So I return with light discussion

[SpaceYeti]

I read through a few threads, but, frankly, I don't have the patience for a debate about ID or critisizing/helping with making a tabletop game (still working on my own, anyway). So here it is...

I played D&D with my son for the first time today. He loved it. It was natural to him. He took to his character, could differentiate between character and player knowledge, and was very into the events taking place in the game-world. I had to explain some mechanics to him, but that's to be expected of any beginner to any game. He's 9, and he took to it so well!

Oh, and his character was named "Pete Za".

Spoiler

If anyone who cares, here's what happened;

He had created his character a while ago. A human swordmage, aegis of assault. I decided to give him some nobility. He's a prince of a growing kingdom, with four siblings, two older brothers (so he's not the crown prince), an older sister, and a younger sister. I introduced him to his family (minus his mother, due to reasons involving plot) and his father's best good wizard buddy.

The introduction included his second older brother (General of the Army) rushing in to inform the king of a goblin attack and over-running of a newly constructed fort on the borders of the kingdom and an area infested with goblins. I kept it not very bloody for him, so most of the soldiers escaped. The goblins discovered the escape tunnel, and over-ran the fort through it (which is suspicious, since the entrance is visible from the primary watch-tower, but that's also plot relevant and I wanted to see if my son would catch on to how it was weird).

So the king's wizard buddy teleport Pete Za and himself to the teleportation circle within the fort. They kill some goblins in the circle room, and wizard buddy (Edward, or "Ed") stays behind to begin casting the return ritual in the TC room.

This is where I throw a few wrenches in to see how my son could handle it. He had already known there was a prison in the basement of the fort, and he knew his sister was at the fort when it was over-run.

Wrench 1; The stairs to the basement were hidden, and goblins were in the area it was hidden in. He said something about how there were supposed to be stairs down and weren't, and I wasn't sure he'd find them.

Wrench 2; As he fought the goblins, they could make it upstairs and hit a warning gong, which would mean goblins would be aware of him, even if they didn't know who or where he was. Well, he didn't manage to prevent the gong hit, so after killing the last goblin, he went back to where the stairs were supposed to be and actually searched for them. Discovering a large wooden board covering the stairs, he moved it, started down the stairs, and then replaced the board to throw the goblins off his trail, at least for as long as possible.

Wrench 3; There was a huge iron door before getting to the three jail cells. This was probably the biggest hitch for him. I expected it to be, though. He was truly baffled how to get to the cells and, he thought, his sister (who Ed had said was probably with the rest of any captives the goblins might hold). He tried to ram it down. It made a huge boom, which the goblins might hear, and it proved exceedingly solid, so he held off on that solution in search of others.

Wrench 4; There was only one man in the cells. He was in the middle, and he could speak to Pete through the small, barred windows in each door (including the one Pete was trying to get through). Thus, his sister was not there. I had the man rouse and begin talking with Pete once it was obvious something was afoot. After discussing each of their situations with the other, Pete had discovered that the goblins had NOT discovered the jail, and this man, even though he was a criminal put here by the proper authorities before the goblin raid, needed food and water. The man also promised to help locate and rescue Pete's sister in exchange for helping him get out of his cell.

Finally, Pete realized that there's a chance that, due to absent-mindedness or lack of care, the door he was trying to get through may not be locked. He turned the knob and opened it. Pete gave the guy in the cell his second belt as he requested, which the man used to pick the lock and get out. He formally introduced himself and believed that Pete actually was Pete Za (he hadn't believed him, since he couldn't see him, and why would a prince suddenly come to his rescue?).

They left the basement and immediately heard goblins trying to enter the room Pete had teleported into. They went down the hall and around the corner (that's how far it was), and started fighting the goblins. The man from the jail cell ran the other way around the room (it had hallway on all sides) to grab some dead goblin weapons, since he had prison clothes for gear. They fought the goblins dead, which is when we ran out of time.

Now, I'm curious what my son will do. It's been made fully clear to him that he can't clear out the entire goblin hoard by himself, or else the plan wouldn't be to get the prisoners and run, and definitely don't try to kill all the goblins. However, he hasn't yet found his sister, and his retreat to safety is through a door he knows the knock to get into. Ed will not send him home without his sister, or even beginning to do the second part of the mission. The king also told him to clear the retreat tunnel the goblins attacked through, or to open a gate failing that. How much does he trust this prisoner? How will he deal with him once they get home?

If you couldn't tell, the prisoner is a support character. Since Pete was effectively alone for the mission, the prisoner is a rogue to fill up the party a bit. His sister is a cleric, so once he finds her he'll have the cleric slot of his party full, too. Once he gets both of them geared up and rescued, for future games I'm going to let him control them in battle (they'll be simplified, to not overshadow his own character).

I look forward to seeing how much of what's happening my son grasps, and what decisions he might make. I already told him that, depending on what he does or does not do, he could come home a hero, or he could be the son his father doesn't like to talk about. I also made it clear that it's just his game world dad, just to be sure he didn't think his performance in a game effected what I thought of him in real life.

 

[Hadoblado]

Sounds great. If I have kids I'd like to do something similar with them. I've seen similar set-ups (my current DM also has his kids at the table, though they're close to my age - they seem to have been doing it a while XD), and it looks to be a great dynamic for all involved.

 

[Jennywocky]

Pretty cool, and I think it's a great thinking game / problem-solving. It forces one to explore unfamiliar decisions to arrive at a best answer (at the time), using just what one has at the moment, and making the best of bad situations. But it's all just a game, so in that sense there are no long-term real-life effects. Your son sounds like he's doing well, and you're doing a good job of making it challenging and thus enjoyable without being frustrating to the point of quitting. I didn't have anyone to play with, really, when I started in sixth grade; and most of my early dungeons were just "room and monster and treasure" sorts unfortunately. It sounds like you have your son in a real storyline.

Two of my kids really aren't into fantasy gaming (although one of those did have fun playing Munchkins). My eldest did take a weekend playing D&D 4e at college, but was a little frustrated by the amount of time spent on character creation and it sounds like the players didn't know exactly what they were doing. he always asks me about my own campaign and seems to enjoy the stories I bring back to him. I think if he was local, I'd ask him to join my weekend campaign and I think he'd play.

 

[SpaceYeti]

We played again last night. His curiosity about the rules and the game world astound me. He's a sponge, trying to absorb everything. He's so interested that he derailed the actual events of the game a few times trying to understand it.

Spoiler

We left off after he and Geoff beat up the goblins trying to bust into the room Ed was in. Unlike I suspected, he then continued to the storage room, knowing that Ed wouldn't teleport him home until the mission is done anyway. Geoff found the locker his gear was in (if you remember, he was a legitimate prisoner from before the goblin assault.). Now, I want my son to realize that not everything is as it appears, so Geoff, being a rogue and thief, picked the lock to the locker. However, he made it appear that he found the keys and opened it with them. In reality the keys had nothing to do with the lockers, Geoff had no idea what they were to, he just didn't want the prince (my son's character) see him breaking into military property, even though the plan was to get his stuff anyhow.

Also, just to make things more clear, I never shared the mission or plan themselves.
The Mission; Find and rescue any prisoners the goblins may have taken, specifically (but not limited to) the youngest princess, Andreia. Clear a path for the reorganized soldiers to assault the fort they were forced to abandon.

The Plan; Ed protects the room the portal is in, all the while conducting the ritual which opens it back to the castle up to the last syllable, finishing the casting only when it's time to return. Pete (my son) searches for and frees any prisoners the goblins hold, keeping them safe and, ultimately, bringing them home with him. Since his sister is a cleric and healer, he and she find the escape tunnel the goblins came in through and clear it out so that the soldiers can attack through it as the goblins had before them. If that's not possible, break open one of the two gates to the fort. The goblins probably won't be able to fix them before the soldiers attack, whereas the humans who built the place will be able to fix them with no major problems. Go home and report to the king, Pete's father.

So after Geoff was geared up and better prepared to fight, he was gung-ho about finding the princess. That's when Pete dropped the bomb. They have to clear a path for the soldiers to reclaim the keep through. My son doesn't seem to suspect Geoff of anything, but Geoff is a naturally untrusting guy who tends to find trouble, generally with the law. He was all for saving a princess because that's basically a get out of jail free card. What king wouldn't pardon him after saving his youngest daughter, right? It was dangerous, but he's not all that shy to danger, as long as he can get something for it. Clearing out a tunnel clogged with goblins, on the other hand, held little reward for him. However, he didn't really have a way out of the keep without Pete, who he wants to have on his side when it comes time to tell his dad how good a help he was saving the princess, so it looks like he's stuck. Geoff told none of these thoughts to Pete, of course.

The dynamic duo head upstairs to the war room. They weren't heading there for any particular reason, as far as I could tell. My son just chose a path and went. To be fair, that's better than sitting on his thumbs waiting for NPCs to tell him what to do. Also, that just happens to be where the mid-boss is. The goblin in charge of attacking the fort itself, the small castly structure the daily business goes on in, in the greater fortress, was in there. He was a shamany/warlocky fellow. Not very strong himself, more tricky and magicy. However, his right hand man, a giant of a goblin with a giant axe, was also with him, with some minions and a few regular goblin soldiers.

Now, this fight was planned by me to be much easier than it seems at a glance. Yes, Boss McCasty would make things hard, but he was going to stay out of the fight, considering two pesky humans beneath himself, and also he'd rather enjoy his berzerker buddy ripping them to shreds while he sat and watched... as a human princess, chained at his side, was forced to feed him grapes. The two regular goblins were going to guard the door, keeping the humans from running away. So basically, the fight was going to be one goblin berzerker and some minions, until the berzerker fell down and the boss joined in and the two regular goblins ran away, with support healing from the chained up princess.

Just to explain the scene, the war room was a huge room with a huge table in the center, full of maps and such. The far end of the room was raised about four feet, with stairs on either side to get up there, with a railing running between the stairs. That was where the commander stood, to be imposing and look important, and would also keep my son from just charging the boss.

My son understands heroics, though, if not patience. The very first thing he did was run down the center of the room, leaping onto the table, burning an action point to continue running along the table, doing a flip-jump over the railing, to end his movement three spaces from the boss, up on the raised end of the room. He succeeded on every check I asked him for, except the one for the flip. That was purely show, though. He still made it, just without the flip. He followed it up with a power that attacked the boss and pulled him three spaces toward himself, hitting.

Keep in mind, this was right after the goblin berzerker called him out to fight. My son was focused, he wanted to save his sister. There was really no way for me to explain that I hadn't planned on him fighting the boss right away. Besides, this was exciting! The minions closed in and wailed on him, the berzerker wailed on him, and he only had his high armor class to thank for surviving until Geoff finally made it up there to help out.

I won't go round by round, but it was a fantastic battle, where neither Pete nor Geoff could get to the princess to free her because of all the action. She tried to use her one ranged spell a few times, and she healed each of the guys once each (using that up). I could have played the goblins as smart as they were, employing good strategy. And they kind of did. However, the battle was already in the goblin's favor anyway, and my son's actions were just plain awesome, so I made sure the boss was attacking everyone, not focusing on him.

He finally beat all the goblins in the room and freed his sister, who also didn't have her gear. He talked with his sister, getting information from her and trying to figure out his next step, but we were running out of time fast. We only had something like an hour of game-time, probably less. I look forward to seeing how he handles the surprises he finds in the escape tunnel. My son is pretty anti-slavery, I know, but let's see how anti-acid traps he is.

The goblins invaded that way, you think they'd just keep it how they found it, for any jerk-wad army to come invade through it?

 

[The Introvert]

Your son's heroism is impressive, albeit stupid

Keep the stories coming!

 

[SpaceYeti]

We've played again a dew times, the last time being tonight.

Spoiler

1. Over the span of the few times we've played up to this session, Pete discovered his mother was injured in an inexplicable explosion inside the temple to which she's the head priestess. He retrieves an elixir from the crypt beneath the church in the castle, which has inexplicably been over-run with shadow-creatures. He battles a big shadow and minions, gets the elixir to his mother, she's unresponsive. While discussing the issue with Ed, trying to figure out what might cure the queen granting that super elixir thing didn't, the castle gets over-run with shadow-creatures, who amassed a huge assault through the portal which was found down there (but Pete couldn't figure out how to operate). Ed tries to rush a portal spell to a nearby kingdom for help, the enemies get into his lab forcing his already hastened spell to be cast haphazardly, the trio of heroes get sent to the middle of the woods somewhere.

2. The group run into a mysterious elven sorceress who seems clueless to social graces and shows signs of deep regret or depression (who's name they shorten to "Mari"). She tells them they're thousands of miles from home. She lets them on to her mission to stop whatever's preventing the caravans from reaching her village. They track down kobold brigands, finding their lair, and defeating their new, young, white dragon master. They find nice loot and a map in it's treasure hoard. They go to Mari's village. She doesn't go in with them, until they say they're staying a few days, and then only in a disguise. They're rewarded for fixing the village's problem.

Tonight; They go back to the kobold's cave, still with Mari, to try and follow the map they found, which seems to begin at the cave. Once there, they're attacked by orcs. Searching the orcs yields a letter, in draconic, threatening the dragon with getting "crushed" if he doesn't deliver a greater quantity of goods. The note was from "The Black Hand"... not the World War 2 one, but a mysterious figure who seems to think threatening dragons is something he can do. Maybe he can.

They follow the map and find a small fortress type building, and attempt to infiltrate it. They take out the guards before they can raise an alarm, no bigs. Now, in this fight with the guards, I notice my son is throwing hand axes he picked up from the orcs they had already fought. No bigs, he's just taking out minions with them. Still kind of odd for a swordmage though. Whatever.

A hallway and a door with a Brick-Trap* later, the group is confronted with a serious threat. It's a group of orcs similar to the one they already fought, but with one extra of the tough orcs. I'm going to blame my son being tired, he slept over a friend's house last night and got 5 hours of sleep, and we played fairly late tonight. He controls the cleric and the rogue in combat, as well as himself. He soaks up information and how things work, but he just wasn't there for this fight. The rogue acted like a tank, the healer acted like a damage dealer, and he ran around throwing axes. He only survived because of a few suggestions I made and because I was controlling Mari. It says it right in his class name: Swordmage. Now, I'm not about to tell him not to try new things and have fun. Throwing axes can be great. However, he didn't just throw a few and then go back to what he's good at, or even try another new thing, he did nothing but throw axes the entire combat. He dealt less damage, less often, and he spent time picking axes up instead of marking enemies (which one of his class features hinges on). Now, this is bad tactics hands down, and he knows it. He's normally better. As I said, though, super tired. Still, it's why I called the session. I mean, terrible tactics due to being tired sure doesn't mean to keep the kid up later!

Extras;

1. Geoff (the rogue) and Andreia (the princess), have a fledgling romance going on, but my son hasn't picked up on it, yet. Granted, he only would if he investigated specifically that or stalked one of the two, or something. I don't expect him to find out until much later, but he might.

2. Mari's actually very self-conscious about a curse she is convinced is put on her from some unknown source, which causes her to mess everything up all the time. Indirectly, she caused the death of her parents and brother, and she's too guilt-stricken to face her village. In fact, her village sent her on the mission to get her out of town, because she talked so much about her curse and seemed jinxed to the point of it effecting those around her. It seemed true, and nobody liked her, she's a loose cannon, a risk unworth keeping around.

Pete knows only that she's shy, is clueless socially, and seems depressed and regretful.

Not counting some tired-induced poor choices on my son's part, he's learning a lot, and quickly. His strategies are generally sub-par, but I've been playing for almost 20 years. He's probably doing much better than I would have at his age. Mostly, DMing for him reminds me why I like DMing. He's sincerely interested in the game world, in developing his character, and in the relationships his character has.

 

[QuickTwist]

Welcome back!