It’s kinda crazy for me to think about. Story time! Otherwise just ask me anything :)

Around 11 years ago, I sat in the lounge that the Video Game Club occupies once a month on college campus. I looked over and saw a group of gamers go into one of the meeting rooms attached to the lounge - but instead of laptops or gaming consoles, they had books and dice and paper. I scoffed and thought they were too nerdy and cringey - I then went back to munching Doritos, chugging MtDew, and playing Borderlands/Skyrim/Pokemon for the next 12 hours lol.

Thankfully I was saved from my misguided views. A member of the VGC invited me to try out DnD, his group had an open spot. I was hesitant, but I craved more creativity in games that just couldn’t be supplied. So I decided to try it out.

Ended up not having a great time. One player was entirely checked out for 80% of the time and was a scumbag during the 20% he was engaged. The DM either was very new, or just had some very questionable calls. There were of course some fun moments but not a great impression.

I knew the game had potential. And I knew I could run it better.

So 10yrs ago today, my Players Handbook arrived, which is when I really began my journey to learning the rules, how to make characters, and how to run the game.

I’ve since had a few successfully completed long term games, including one that was over 5 years. I’ve ran a game at a convention, I’ve done some paid birthday parties, in person and online long campaigns, even some very successful afterschool programs while I was a teacher for a few years.

At my peak, I was running 4 games weekly. Since then I’ve slowed down a bit more and focus on two good weekly games.

Willing to share tips or stories for any who ask :) otherwise I just wanted to share this milestone.

  • smartalec13@lemmy.worldOP
    2·
    15 hours ago

    Yeah I have done a few short campaigns for kids. In general my advice is lowing your expectations and simplifying the game. And of course, making sure the themes don’t get too dark.

    1. With a 5 or under, you’ll want to keep things to just simple choices and results, less character sheets and specific skills.
    2. In similar vain, they aren’t playing 5e Tiefling Sorcerer with all the specific features and spells. They’re wizard or they’re knight or they’re princess warrior or whatever they decide to be. I mean you can try doing actual sheets, but I feel like kids that young won’t do well with it
    3. Unsure on dice, but if you’re worried about them you could get large novelty foam dice, it would be fun
    4. Game systems can be visually displayed for the kids. Money is candy pieces or cereal or something. Health are toothpicks (colored red for extra effect) that they break when lost.
    5. Obviously, don’t describe the details of violence. Keep it Marvel, they “beat them up”. There aren’t blood altars and nightmarish monsters.
    6. If you’re going to play with character sheets, make custom ones with very easy to find abilities and features. And don’t bother with ribbon/fluff abilities like Dwarven stonecunning.

    Now, if the kids were a bit older (12-8) then you could use character sheets and add a bit more of the details back. But again, there will still be things to keep in mind.

    1. Most kids don’t do great at actually roleplaying as a character they created. Some might struggle with making the character. If it’s easier to just pick a character from a piece of media (“I wanna be Thor!”) that works. Often it’s fine that kids just insert themselves - their characters are them.
    2. Beware the self insert - when kids experience loss, it can be rough, depending on the kid. Some are real champs and it rolls right off of them, they understand it’s part of the game. But others, character death isn’t something they can handle. Try to gauge which type your kids are, and don’t be afraid to lean the dice in their favor now and then.
    3. Have a safety net. Maybe they’ve got an experienced retired veteran with them. They can’t normally fight because they’re old and retired, but if a fight goes bad maybe they spring into action! Key is to focus on helping the players, not taking the spotlight. But I’ve found overall that kids like having a cool older/veteran character around. Or maybe, they safety net is like a revival necklace that gives them 3 lives - it’ll feel a bit videogamey but Jumanji-like movies are popular for a reason

    Finally, yes kinda. While working at a coding center for kids (learn to code and play videogames) I ran a weekend DnD club program, and we had a range of 7 to 13. I used some of the strategies above, though I did use real character sheets with them that we color coded.

    Success with age gap relies on the two kids understanding and accepting that things will be uneven but that’s okay. Not something you always need to ask them, some kids and especially siblings do well naturally at just enjoying the game itself.

    Sorry that’s a lot! I used to be a camp counselor and teacher so DnD with kids is right up my alley