DND Starter

splashthecash

Hey all, was thinking of picking up a DND boardgame (Fifth Edition starter) for me and the kids to play - I have never played DND before, nor have they....my young lad is just turned 7 and daughter is 8 - would the game be too difficult for them to grasp? My limited knowledge of it points to there being a lot to it, magic spells\levelling the character\etc..

Also, how long do a typical game last for (apologies is this is a how long is a piece of string question)

Banjo

I am pretty new to the game and haven't played face to face so can't answer the last question but as to the first, If *you* understand the game, they don't really need to 'cause you can bring them along. Knowing the rules and mechanics well makes it easier to do fun things for them that you know the ruleset will support. But you're in charge, so if you say it happened it happened, and 5e seems very flexible about allowing you to do as you please.

Keep it simple - give them pre-made characters that will appeal to them so they don't have to make any tough choices before you start, and you can control what *you* need to learn about (2 races, 2 classes, 2 subclasses, instead of the entire book!). Let them draw their character or build them out of the contents of your recycling bin, so it's theirs. Give 'em a voice! Give 'em a catchphrase! Give 'em an allergy! Stuff that doesn't affect the game but lets your kids start playing along with stuff they can understand immediately without it seeming like homework.

Find an existing module that reviews well and seems not too difficult. Make sure you know it well so you can enjoy the session and not be reading back and forth when they try to do anything. Make sure at least 1 of the NPCs has a stupid voice that you *have* to put on every time he speaks (if your kids are 7 and 8, and it's clear that you don't want to put on the voice, the whole game will be them asking that guy questions).
OR
Make it up as you go along - as long as you all draw a map as you go you can just ad lib it. They're 7 and 8! They don't know you're stealing from the Goonies or they're playing an elfed up PG version of Carlito's Way!

Depending on your kids, you may want to fudge battles a little bit so that they scrape through where they should have lost, or keep killing off their characters in more and more cruel ways, whatever they're going to find fun. You might also want to put your own character into the game to guide them along and get them into trouble or give them someone to save, Jar-Jar the hell out of that game!

7 and 8 year olds are going to want to win more than they're going to want to be true to the source material - give them crazy overpowered items to win battles against crazy overpowered enemies, give them genies then twist their wishes in fun and infuriating ways, as much as possible if they want to do something let them do it - but with consequences, if it's too mad. D&D is at it's best when you're facing certain death and then you remember that scroll of Dragon Banishing or the Wand of Flatulence you've had in your bag since last november that you never thought you'd have a use for.

Can't speak for all kids, but certainly for mine, if every time they roll a 3 you force a burb and sing "Threeeeee!" at the same time, they will remember this as the best night of their lives. I think my kids need to grow up a little though

If you haven't already, you can read the free version of the rules here :
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd
This is a small subset of the races, subraces, classes, feats and such that are in the full rules.

If it all seems a little involved, you could try something like Little Wizards to whet their appetite?

splashthecash

I meant to come back to you a while back Banjo and thank you for your reply - very helpful!

I'm going to pick up the starter set (fifth edition) for them for Christmas and read up on the instructions beforehand.

From watching some videos online, it seems that there is no board as such which you move your character through (like for example snakes and ladders) and the map you mention is purely just to give context to the story which is laid out as you make your way through the challenge right?

Also, should the map be drawn out beforehand, or can it be drawn out as the characters move through the story and\or discover parts of it?

jaxdasher

If you live in Dublin theres DND Adventurers League every monday. Highly recommended, started DND there too. Get the feel for it there.

Fourier

splashthecash wrote: »

I meant to come back to you a while back Banjo and thank you for your reply - very helpful!

I'm going to pick up the starter set (fifth edition) for them for Christmas and read up on the instructions beforehand.

From watching some videos online, it seems that there is no board as such which you move your character through (like for example snakes and ladders) and the map you mention is purely just to give context to the story which is laid out as you make your way through the challenge right?

Also, should the map be drawn out beforehand, or can it be drawn out as the characters move through the story and\or discover parts of it?

Really D&D is just telling a story where your kids are some of the characters. So you could draw a map out more so just to show the land where your game is set, but the whole game can be entirely in your head. Sort of a spoken choose your own adventure. (Forgive me if this is already obvious)

A good set up for kids I find is to have one town, a forest (with magic creatures) and a ruined castle with treasure they've to go get in it. So like they could start in the town and the king/lord asks them to get treasure from the cellars of the castle.

The start of the game would be them travelling through the forest to the castle, maybe they meet some monsters, maybe they meet some elves/dwarves who want to join them in going to the castle.

Then the castle's cellar would be a little set of corridors and about ten rooms. Have the treasure room locked and the key in another room in a giant spider's web. The spider can be fought or maybe talked into giving up the key, maybe he really likes the butter to be found in another room that was churned by gnomes from 100 years ago.

After that you can have them go back to the town and add more places to go to on the map.