Any idea for a TTRPG for beginners (adults and children ages 6-10)? Does anyone have experience with this?
2025-01-10 · 1 year ago · 👍 Half_Elf_Monk, Bosque · 🤔 1
10 Comments ↓
🌲 Bosque · 2025-01-10 at 21:15:
If an adult is being the GM, I think you don't need much. A couple of dice (roll higher than x for a success) and a simple character sheet to note down your gear and the state of your character. Back in the day I was very succesful with kids with DCC of all games. Dungeons work quite well with them and DCC is fun and the 0 - level rules are simple and the 0-level adventures are SO MUCH FUN if a wee bit deadly (but you can have up to 4 pcs per player
🖥️ mrrobinhood5 · 2025-01-11 at 00:43:
a reskinned morkborg?
🚀 digler · 2025-01-11 at 02:32:
I've been thinking Mouseguard might be a good option when the time comes for my kids.
👽 TKurtBond [mod] · 2025-01-12 at 17:57:
I've had good success using Fudge with very basic character sheets, even before kids can read; really the two page Fudge in a Nutshell" is all the rules you need during play. I explain the Terrible to Superb rating for traits and difficulties. If the kids are too young to read I keep the sheets and tell them what they are good and bad at, and suggest attributes, skills, or gifts they might use. I usually use a Bunnies and Burrows scenario (where bunnies have a bit more manipulative ability than real bunnies) where the player bunnies have to find a missing bunny child which is locked in a hutch in the hayloft of a barn on a farm with a dog chained nearby.
Really, though, any collection of small animals makes a good PC group.
There is a nice Fudge adventure, Another Fine Mess, which is a bunch of animal companions trying to find their missing master, a ranger mage investigating rumors of an evil sorcerer. It has a bunch of interesting animal pregens. If the kids are young, though, you may want to just use it as an example of how to do things in Fudge rather than run it directly, because the opposition are creatures warped by the evil sorcerer, and they can be very scary.
👽 TKurtBond [mod] · 2025-01-12 at 18:12:
Another good choice might be one of the lighter Cepheus Engine variants; I think Stellagamma Games has several. This is basically the Traveller mechanics, so typically 6 stats, skills go from 0 to 3 or so, roll 2d6 and add skill (and maybe stat bonus) versus a target number. Characters fit on a 3×5 card.
I've run this on trips. Put 2d6 in a clear plastic container and roll them by shaking the container. I've done while driving when I've thought up a scenario beforehand — the kid had their character card and rolled all the dice and I just adjudicated things and improvised and never rolled anything or looked at anything written down.
🌲 Half_Elf_Monk · 2025-03-12 at 03:19:
Ooooh great question. You have to know your group of 6-10 year olds well enough, and be used to telling them stories in the first place. So be reading good fun books to them out loud early and often. The idea of yourself as a storyteller shouldn't be strange to them, but rather part of the fun. This is play, it's pretend. You get to be a part of that and it's really great.
Systems: D&D is pretty complex, and unless you've got 6 year olds reading manuals, that's... too much. I tried a GURPS-like system and that was almost too free-form to work too.. I felt like we all had to read the entire player manual to make it work (which... wasn't gonna happen withhthe ages of kids involved).
Check out Mice and Mystics. It was a lot of fun, but was more like a self-contained game system and campaign all in one. It had great visuals and flavorful boards and such. The GM can play a character too without harming any 4th walls. The cheese-wheel mechanic is amusing. For all that, you were really just playing through the campaigns (and expansions) that they made. That’ll get pricey over time, and is rather finite. I'd have no idea how to replicate the ruleset into a world of our own collaborative imagination without a lot of graphic design. Verdict: fun intro-tier board game, but not quite a full extensible ttrpg experience for everyone.
The one you want though is Index Card RPG (ICRPG). It's got a light enough ruleset that you don't have to overexplain everthing, but can reveal what's needed when it comes up. It's a flexible enough framework to allow for both the 6-y/o changing weapons mid-combat (still 1d6 damage), and the 10-y/o assertively abusing the spellbook. You don't have to waste time coming up with random stuff in indecies with kids around, but actually get to interact.
ICRPG is simple enough too that you don't need to screw around with minis or fancy terrain unless you really want to. The system is designed to be played with a deck of cards, a set of dice, 3x5" index cards, a sharpie, and a lot of imagination. That's my GM kit, btw, so it works really well for travel purposes too. (you can always grab random stuff from your physical environment. like the time we fought the evil carrot stick).
The guy who puts it together is at https://www.runehammer.online/ , but you really want to tune in to his youtube channel... he's got engaging (imo) GM advice for stoking imagination, and how to come up with mobs on the fly. Look him up at @runehammer1 on youtube. Also @KanesKiln on youtube has a variety of tools. I watched a lot of this but frankly didn't really need it because the free (as in beer) player guide was so good.
I guess that's almost enough shilling for the system. I liked ICRPG for its minimalism, power, and rule/imagination extensibility. Also portability. I run a game weekly with this system and its a ton of fun. I wish you similar fun with your 6-10 y/o group.
— The Quickstart PDF. It's ~48mb / ~150 pages. Worth it.
— https://www.runehammer.online/
— https://icrpgcommunitycontent.com/
— https://www.reddit.com/r/ICRPG/
— https://www.youtube.com/@Runehammer1
— Kane's Kiln youtube channel. great place to start to see how it works and how to do it.
If you end up trying this I would love to hear how it goes. tag me I guess since I haven't posted other contact info here.
👽 TKurtBond [mod] · 2025-03-27 at 20:06:
Another good possibility are the Barbarians of Lemuria powered books. Although the recent Mythic+ version probably has too many topless or scantily clad female illustrations, some of the other games that use those rules don't have that problem, including Everywhen (a generic version of the BoL rules) and Dicey Tales (a pulp version, so think Indiana Jones, Westerns, etc). Characters pick 4 careers and split 3 points among them, with 0 meaning they've got the basic version of the career and higher numbers meaning more capable versions. They've also got 4 attributes, Strength, Agility, Mind, Appeal, which they split 4 points amongst, and a 0 means average. Then they've go 4 combat abilities, Initiative, Melee, Ranged, and Defense, which they split 4 points amongst. Then they pick a couple of boons, and get some Hero Points and Lifeblood (the HP equivalent).
Resolving actions is rolling 2d6 and adding the appropriate career or attribute or combat ability and they suceed on a 9 or greater.
I wouldn't expect younger kids to read the book, just tell them what kind of game you are playing and give them the list of careers, and help them choose a couple of boons.
👾 jecxjo · 2025-07-18 at 04:37:
Depending on your kids, mine happen to love Hero Kids and EZD6.
Hero Kids is specifically for kids, as per its name. Pre made character sheets for different skills, its a d6 where player rolls to hit a number. There are good pre made stories, with printable maps and printable stand up figures. We have played 5 or 6 different stories and they do well (6+8 yo)
EZD6 is another Runehammer published game. I have both ICRPG and EZD6 and I picked the latter because its even more simple. Again D6 system where they have to roll based on the difficulty of the task (Easy is 2, Impossible is 6). Normal roll is 2d6 looking for a die about target, disAdv 1d6 and Adv 3d6. Magic is made up by player.
👻 icecheetah · 2025-08-30 at 17:22:
Mausritter has a very easy to learn system, and the corebook is free on itch.io. The creators even have a site that can generate randomised dungeon rooms and character sheets for you. I used it to make an "emergency one shot" when the GM for our main game was sick, with only a day's notice, and people enjoyed it!
🌲 Half_Elf_Monk · 2025-10-09 at 14:31:
Ooh yeah @jecxjo, good point. Pre-rolled characters are great for the first or second time you play, because depending on who you're playing with, you don't want game interest to fizzle on account of "too much math" or decision paralysis. Once there's a bit more investment, you can say "wait, you wanted to be a {CLASSNAME}? let's make that instead and pretend it's always been this way."