newyorkjoe
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 16
Preferred Game Systems: Savage Worlds, Palladium, BRP, 0e/1e
Favorite Species of Monkey: undecided
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Post by newyorkjoe on Feb 25, 2015 20:00:40 GMT -8
I see or hear people ask about the best games to introduce RPGs to kids. Most of them seem to be parents that are out of the hobby for years, but now want to introduce their children to RPGs. I went through that, and here are my recommendations considering my own starting experience and my family experience with kids of about 10 years old. Except for D&D at #1 there is no meaning to the order. - D&D - any starter set from old 0e Basic through new 5e. This is the game that got vast majority of kids started for over 30 years. The various starter sets include everything a beginner needs. While the 5e Starter Set does not include rules for making custom player characters, WotC offers those rules as a free download. Interestingly a neighbor kid recently asked my family "Did you hear of a game called D&D? I hear there is a new version."
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness - The official TMNT licensed titles are out of print. The latest version is "After the Bomb", and it still published, see the After the Bomb Web page. In my discussions with other gamers, this is the second most common introductory game for kid players over the years. The other day, I told my son that we could play an RPG like Guardians of the Galaxy. He wanted a character like Rocket Raccoon, except as a bear with an Uzi. Palladium Books has this covered with several titles: After the Bomb, Heroes Unlimited, and Rifts. While we opted for to make the character in Rifts, After the Bomb or Heroes Unlimited, another Palladium title, can handle it with a somewhat simpler rule set and more balance when compared to Rifts. Also, consider the Robotech RPG for a pure science fiction RPG with a TV show for reference. The Palladium system superficially looks like the d20 system, but after playing it you realize it is not d20.
- Dragon Age - Set 1 or the starter set is available as a PDF from the publisher, Green Ronin. No knowledge of the popular computer RPG needed. The game was released between D&D 4e and 5e. It seemed to go for that old school D&D feel. Like most starter sets, it includes everything for beginners. I played this with my family. It uses the d6 AGE system, not d20, but the feel is very similar to old school D&D, and the set 1 books provide simple guidance for new gamers. However, it looks like Green Ronin diverted development resources to other titles after WotC released D&D 5e with its very similar starter set. Dragon Age is available at DriveThruRPG
- Star Frontiers - The second RPG I played as kid. TSR released it in the post Star Wars movie error before there was an official Star Wars RPG. The original set was a typical beginners box. The rules are simple using its own d00 system that is similar to d20. Legally free downloads of the complete Star Frontiers line are available at starfrontiers.com.
- Star Wars Beginner Game by Fantasy Flight - Every kid knows the setting. While any of the three beginner games should work well, I have Edge of the Empire. It includes everything to play with pregenerated characters. I found that the beginner game explains the dice rules much more clearly than the 450 page full rule book. The big book is needed to make your own characters, and that process is actually fast and easy following the step by step rules. I recently bought the game and admit that I have yet to play it with the exception of character creation, so I am not sure about its dice pool building with kids. The core dice rules are similar to the Fantasy Flight X-Wing dice system which my family loves, and the RPG adds extra bonuses and penalties that add some complexity to process, but it is probably a bigger problem for adults that may over think the system.
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wellmoustachioed
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 23
Preferred Game Systems: Trail of Cthulhu, FATE, Dungeon World
Currently Playing: Diaspora in Fate Core
Currently Running: Trail of Cthulhu
Favorite Species of Monkey: Proboscis
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Post by wellmoustachioed on Feb 26, 2015 7:14:50 GMT -8
I don't have much experience at teaching games to kids, except when they drop into con games next to me. Looking back on my own experiences as a young gamer, I cut my teeth on the TMNT RPG. I've still got some of my old books, and flipping through them, I wonder how I ever learned to play! The rules are inconsistent, lead to flat murder-hobo PCs, and are generally pretty baroque. However, I loved the Ninja Turtles growing up. Playing a mutant animal that kicks butt was what I was excited to be doing. I think that's the key to introducing gaming to kids. What are they interested in? Fantasy, anime, Harry Potter, Legos? That's the kind of game to play. I feel like adults underestimate kids' ability to handle more complex rule systems. I think that's nonsense. They won't get it all right away, but kids have the time and focus for things they are into to learn all about it. Those kids I played with and helped out in Pathfinder and Call of Cthulhu con games? As long as they got to be effective and participate in the story- they were hooked. By the end of the session, they were picking up the right dice and making active choices for their characters. And to undercut my argument above, here are some recommendations. - D&D - Absolutely. While I would choose Dungeon World, any of the versions of D&D give you the vocabulary in gaming to progress into other games.
- Fate Accelerated (FAE) - With it's flexibility on describing how you do things, and it's portability into any setting you care to name, FAE is a great choice.
- Golden Sky Stories - A low conflict game about animals that help people out. A nice choice if you don't want to have a lot of violence in your kid's games. I haven't played it yet, but I think a lot of us could stand to try a game with no combat.
(I didn't realize I had so much to say! Maybe I should teach some kids to play...)
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Post by HourEleven on Feb 26, 2015 19:05:45 GMT -8
My favorite is the freebie Dungeon Squad. www.dropbox.com/s/68dv7o0ua0ldkuc/dungeon%20squad%20corebook.pdf?dl=0It teaches the different die types, has remedial versions of skills and classes, and is a very paired down version of "traditional" games - a good lead in towards the D&D track. There's scifi hacks for it, and a zillion plug ins to slowly make it more complex.
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Post by ayslyn on Feb 26, 2015 21:04:02 GMT -8
I backed Adventure Maximus and really like it's approach.
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fredrix
Master Douchebag
Posts: 2,142
Preferred Game Systems: Fate, L5R, Pendragon, Gumshoe, Feng Shui
Currently Playing: Pendragon, Song of Ice and Fire, L5R, Feng Shui, Traveller
Currently Running: Fate, Coriolis, Nights Black Agents
Favorite Species of Monkey: 1970's NTV, dubbed by the BBC (though The Water Margin beats it)
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Post by fredrix on Feb 27, 2015 4:48:43 GMT -8
While I'm not a fan of games written especially for kids, I have to give a shout out to Dan Solis' Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple. It's not strictly an RPG, but it's a great story games that's so Fate-like there's. a FAE version coming soon.
FAE has been my standby in turning arguments over "let's pretend" games into the beginnings of actual role playing.
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Post by ericfromnj on Feb 27, 2015 8:09:57 GMT -8
Faery's Tales. Just ran a group of nine year olds through a game.
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Post by Probie Tim on Feb 27, 2015 8:33:36 GMT -8
Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox is great for teaching kids. Brave Halfling's Dagger for Kids is also great. Far Away Land would be a good one, too.
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fredrix
Master Douchebag
Posts: 2,142
Preferred Game Systems: Fate, L5R, Pendragon, Gumshoe, Feng Shui
Currently Playing: Pendragon, Song of Ice and Fire, L5R, Feng Shui, Traveller
Currently Running: Fate, Coriolis, Nights Black Agents
Favorite Species of Monkey: 1970's NTV, dubbed by the BBC (though The Water Margin beats it)
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Post by fredrix on Feb 27, 2015 10:17:52 GMT -8
Faery's Tales. Just ran a group of nine year olds through a game. Now you see, that's the game that put me off games for kids. The mechanics are fine, but it imposed to ridged a diagesis on my daughter. Her fairies weren't like the ones in the book. Now of course, as GM maybe I should have been quicker to adapt. But what love about FAE is that it adapts on the fly. My kids ideas are like, well they are like the Lego movie, and FAE runs that very well.
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Post by ericfromnj on Feb 27, 2015 12:01:46 GMT -8
Too what a what?
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fredrix
Master Douchebag
Posts: 2,142
Preferred Game Systems: Fate, L5R, Pendragon, Gumshoe, Feng Shui
Currently Playing: Pendragon, Song of Ice and Fire, L5R, Feng Shui, Traveller
Currently Running: Fate, Coriolis, Nights Black Agents
Favorite Species of Monkey: 1970's NTV, dubbed by the BBC (though The Water Margin beats it)
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Post by fredrix on Feb 27, 2015 12:13:16 GMT -8
Sorry, that's my study coming through: "diagesis" is the fancy word for "story world"
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Post by ericfromnj on Mar 3, 2015 5:45:23 GMT -8
Sorry, that's my study coming through: "diagesis" is the fancy word for "story world" LOL. I thought your spell check went berserk. Well, I learned a new world, which is cool. As for my kids, their entire exposure to faeries has been mostly a Disney experience (actually the 2 boys in the group had no clue at all) so I didn't run into any of that. The only part that made me realize they need to read more Fairy Tales in general was they basically played the Jack and the Beanstalk story and one of my nieces suddenly exclaimed "This is like Into the Woods!"
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Post by CreativeCowboy on Mar 3, 2015 5:46:05 GMT -8
Here is a resource a member of the LinkedIn group suggested, back when this was a social discussion there: www.theescapist.com/ypal/ I think any RPGs would be good to play with kids so long as the rulebooks were not involved - only the GM. (Same as my advice for players new to the hobby.) If my daughter wants to learn how to play RPGs, if her parents' horror stories do not turn her off, she will learn as did I. She will have a character sheet for stats and resource management, and surprise me with all the wonderful and creative ideas she can suggest. And, later, she can make her own character to join the pre-gen (supposing the pre-gen survives). She'll learn, at least she will from me, that it is only a game, a social game for fun; not to nerd out or stress on it; or become a professional. She will learn to work collaboratively with other players so that she can be accepting of others.
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Post by ericfromnj on Mar 3, 2015 5:47:02 GMT -8
OH, my local game store starts out every kid in Dungeon World and has them progress to different games from there. No clue if that works or not though...
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redcy
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 12
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Post by redcy on Mar 9, 2015 14:31:08 GMT -8
I see or hear people ask about the best games to introduce RPGs to kids. Most of them seem to be parents that are out of the hobby for years, but now want to introduce their children to RPGs. I went through that, and here are my recommendations considering my own starting experience and my family experience with kids of about 10 years old. Except for D&D at #1 there is no meaning to the order. - D&D - any starter set from old 0e Basic through new 5e. This is the game that got vast majority of kids started for over 30 years. The various starter sets include everything a beginner needs. While the 5e Starter Set does not include rules for making custom player characters, WotC offers those rules as a free download. Interestingly a neighbor kid recently asked my family "Did you hear of a game called D&D? I hear there is a new version."
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness - The official TMNT licensed titles are out of print. The latest version is "After the Bomb", and it still published, see the After the Bomb Web page. In my discussions with other gamers, this is the second most common introductory game for kid players over the years. The other day, I told my son that we could play an RPG like Guardians of the Galaxy. He wanted a character like Rocket Raccoon, except as a bear with an Uzi. Palladium Books has this covered with several titles: After the Bomb, Heroes Unlimited, and Rifts. While we opted for to make the character in Rifts, After the Bomb or Heroes Unlimited, another Palladium title, can handle it with a somewhat simpler rule set and more balance when compared to Rifts. Also, consider the Robotech RPG for a pure science fiction RPG with a TV show for reference. The Palladium system superficially looks like the d20 system, but after playing it you realize it is not d20.
- Dragon Age - Set 1 or the starter set is available as a PDF from the publisher, Green Ronin. No knowledge of the popular computer RPG needed. The game was released between D&D 4e and 5e. It seemed to go for that old school D&D feel. Like most starter sets, it includes everything for beginners. I played this with my family. It uses the d6 AGE system, not d20, but the feel is very similar to old school D&D, and the set 1 books provide simple guidance for new gamers. However, it looks like Green Ronin diverted development resources to other titles after WotC released D&D 5e with its very similar starter set. Dragon Age is available at DriveThruRPG
- Star Frontiers - The second RPG I played as kid. TSR released it in the post Star Wars movie error before there was an official Star Wars RPG. The original set was a typical beginners box. The rules are simple using its own d00 system that is similar to d20. Legally free downloads of the complete Star Frontiers line are available at starfrontiers.com.
- Star Wars Beginner Game by Fantasy Flight - Every kid knows the setting. While any of the three beginner games should work well, I have Edge of the Empire. It includes everything to play with pregenerated characters. I found that the beginner game explains the dice rules much more clearly than the 450 page full rule book. The big book is needed to make your own characters, and that process is actually fast and easy following the step by step rules. I recently bought the game and admit that I have yet to play it with the exception of character creation, so I am not sure about its dice pool building with kids. The core dice rules are similar to the Fantasy Flight X-Wing dice system which my family loves, and the RPG adds extra bonuses and penalties that add some complexity to process, but it is probably a bigger problem for adults that may over think the system.
I have the Star Wars Age of Rebellion Beginners box, and play it with my 9yo. The dice pool is easy to make (the beginner sheets show you how the pool should look), the symbols make it easier to work out whether you succeed or not, and if you have a Triumph you get special effects. The dice are narrative, and aide in getting my girl to make up the story as she goes, when we get in a battle I get her to explain how the scene would look. The beginners box also includes neat maps, dice, tokens, etc. You dont need those to play the game but kids love the visual nature of them
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Post by kaitoujuliet on Mar 10, 2015 5:46:48 GMT -8
I've never had the chance to try it for myself, sadly, but Kenzer & Co. makes a fun-looking game called Dawg: the RPG. The characters are all dogs. Should be fun for kids, and I've definitely heard stories of other people successfully introducing kids to gaming through Dawg.
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