A game for my niece, based on Avatar: the Last Airbender

[d.anderson]

A couple years ago, I taught my niece to play rock-paper-scissors; since then she and I have had a few good times playing together.  During the holidays, we actually played a little tiny bit of Pokethulhu, since she is a big Pokemon fan and I am not.  It was fun but difficult, she doesn't have much of an attention span, and comparing dice and target numbers and any kind of strategy are mostly boring to her.  Her eighth birthday just passed on the 7th, and I was thinking about a game I, my brother, and maybe other kids could play with her.  I just started watching the Avatar series, which my brother likes tremendously and my niece more or less likes, and below is what I came up with.  What I need is basic feedback, a better list of tasks and Strengths, and maybe an explicit way of pacing complications and their resolution in a task.

-Dan

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What is the game about?  This is a make-believe game about learning to become a good "bender" (as per the elementalists from the Avatar series).

What is playing like?  One player is the master bender; the other player is the student bender.  The master finds tasks that will help the student become a better bender,  The student deals with the complications that come up in completing the task, and gains strength from the lessons they learn.  Once the student has learned enough, they graduate to being a full-fledged bender of their people.

How do you make the characters?  The student decides which type of bender they want to be - the master is the same kind, and this tells which culture they come from, and what kind of places they live in.  The student has three Strengths, one of which is that they're a bender; the other two Strengths could be anything about the student that might help them out when training (see the Strength examples).  The master is someone that likes and trusts the student, and is a bender of the same element; otherwise, the master is whoever they say they are, and can do whatever they say they can do.  The master will also usually speak for other people in the game, explaining who they are, what they want, and what they do.

How do you play?  The student and the master sort out where they are at the beginning of the game, probably somewhere in or near their home.  The master has to come up with a task for the student to perform that is difficult and needs doing (see the Task examples).  When the student goes to perform the task, the master explains what kinds of complications come up (even though the master is not really there).  The student must figure out and explain how they try to overcome or solve a complication.  Then the student and the master play Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS).

> If the student wins, their plan worked!  The master and student sort out what exactly happened.

> If the student and master tied, then there was a further complication that came up - if the student wants, they can explain how they overcome this new complication with a Strength, or they can come up with a new plan and then RPS again.

> If the student fails, their plan can't or won't work unless they use a Lesson they learned from another complication to overcome this one - if they don't have a Lesson or can't figure how to use any they do have, then they have to learn a Lesson from this failure (which they should write down, explaining what Lesson they learned).  If they use a Lesson, they overcome it just like using a Strength.

The master decides when the task is done, whether it is complete or not.  If the task is completed, then the student chooses one of the Lessons they learned (if they have any) to become a Strength; if the task is not completed, then the master chooses one of the Lessons the student learned to become a Strength for the student.  Once the student has six Strengths, the master must not only have a task for the student but also a particular Lesson the student must learn while trying to accomplish the task - the student cannot finish the task without learning that Lesson.  Once the student has ten Strengths, the master and the student describe the graduation ceremony.  If they want to play again, they should make benders of another element.

example Strengths
    family
    a pet
    a tool or weapon
    courage
    a loud voice
    anger
    toughness
    good eyesight
    being nice

example tasks
    find something lost or something needed (food, medicine)
    clean up a big mess someone made
    make it through a maze full of tricky traps and puzzles
    get a wild creature to go away
    create a path through wilderness
    teach another student a useful trick
    search for secret signs that lead to a hidden place

[thadrine]

It is simple, and thus really good for kids, I really like it.

My strong recommendation! If you plan on using this for kids be sure to use a lot of visual aids.

Must haves for any GM:

• Those cheap glass beads from the hobby store
• At least two decks of cards
• Several hundred index cards
• Microsoft Publisher, or some other easy to use layout program
• Enough dice for about 7 players
• Miniatures....whether your game really needs them or not

Kids have an attention span worse than a nat....on withdraw from crack....after watching Oprah. Even if your game has no rules for it use some visual aides to help them keep track of things. Also, be sure to right those powers down for them, maybe every trait on an Index card. Pictures from the show on the card might be good as well if you can find them.

Main thing though, do not restrict their imagination, because that is one that kids of that age actually have.....as apposed to older jaded folks.




That being said. I have done this sort of thing before and it may not be a bad idea to sit them down and watch a good episode of the Avatar. The one where Zuko highers the chick with the giant ant eater to hunt the Avatar down, for instance. And build a scenario off of that episode. Then give them characters based off of characters present during that conflict and let them relive it. It is cheesy, something that you and I would do our best to never repeat, but kids would love it.

[thadrine]

Painful......

I wish the FORGE had an edit feature

[d.anderson]

Thanks for having a look, thadrine!  My difficulty is not her attention span, fortunately - she may not have much for other things but she does for story time.  Later the same evening we played the game, she told me a story about "her Pokemon" that went on for about an hour and a half, with me periodically interrupting to ask about how previous events fit and what other characters were doing.  We were just sitting on the couch, without any other stimulation, which may have been the trick, but she definitely had a good grasp of story flow and characterization, and only needed a little help here and there to remind her where she was with everything.

I chose RPS because 1) as I mentioned, she likes to play it with me, 2) dice and the like would get lost in about 5 seconds, and 3) she doesn't want to focus on comparing numbers and such as part of her storytelling, as I learned by playing with her.  She didn't seem to need any visual aids, but she did immediately draw her pokethulhu, so drawing should probably be implemented - maybe as a part of process, when Tasks are completed they could go on a card with a drawing and the Lessons and Strength gained (if any), kind of like what you described.

I wanted the Tasks to avoid being necessarily about combat, though the fact that the "bending" methods are all based on martial arts and my niece's proclivity for fighting in her stories will make it a likely subject.  She has seen all the episodes that my brother has; I expect the Master to be responsible for introducing elements that emulate the aesthetic themes of the show, if that's important to them - otherwise the series is just a touchstone and I think should rely on the imagination of the players, as you say.  A more comprehensive and focused Strength and Task list would help.

I'd really like to hear what you've done previously that is like this, but maybe that should go in the Actual Play forum.  I like reading about how people have gone about playing games with children.

[thadrine]

I was trying to get some parents and their children into gaming. They were all fans of Dragonball Z, and played poker, so I based something off of that.

Basic mechanic:

Write a list of 3 descriptors for your character. Things like "Spirit Bomb" or "Insert cheesy anime power name."
Distribute 20 points amongst all of those traits, at least 5 points but no more than 10 to a skill.
Describe what you are doing and what trait is the most appropriate.
Draw a number of cards equal to the skill. And play a hand of poker with your best 5 cards.
Who ever wins the hand does one point of damage to their opponent.
Damage reduces a stat by one step. You can choose any stat, but you must tell what happens to make it happen.
You can keep going until no one has any cards left.

This worked surprisingly well, and let to decent battle length, as it always does in Anime.