# Gaming with my Children.



## Abciximab (Jul 25, 2008)

Since my regular gaming group called out this week (we're on for Monday), I thought I'd post something else this week. About a year ago (May, 07) I posted a short story about an introductory game of D&D I played with my daughter. The original post has disappeared, but I found it reposted in someone's Blog. So without further ado, I give you...

*Gaming with my [-]Daughter[/-] Children.​*
From time to time I see a post about how old you have to be to play, how do you introduce new players to the game, etc. Well, here's my experience with introducing my daughter to the game. Luckily, I’ve had years of experience to prepare me for the unexpected things players do...

My four-year-old daughter enjoys telling just about everyone she meets, "This is my daddy, he like dragons and likes to play dungeons and dragons". 

Yes, thank you honey.

From time to time she'll ask me if she can play and I've tried to think of a way for it to work. She's never actually seen a game since we always play elsewhere but she liked playing with my plastic minis and liked to watch me paint minis, always looking at the most ugly, horrendous monsters and saying with absolute sincerity, "It's beautiful daddy". 

Finally, last Wednesday, when she asked, I told her we would play on Saturday. All night it was all she could talk about, it was hard to get her to bed.

Over the next few days, she didn't bring it up and I figured she had forgotten, but I was giving it a lot of thought, just in case, and came up with a few ideas. I was basically going to run it like an episode of one of her favorite TV shows starring a rather adventurous little girl who likes exploring.

Saturday rolls around, and she definitely remembered.

Her little brother’s nap time rolls around and I set up the prepared maps and place a few monsters and let her pick a princess mini. Yes, I have a few. Surprisingly she does not choose the one in the pink dress and goes for the one in purple.

The Story – The kings beautiful unicorn has been taken by goblins and has asked his daughter, the princess, to bring her back.

The Tools – The king gives her two magic wands, one that will turn the subject into a frog, the other will make the subject her friend.

Step one – The Troll Bridge. 
Like any good troll, this troll demands an answer to three questions and then you must speak the password. The questions are simple math, 5+5, 8+2, and the toughie, 2+3+5. Yes, all =10, very good. The password is written on the map, "PLEASE". She's really good at addition and sounding out words. She passes this challenge quickly. At this point she somehow gets it in her head that the unicorn belongs to the Troll, and she promises him to bring his unicorn back soon. Ok… thank you.

Step two – The Mountain of the Dragon. 
At the bottom of this great mountain sits a ferocious dragon (Platinum Dragon actually, but she's still unaware of the color code.) As she walks up, the dragon says, "Oh, I think I'll see if this princess tastes good."
"You can't eat me dragon, I have a wand that will make you my friend." At which point she indicates that she is going to use her wand to make him friendly. "Hello dragon, can you fly me over the mountains?"
I had expected to have to make the offer, but she knew what she was doing. "Sure thing princess."

Step Three – The River of Crocodiles.
The dragon drops her off before the river, explaining that he can't fly any further. She accepts this and seeing the crocodiles in the river, she is already telling me she's using her wand to make the crocodile friendly so he'll carry her across the river. Too easy.

Step 4 – The Goblin Maze.
At this point she meets what I describe as a "Grumpy Group of Goblins", the alliteration was unintentional, it just sort of slipped out. I expected her to use either of the two wands the King gave her, but no….

"A long time ago the king gave me a third wand that makes people happy, I use that wand to make them happy." 

At first I didn't get it, my mind was on evil goblins. How does making them happy solve the problem? Then I realized what I had actually said. There was nothing in my description that would make her think they were hostile. To her they were just goblins in a bad mood. 

"Once they are happy they can have a party, and I can get into the maze."
Done. Huh, didn't see that coming.

The maze was just that, a maze drawn on the map that she would have to find her way through, which she did and found the (now) trolls unicorn. 

She then journeyed back, asking all her friends for help when needed, and returned the unicorn to the troll. 

"Great job honey!" 
"Let's play again!"
"Um, ok…"

With slight variations we did the same thing over again, a total of four times. 

In the end…
She had no use for the wand that turned people into frogs. Even when confronted with a giant purple worm, she only wanted to make everyone her friend. (The worm then tunneled under the mountain and she followed through the cave.) 
She renamed the mountain range and the river every time there was a new guardian. 
The Grumpy Goblins (the only unchanging guardians) partied almost nonstop.
She then proceeded to play a very similar game with her two-year-old brother when he woke up, using her little dolls and animals. An elephant in the river, a tiger guarded the maze and oddly enough, there was a unicorn in the middle of the maze.

Sure, it's not "true" D&D (though we did use official minis  ), but she was the perfect Role Player.


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## Richards (Jul 26, 2008)

That's so cute!  I'm glad she had a good time.  You're a really cool dad, Abciximab.

Johnathan


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## Celtavian (Jul 26, 2008)

*re*

That's why they say little girls are made of "Sugar and spice and everything nice."

Sounds like a fun little game. A memory you'll both cherish for the rest of your days. Thanks for sharing a sweet story with your fellow DnD players.


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## Dr Midnight (Jul 26, 2008)

Wow, that's fantastic man. I've got a four year old niece. I should try this. Cheers, definitely post more stories like this.


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## Abciximab (Jul 31, 2008)

Thanks for the positive replies. There is a part two to this I will post if I can locate it. I think there's a copy sitting on my hard drive somewhere.


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## Cerulean_Wings (Jul 31, 2008)

As I read the opening post, I kept thinking "awwwww", and I don't think you can blame me 

I'm glad (and to be honest, surprised) that a 4 year old can be interested in roleplaying. Maybe she'll be an actress/DnD geek when she grows up? 

Lovely, just lovely. I have a real-life session today, I think I'll tell my players of your daughter, see how they react, Abciximab


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## Nightbreeze (Aug 1, 2008)

Awwwwww ^^


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## Abciximab (Aug 6, 2008)

*My Daughter, the Power Gamer…*

*My Daughter, the Power Gamer…*​
For the next game I tried to mix it up a bit. I drew a map on a blank 9-piece puzzle, and then drew the same map on my battle map. The only difference was the puzzle map has an x marking where a buried treasure lies. 

My thought was, the princess has a piece of a treasure map and must find the other parts. She finds people along the way who also need help with various problems. I made it in such a way that each problem could be solved by resolving another. 

The fairie’s home was the site of an ancient battle and many swords, armor and other bits of metal cluttered their forest home. The blacksmith needed metal to make nails to sell to the beekeeper. The beekeeper needed nails to build his beehives. The dragon was strong enough to carry all the metal to the smith, but wanted a reward for help (honey, or some other bauble). Each challenge overcome would grant two pieces of the map. (The X would always be the last piece. Deus ex machina, but whatta-ya-gonna-do)

The troll bridge had worked well, so I placed that in the middle to solve the occasional puzzle (math or word game) as she crossed back and forth. The treasure would be guarded by a big blue dragon spawn (Bluespawn-Godslayer).

Since I had given her no direction on where to start or who to visit first I wondered how it might go.

Here’s what happened…

The dragon gets a marble. “Where did it come from”, you ask? (I did)
“Right here on the floor”, as she picks it up from just under the edge of the couch. 
The dragon is thrilled. (No, really.)

She put the metal the fairies had too much of and the blacksmith together quickly. 
Me : “It’s very heavy, how will you carry it?”
Her : “I can carry it.”
Me : “It’s REALLY heavy.”
Her : “I’ll use two hands.”

The blacksmith get his metal, the beekeeper gets his nails and the princess gets the honey, which she shares with everyone, including the troll.

Putting the puzzle together is tough (probably the hardest challenge, it’s double sided, though one side remains blank), but gets it with very little help. 

Next is….. Where’s my Blue Spawn? 
My son has it. Still not sure where it is…
So the guardian is…. Let’s see, what have I got on hand… Something big… Oh, Mountain Troll. 

She charms him, they dig up the treasure and the princess has a new crown, necklace and ring. She mimes taking each item out of the chest, and she even gives the DM (“Here’s something for you daddy”) a small bribe out of the treasure chest. 

She’s so going to master this game.


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## Alasomorph (Jan 25, 2010)

It gets better as they get older. I waited until my daughter was 11 for her first game.

This is a copy/paste from my Wizards Community blog..


Have you ever had stage fright prior to DM'ing a game?

I have. The first time I run a game with a new player, especially if they are experienced DM's in their own right. I wonder if I'm going to be scrutinized, my performance checked and tested.

The one type of game I love to DM is when I introduce a new player to the game.

Not yesterday however.

I have never been so nervous about running a game!

Yesterday was the first time I ran a game for Lauren my 11 year old daughter. I so want her to grow up appreciating RPG's and for them to instil the same sense of wonder in her that they do for me.

As it turns out my worries were unfounded, she absolutely loved it. I kept the game short at 90 minutes, laid out the table complete with battle map, counters and dice. The DM screen was laid flat so there was no scary psychological barrier between us. The only two books on the table were the PHB (open at the adventurer's equipment illustration) and the DMG.

I had printed lots of illustrations and written a scenario that I knew she would like; her character was a 1st level Elf Ranger returning to her home village after five years of training. Kind of the save the village from the beast in the woods cliché.

Then something amazing happened, she wasn't a bit fazed by all the stats and powers. She quickly grasped the concept of rolling skill checks to accomplish a task (tracking and gather information) and immediately understood the concept of a combat turn (initiative, the types of actions and movement). Nothing was too complicated. Before long she was asking me what time of year it was, what the weather was like and what day of the week it was... time for an old DM to wing-it! She was even recording her rations each morning, a skill players sadly grow out of as they get older.

By the end of the 90 minutes she had explored the village, spent six days tracking and slaying a wild dog (a minor quest) and told me that she thinks the old druid "knows more than he is letting on". "Really?" I said, with a sly grin on my face.

Success!


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## Abciximab (Jan 25, 2010)

Yeah, things definitely change. We've played a lot. My daughter (now 7) is not too big on rolling the dice. I think she doesn't like the "Random Factor", she wants things to go as she pictures them in her mind. My son on the other hand (now 5) loves rolling the dice. My daughter likes 3.5/pathfinder, my son more into 4th edition (loves push/pull effects). 

I've been meaning to update this with my experiences with my son... I'll have to write it up.


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## megamania (Jan 25, 2010)

This is awesome.  I really appreciate reading this and as someone else said-  you and your daughter will remember this forever.

My son's first word was "dice" so needless to say-  I have begun playing with my kids.

A few years ago was the first attempt.  Similiar plots but using the rules.

Now at ages 14 and 11 we are starting our official campaign.  

My daughter wants to a vet so naturally she is playing a Druid that summons aid regularly.  My son is a shifter Soulblade (seen too much Starwars).  Its been a blast.

Thankyou for posting this and encourageing others to share their hobbies with the kids regardless of age.


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## Abciximab (Apr 20, 2010)

*Funny Story (At least I think so) ;}*

At this point I have been gaming with both my children for a few years now and it makes me smile every time one of them says something like, “Ian could be a Mummy for Halloween and we could use the wagon as his sarcophagus!” I don’t think I knew what a sarcophagus was until I was 10 and started playing D&D (and I’m pretty sure I mispronounced it for a couple years).

My son started in earnest last year at age 4. He liked 4th edition for its Push Effects. I ran him through the sample module in the DMG vs. the kobolds and he loved it. When the kobolds would surrender he would make them go stand in the “green slime” in the 1st room to wait for his return. (Of course it was just slimy slime, not the kind that turned you into green slime). 

With the kids age 7 and 5 now, we’ve recently made the game slightly more complex. We’ve started using dice for everything and included the concept of saving throws. We use Pathfinder for the general character builds. My son plays a Catfolk Sorcerer while my Daughter plays an Elven Sorcerer, both with the Fey Bloodline (3rd lvl).

Last night in the living room they were having a “Magical Duel”, each yelling “Magic Missile” while pointing the other then jumping behind furniture to hide. Then I saw my daughter get an evil grin as she hid behind the end table. She jumped up with her hand extended toward my extremely ticklish son and yelled, “Laughing Touch!” 

The spell was quite successful. So successful in fact that I think my daughter suffered a little backlash as they both fell to the floor laughing wildly. 

3+ your Cha modifier times per day? Obviously my children are quite charismatic, as that became the attack of choice for the rest of the night.


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## Nonei (Apr 20, 2010)

Abciximab said:


> The spell was quite successful. So successful in fact that I think my daughter suffered a little backlash as they both fell to the floor laughing wildly.



That is hilarious!

My daughter is 4 now - my son is 2 - and they are home sometimes when we play.  My daughter kept asking and kept asking to play, so finally a few mos ago I said ok... she was extremely disappointed to not play with our friends in a "real game", but she settled for a 1:1 with me.

So I decided that the story would be that (since she was big into birthday parties at the time) her "cousin" was having a birthday party and the "bad guy" would steal the birthday cake and she would go and get it back in the style of her favorite show...  

I gave her a simple explanation of each role (I gave her the choice of sword fighter, bow fighter, cleric, or wizard), and she decided that she would be the cleric so she could "go out and fight all the bad guys and then come home and heal all the good guys"  

She stocked up at the store (I'd drawn out a few rectangles on our game mat for a town) and made friends with the lizardman owner, then went to her cousin's party, but - oh no, the Bad Guy had stolen the birthday cake!

And in true PC fashion, my 4 year old instantly derailed all my plans.  "Ok," she said, "I walk over to the bakery and bake my cousin a new cake."  Why make it more complicated than it should be LOL.

I wanted to teach her a little combat, so the Bad Guy made an appearance.  She did try to hit him with her sword but with a series of bad dice rolls, she missed twice and he hit her once... and she decided she didn't like that and proceeded to back away and throw rocks at him LOL.

So she narrated the rest of the story: he got knocked out and went to jail and then when he woke up in the morning he decided that he didn't want to be bad anymore.  And her character, the cousin, and her new bestest friend (the no-longer-bad-guy) went to the store and bought snakes for pets and had another birthday party, since the bad guy missed the first one.

Then it was her turn to tell a story...  she carefully arranged all the minis we had out at the time (about 40 of them) and declared they were at a birthday party, and my character was there too.  She then picked the biggest mini we have - a huge-sized clay golem - and stomped him across the table.  My character shot an arrow at him, and I rolled a 5.  

"5 damage." my daughter declared.  "He's down!"  (He, also, went to jail for one night and then decided to be good.  If only life were so simple!)

Unfortunately she now knows what 'playing' means and is no longer content with just goofing off with the minis while we play...  (Although Dora and Dragon Tales are still good to distract her!)


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## Abciximab (Apr 22, 2010)

> So I decided that the story would be that (since she was big into birthday parties at the time) her "cousin" was having a birthday party and the "bad guy" would steal the birthday cake and she would go and get it back in the style of her favorite show...




Yes, thank goodness for the shows that introduces the concepts of exploring and adventure to young minds.

I didn't start using dice until my daughter was a little older, she came up with solutions and I made a narrative of the results. She didn't like it too much when I introduced dice/random elements to the game. My son (From the start, age 4) wanted to roll the dice. Now they both like the dice. It just occurred to my daughter the other day that the dice she uses are actually hers. ("So can I  take them everywhere I want?" - "Uh...")


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## Nonei (Apr 22, 2010)

Abciximab said:


> It just occurred to my daughter the other day that the dice she uses are actually hers. ("So can I take them everywhere I want?" - "Uh...")




LOL right! My daughter keeps begging me to buy her her own dice.

I usd dice with the intention of trying to use semi-real rules that could be built up - and she was very interested in rolling dice - but, I think she would have enjoyed narrative just as much, if not more.  She did NOT like that the Bad Guy had a chance to hurt her.

I was really proud, though, that she came up with an in-game solution (backing off and throwing rocks) and still enjoyed herself immensely, rather than what she has a tendency to do IRL when things don't go her way (whine and quit).


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## Abciximab (Sep 15, 2011)

So my children are now 8 and 6 and their RPG abilities continue to grow. At this point, we are running Pathfinder pretty much by the book with both of them and mom making up the party.

Son (6) – 10th level Paladin, John Ricus (I have no idea where the name came from)

Daughter (8) – 3rd/7th level Rogue/Sorceress, Whisper (Named after one of my friends character from my Shackled City Campaign)

Mom (Yeah, Right) – 10th level Witch.

We are currently about 2/3rds of the way through The Harrowing. A great module for kids, as many of the encounters can be solved without combat using many different skills (including your brain!) and a certain spoilery detail about the creatures makes them perfect opponents 



Spoiler



(They aren’t “Alive” and can’t be permanently killed)


.

There are a few details I have changed or rephrased to be less… well maybe “more kid friendly” is the best way to put it, just a few very easy changes. 

Having the Harrow Deck adds a lot as they divvy up the cards and each can search for any cards they might need during the game. RPG’s and (to a lesser extent) video games have both really motivated my son to work on his reading. He is working hard to move beyond being a “beginning reader”.  They have all managed to find needed cards over the course of the adventure.

I have found the hardest part to be the dreaded “wait for your turn”. My son, especially, likes to describe what he is doing. 

~Interrupts sister~ “I point my sword at him and tell him, ‘You must surrender or else!’” 

“Ok, but your sister get’s to go first so hold onto that thought.”

I do have a piece of advice to pass on. Before either of my children were born I bought them each dice. The dice sat unused and unopened in a drawer for years before I thought they were old enough to roll them and I picked colors I thought looked “cool”. 

It turns out they both switched to different dice fairly early on (why are dads dice always cooler?) and just the other day, we finally picked up dice that were just what they wanted (as per their request, Turquoise for my daughter and Red for my son).  So if you want to save yourself some money, just wait until they are old enough to tell you their preference. Then get ready for it to change almost immediately. But hey, you can’t have too many dice and it’s never too early to start a collection, right?


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## Abciximab (Sep 12, 2012)

After a few years of gaming with the children, I figure it’s finally time for an Adventure Path! And what adventure Path would be better than Rise of the Runelords! I’ve got the new Anniversary Edition, the minis, the maps and my family has the skills. 

We’re running Pathfinder (of course) pretty much by the book and they do really well after those years of progressively more complex games. My 9 year old daughter is running a Human Magus, my 7 year old son is a Human Barbarian and my wife is running a Human Witch and sharing the workload with me for an NPC Human Oracle of Life. 

They’ve just hit 2nd level after about three sessions. 
Best Quote from my son after rolling damage for his latest attack… 

GM: “What’s 8+9 equal?”
Son: “Against that? 8+9 equals Dead.”

And here is my daughter’s stream of consciousness journal for part of the adventure. She was keeping notes on a piece of paper and later typed it up as “Mia’s Butt Kicking Times!” Her 38 hp Critical Hit is the one with all the exclamation points. It contains spoilers for Rise of the Runelords. 



Spoiler



So… we run into this guy knock him out, find his I.D. and he *is* Tsuto. We run into a sinspawn and we’re already kickin its butt. It’s dead. We try to loot it but all it has are dirty rags, and who’d want that? Besides it’s wearing them for clothes. And who wants a naked sinspawn? Oh great more sinspawn?  Oh baby! *A critical hit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Confirmed even!!!!!!! *Oh a statue. Wait its ranseur can be removed. Wow! +5 to hit! +4 damage!!!  Awesome!!!  Woah! A mutated goblin! Cool. He’s dead. And he has a…  +1 long sword! Cool! +4 to hit!! It’s like my birthday! Ok… a quasit queen. A critical hit on the sinspawn! Cool! Ok she’s down. She kept summoning sinspawn and dire rats. Ok we’re resting. Uggh… what a fight.


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## Tumakhunter (Oct 14, 2014)

These are some awesome stories. I've been working on something using Pathfinder for my 9 year old daughter, using the Keep on the Borderlands module as a base. Obviously I want to include more than just her, but we'll see how it all goes.

Thanks for the inspiration!


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## Abciximab (Oct 31, 2014)

We just started Organized Play with 5th edition. My son is 9 now, running a Dragonborn Sorcerer and my daughter is 11 running a Tiefling Warlock. The GMs at the events have commented at how well they grasp the rules. Gaming from an early age for the win. They were also the only two at the table that knew what Vellum was made from.


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## sgtscott658 (Oct 31, 2014)

Awesome stuff, my 3 y/o kid digs the monster manual and she wants to play too. So your ideas on introducing young children to gaming is very well done. I swear children are so awesome. Once more thanks for the write up and look forward to reading more of your escapades. 

Scott


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