Kid RPG Notes

Hey, folks. I successfully ran a kid role-playing game night recently. We had a bunch of kids show up, from 4 years old up to 12 years old. My own kids played too, naturally. Anyway, just wanted to say: it went well, it wasn't that hard, and it was a lot of fun. I'm sticking my game system notes here.

I stole a bit from an online review of Little Wizards, but mostly made up about the simplest thing I easily could. Though I only spent a few days on it, so I'm *sure* there's a good way to simplify further. It's an imbalanced system, definitely, and susceptible to minmaxing -- another good lesson for the kids ;-)

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Strength (aka fight, lift, other physical power)
Sneaky (aka dodge, defense, sleight of hand)
Smarts (aka lore, magic)

Assign one each of Good(+2)/Better(+3)/Best(+4)

Attack rolls use a d10, and default to 6-or-higher to succeed. Match the player's relevant attack stat against the monster's defense stat or vice-versa. So if a player uses a Strength of Best (+4) attacks a monster with a Sneaky of Good (+2), player gets an overall +2. That means a 4 or better on d10 hits instead of 6 or better.

There's a way to assign attack and defense stats, but feel free to play fast and loose with them according to situations or whatever the kid enjoys.

Abilities (pick one attack, one movement, two powers):

* Melee Attack - (Attrib x 2 in damage)
* Distance attack (archery, etc, same as above w/ lower bonus) - (Attrib in damage)

Movement skill: pick one. Maybe something like flight, or can be fast movement or through restricted terrain (good in forest, etc.)

Powers (each character gets two, triggered by tokens):

* Extra-powerful melee attack - (Attrib x4 in damage)!
* Cleave - (Attrib x1 to everybody nearby, no attack roll needed)
* Cleave - (Attrib x2 to everybody nearby, but have to roll attack roll)

* Defense - Defend yourself completely for one round
* Group defense - Block 3 damage/round to all party members, one round

* Magic/ranged area attack - 2 damage to everybody in an area, no attack roll
* Magic/ranged area attack - (Smarts x 1) damage to everybody in area, needs attack roll
* Magic single attack - (Smarts x 1) damage to single target, no attack rolll
* Magic big single attack - (Smarts x 2) damage to single target, need attack roll

* Heal - uses Smarts
* Resist/Avoid damage (can specialize to damage type or be general) - uses any attribute
* Movement (fly, swim, fast-move, navigate swamp/forest/etc) - usually no roll, but can use any attribute
* Sneak (invisible, quiet, unsmellable, etc) - can be general disappearance, or higher bonus with some restrictions (forest-only, can be heard but not seen, etc.) - uses Sneaky

Pick one attack ability and one defend ability, must be different from each other. Strength/Sneaky, Smarts/Sneaky are obvious combos. But dexterity- or strength-based magic can be used for attack or defense.

Limited abilities (melee, limited-effect-type damage) tend to get a +1, +2 or x2 to their effect. More powerful abilities (e.g. group-defend, group-attack) may get a -1 or a hit penalty, etc. For instance, a special melee attack that only works on people might get a bonus.

You get 2 special abilities, and (Smarts x 1) counters to use them per scene.

You get 5 + 2 x Strength hit points of damage before you collapse/faint/lose.

A weak fall-over monster has 1 in each ability (Strength, Smarts, Sneaky) and 3 hits. A medium-strength minion monster has 2/2/2 for abilities and 6 hits. A powerful, fairly dangerous monster has 3/3/3 and 10 hits, and may have a power.

All of those are basically cannon fodder -- keep in mind that a character-strength monster would have 2/3/4 for abilities, around 11 hits, and two powers. That would be quite a dangerous monster, and stand a decent chance of defeating a player, especially if you play the monster as smart and/or it has minions.