Dungeons and Dragons and Children

As a father of two young girls, I know I am in trouble. I know that once they hit that teenage or preteen area they are going to hate my wife and I and things in my house will become even more chaotic.

I have accepted my fate.

However, right now at the tender ages of 5 and 7, my children love all the geeky things we are involved in. My girls LOVE Dungeons and Dragons. They see my wife and I playing every month or so and they beg us to play. I’m a flexible DM I can weave characters into and out of my story almost every session if need be. I have never considered bringing children into this game. I cannot fathom bringing my 5 year old to the table and telling her to roll initiative and ask her what he 4th level spells do, have her calculate the damage of an augmented Fire Ball against an Adult Brass Dragon. I can’t ask my friends to stop swearing and stop the elf from being a little loose when it comes to men because the children are sitting here. I had to tackle this a little differently.

The Solution:

I designed a game similar enough to D&D without the over complicatedness of stacked abilities and different shaped dice. My system uses a d6 for every roll. The game breaks down almost identical to the D&D board games by Wizards of the Coast, i.e. Wrath of Ashardalon, Elemental Evil, etc..

On your turn you may:

Move- 1d6 squares

Fight- Roll 1d6 the number must be between 4-6 to hit. 1-3 is a miss. On a hit you do the damage that you attack does, there is no AC or extra modifiers to add.

Explore- Roll 1d6 to search for treasure. A roll between 1-3 may find treasure if the DM allows. (this can be changed if the players are doing it too often. I have told my kids that sometimes you only find things on bodies and in treasure chests.)

I have simplified the race/class system by only offering 4 roles for the game: Hunter, Witch, Warrior, and Cleric.

Hunter- uses bow attacks.

Witch- uses magic.

Warrior- uses swords.

Cleric- uses healing.

Each class has 3 abilities: an at will power, a daily ability, and a utility power that has a cool-down time.

The Hunter: 8hp

At will: Bow strike- Distance Far- Damage 1 pt.

Daily: Bow Barrage- Distance Far- Damage 3 pts.

Utility: Close Strike- Distance Close- Damage 1 pt. Knock the enemy back 3 squares. Cooldown 3 rounds.

The Witch: 6 hp

At will: Blast- Distance far- Damage 1 pt.

Daily: Fire Ball- Distance far- Damage 3 pts.

Utility: Freeze- Distance Any- Freeze enemies for 1 turn. Cooldown 3 rounds.

The Warrior: 8hp

At will: Sword Slash- Distance Close- Damage 1 pt.

Daily: Sword Spin- Distance Close- Damage 2 pts. May hit any enemy standing close to warrior.

Utility: Shove- Distance Close- Shove enemy up to 3 squares away- Cooldown 2 rounds.

The Cleric: 6hp

At will: Mace Bash- Distance Close- Damage 1 pt.

Daily: Divine Light- Distance Far- Damage 3 pts.

Utility: Heal- Distance Any- Heal a friend by 3 pts. Cooldown 2 rounds.

When playing this game I use the tiles and monster tokens provided in my Wrath of Ashardalon game, I put pieces of paper around the map and slowly reveal rooms and hallways to the kids. I stat out some basic monsters such as:

Monster: 4 hp

At will: Bite- Distance Close- Damage 1 pt.

Utility: Dash- Can move double its rolled speed. Cooldown 2 rounds.

Monster 2: 3 hp

At will: Spit- Distance Far- Damage 2 pts.

Utility: Spin- Spins for 3 turns making it impossible to hit with a far attack.

Boss Monster: 8 hp/

At will: Bash- Distance Close- Damage 2 pts.

Daily: Big Boom- Distance Far- Damage 4 pts. Can split between 2 enemies.

Utility: Heal- Distance Self- Can heal himself 2 pts. Cooldown 3 rounds.

Sometimes I allow the girls to have healing potions or potions of cold.

Healing Potion: As an attack, you drink the potion healing 2 pts.

Potion of Cold: As an attack, throw the potion- Distance Far- Freeze an enemy for 2 rounds.

And as always I end the game with a treasure chest full of gold. Usually no more than 10 gold to buy things and I put the cost of the potions at 3 gold each.

Now, most importantly, flavor your game! It won’t take long for your kids to be bored running through a dungeon and fighting a monster, they aren’t invested in the story. Personally, I have set my sessions up as my players have been invited to Queen Elsa’s Coronation. During the dance when the Queen loses control of her ice powers and runs away Duke Weaselton sends men through the castle to find any valuables he can steal. My players had to go through the castle, recover the stolen trinkets and fight an ice monster that the Queen accidentally created.

I’ve also had my girls play as their favorite toys, fighting their way through their playroom full of possessed toys and eventually fighting the evil Monster High doll. Setting their friends free of her spell.

It doesn’t matter how they want to play, the most important thing as a parent is that the kids are interested in something that you are interested in too. Instead of just saying NO try and cater to their developing minds and create an engaging story and use a rules system that won’t bog them down but that can understand and will learn to follow.

If you found this helpful or at the least it insightful feel free to leave a comment or message me on here.

Thanks for reading. Catch ya next song.

Rich the Bard.