RPG with my kids

Our first game, just lots of Lego, toys, tokens, a die and a map. 

I’ve been running a few games for my kids for the last few years. Right now they’re 7 and 4. I’m still focused on light game sessions of 30-40 minutes. When I started the “RPG” (my kids called it the “Monster Slaying Game”) it was a mix of dice, minis (Lego!), ludic and playfulness, to keep them engaged (they even started associating RPGs with that way of playing and today I’m trying to teach them the difference). Last year, with my wife’s help, I managed two “true” RPG sessions, where I narrated DCC RPG’s Doom of the Savage Kings (heavily reskinned as a mix of The Hobbit, Super Mario Bros. and Disney). It worked great but I noticed that they still weren’t thrilled by the RPG experience and prefered something more “ludic” (they usually tell me that they like the dice and minis, but love it when I insert challenges in the middle of the adventure, stuff like “Run to your room and look for the lost magic sword hidden amid the dinosaurs”).

Digging out my old AD&D First Quest box.

My search for a good system was interesting. I searched for RPG for kids and was initially impressed by Faery's Tale, but later found it too complex for my kids. Because I loved the OSR, I jumped instantly to Dagger***, which is probably the best option. The funny thing is that I left Dagger because of one of its best features - it didn’t use Ability Scores, focusing on Classes, which is great to simplify the game. One the other hand, Ability Scores are some of the RPG’s most compelling aspects for beginners - the fact that you can build a super strong hero or a very smart one, is something that my kids love. Also, I want them to understand the rules, which is why Ability Scores also help - they’re easy to explain. The end result was that I used Black Hack 1E (with armor rules from 2E) to run my reskinned Doom of the Savage Kings. I kept the players focused only on the Ability Scores, Class and Hit Points. I used ICRPG’s approach to hit points (Hearts) and Target Number, which was excellent for my kids to keep track of (the big d20 in the middle of the map is hard to miss). I created the idea of “1 power per level” so they would feel the difference of leveling up and that worked great for the game. However, my youngest still didn’t pay attention for more than half an hour and although they loved their character sheet (in great part because of the art I guess), I needed my wife as a player to keep their attention.

***OK, I might have confused Dagger with Kids & Dragons, which is the brazilian version of this awesome post from The Contemptible Cube of Quazar. Both seem to be the same game. Anyway, I just want to give all the sources right here.

We didn't play S&W White Box, but I want my kids to love the sight of that dragon.

So, I went hunting again for other games...

The first was Hero Kids, which I found nice because of the dice pool, it was simple to visualize. But in the end, Hero Kids didn’t clicked for me. I think it was mainly because of the art (c’mon, kids playing RPGs don’t want to see themselves dressed up for Halloween as the characters!) and the lack of rules for building new characters at the time.

Princess Peach against the Doom of the Savage Kings!

And valiant Sr Owen, Dinosaur Knight.

I got really good recommendations from a friend to try Adventure Maximus!, but I never managed to get a copy and the game requires a lot of props.

Next one was was FirstFable. I remember enjoying reading FirstFable because it really considered that you were running games for kids. Take Hero Kids, for example, where you just have a D&D with kids’ art and a new system, but at the end of the day you’re still killing things and taking their stuff. FirstFable was different, and the adventure was focused on challenges and interaction (I remember when the party has to find a mythical creature that they made up at the beginning of the adventure, it was a great idea to engage the kids). The advice and the material in FirstFable were spot on and I ended up using most of it in other systems. The irony is that I couldn’t find a way to teach my kids the FirstFable rules.

Clone Troopers run from (a definitely cute) Cthulhu in a forgotten star system.

Roughly one year ago I started using a homemade system. It was something really simple but visual, and they liked it. Basically, each player has a half-page character sheet with 3 stats - a Heart (for physical stuff), a Wing (for dexterity and precision) and a Light Bulb (for perception and mental actions).

Just 3 stats and a die for each. It worked! (the toys above were equipment)

After giving my kids the character sheets I would give them a d8, a d6 and a d4, then place a die inside each stat. I told them that bigger die were better. The rule was simple: roll the stat you wanted to use and try to get 4 or bigger to succeed (I think I stole that from Savage Worlds, but I believe both Hero Kids and FirstFable use a similar TN).

Behold the power of Lego!

Each character has 10 hit points (as in ICRPG) and usually a strike deals the character’s Heart in point of damage (so a strong PC, with d8 in Heart would deal 1d8 of damage in melee hits). Ranged attacks would deal damage with Wing and Magic would use (I guess) the Light Bulb stat.

Each character would also have a theme, like “Dinosaur Rider” or “Jedi”, to keep the player focused on what kind of actions they could do (otherwise they would use their imagination and create all kinds of superpowers and sidekicks to help them… all the time! I can’t forget my son using “summoning a T-Rex” to save the day). I discovered that open-ended themes worked a lot better than a specific set of powers, like feats (Cleave, Power Attack etc) or spell lists.

Lots and lots of Lego!

My last attempt added a 4th stat - Spirit - used for courage and willpower (represented by a golden circle, because all stats must be graphic, so that the player can place the die inside). So far this system (with maps and tons of Lego) is what they like more as an RPG. “Advancement” is done by loot (like getting a lightsaber) or new themes (usually at the end of a “campaign”, like after 2-3 adventures).

Last version of our home game. Rey and BB8 from Star Wars hunting for lightsaber crystals.

As they get older I’m tempted to return to my hack of Black Hack. I’m not sure if I would keep the D&D Ability Scores and the classes (probably yes because I want them to play d20 games) . I would definitely use ICRPG approach to Heart and Effort, probably skipping attack rolls and using just damage, as in Into the Odd (which also avoids the whiff factor of ICRPG, where you roll great at the Stat, but poorly at Effort). 

This used to be my "RPG Kid" game kit.

Finally, there was the “Dinosaur Battle Royale game”… this came in one afternoon where my daughter didn’t wanted to play, but my boy was begging for a RPG. He has a lot of dinosaurs (and knows a lot about them) and also loves rolling my dice, so I drafted a small table (calling it a combat matrix is a bit much) and we started rolling battles between his team of dinosaurs and mine. Later I added some tactical choices - like choosing to get an extra attack with the risk of suffering damage - and also a common enemy: I placed a Bowser (from Super Mario Bros.) in the middle of the battlefield. Every attack roll had a chance of “triggering” Bowser to attack you, so you had to decide before rolling if it was worth to attack first Bowser then go for your enemy (at the time my daughter was also playing with her stuffed animals team, so choosing the right target was important, and alliances also occurred). It was a lot of fun (definitely not a RPG) but I’m tempted to try something more complex.

I found this online and love it. Still hope my daughter will enjoy it in a few months ;-)