I started my kids at 4 and 6 with a game called Castles and Cats. To make things easier for them I used a large whiteboard, divided the board into 4ths, each section for a character. Used a combo of dry erase marker to write information on, let them draw hearts for example to track their health. For equipment the game had cards you could print out so I attached a magnet to the back of a card sleeve and put the equipment in each of their character slots. I bought large foam dice for them to roll on the floor. Instead of minis, they picked stuffies they had that represented characters, did some minor arts and craft projects for the boss fights. Kept the games short and they had a blast with it.
Pro tip: First encounter of their first adventure needs to be a beholder and TPK them! Let them know, Daddy don't play, right out of the gate. I'm joking, that's terrible advice. Don't...don't do that.
I'm running for a group of 9 yr olds. I can do one encounter ... then food ... then one encounter. As for my tips: I use the Matt Mercer: "how do you want to do this?" when they kill a monster I let them kill the monster in whatever manner they want. If they want the monster to get hit on the head by a hot dog and have the brains splatter everywhere, that's OK with me. Even if they are not wielding a hot dog. Or maybe it is the +5 holy avenger hot dog (or whatever). I also take some of their off the wall comments as seriously as I can. I view this as providing a solution to their solutions. So if they want to parkour off of the roof, across the alley, land on the head of a fleeing citizen, and knife the evil frost giant in the "boy parts", I'll do my best to figure out how to make that happen. It might take some bending of the "rules" (just make an acrobatics check, with advantage because the rest of the table is laughing their heads off) and then even if the PC misses, I'll give them something (ok... well... you missed, but you get ). Yes, this is not strictly within the rules, but hey... Captain America can do it, so why not? The point is to have fun, get them engaged, and don't ever forget that this is a GAME.
I play Call of Cthulhu with my 10yo son, he often breaks my expectations and plans. When his character was on an investigation looking into the disappearance of several rich New Yorkers at Niagara Falls, he thought that a town drunk was one of the missing rich people. But when the man was unable to go back to New York with him, due to his drunkenness, my son's character went to the town's general store, got some tires, a board and some rope to create a makeshift cart to put the man on. Even though I wanted the game go into a different direction, I let him have that one and awarded his character for his original thinking. Younger kids really like to be rewarded for what they do if they think their character did something cool, or even if they got a lucky roll, so rewards should be more abundant than with older players.
I just started running a D&D adventure for my nieces and nephew. The younger is just a very eager 9yo playing an elf rogue, then we have a 13yo boy playing a tiefling sorcerer and the group leader is a 17yo girl playing a half elf fighter. Being siblings makes it easier for them to work as a team even tho the age gap between them may suggest otherwise. I love these kids and the ideas they come up with. Thanks for the tips!
I started both my son and daughter since 3 ish. No real rules at the beginning , just imagination, but I did use minis and terrain. DnD is pretty much a story you get to shape. I think it definitely kick started their imagination. Now my son is in college spreading pen, paper and dice!
Just started my nephews into RPGs with Hero Kids, home brewed a bit to set it into a Skylanders setting (it's their favorite video game and they had the figures so minitures were set). Just picked up No Thank you evil. Looking forward to checking out the Index cards. Totally agree with your tips!
My son and I love D&D (he's 10) and we're going to be teaching a group of neighborhood kids (ages 8 through 13) how to play this weekend. This video was helpful, thank you! This summer I played Magical Kitties Save the Day RPG with my son and nieces (youngest age 7). This game isn't as easy to learn in a short period of time (busy mom/aunt doesn't have all day to read through the material) BUT we pulled it off and it was worth it! Great graphics, the coolest, cutest and badest kitties around! It was a hit and worth the investment of money and time. My 83 year old mother loves the graphics and is interested in trying it out!
I made a very condensed version for my 4yo daughter and she played for four hours! You're so right about keeping it short, we had to keep it very exciting and funny. As for the attacks, we had to time it down quite a bit. Minimizing addition with modifiers is a must too, unless we did it for her it wasn't going to happen. Kids want to make believe, thisbis the best way to get those juices flowing!
Quest is another great RPG with beautiful artwork and simplified game mechanics that works well for kiddos. I run a game for my nieces (6 and 9) and they love it!
This video is so inspiring. I stared my kids in preschool. I’ve been DMing for my kids and students for years. This is the video I kept referencing when I started my RUclips channel for parents and teachers and I’ve created my own ruleset and home-brew world.
Average attention span for most kids are 10 minutes. Monotony will shorten that attention span even more. D M be warned 😅 I have used The Deck of Stories woth the 7 dice for D&D and a Dry Erase board to draw each player's stats (HP, a weapon and a special skill). It got them wanting more 😉👍
I just started playing with my son (15) and daughter (11) and some other kids. I can tell you that the longer you play, the less they get concentrated. After one hour, it’s very difficult to keep their attention. Dice keep on falling, they are looking somewhere else, not standing at the table anymore... So keeping their attention is for me the most important part. Other than that, I would say that they are more interested in to the hack and slash game type than anything.
This is a great video. I was thinking to organize a demonstrational event in my area to introduce kids to the RPG world, and your tips will prove really helpful.
Great video! Will be attempting a Hero Kids adventure soon with my kiddos - Any cool kid-friendly puzzle ideas/resources? I’m hoping to make physical props to help immersion and engagement.
My 8 year old and I play Call of Cthulhu. We set the game in Gravity Falls. I just keep it as light as the show and changed the insanity mechanic to a " get scared and run away" mechanic.
Thanks for the advice. So I clicked on this video because my three year old wants to play "the dice game with monsters" and I'm delighted to get her involved in our games. I'm thinking Hero Kids or Tiny Dungeons/Frontiers is the best choice to begin with, but she is entranced with the artwork of ICRPG. Year Zero Mini looks pretty hackable for kids too. My eight year old wants to play more "actual" D&D though... Fun times ahead either way.
Thinking about introducing my kids (and me!) to games like this because they always looked like they would be fun. Really appreciate the video - plenty of practical tips in there!
Thank you, my little siblings are the only people who will play with me and the oldest is 11 and the youngest is 7 and I’m 14 and I really want to make it fun and easy for them.
I've started playing with my 8 and 11 year olds (the 3 year old is still a little young). Thanks for the tips. I definitely need to work on the flexibility, and not just with the kids, with the game in general. Everyone has their own imagination and I've been working on letting them into my world.
Thanks for the video. I'm slowly planning to help teach my children when, and if, they want to play. But I'm going to do a type of campaign to start them off by making their character with them for their first one. Starting at level 0 in a way. Hope it works and they want to do it.
I tried to RPG when my children were 6, 6 & 7. They did nothing but try desperately to get away from the prepared material. They wanted to explore random tangents and had zero interest in the mystery that presented itself in the first encounter. It was my fist attempt at being a GM, so I really needed that prepared campaign material.
I started playing in Ye Olde 90s with my brothers who are much older than me as a like 5 or 6 year old. Having experienced it from that point tip 6 from me is: kids are a lot more capable than you think they are at this kind of thing, don't be afraid to actually challenge them to some degree.
I play with my kid, 6 to 12, using the Tranchons et Traquons RPG system. I don't know if the system is or will be made in english, but I hope so. I've seen Hero Kids, but I think T&T is even better to show the player's creativity. Thanks for your video, it was very interresting!
My kids (6 and 4): - love combat - love quirky characters and funny voices - love equipment / magic items - love pets pets more pets (alien pets) - love and naturally blend magic, superpowers and technology - love doing tons of actions per round 😂 (but one at a time works now) - rescue missions / do good We used to play a homebrew fantasy/DnD and now play a Starport based homebrew version. What does not work: - too long sessions - math with dice/abilities - knock them out / sleepy (loosing powers was working better like its the case in Starport) - monsters breaking their stuff in combat 😅 - failing 50% (even DnD is at a 2/3 ratio of succeeding, so if using some homebrew mechanic take this into account)
I will be using the DnD for kids from Dungeon Craft. Only 3 attributes and just target numbers. My boys like some good smashing, so I think we'll have mostly dungeon crawling.
I have regular tables with some 5 years old kids on them. Works well within a max one hour session with clear goals. I'm using Hero Kids for them Thanks for your video
of course kids can play, "let's pretend" is their favorite game and this just adds a bit of structure to the game ...this video showed up in my timeline with great timing, just about to run a game for a family where the dad is new to 5th edition but played earlier ones a long time ago and the kids are playing for the first time
Personally was never bothered if my kids got into RPG's, it was my hobby not theirs. But both over the years have asked to play, my eldest son (now 20) now games with the group I've been playing with since I was his age. My youngest, 13, now plays in a group I run for the next generation of my gaming group, with all the kids of the players in our group. I'm running Star Wars, keeping it free form and fun, and although with the adults I don't do voices, I'm fine about performing for the kids. It's been turning out great.
My 7 year old has been playing with me for about 6 or 7 months now and loves hack and slash games, she just ran her own game for me, my dad and my cousin and did pretty well. She's really into both playing but it seems like she likes creating the games and stories more so I'm teaching her how to do so and keeping a narrative (kind of) and she's taking to it like a fish to water. Oh, and we've been playing dnd 5e, I looked for simpler systems but she took to 5e so fast we just rolled with it.
Yeah as a 6th grader dming one 4th grader, two 5th grader, one 6th grader and one 9th grader its quite hard for them to be engaged or not be distracted. (especially the 5th grader) Thanks for this advice.
My 6 year old starting playing monopoly at 4,then at 5 catan junior, Flash point and now at 6 catan, catan cities and knights. And this week adventure game book called The legion of shadow. I think he'll definitely like a d&d style games soon.
I'm interested in introducing my niece and nephew to dungeons and dragons, and I wanted other people's opinions of which system to start with. My niece is 10 and would not be interested in anything dark, but I don't want her 13 yo brother to be bored. What games have you found that are safe enough for the young ones, but still 'cool' enough for the teens? Or what methods did you use to up the cool factor enough for the older ones?
D&D 5e is good for kids when they reach about 7. A play a lot with kids and D&D 5e worked for a 6yr. you may need to explain a little but they get the hang of it
I think Mutant: Genlab Alfa is a pretty good fit for younger kids. It's dark and scary enough that it does not seem like a game "for kids", without having much that's too mature in the player's section of the book. And you're playing mutated sapient animals who walk on two legs and use bows, muskets or other such things, which is inherently funny. And you can really scale the darkness of the setting to your audience. If you play with younger kids you can easily turn it into an adventure where they just go out into the wild and fight scary-sounding monsters and save the day, while if you're playing with older kids you can start to bring in some of the darker themes of the setting like the fact that the animals are not actually free, but live in what's basically a huge test facility, with robots taking away animals for experimentation.
Also the rules are simple to explain. You add your attribute and your skill and roll that number of dice. Anything that comes up a 6 is good. If you want to make the game easier you give them a few extra stats and skills, which has the added advantage of letting them roll more dice, which is always fun.
WASD20, I'm gearing up for a one off using FATE with my niece and nephew, 8 and 10 respectively. What are your thoughts? I think FATE offers up a lot of flexibility but relative structure as an introductory ttrpg. I want to introduce them to more advanced systems but I think FATE is a good starting point
My 6yo kid insists on using his Lego figures and playing as Obi-Wan Kenobi with a lightsaber, hence it's hard to find an adventure that suits his character level but still easy enough to follow for a kid. Currently tackling Star Wars D6
WASD20 Campaign went great! Made a good mix of dialogue and combat which she seemed to respond well too, and we played for almost an hour. She was heartbroken when we stopped, but is excited to do it again tomorrow. Thanks for the video!
This has me wondering if there's ever been anyone who's played a game where it's only them as the Playable Character. Just the dungeon master and one other person.
Tunnels & Trolls by Ken St. Andre , Flying Buffalo Games is a great way to introduce kids to FRPG's. It's, what I call D&D Lite. It gets them used the to story telling and basic game mechanics preparing them for D&D 5e.
Any recommendations for a roleplaying game between Hero Kids and D&D. I think my kids are too old for Hero Kids, but too young for D&D unless I create a custom campaign which I don't really have the time for. Many thanks!
Cool video man, good tips, about to get my 5 and 6 yo's started in Fantasy AGE with the chars they session zeroed (basically just asking questions in the most fantastical sense and then interpreting). My wife has a PC and I'm DM'ing, so I'm trying to find "over-their-heads" tropes and moments to include so she has a good time too. She was a power gamer before she was a mother, and escort missions are notoriously her expressly least favorite, anyone have any subversive suggestions I could use?
I run a game for my eight and eleven year old and their twelve year old friend, I find it tricky to manage the level of suspense and peril as too much and the youngest gets scared, too little and it gets dull or unhelpfully silly.
Hey Nate, sorry for posting here. I could not find an email or other appropriate contact specific area. So 2 questions: 1. Is this a good place to contact you from? If not, then where? 2. Is there an equipment sheet, [similar to World of Warcraft MMO or other. Like armour slots, jewelry, weapon slots, etc], showing the amount of slots available to a character to wear? This would allow me and my son to see more clearly which slots are not filled yet and which slots can be swapped out with improved gear. Sorry if this is an ‘obvious’ question but it seems I cant find a good answer and a google search came up blank despite rewording the search a few times. Also posted this on WASD20.net but it seems here might get a quicker response. Apologies for duplication
Excelentes consejos. Yo aun sin experiencia hice un bachillerato de ttrpgs en youtube y logre interesar a varios grupo de adolescentes en un juego homebrew del planeta Marte. Creo que tiene mucho que ver en como el DM narra las cosas y permite como dicen abajo en los comentarios que los pc tomen decisiones creativas.
I let my 3 year old roll but he really wants to talk about the monsters haha he loves the Beholder but he is not ready to do anything other than roll the die and collect up these D&D the cartoon figs from the store this Summer.
im 14 and im looking for kid friendly d&d channels. by kid friendly i mean no profanity or sexual content. i love dungeons and dragons and i dont play it a lot because my dad is trying to move the d&d room upstairs and stuff so i was wondering if you had any channels to recommend to me that have humor and stuff, thanks.
Ugh kids can be frustrating, distracted and disruptive. They say they want to play but then do nothing to show interest in their character and after many sessions still don't know where anything is on their sheets
I started my kids at 4 and 6 with a game called Castles and Cats. To make things easier for them I used a large whiteboard, divided the board into 4ths, each section for a character. Used a combo of dry erase marker to write information on, let them draw hearts for example to track their health. For equipment the game had cards you could print out so I attached a magnet to the back of a card sleeve and put the equipment in each of their character slots. I bought large foam dice for them to roll on the floor. Instead of minis, they picked stuffies they had that represented characters, did some minor arts and craft projects for the boss fights. Kept the games short and they had a blast with it.
Pro tip: First encounter of their first adventure needs to be a beholder and TPK them! Let them know, Daddy don't play, right out of the gate. I'm joking, that's terrible advice. Don't...don't do that.
I'm running for a group of 9 yr olds. I can do one encounter ... then food ... then one encounter. As for my tips:
I use the Matt Mercer: "how do you want to do this?" when they kill a monster I let them kill the monster in whatever manner they want. If they want the monster to get hit on the head by a hot dog and have the brains splatter everywhere, that's OK with me. Even if they are not wielding a hot dog. Or maybe it is the +5 holy avenger hot dog (or whatever).
I also take some of their off the wall comments as seriously as I can. I view this as providing a solution to their solutions. So if they want to parkour off of the roof, across the alley, land on the head of a fleeing citizen, and knife the evil frost giant in the "boy parts", I'll do my best to figure out how to make that happen. It might take some bending of the "rules" (just make an acrobatics check, with advantage because the rest of the table is laughing their heads off) and then even if the PC misses, I'll give them something (ok... well... you missed, but you get ).
Yes, this is not strictly within the rules, but hey... Captain America can do it, so why not? The point is to have fun, get them engaged, and don't ever forget that this is a GAME.
Nice! Love this.
That's some great tips. Thanks.
I'm a nine yr and i couldn't care less if how gorry they are
Damn you sound like a really patient person
I play Call of Cthulhu with my 10yo son, he often breaks my expectations and plans. When his character was on an investigation looking into the disappearance of several rich New Yorkers at Niagara Falls, he thought that a town drunk was one of the missing rich people. But when the man was unable to go back to New York with him, due to his drunkenness, my son's character went to the town's general store, got some tires, a board and some rope to create a makeshift cart to put the man on. Even though I wanted the game go into a different direction, I let him have that one and awarded his character for his original thinking. Younger kids really like to be rewarded for what they do if they think their character did something cool, or even if they got a lucky roll, so rewards should be more abundant than with older players.
I just started running a D&D adventure for my nieces and nephew. The younger is just a very eager 9yo playing an elf rogue, then we have a 13yo boy playing a tiefling sorcerer and the group leader is a 17yo girl playing a half elf fighter. Being siblings makes it easier for them to work as a team even tho the age gap between them may suggest otherwise. I love these kids and the ideas they come up with. Thanks for the tips!
I started both my son and daughter since 3 ish. No real rules at the beginning , just imagination, but I did use minis and terrain. DnD is pretty much a story you get to shape. I think it definitely kick started their imagination. Now my son is in college spreading pen, paper and dice!
What about your daughter?
Just started my nephews into RPGs with Hero Kids, home brewed a bit to set it into a Skylanders setting (it's their favorite video game and they had the figures so minitures were set). Just picked up No Thank you evil. Looking forward to checking out the Index cards. Totally agree with your tips!
My son and I love D&D (he's 10) and we're going to be teaching a group of neighborhood kids (ages 8 through 13) how to play this weekend. This video was helpful, thank you! This summer I played Magical Kitties Save the Day RPG with my son and nieces (youngest age 7). This game isn't as easy to learn in a short period of time (busy mom/aunt doesn't have all day to read through the material) BUT we pulled it off and it was worth it! Great graphics, the coolest, cutest and badest kitties around! It was a hit and worth the investment of money and time. My 83 year old mother loves the graphics and is interested in trying it out!
I made a very condensed version for my 4yo daughter and she played for four hours! You're so right about keeping it short, we had to keep it very exciting and funny. As for the attacks, we had to time it down quite a bit.
Minimizing addition with modifiers is a must too, unless we did it for her it wasn't going to happen.
Kids want to make believe, thisbis the best way to get those juices flowing!
Quest is another great RPG with beautiful artwork and simplified game mechanics that works well for kiddos. I run a game for my nieces (6 and 9) and they love it!
Nice. I own this one but have never played it.
This video is so inspiring. I stared my kids in preschool.
I’ve been DMing for my kids and students for years.
This is the video I kept referencing when I started my RUclips channel for parents and teachers and I’ve created my own ruleset and home-brew world.
Average attention span for most kids are 10 minutes. Monotony will shorten that attention span even more. D M be warned 😅 I have used The Deck of Stories woth the 7 dice for D&D and a Dry Erase board to draw each player's stats (HP, a weapon and a special skill). It got them wanting more 😉👍
went and bought HeroKids based on this video. my 4 and 6 year-olds had so much fun! used Duplo to build the dungeon full of rats. Thank You.
That’s so cool! Thanks for letting me know. Does my heart good. :)
I just started playing with my son (15) and daughter (11) and some other kids. I can tell you that the longer you play, the less they get concentrated. After one hour, it’s very difficult to keep their attention. Dice keep on falling, they are looking somewhere else, not standing at the table anymore... So keeping their attention is for me the most important part. Other than that, I would say that they are more interested in to the hack and slash game type than anything.
Great topic! Trying on my end to help parents realize kids can play, too, with some adjustments.
This is a great video. I was thinking to organize a demonstrational event in my area to introduce kids to the RPG world, and your tips will prove really helpful.
Great video! Will be attempting a Hero Kids adventure soon with my kiddos - Any cool kid-friendly puzzle ideas/resources? I’m hoping to make physical props to help immersion and engagement.
I’m a 13y old DM for DnD and all my players love dark things so I was shocked! But everything else is a very accurate good job!
Definitely like this background instead of the plain black one.
Always appreciate viewer feedback! Thanks.
My 8 year old and I play Call of Cthulhu. We set the game in Gravity Falls. I just keep it as light as the show and changed the insanity mechanic to a " get scared and run away" mechanic.
That’s great! Sounds super fun. I may have to try it.
Thanks for the advice. So I clicked on this video because my three year old wants to play "the dice game with monsters" and I'm delighted to get her involved in our games. I'm thinking Hero Kids or Tiny Dungeons/Frontiers is the best choice to begin with, but she is entranced with the artwork of ICRPG. Year Zero Mini looks pretty hackable for kids too. My eight year old wants to play more "actual" D&D though...
Fun times ahead either way.
What if I'm the kid and I want to teach my dad to play
Yes. You should.
Uhh I’m trying to do that too actually
Do it! Tell him you want to do something with him and I'm 99% sure he will love it
I wanted too as well and I am getting my family to try to play dnd
Good luck
Thinking about introducing my kids (and me!) to games like this because they always looked like they would be fun. Really appreciate the video - plenty of practical tips in there!
Thank you, my little siblings are the only people who will play with me and the oldest is 11 and the youngest is 7 and I’m 14 and I really want to make it fun and easy for them.
I've started playing with my 8 and 11 year olds (the 3 year old is still a little young). Thanks for the tips. I definitely need to work on the flexibility, and not just with the kids, with the game in general. Everyone has their own imagination and I've been working on letting them into my world.
Thanks for the video. I'm slowly planning to help teach my children when, and if, they want to play. But I'm going to do a type of campaign to start them off by making their character with them for their first one. Starting at level 0 in a way. Hope it works and they want to do it.
I tried to RPG when my children were 6, 6 & 7. They did nothing but try desperately to get away from the prepared material. They wanted to explore random tangents and had zero interest in the mystery that presented itself in the first encounter. It was my fist attempt at being a GM, so I really needed that prepared campaign material.
I started playing in Ye Olde 90s with my brothers who are much older than me as a like 5 or 6 year old. Having experienced it from that point tip 6 from me is: kids are a lot more capable than you think they are at this kind of thing, don't be afraid to actually challenge them to some degree.
Perfect timing! I'm playing Star Wars FFG tonight with my kids!
We’ve played that one! Kids enjoyed it.
I play with my kid, 6 to 12, using the Tranchons et Traquons RPG system. I don't know if the system is or will be made in english, but I hope so. I've seen Hero Kids, but I think T&T is even better to show the player's creativity.
Thanks for your video, it was very interresting!
Im an 11 year old who has played for 2 years and DM 2 games and love D&D
pretty helpful!
though i’m not even playing with young kids...
my group just acts like them...
My kids (6 and 4):
- love combat
- love quirky characters and funny voices
- love equipment / magic items
- love pets pets more pets (alien pets)
- love and naturally blend magic, superpowers and technology
- love doing tons of actions per round 😂 (but one at a time works now)
- rescue missions / do good
We used to play a homebrew fantasy/DnD and now play a Starport based homebrew version.
What does not work:
- too long sessions
- math with dice/abilities
- knock them out / sleepy (loosing powers was working better like its the case in Starport)
- monsters breaking their stuff in combat 😅
- failing 50% (even DnD is at a 2/3 ratio of succeeding, so if using some homebrew mechanic take this into account)
I will be using the DnD for kids from Dungeon Craft.
Only 3 attributes and just target numbers.
My boys like some good smashing, so I think we'll have mostly dungeon crawling.
We started playing today and they really liked it.
My oldest wanted more role-playing yet my youngest 5, doesn't handle not winning well.
I have regular tables with some 5 years old kids on them. Works well within a max one hour session with clear goals.
I'm using Hero Kids for them
Thanks for your video
Great tips. I play Supercrew with my 5 yo and my 8 yo. Simple, short, exciting, age-appropriate, encourages creativity. It ticks all the boxes!
All these tips are good for new players of ALL ages. Trying to introduce your grandpa to RPGs? These tips will help.
What age to start?
Maybe 4, or 5.
Looking at my 1 month old girl.
"I shall water you, and you shall grow. Then the trials begin."
of course kids can play, "let's pretend" is their favorite game and this just adds a bit of structure to the game ...this video showed up in my timeline with great timing, just about to run a game for a family where the dad is new to 5th edition but played earlier ones a long time ago and the kids are playing for the first time
That tip n°4 would've been my tip n°1. Because there are systems that are designed to be flexible and rules lite from the go
My first runs with my sons was with 4,5 years and 7. Worked very well, but massive simplified; )
Personally was never bothered if my kids got into RPG's, it was my hobby not theirs. But both over the years have asked to play, my eldest son (now 20) now games with the group I've been playing with since I was his age. My youngest, 13, now plays in a group I run for the next generation of my gaming group, with all the kids of the players in our group. I'm running Star Wars, keeping it free form and fun, and although with the adults I don't do voices, I'm fine about performing for the kids. It's been turning out great.
Excellent. Sounds like fun!
My 7 year old has been playing with me for about 6 or 7 months now and loves hack and slash games, she just ran her own game for me, my dad and my cousin and did pretty well. She's really into both playing but it seems like she likes creating the games and stories more so I'm teaching her how to do so and keeping a narrative (kind of) and she's taking to it like a fish to water. Oh, and we've been playing dnd 5e, I looked for simpler systems but she took to 5e so fast we just rolled with it.
Wow! So cool!
Ya I'm more than a little proud
Yeah as a 6th grader dming one 4th grader, two 5th grader, one 6th grader and one 9th grader its quite hard for them to be engaged or not be distracted. (especially the 5th grader)
Thanks for this advice.
WOW! It’s cool to see another kid who started dming as early as I did. Started in 5th, now in 9th
Im also in 6th grade and run 2 games! Same for me I did not know about other people my age DM too!!!!
My 6 year old starting playing monopoly at 4,then at 5 catan junior, Flash point and now at 6 catan, catan cities and knights. And this week adventure game book called The legion of shadow. I think he'll definitely like a d&d style games soon.
I'm interested in introducing my niece and nephew to dungeons and dragons, and I wanted other people's opinions of which system to start with. My niece is 10 and would not be interested in anything dark, but I don't want her 13 yo brother to be bored. What games have you found that are safe enough for the young ones, but still 'cool' enough for the teens? Or what methods did you use to up the cool factor enough for the older ones?
Great video , my 3 boys enjoy descent so was thinking of introducing them to 5e. The youngest just turned 7 .
D&D 5e is good for kids when they reach about 7. A play a lot with kids and D&D 5e worked for a 6yr. you may need to explain a little but they get the hang of it
I think Mutant: Genlab Alfa is a pretty good fit for younger kids. It's dark and scary enough that it does not seem like a game "for kids", without having much that's too mature in the player's section of the book. And you're playing mutated sapient animals who walk on two legs and use bows, muskets or other such things, which is inherently funny. And you can really scale the darkness of the setting to your audience. If you play with younger kids you can easily turn it into an adventure where they just go out into the wild and fight scary-sounding monsters and save the day, while if you're playing with older kids you can start to bring in some of the darker themes of the setting like the fact that the animals are not actually free, but live in what's basically a huge test facility, with robots taking away animals for experimentation.
Also the rules are simple to explain. You add your attribute and your skill and roll that number of dice. Anything that comes up a 6 is good. If you want to make the game easier you give them a few extra stats and skills, which has the added advantage of letting them roll more dice, which is always fun.
I’m thinking of running a game for my cousins one is 8 and the other is 7 and these tips definitely helped me decide how to run the game for them
Yay new WASD20 video :)
Another great vid. Doing one myself as part of an Amazing Tales review I was asked to do. Definitely suggest it with a 6yo.
Cool!
WASD20, I'm gearing up for a one off using FATE with my niece and nephew, 8 and 10 respectively. What are your thoughts? I think FATE offers up a lot of flexibility but relative structure as an introductory ttrpg. I want to introduce them to more advanced systems but I think FATE is a good starting point
My 6yo kid insists on using his Lego figures and playing as Obi-Wan Kenobi with a lightsaber, hence it's hard to find an adventure that suits his character level but still easy enough to follow for a kid. Currently tackling Star Wars D6
I’m running a campaign for my six year old sister. So this helps me out a lot, wish me luck.
That's great! Good luck! :D
WASD20 Campaign went great! Made a good mix of dialogue and combat which she seemed to respond well too, and we played for almost an hour. She was heartbroken when we stopped, but is excited to do it again tomorrow.
Thanks for the video!
This has me wondering if there's ever been anyone who's played a game where it's only them as the Playable Character. Just the dungeon master and one other person.
MLP: Tails of Equestria, is a great game for playing with kids, especially if they're into My Little Pony.
Tunnels & Trolls by Ken St. Andre , Flying Buffalo Games is a great way to introduce kids to FRPG's. It's, what I call D&D Lite. It gets them used the to story telling and basic game mechanics preparing them for D&D 5e.
Thanks for the suggestion!
MOUSE GUARD! It is a kid friendly rpg that takes placi in the kingdom described in the graphic novels. Great game great comics/GN!
I’m running a game for like 6-10 ten year olds. We’re using Fate Accelerated and it’s working pretty great right now
Nice!
Definitely try out Tricube Tales!
Nice looking youtuber. Thanks for the video.
I’m about to give it a watch.
I'm so excited to run a fun little game for my neice and nephew
Any recommendations for a roleplaying game between Hero Kids and D&D. I think my kids are too old for Hero Kids, but too young for D&D unless I create a custom campaign which I don't really have the time for. Many thanks!
Awesomw video. I have twin boys 9 and I used to DM more than a decade ago. Just want to start with essentials box. Any other tip?
Cool video man, good tips, about to get my 5 and 6 yo's started in Fantasy AGE with the chars they session zeroed (basically just asking questions in the most fantastical sense and then interpreting). My wife has a PC and I'm DM'ing, so I'm trying to find "over-their-heads" tropes and moments to include so she has a good time too. She was a power gamer before she was a mother, and escort missions are notoriously her expressly least favorite, anyone have any subversive suggestions I could use?
Thanks for this good advice!
Glad it was helpful!
Tiny Dungeons 2e is a great rules light system for kids and adults.
Have you thought about showing us how to draw fantasy cities we have the maps but what about when we take out players into the cities
Thanks dude; this was helpful
I run a game for my eight and eleven year old and their twelve year old friend, I find it tricky to manage the level of suspense and peril as too much and the youngest gets scared, too little and it gets dull or unhelpfully silly.
great video, thanks for the perspective
I know I'm late to this but Toon from Steve Jackson Games is a good choice for young kids.
Little Wizards by Crafty Games is a game system I have for my kids. Planning on running a game for them this summer.
I've seen this one! Looks really cool for very young kids.
I play lego heroica with my daughter who is 3.5. It gets a little crazy sometimes tho lol.
Check out Starport RPG for Kids. It's the only real game that offers amazing adventures with non violence
Thanks!
I am a 12 kid living in egypt extremly into dnd but due to both of those facts most people deny me from roll 20
Check out: Basic Fantasy
Hey Nate, sorry for posting here. I could not find an email or other appropriate contact specific area.
So 2 questions:
1. Is this a good place to contact you from? If not, then where?
2. Is there an equipment sheet, [similar to World of Warcraft MMO or
other. Like armour slots, jewelry, weapon slots, etc], showing the
amount of slots available to a character to wear?
This would allow me and my son to see more clearly which slots are
not filled yet and which slots can be swapped out with improved gear.
Sorry if this is an ‘obvious’ question but it seems I cant find a
good answer and a google search came up blank despite rewording the
search a few times.
Also posted this on WASD20.net but it seems here might get a quicker response. Apologies for duplication
Excelentes consejos. Yo aun sin experiencia hice un bachillerato de ttrpgs en youtube y logre interesar a varios grupo de adolescentes en un juego homebrew del planeta Marte. Creo que tiene mucho que ver en como el DM narra las cosas y permite como dicen abajo en los comentarios que los pc tomen decisiones creativas.
Hi Nate do you play with 2d or 3d minis?????
Both! More 3D these days, as my collection grows. My boys definitely prefer playing with maps and minis. :)
WASD20 I actually prefer playing with 2d minis they are cheaper and I Photoshop them myself
My three year old just started playing table top RPGs with me he's almost four though.
Just ran my first game of Tails of Equestria with my 4 year old.
Me and my friends started when we were about 12-13
I make my 3 year old play a fairy that bounces in an out of the game to give inspiration to her sibling's characters. 😅
#6 Valium!
EliosMoonElios I generally had a glass of red wine when I DM'ed for my young ones :)
good stuff
Good and evil? No thanks. My 4 year old niece is going it deal with baby eating demons next week. But thanks for the other tips ;)
I am 13 and I am trying to start now
I let my 3 year old roll but he really wants to talk about the monsters haha he loves the Beholder but he is not ready to do anything other than roll the die and collect up these D&D the cartoon figs from the store this Summer.
P.S.- Little dude loves Bobby the Barbarian and Uni haha it's great
Amazing tales rpg
im 14 and im looking for kid friendly d&d channels. by kid friendly i mean no profanity or sexual content. i love dungeons and dragons and i dont play it a lot because my dad is trying to move the d&d room upstairs and stuff so i was wondering if you had any channels to recommend to me that have humor and stuff, thanks.
Well, you found my channel. But are you looking for a different type? It's hard to find clean humor, and even harder in the D&D world.
Hey Nate Do you live in Grand Rapids?
Yep.
WASD20 Omg .... I Live in Michigan too!!!!!
I’m thirteen but I prefer longer games, I played a five hour session and it felt short.
pro tip: dont let a child be the dm
How do you convince your parents to play DnD with you
Damn, i have to wait an other 3 years... young kids...
I just saw your likes at 699. That's not right, so I hit it fo u. =)
Ugh kids can be frustrating, distracted and disruptive. They say they want to play but then do nothing to show interest in their character and after many sessions still don't know where anything is on their sheets