Running D&D For Kids!

[@kingsfan2099]

I have been running a campaign for a dad and his three daughters. They were 8,11, and 13. They are by far my most creative players and have really made this veteran GM up his game. The length of sessions must be watched. I've had 2 sessions over 2 and a half hours and only because the game was hot and everyone was into it. 2 hours though is about the sweet spot.

[@artistpoet5253]

These sound like great tips for just general game play with all ages. I've been to tables where there was so little going on outside of the DM's nonstop exposition dumps that I really just phoned in my actions.

[@cameronframent8976]

Dreaming Dragonslayer and TTRPG Kids are also great blogs for info on running games for kids.

[@coolwayink]

Awesome! I’m writing a chapter about it for Forgotten Ballad, and we’re really aligned

[@aledreid]

You’re right, Ben has an article on page 38 of Knock #1. I just got my hard copy today, and now I have a target to read too! You are awesome, thank you!

[@merkinhero3983]

I've been running Mausritter for my 6-year old daughter and she loves it!

[@savevsjustin]

Great video! Totally agree with making sure each kid gets their time in the spotlight. It gets trickier with multiple kids at the table. One thing I do is have an index card for each character in a stack that I rotate through during the game as a kind of visual way to 'pass-the-mic' to make sure everybody feels like they have a chance to add to the story. Snacks are also key ;-)

[@JPCoovert]

Great idea!

[@morgangleave8518]

I love Tunnel Goons! I bought the Haunted Almanac (Your fault!), and have doen solo versions of Tunnel Goons, as well as using to for the base for my own game. My game is definitely child friendly - but scary!

[@Hellvector]

Awesome video! I’m looking forward to running this adventure for my 9 year old daughter that has been getting into the Turtles recently. I ran a My Little Pony game for her on her and several of my adult D&D players a couple years ago. She had a blast with that, and has occasionally played some impromptu Dungeon World sessions, but I think Goons is going to be an excellent system for that type of play! Thanks for making TMTG a reality JP!

[@travisc7883]

You rock. Thank you so much for the amazing ideas and content. I love that I can watch your videos with my kids. Thanks for the inspiration.

[@middleclassjoe]

Fantastic video! I recently played a session of 5E with my kids (7,4). We did go through character creation (with your mini-zine character sheets), and it went better than I though it would. But I'm going to take you advice and not sweat the mechanics too much. We'll just focus on telling a cool story that keeps them engaged for the 20-30 minutes that I can keep them sitting around the table. It was cool to see that you played with Andy and Ryden. My son and I are big fans of theirs as well.

[@dangarthemighty0980]

Compared to a ton of game systems out there 5e is absolutely crunchy. 😃

[@Mantorp86]

Risus is pretty good for kids. I use the system to play with my 7yo and 4yo daughters. Mermaids and Unicors could’t be more fun 🤣

[@JPCoovert]

Risus looks cool!

[@Wraithing]

lol - from your descriptions of the things kids prefer, I'm still 12… Woohoo!!! 😂 As, no doubt, someone (or more) else has said: that's pretty great advice for gaming with loads of different folks - especially new gamers - of any age. Cheers JP

[@jessquinn6106]

youngest kid I ever taught RPing to was a 5 years old. She saw my friend and I playing at a weekend get together and wanted to play. I kept it so simple. "Do you want to be someone that fights monsters with a sword or with magic? and "what is the character's name" Thats all I asked. I kept the rules extremely simple. 'Anytime you want to do something, you have to roll the dice. If you get this number or higher, you hit the animal." And I kept the lay it some, just a T shaped tunnel. "If you turn one way, you will find money. If you turn the other way you will fight a goblin." As the game progressed that afternoon and night it became a tad bit more involved. She had so much fun to the point where she was asking to play every time they came over. Then she brought a school friend over. Then two friends. When she got a couple of years older, her dad got her into gaming contentions. Years later, now she is running an RP club in her school. I find that giving them VERY basic rules and letting them do as they want "character wise" is best. You will be shocked what kids will come up with. "You are out of arrows, what do you do now?" "I start throwing rocks." or "The troll does not understand what you are saying." "I draw pictures to make him understand." Very simple riddles and puzzles make its great fun. If you have someone playing a MU, I let them mix herbs and potions and see what they get: healing, sleep, hurting or shielding. And I will tell you, I had games where these 4-5 year old kids could out-play adult veteran gamers with their logic.

[@JPCoovert]

This is great! And honestly that’s pretty much how I like to play even now!

[@stephenmanak6024]

Some good reminders in here, i run my game with my family, which encludes a 10 and 12 YO.

[@TheIoPC]

I run a game for kids in our Homeschool CoOp, and post videos about it. It is under the "House Specials" playlist on my channel if anyone wants to see a development kind of vlog for it. 😉 ~ Adam

[@CelsoAoryu]

Kids dont play against master, play WITH master...... THIS IS REALLY FUN

[@tebohomaloka-b8b]

But i have one problem i have no dice

[@A-rogous-1]

Off topic. Saw some of your older videos on map making. Do you have a technic for drawing glaciers?

[@JPCoovert]

Not quite sure how to describe it in a comment. My best advice would be look up some glacier photos and figure out how to simplify the key features into icons or symbols. Try it on a separate piece of paper with a pencil and eraser. Make multiple options but don't spend more than a couple of minutes on each one. You'll figure out what looks good pretty quickly!

[@GamingDashio]

Jp why you didn’t uploaded anymore videos in your gaming channel

[@JPCoovert]

I don’t have enough time!

[@GamingDashio]

@@JPCoovert oh

[@JiyanMajithiya_the_Great]

Make more about dnd characters

[@-adc]

This is what got me into d&d/ttrpgs - GMing the game for my two boys. We. have. a. Riot. There are many plusses (and a couple challenges). But here are some huge + to consider: 1) they are flexible and forgiving. Want to change plans or modify rules in the middle of the action? NBD. 2) the are creative beyond belief. If you think you are going to out-imagine your kids on any given encounter - think again. And as a GM/DM - it pays to lighten up, and just roll with whatever they throw at you (especially, the d&d golden GM rule of say:"Yes, but...". The result will almost always be better than whatever you imagined. I have learned to share GMing with them as well, allowing them 'behind the curtain' so to say, and they really enjoy being able to help shape things, even on the fly as we are playing. 3) It's great quality time together. "No screens, just a dad and his kids living in the moment... (tm)" LOL - but seriously, we build memories , laughs, stories etc. And not a dig on video games (which we play together often as well), but the tabletop stuff is generally magnitudes more memorable. 4) I am more forgiving. I don't perma-death their characters, unless that's something they want in the game. Obviously, I also carefully tailor the level of violence / cruelty / gruesomeness etc to what is appropriate. And if it turns out there are some pretty bad baddies they run into...well we aim to go punch their lights out. ;P As one dad to anyone out there: play ttrpgs with kids.

[@-adc]

One hot tip to mitigate the once in a while bad luck RNG aspects of these games, introduce a "Trial and Error" die, for instance a d6 or something which counts up each time there are roll failures in succession, and it's total is added to the rolls until success, then it resets. I have found this helps with younger players who tend to get really frustrated with a string of crap rolls.

[@Hellvector]

Awesome video! I’m looking forward to running this adventure for my 9 year old daughter that has been getting into the Turtles recently. I ran a My Little Pony game for her and several of my adult D&D players a couple years ago for her birthday. She had a blast with that, and has occasionally played some impromptu Dungeon World sessions, but I think Goons is going to be an excellent system for that type of play! Thanks for making TMTG a reality JP!