This is an exciting time for me. Yesterday was my sons 11th birthday. That means it’s about time he starts playing D&D with his father.
But this is more than just bonding over a great game. It is critical for his development. To my mind, there is nothing more important for a developing child than a mastery of literacy. They can be lacking in any other area of study, but as long as they can read they can continue their education as needed. If a child does not develop into an avid reader they are stunted for life.
This is why D&D is great. It is a game that has kids reading book after book as they expand their imaginations. Before long they are reading all the fantasy authors in Apendix N. A love of the game is a love of reading.
Roleplaying Games are a Proving Ground
In the book ‘Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions’ the author laments that young men today have no proving ground. I believe this is the reason so many young men are doing crazy things. They are struggling.
But roleplaying games like D&D are a safe and effective proving ground.
One of my fondest memories of my oldest son go back to a game of Dungeon World that I ran for a group of adults. His party was going through a tunnel of dangling vines. One of the adults absently hacked away at them. The vines immediately began grabbing members of the team and hoisting them to the ceiling. Slamming them into the walls. Everyone was frustrated. The more they attacked the vines the worse their situation became.
My son was playing a cleric that night and he surprised everyone in the room including me. He said, ‘Can I heal the vines?’
And of course it made perfect sense. The cleric has the ability to take someones damage by laying hands on them. He absorbed all the damage his party had dealt the vines. Everyone was immediately free and allowed to continue forward.
After the game an adult approached him and lauded his creative thinking. As a father I could re-live that moment a thousand times.
Preparing for the Big Day
Choosing a ruleset was my first priority. I could run this thing with B/X. When a system hangs around for 40 years and still has new material being published you know it’s a solid option. In the end I decided that White Box would probably be the best option. I can still use B/X materials and keep simple stat blocks by replacing enemies with the White Box equivelants. I need things to run as smoothly as possible for this first campaign. That means the most minimal ruleset that can possibly work.
The next consideration is what module to run. I think Tomb of the Serpant Kings is the best starting point. It is well play tested and teaches new players the ‘old school’ playing style.
All of the material you see in the picture above can be had for about $15. You really only need to buy a set of polyhedral dice and a copy of ‘White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game.’
Tomb of the Serpent Kings is free. All I had to do was print it out and comb bind it. The DM screen is a 40 cent folder that I glued printouts to using a glue stick. Yeah, I’m a baller.
White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game
Referee Screen
Tomb of the Serpent Kings
Dice
Running the Game
The focus is on a game that runs smooth as silk. No looking into the manual mid-game. It has to be fun and geared towards a young audience.
Characters Will Die
New players with low level characters die often. That is how they learn to play the game. If you let kids spend 15 minutes making a character that they are invested in and then that character dies in the first game, they are crushed. Often they will never want to play again. Do not make this mistake.
I have a couple dozen pre-made characters I created using an online generator. I will let the players choose a starting character from the pile. Then I will use a few of the remaining sheets to play hired retainers in the party. If a players character dies I will hand them one of the retainers and say, ‘That guy is dead, now you are this guy.’
Don’t Hide Traps
Tomb of the Serpent Kings is kind of brutal and contains a lot of traps. Because I am using this module for young adults I will make traps easy to spot. Questing Beast made a video ‘Stop Hiding Your Traps’ and I agree with his assessment. There is nothing fun about searching for traps. All the fun is in disarming traps.
Focus on Adventure and Loot
I will change TOTSK to replace the monsters with their equivelant from the White Box bestiary. That will bring the power level down a bit. I will also reduce their numbers because Im planning on 2 players and 3 retainers. That’s only a party of 5. Honestly though, I really want to encourage adventuring and pursuit of treasure over combat. I may not even award experience points for combat. Glory is its own reward.
When combat does occur I will make sure that it is no more violent than what you see in a game like Minecraft. I will keep the game fun and light-hearted.
Final Thoughts
I want so much for his first game to be awesome. I will provide a play report and let you know how it went and any lessons learned.