I'm looking for some feedback/advice. My youngest son, Tom, has been asking me to run a game of D&D for him (he already plays Warhammer), and eventually some of his friends, for 6 months or so. Having had some building work done on my house I now have a room in which to hold a game away from all the other distractions, so have no excuse not to run a game for him. My problem? My campaign has been running for 25+ years with mostly the same group of players and has a fairly "mature" feel; some of the characters could charitably be called "earthy" and some of the adventures wander into some quite dark territory.
So, I want to run an adventure (or series of adventures) that will sustain and nurture a 10 year old's interest but want to achieve a Greyhawk feel, so that he too will come to love the old setting as much as I do without me being heavy-handed.
Has anybody out there run a game for this age group? If so, what did you run (this is the thing giving me headaches at the moment)? Did you encounter any problems? How did you overcome them?
Any feedback gratefully received. Thanks in advance,
I'm currently running the legendary "Citadel by the Sea" for my ten-year-old. There's always Keep on the Borderlands! I also find that much of the early 2E stuff — while not of the best overall quality — was written with a younger demographic in mind. While some of us may sneer at Gargoyle, your ten-year-old might love it.
I would second DMPrata's recommendation of Return to the Keep on the Border it is pretty clear cut on the good and evil. It had a side track con adventure for a minor relic of St Cuthbert being stolen from a caravan prior to it arriving at The Keep.
The old Greyhawk Adventures source book had those Zero level adventure encounters like Horse Sense and Beaming Up.
What could really work isn't Greyhawk but the AD&D Al-Qadim "Reunion" adventure and dropping it among the Baklunish tribes because one of the three adventures is the kidnapped tribal children escaping their captors and having a few adventures returning home to their tribe.
The Al-Qadim Secrets of the Lamp box setting had a few side track adventures things like the PCs finding a very foolish Djinni and releasing him breaking the lid of jar. The Djinni is so grateful he won't leave and causes the PCs misadventures so it is nice for a DM steering the younger crowd.
You could do an awful lot with the old adventure "Treasure Hunt" adventure ship wrecked children instead of teenagers escaping from pirates and an island about to be sunk by an angry diety.
The old "Dungeonland" adventure could be tweaked for younger adventurers and I believe the pdf is free at Wizard's in the old editions section. Down at the bottom there is also the various Treasure maps.
Border Watch is also nice for starting to level up if you want them starting in Furyondy.
Against the Giants could be fun reclaiming Geoff.
Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk was edited by Erik Mona and it might be fun for them.
A lot of people don't like the Doomgrinder adventure but it has some of that life and death feel stopping it after it is started. Stop the BBEGs from using the magic train to destroy Greyhawk.
They might enjoy some of the Minature Handbook style combats since they are faster and similar to some of the various card games.
There is always the City of Greyhawk street urchin campaign after the war there were a lot of orphans and semi-orphans who were separated from their families in places like the Shield Lands.
Last edited by castlemike on Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:42 pm; edited 1 time in total
I always though the best "starter" module is The Sinister Secret to Saltmarsh, along with its two follow up adventures. Ran them many years ago, great for a 10 year old. If the 1st module goes well, you can continue with the second and third, if the attention span wanes, you can stop after the first adventure. Basically, a haunted house along with some pirates is the basis of the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. It is also a easy first level module.
Little Eileen was about 9 or so when she became a regular in our group. The first module we went through was The Ghost Tower of Inverness followed by White Plume Mountain. I highly reccomend these as well. The levels as you know are a bit higher but I would include them later on in the campaign.
Expect some hand holding, dice mix ups, less roleplaying, that sort of thing. Heck, kids this age are usually entertained simply by travelling from point A to point B and having random encounters in between. I'd stay way from any deep plots. Keep things basic. The kids are likely to pick up on things really fast because you most likely have had roleplaying games going on frequently in the house hold for years, so they have grown up around it.
Little Eileen is now 15 and been DMing for the last 2 years or so. For her it pretty much needs to come out the box. If it isn't a module, it doesn't happen. She got herself started with a after school D&D group organized by one of her teachers. These kids range from 9-10 graders, none of which have experience playing. She's struggling with factors like...
Can we kill the baby owl bears for XP? Can we raise the baby owl bears so they fight for us? What do you mean they need to grow up before they do the same amount of damage as an adult owl bear? Can I pick pocket from my friends? I don't want to tell so and so in the group my secrets but I'll tell everyone else (because I don't like that player), that sort of thing. These are just examples I can pull out of a hat from our conversations about the art of DMing. The above situations are easy to resolve and not stress out over for us, but to a kid, things like this are a big deal. They won't see things through the same colored glasses as you will because of their age. Patience is required.
My daughter picked up on D&D a lot faster than her friends because she had me to tutor her in the home group. The other kids are learning from her. A lot of the "pains" you would encounter with kids probably will be minimized because of your experience. All will go better than you think. You also don't have to worry about impressing your own kids, because you alredy have, that's why they want to play D&D with you in the first place. You'll do well. _________________ Eileen of Greyhawk, Prophet of Istus, Messenger of the Gods
To reiterate Eileen's advice, keep it simple. The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh is an excellent choice to start them off, or the Village of Hommlet. The only problem with that is the conversion to 3.5 (if you're using those rules) which can be a lot of work.
I recently DM'd a 10 and 12 year old through Salvage Operation (By Mike Mearls, Dungeon #123). It was their first game and they had a blast. It's a good low level adventure that can be done in one sitting and I think that's a good way to go for a kid's first game. If it goes well its easy enough to add a few hooks at the end to nudge them into the next game, and a one-off session won't overwhelm them with too much info to digest. Its a great way to guage their interest.
I've been running a campaign for my 5-, 6-, and 8-year-old children for around a year now (I think, but who's counting?). Simplicity is the key. The first few scenarios I ran for them involved nothing more than a map, some minis, and whatever monsters and situations I randomly pulled out of my...imagination. I use a highly-modified d20 rules system, but your 10-year-old could probably handle the rules with no modifications at all if he reads well. Surprisingly, I've found the best adventures in old issues of Dungeon and, especially, Dragon magazine (Citadel by the Sea is one of my faves, too, Prata). The plots are simple, the mechanics aren't overly difficult, and you never have to worry about objectionable materials (*cough*-paizo-*cough*).
Dungeon #110 Buzz in the Bridge meeting the little Halflings picking flowers and bridge adventure with the giant bees. You can change the "wine" to Harry Potter style honey beer or rootbeer or make the winery a bakery or candy store of some kind. The bees can be smoked out instead of killed.
Prata and Bubba suggested Citadel by the Sea, which I agree is also a good starter module. The other thing I forgot to mention is that Little Eileen had a hard time with the idea that when something bad happens to your character that it isn't the end of the world. I had more than one counseling situation on my hands between the ages of 9-11 or so. Boys will probably take these things better at that age. Getting across to them that nothing has to be final helps. _________________ Eileen of Greyhawk, Prophet of Istus, Messenger of the Gods
Thanks, everybody. There's loads of great advice in the above, much appreciated.
You know, my first thought was Keep on the Borderlands because it, along with In Search Of The Unknown I think, was among the first adventures I ran. Trouble is I've lost my copy and the Return To version seems to be hard to get hold of.
The Saltmarsh modules I've always wanted to run, so what a great opportunity. Why didn't I think of that? Just have to try to track them down because I'm not sure that I've got them. The first one, maybe.
Most of the Dungeon adventures I've probably got stored away in a cupboard so I'll check them out. Most of the stuff castlemike suggested I've also got, so that's great too.
Eileen, I love The Ghost Tower. If my main group don't do it, and heaven knows I've tried over the last 6 months, then I'm going to let Tom do it.
The only thing I've never heard of, unless my memory is really slipping, is Citadel By The Sea. Can anyone jog my memory or point me in the right direction?
Finally, it's great to hear that others are having a great time gaming with the kids I hope my experiences are as good as yours seem to be.
Citadel by the Sea was a Dragon magazine published adventure, I think somewhere around issue 82 if memory serves me correctly. Don't quote me on the issue number but if your collection is more organized than mine you'll find it soon enough. Oh hang on a minute, I'll feel guilty if I don't go find it for you. Can you wait......18 minutes and 14 seconds later....
You'll have to forgive me, it is in issue #78. My bad. Levels 1-3, 1st place module design contest even. If you have the issue check it out. _________________ Eileen of Greyhawk, Prophet of Istus, Messenger of the Gods
Thanks, Eileen. Tragically my Dragon/Dungeon collection is likely to be less organised than yours, especially after our building project, but knowing the number is a huge help.
RPG Now is good for a PDF under $5 and you can download them up to 5 times (It was nice after I lost my computer and the backup dvd). I believe there is a collection of 10 or so that has Keep on the Borderlands.
Wizard's still has the following free: B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, Dungeonland and the Land Beyond the Mirror, Needle and the Secret of Bone Hill and Maps (side treks) in the Previous Edition Downloads.
"Something's Cooking" in the Original downloads section could also be fun.
Ummm...yea, Chapter, 18, part 12, subsection 3, paragraph 458, otherwise just turn to page 917, you should be able to find it without any problems. _________________ Eileen of Greyhawk, Prophet of Istus, Messenger of the Gods
castlemike, thanks for steering me to RPG now. I hadn't heard of it before; what a treasure trove, I spent a hour just looking around. This can't be good for my health, and certainly isn't good for my wealth.
bubbagump kindly sent me a 3.5 version of Citadel By The Sea. I've had a brief skim through it and it looks just the thing I was after, along with the Saltmarsh module and Keep On The Borderlands. I can place the latter pair quite easily but, for those that have used it, where did you place the Citadel in the Flanaess? I guess with a younger audience exact placement isn't really necessary but I want to get as much a sense of continuity as possible. Who knows, one day the younger group may cross paths (or swords) with the older.
bubbagump kindly sent me a 3.5 version of Citadel By The Sea. I've had a brief skim through it and it looks just the thing I was after, along with the Saltmarsh module and Keep On The Borderlands. I can place the latter pair quite easily but, for those that have used it, where did you place the Citadel in the Flanaess? I guess with a younger audience exact placement isn't really necessary but I want to get as much a sense of continuity as possible. Who knows, one day the younger group may cross paths (or swords) with the older.
It's not an exact fit, but I placed the hamlet of Awad on the northern coast of North Province/Kingdom (depending on your era), just east of the t in Bellport on the Darlene map. This puts it on a trade route between Bellport and Kaport Bay, as suggested in the adventure. Many suggested the Wild Coast / Pomarj region, but the climate didn't seem to fit, given the quippers in the ocean and the preponderance of orcs in plate mail.
Well if you wanted The Citadel adventure to be part of a campaign with Slatmarsh( Which I also highly recommend) Just have it along the southwest coast of Keoland near the Hool.
I've used CbtS several times: In the mid-'80s it was on the Wild Coast. A couple of years later it was just up the coast from Saltmarsh. Then, it was on an island off the coast of Hepmonaland, relocating to an island in Nyr Dyv a year or two later. At one point it was on the coast near Folly (Zagyg's mischievous uninhabited town). It existed simultaneously in the Bone March and deep in the Vesve for a while. Currently, it has become landlocked and can be found about half a day south and east of the Temple of Elemental Evil.
I keep promising myself that someday I'll design a series of adventures to explain why so many ruins IMC have the same floorplan....
castlemike, thanks for steering me to RPG now. I hadn't heard of it before; what a treasure trove, I spent a hour just looking around. This can't be good for my health, and certainly isn't good for my wealth.
Glad it helped. Just in case you aren't aware of this resource it has a lot of interesting fan based adventures many are very good:
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