Actual Play: [The Grave of Heaven] Me & the Kid

[joshua neff]

I've been wanting to introduce my daughter, Morgan, who will be 9 years old in a week and a half, to playing RPGs for the past few years, but I've only recently gotten around to doing it. Last night, we played our first game. Here's how it went.

First of all, I decided that S. John Ross' Uresia would be a good setting for her. It's a kitchen sink fantasy, and Morgan's a kitchen sink fantasy kind of girl. With Uresia, I can throw in things that remind Morgan of her favorite stories and settings: Harry Potter, Charlie Bone, Star Wars, the stories of Roald Dahl, the films of Tim Burton, etc. Uresia was originally designed for Big Eyes, Small Mouth, but I don't own those rules, nor would I particularly want to use them. Ross has a conversion to Risus on his website, but although I like Risus a lot, I chose to use The Shadow of Yesterday (second version) as the rulesystem. I took Clinton's free text for TSoY and began to edit it (throwing in some of Judd's brilliant Keys for "a Young Adult TSoY") as a rulesystem for Uresia, calling it "The Grave of Heaven."

So, we sat down, I gave her an overview of the setting, asked her some directed questions about what she wanted to do in the game and what kinds of things she wanted to see ("Wizards and witches?" "Yeah!" "Dragons?" "Definitely! And fairies—helpful ones, not like the ones in Labyrinth. And sea serpents." "Pirates?" "Sure."),  and ran her through TSoY character creation. We ended up with Annie, a young girl ("Kind of like me, but different, too.") leaving the island-nation of Sindra and travelling by ship to the city of Shadow River to begin attending Madame Ona's School for Magical Girls. Annie is an Adept at Create (all kinds of art, primarily painting) and Divination, and Competent at Animal Ken, Stealth and Fine Crafts. Annie has the Secret of Animal Speech and the Key of the Mission (get to the school and graduate from it). I kind of slacked on getting NPCs and Key Scenes written up, but Morgan was obviously eager to play, so I got my act together and we started last night.

I framed the first scene on the ship, about half an hour after Annie had left her home and family to travel to a new place. I asked Morgan what Annie would be doing and Morgan said, "In her cabin, practicing magic—she's got a spellbook and a dart board, and she's shooting little bolts of light at the board." I introduced some NPCs: Oliver, a young, handsome sailor who is also a painter; Victoria, a spoiled, self-obsessed rich girl who is also travelling to go to the Magic Girl school; Captain Lucy Epitaph, the captain of the ship, obsessed with finding the sea serpent Malagar and killing it; First Mate Squint, who thinks the captain has gone too far in her obsession and is contemplating mutiny; and a beast in the hold of the ship. Morgan started out being kind of tentative, but really took to trying to accomodate the various NPCs by helping them in their requests (Oliver falls for Victoria at first sight, even though he could clearly do better, and ask Annie for help in winning her heart; Captain Epitaph offers rich rewards to anyone who helps her trackdown Malagar), and began to act more on her own initiative. At one point, Annie was on deck, painting a seascape, when she spotted Malagar the sea serpent. Even though it meant going against her Mission (and Morgan didn't get any XP during the session), Morgan had Annie tell Captain Epitaph, who promptly ordered the ship to turn around and chase Malagar. First Mate Squint declares a mutiny that leads to half the ship fighting the other half. Morgan had Annie try to avoid the fighting. "Okay," I said, "let's set some stakes. If you roll your Stealth and succeed, what do you want to happen?" She said get her paints and Victoria safely below deck. "And if you fail," I said, "the fighting sailors accidently knock the paints and Victoria overboard." Well, she failed the roll, so over the side of the ship they went. Morgan had Annie throw a line over to Victoria, telling her to get as many of the art supplied as she could. Another roll, this time using Fine Crafts. I set the failure stakes as: Victoria pulls you into the water. She failed again, so splash! Morgan had Annie say to Victoria, "I hope the sea serpent doesn't get to us."

"As you say that," I narrated, "a huge head rises out of the water. It's Malagar, and he's looking right at you...and that's where we'll stop for the night."

"Oh!" she said with a smile. "Like a cliffhanger!"

"Exactly like a cliffhanger," I said.

Morgan reported that she had a lot of fun and that "I'm getting less shy about acting." She's already started thinking of what her character will do in the next session (which will be next Monday or Tuesday). She had no problem setting stakes in conflict. She was a bit timid in throwing Annie into troublesome situations, but I expected that (Morgan being somewhat timid herself when it comes to potentially dangerous or confrontational situations). I expect to see her get better about that, though, as I show her that putting her character into trouble won't get the character "hurt", just into more interesting situations.

[Bryan Hansel]

Sounds like a good season.  I've wondered for awhile what would be a good age to introduce my two nieces to role-playing.  They're 9 and 11 now, so I guess now would be a good time.  I have a hard time remembering that I started D&D in the 6th grade and what that was like.

Any other suggestions on how to gear a game that would engage kids this age?

Thanks,
Bryan

[Eric Provost]

That's a really great post, Josh.  I can't think of anything productive to ask or say, but I wanted you to know I really enjoyed reading.  Thanks for sharing.

-Eric

[joshua neff]

Eric: thanks!

Bryan:

Sounds like a good season.  I've wondered for awhile what would be a good age to introduce my two nieces to role-playing.  They're 9 and 11 now, so I guess now would be a good time.  I have a hard time remembering that I started D&D in the 6th grade and what that was like.

Any other suggestions on how to gear a game that would engage kids this age?

Well, I'm no expert on elementary school-age kids, so I can't make any sweeping generalizations. I can say that I chose TSoY not just because I think it's a nifty system in general, but because it would allow my daughter to make the kinds of input and choices that I thought she'd enjoy making. And your characters get cool special abilities with Secrets. And because you can resolve conflicts without resorting to violence or leading to death. (Although you can also use violence if you so choose. She's already suggesting that her character could use a sword to fight off the sea serpent.)

Basically, I'd say look for a setting and mechanics that allow the players to engage in situations and address conflicts that they find engaging--just like with adult players.

If anyone else has any suggestions, feel free to chime in. I know there have been some other threads in which this question has been addressed.

[Judd]

Wow, which Keys didja use?

Awesome.

[joshua neff]

I edited in the Key of the Quest and the Key of Curiosity to the TSoY rules. My daughter was torn between the Quest, the Mission and Curiosity. She ended up choosing the Mission.

She's getting the hang of the standard resolution. I briefly explained Bringing Down the Pain and told her only she could initiate it. I also explained buying off Keys and buying advances. As she gets a better handle on the mechanics, it will be interesting to see what she does.

[Judd]

I have found that customizing Secrets towards what they want is really awesome too.  I had a player who was this high elf huntsman and during a break in the game I wrote up a Key of the Horn for him to buy.  It really helped and gave him something to shoot for XP-wise.

Sounds awesome.  Thanks for sharing.

[Anders]

I'll bookmark this thread!

My son is eager to try gaming and is often asking when we will do it. He is four and is very verbal and with a great imagination but I feel that I want to wait a little longer.

Until that time comes this post serves as inspiration for how it can be done.

Joshua, you wrote that you'd thought about gaming with your daughter for a couple of years.

Do you think you would have had a very different experience if you would've tried this a year ago or two?

I sounds like you had a great game and I hope you continue to have lots of fun.

[komradebob]

I have great fun playing with my daughter ( 9 yo) for a couple of years now. One of the things I've for us is that Threnody likes to take an active part in playing around with more of the story/setting than just a single character.

Your pre-game discussion is a great parallel to my experiences. It also sort of makes me wonder about more traditional rpg design ( with its strong GM vs character player input division) and its lack of appeal to a wider audience.