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Dumpshock Forums _ General Gaming _ RPGs for Kids

Posted by: James McMurray Dec 24 2006, 10:55 PM

I picked up the Marvel Superhero RPG for cheap from my local game store a little while back. My son (5) found it and started reading it. Today we played our first learn-to-play session. Spiderman successfully stopped a mugging and prevented Scorpion from rampaging through a hospital.

My son has a character sheet now. I'm such a proud Papa!

Posted by: dog_xinu Dec 25 2006, 02:31 AM

congrats!!

my nephew sees us playing and wants to play. He is 5. Mom and Dad said he can not play until later (he is older). He gets to sit and watch. He also likes to play WoW (world of warcraft). He gets only to help his uncle play (or his dad). My nephew's dad and I got him his own dice. They are very very large. He rolls them and "plays" games on his own.

I figure when he hits about 8 I can get him into RPGs and the parents wont object too much....

dog

Posted by: Black Jack Rackham Dec 25 2006, 03:16 AM

We play every Sunday (except for today cause for some damn reason or other, my players seem to think Xmas Eve is exempt from playing), and when we are at my house, my son (5 year old) comes upstairs to watch then grabs a die (as per dad's instructions) roles it and, without looking at the result, announces in a loud and clear voice, 'Everyone Dies!'

*Sniffle*
Brings a tear to the old man's eye every time I tell that story.
Mark

Posted by: RunnerPaul Dec 25 2006, 03:40 AM

Was it the original Marvel RPG, the one by TSR that used opposed d100 rolls and a single chart to resolve anything in the system? That one was especially kid friendly.

I've also found that kids can grok the Toon system like it was second nature to them.

Posted by: warrior_allanon Dec 25 2006, 05:36 AM

my GM lets his 7 year old play in the D&D game he also runs, he's not mature enough for our SR game yet, but they also play HeroQuest all the time

Posted by: James McMurray Dec 25 2006, 02:30 PM

Yeah, the TSR version. I didn't pick it up because of how kid friendly it is, but it's definitely great for him.

Posted by: James McMurray Dec 27 2006, 02:57 AM

Sniffle! It's even better!

Instead of playing Spider-man for Day of the Octopus he opted to make his own character. "Spark Everest" electro-zapping, street healing, gravity thief.

Posted by: Fortune Dec 27 2006, 03:05 AM

That's too cool.

Posted by: nezumi Dec 27 2006, 02:30 PM

My little boy can stuff eight d6's in his mouth and is learning to say "botch!" when appropriate.

My second boy mostly just punches himself in the head at this point. But we still have hope for him.

Posted by: Moon-Hawk Dec 27 2006, 02:40 PM

QUOTE (Black Jack Rackham)

That was....beautiful, man. Just beautiful.

Posted by: knasser Dec 27 2006, 06:32 PM

*sigh* This thread is just so heart warming. It makes me want kids of my own, just for the first time they say "Ex-Ex". No seriously, it does.

But why does everyone have five year olds? Was there a derth of Shadowrun books published in 2000/1 or something?

Posted by: James McMurray Dec 29 2006, 07:39 PM

He used resource points to create gear yesterday (big remote controlled bombs with ears on them called Bomb Listeners). He also used karma to increase his agility so he'll be better with his electro-zapper.

My baby is "levelling up".

Dangit! Where's a cry emote when you need one?

Posted by: Tiger Eyes Dec 30 2006, 08:48 PM

My daughter (who is 5...snicker) thinks role-playing games center around princesses. But, then again, she believes the SR4 "Gunslinger Adept" is a princess, so there is hope. Every game needs a princess like that, right?

I just worry when she roles a handful of dice and points to her little brother and says, "Role your body".

Posted by: James McMurray Dec 30 2006, 11:02 PM

That's priceless!

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Jan 23 2007, 12:17 AM

Hero Quest probably rocks for kids. There's a minimum amount of abstraction due to the presence of minis.

The only problem with Hero Quest is that there's no cannon way to resurrect dead heroes. So if the Barbarian bites it 1/4 of the way through all the quests because a 6 year old was at the wheel the entire party is sort of screwed.

Also, once you've bought all the gear the rest of the gold you find is kind of pointless.

Posted by: eidolon Jan 23 2007, 03:57 PM

Hero Quest is great for the fact that it's so easy to house rule. You could come up with a way to add resurrection to it, maybe by just spending gold for it or something, since as you note gold becomes pretty pointless otherwise.

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Jan 24 2007, 08:27 AM

QUOTE (eidolon)

See, I've actually been thinking about this, ways to spend gold.

Does it ever specifically say in the rules that the heroes get their hitpoints back between adventures? In the video game version of hero quest, which was super-literal to the the rules to the point of not even allowing the PCs to pool gold, I don't believe that the PCs got their hitpoints back between missions.

Maybe you could set up a rule which says that to regain your hitpoints between missions you have to spend money. Otherwise it's assumed that your character just camps out and doesn't regain health. We could even make a chart:

Between-adventures luxuries:
*Common room at the inn - 1 coin, restore 1 HP
*Private room at the inn - 2 coins, restore 2 HP
*Watered down ale - 1 coin, restore 1 HP
*Honeyed mead - 2 coins, restore 2 HP
*Aristocratic wine - 3 coins, restore 4 HP
*Dwarven scotch - 4 coins, restore 6 HP

Note how I promote realistic role-playing by making the tasty booze a better "deal" for hitpoint recovery than sensible purchases like a room at the inn. The characters, if they have enough money in the first place, are more likely to blow their gold on strong spirits with this chart.

Food: (also, if the PCs do not spend any money on food between adventures they lose 1 hitpoint as a penalty)
*Carbohydrate-rich medieval meals (like oatmeal) - 1 coin, restore 1 HP
*Protein-rich medieval meals (red meat and fowl, which is aristocratic fare) - 2 coins, restore 2 HP, to represent how the protein boosts your immune system and helps your body restore damaged muscle tissue
*Iron rations (unlike the "fresh" meals, these may be bought in advance and stored for consumption between future missions, which simplifies bookkeeping) - 1 coin, restores 0 HP since it's nasty mouldy hardtack and salted dry strips of fish, but you won't lose 1 HP for not eating)

For adults only:
*WHORES AND ALE!!!!! - 5 coins (roll the dice. If the hero rolls a hit his hitpoints are fully restored, including any loss from not eating, since he'd be eating something else. If he doesn't roll a hit he loses half of his current hitpoints.)

Posted by: eidolon Jan 24 2007, 02:51 PM

QUOTE (WR)

Note how I promote realistic role-playing by making the tasty booze a better "deal" for hitpoint recovery than sensible purchases like a room at the inn.

Nice.

Posted by: Moon-Hawk Jan 24 2007, 03:50 PM

Hero Quest was great. I had the Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch Lord expansions. I was 10 at the time. I remember because that's the year it came out in the states, and I remember the commercials and I remember begging my parents to get it for me as soon as possible. And I remember getting it for Christmas, so it must've been that year.
I played with a few people, but by far the most memorable was just playing one-on-one with my dad. It was my introduction to GMing, and my dad played all 4 heroes. He even did a little bit of characterization. For example, when he would split up the party he would give them character reasons like the elf and the dwarf don't get along, not just pure mechanical reasons.
Definitely one of those things I'm going to remember forever.
It costs easily twice retail on e-bay, but if you're looking for some gaming to do with young kids it's worth every penny.

Posted by: eidolon Jan 24 2007, 05:45 PM

With kids? Heck, I ran the first few adventures for my old group of decidedly seasoned, adult (although not quite as decidedly) roleplayers as recently as last year.

I know about the cost all too well though. I'm still working on picking up the expansions, which routinely go for upwards of $50 on Ebay and BGG.

Posted by: James McMurray Jan 24 2007, 06:24 PM

Someone somewhere (sorry I can't link) told me that the adventures for Hero Quest are all downloadable for free through the maker (Hasbro?).

Posted by: eidolon Jan 24 2007, 06:30 PM

That might be worth checking into. Honestly though, even with the adventures I'd still want the bits.

Posted by: James McMurray Jan 24 2007, 07:09 PM

True. Especially if playing with kids (or gamer geeks )

Posted by: Wounded Ronin Jan 24 2007, 09:30 PM

QUOTE (James McMurray)

Someone somewhere (sorry I can't link) told me that the adventures for Hero Quest are all downloadable for free through the maker (Hasbro?).

I don't know about any PDFs, but the old Hero Quest computer game, playable on a DOS emulator, is a direct translation of the original adventures into video game format. The maps and the text descriptions are exactly the same.

The interface actually sucks because it's annoyingly slow if you want to control all the heroes yourself instead of playing hotseat with other people, and there's certain issues with transitioning to different parts of the map, but at least everything is all there presented exactly as it was in the box set.