for your audience. Rule No. 1 in the real DM's guide. Don't sweat the details is No. 2.

Any decent gaming store will (or should) have some miniatures and a cool dry erase square or hex-marked mat that you draw anything you want on. Dont forget the dry-erase pens - Sharpies dont work for this.

Have fun!
posted by elendil71 at 7:15 PM on July 5

similar question about slightly older kid
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:03 PM on July 5

Here is a guy playing D&D with his 7-year-old son. He manages to make 4e work fine and use basically all the rules, but he's only got one kid to manage. I expect you could do the same just fine, or you could use something simpler like, say, Microlite20 or Castles & Crusades quickstart rules.

In re miniatures, one of the useful comments from the first thread is using legos -- you do have some lying around, don't you? Alternately, if the kids have an action figure or something of the appropriate appearance, let them bring that in.
posted by inkyz at 8:12 PM on July 5

As you're not tied to D&D specifically, you might want to check out other RPGs. I've been hearing good things about Mouse Guard (link is to a review).
posted by fings at 8:35 PM on July 5

Toon is a great starter RPG. It's silly, lots of fun, and the heaviest violence/content is about what you'd find on Looney Tunes (and can be adapted by a GM, of course). And anything the characters need can be gotten by dropping a letter in the mailbox to Acme, the sillier the better and almost guaranteed to backfire in a cartoon-funny way.
posted by Cricket at 10:08 PM on July 5

Mouse Guard all the way. It's pure genius. The system would easily adapt to a fantasy setting. The whole 'nature' mechanic ("I'm a pirate. Want to do something piratey? Steer a ship? Tie a knot? Fire a blunderbuss? Read a map? It's ONE TRAIT!") seems so obvious it hurts, but it's awesome.

Now I just need to wait five years til my son turns seven...
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:31 AM on July 6

Damn! I got all excited and wanted to post the guy playing with his seven year old! Curse you, inkyz! (Read that story. It's win and awesome.)

In all seriousness, D&D 4th Edition is *very* easy to play (especially at level 1). Give them cards to flop down and they'll grasp it in no time flat. If you have the scratch (fifteen bucks), you could just buy Keep on the Shadowfell (the premade adventure the guy ran with his kid), which comes complete with maps and pre-generated characters (though no miniatures.) It's very thorough and even includes lots of ways to keep the characters on the rough track of the plotline when they inevitably hare off in random directions chasing sheep or whatever gibbet-brained nonsense their players have come up with today. (And these are 30-year-olds I'm talking about.)

Alternately, as obiwanwasabi recommended, Mouse Guard *looks* good, but I can't speak from experience as I haven't played it. I don't know how well kids would get ahold of the flexibility of the traits. My experience with the young has been that they *love* to quantify everything as specifically as possible.
posted by Scattercat at 4:45 AM on July 6

You might look at Princes' Kingdom which was designed for playing with younger kids.
posted by canine epigram at 10:00 AM on July 6

From what I hear, 4e is great for kids.

You should make their characters for them. I'd make a character for each role, find a picture, and let the kid name the character. They'll be more attached that way.

For minis, I highly recommend using WotC's official minis game minis. They match up with what you see in the monster manual and they're plastic. No worries about bent minis with missing pieces if the kids start getting rough.

Finally you might want to tone down the amount of violence. How much probably depends on the kids (and parents) involved. They can probably kill a bear, especially for food, but killing other humans (even evil ones) would probably be a bad idea.
posted by valadil at 10:25 AM on July 6

When I was this age I played Hero Quest with my brother and really enjoyed it. We had some of the expansion packs too. The game is a board game, but the way that it's set up is that it is highly modifiable. The game came with a set number of dungeon crawl quests with maps of where the monsters were and little tiles that marked blocked passageways so often not all of the board was accessible. There were also individual bits of flavour in each quest, wandering mosters appeared, there were trap tiles that only the Dwarf (if I remember rightly, could spot) other characters had to take a turn to search.

I liked it because the quests were sequential in the books so you accrued treasure, items and spells along the way (in the form of cards). These new abilities could be used in the next quest. the difficulty throughout the book significantly ramped up, so you needed the new loot and abilities to complete the later quests. Also when you had finished the available quests there were some blank sheets to make new quests.

The spell cards and miniatures and board and furniture and props were nicely made.

Here is an image of a game underway.

This is not Dungeons and Dragons, it's made with Warhammer miniatures and some other game designers. I have never played D&D so maybe this isn't the answer you're looking for. But for that sort of age range the combination of a reasonable simple rule-set, nice and cool-looking stuff, the possibility for reinvention of rules and dungeon geography gave me, my brother, occasionally my sister and some friends a lot of fun.

I found one on ebay here for £25. There seem to be quite a few sets around which aren't all that expensive.

There are also boxed expansion packs, we had one (I'm sure we found them all at a car-boot sale) with bodyguards - you could hire a retinue to kick orc ass. Then there was an evil wizards quest series. I might need to dig this out again with my brother - I'm getting all misty eyed.

Ha! What do you know, there's a computer fan made version here I might well give that a download for nostalgia's sake.
posted by multivalent at 11:55 AM on July 6