So I was talking with friends on Twitter and someone mentioned the Monster Manual Gnome and his Pet Weasel named Francis.
Many people remember that it was kicked out of the scene by a Tiefling Warlock in the D&D 4e promotional TV ads.
That gave me an Idea I do not currently have the time to pursue.
What if I wrote a D&D adventure for Dungeon Magazine called ‘Where is Francis?’ made especially for kids between 6 and 10?
There would be fights against animated objects and plants (I want to limit violence against sentient beings), a Jealous “Villain” starved for friends and an overexcited Gnome seeking adventurers to help him recover his minion.
I pitched this to Wizards of the Coast yesterday. You think they will go for it? Would you be curious to read such an adventure?
Any hints and ideas I should think about to make it fun for both children and adults playing with them? I’m surely going to focus on what my son did and write several DM hints on letting go of the rules in favour of the Story.
Delightful idea…definttely something to jot down on the impossibly long list of things to do…
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Read the old module “Castle Greyhawk” – kids love that kind of humor. My daughter used to want it for bedtime stories! Also, keep the tasks small, varied and the adventure kind of short. Depending on the age of the children, kids don’t have the world’s longest attention spans.
Adults will find it unsophisticated and campy but kids will love it.
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Just my two cents, but I’m not entirely sure if it’s a good idea to tone it down that much just because it’s for children. I think that parents might be more concerned about not exposing their children to violence than is actually healthy for them. Now, I’m not saying that you should run a violent adventure, but just take a look at most cartoons (especially the older ones) and you’ll see that they have quite a lot of “animated violence” (Tom and Jerry, anyone?).
I’m of the opinion that children are smarter than most adults are willing to believe, and CAN actually understand non-trivial plots. I also don’t think that they will turn into violent sociopaths if they are exposed to violent games and cartoons – I mean, even before I was 10, I was playing Mortal Kombat and watching Saint Seiya, which are both extremely violent, and I’d like to think that I’m a pretty civilized person nowadays.
So while I agree that an adventure designed for children WOULD be very interesting and welcome, I think that you’re toning it down too much, especially for children on the upper bound of that range you cited.
[Of course, if you’re planning to talk to WotC about it, you probably WILL have to tone it down…]
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@Mike: Yeah, I wish I could summon more hobby time… I feel a life changing career decision coming.
@Viritatha: I played it all when I was a teenager and loved every minutes of it! I think this is one of the reason why I maintain such a strong Sillyness vibe when I DM otherwise serious games.
I’ll try to hunt down a copy again.
@amz: Welcome to the blog. Thanks for the tips!
Your last sentence clinches why I’d go for the lessened violence angle. Plus I try real hard to teach my son that pointless violence is to be avoided and to avoid using words like ‘kill’ and ‘cut’ when he discusses things.
So these values, which I do not say are better or worse than others, they’re just mine, transpire in my approach to gaming with kids.
That being said, for young kids, the tactical aspects of a RPG are not what they will likely enjoy the most. At that age it’s all about the discovery and the joy of being able to shape a story.
Thanks, I’ve been following your blog for a while, but this is the first time that I decided that I had something useful to say. 🙂
I do agree that kids will probably prefer the “make believe” part rather than the tactical one (in fact, it might be interesting to change combat to something as simple as “move your piece over the enemy”) – I was merely saying that, if there is combat, I don’t see a major problem with it being against humans, animals and monsters… But now that I do think about it some more, I loved smashing robots in Sonic as a kid, so that’d probably work, too. 😉
The bit that I really don’t like is the idea of a “jealous villain looking for friends”, that seems excessively toned down. I think that children would have an easier time understanding mindless evil (using the previous example, see Dr. Eggman/Robotinik) than social disfunction.
Finally, something that just ocurred to me… If we’re talking about D&D for kids, that HAS been done, the old D&D cartoon that I loved so much when I was a kid. That might be a good source of inspiration. And it even has a truly Lawful Evil villain.
That sounds great. I would run it, dunno about kids 😉
I think as far as building the module I would use a trick I haven’t seen lately. Include at least 3 or 4 stock quotes with every villain, even if they’re cheesy and simple. Look how much mileage daleks get out of “Exterminate!”
I would also probably include a mastermind type villain. It’s probably even more fun if he’s just an underling rather than the head honcho (although he might either not know this or think it’s a temporary job). In a world with animated objects I’d probably make him some sort of custom clockwork toy. For idea fodder on the villains I’d probably go check out some Pinky and the Brain skits or maybe Austin Powers for cheesy mastermind ideas and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice skit from Fantasia.
I think a mastermind style villain is important because you want something you can put in there to let adults and children both feel interested and challenged. Something engaging you can surround with readily crunchable monsters. Here’s a sample quote for a mastermind you can use and abuse if you like it:
“At last, I have you right where I want you. Behold, you stand in the middle of my Instant Death Drown You In Slugs trap! Hahahahaha! *an accomplice cringes and whispers something to the mastermind* Wait. What do you mean we used that on the last group? You haven’t caught all of the slugs yet? Ahem. Er. Yes. What I -meant- to say, my foolish heroes, is that I have you right where I want you. You’re surrounded! Destroy them, my robots!”
As a parent of two small kids, I definitely support your idea.
For smaller kids (4-7), I agree on not including violence against sentients and using the “misguided villain who just wants friends” trope.
However, if you are running a game with kids aged 8-15, then some amounts of “pow!”, “slam!” bloodless violence and a “Take over the World!!!” villain are appropiate in my book.
Of course, I have learned that you have to respect other parents decisions when it comes to parenting.
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I always thought that this was an untapped market in modern day childrens’ literature to be honest. I had an idea where a lovable but dimwitted ogre lost his dolly, Sally and sets out to find her. Along the way he helps out different characters who join him on his quest to find Sally. I thought the villain would be the one responsible for everyone’s misfortune because he wanted Sally for himself (sort of like Mr. Burns and his teddy bear). His attempts to throw off the ogre instead gave him allies to help him defeat the villain. Themes of sharing and helping others would be the focus. This could easily be turned into an adventure for kids.
As more and more D&D players move into the having kids range, it would be nice for them to have books or adventures through which to introduce their hobby. You might want to ditch the other stuff and put this one on the fast track, CDM!
Just don’t insult their intelligence by putting in any of those doofus side-kicks. Fractured fairy-tales are popular in that age group, so if you do a story that has a kind of sleeping beauty type ring to it it might be popular; also you could maybe throw in some fairy-tale type characters.
When I was studying in Japan I taught English part-time at a technical college, and I ran an adventure there as an English practice thing. I set it in the school, and then around the town, using monsters from Japanese mythology and some of the kinds of places my students weren’t able to go – bars and the like – in a kind of silly/smutty way that worked pretty well. Children aged over 10 like to take the piss out of their elders, and it can be done in a way which isn’t actually rude. It’s fun for everyone involved, and a little hint of the familiar can help settle people into something they aren’t used to.
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My son (10) just made his first dungeon. It is filled with skeletons mostly, but the last room is the interview from the video. The players goal is to save the gnome, Francis and the interviewer from the crazed tiefling. Then the gnome gives them money and candy.
I think it’s a totally awesome idea 🙂
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I think this is an awesome idea to hook for children into the game. We could even milk it with action figures, cereal and a trading card game. 😀
Gary Gygax worked on similar ideas when he was in charge of D&D entertainment.
I was a rabid fan of the TV show in the 80’s.
LOL let’s plan the Merch before we write anything!
The amount of positive feedback on this is telling me it’s worth exploring as a RPG business niche regardless of Wizards of the Coast’s response.
Speaking of which, I have a 1/2 written post about both my children playing a storygame together… I’ll finish it up soon!
I thought it was a badger, but other than that, I dig the idea!
You are right, it was a Badger…
Badger Badger Bagder….
Had another idea for this after seeing the intro to an anime. It probably wouldn’t stand out enough to work in the adventure idea you had planned, but if you do others, consider adding in a new type of golem. Everyone’s seen the classics by now. Iron, stone, clay, even the Frankenstein-ish flesh golems. What we really need is… a Stuffed Golem! I apologize for not knowing 4e well enough to stat it out but it could easily be a rebranded flesh golem for simplicity if you needed it to be. Possible ways to make it stand out would be to have the stitching come loose and an arm fall off when bloodied which the golem then uses as a pretty mean club or a close range grapple via animated stitching.
@Lanir: Good one… That could definitively work!
Ours is one of the first generations of gamers to have kids. Unlike many of our own parents, we’re open to the idea of our kids playing D&D and similar games. So I think there could be a market for adventures like this. I know I’d buy them! Role-playing is a great way to tap into a child’s imagination, teach them about truth and honor, and give them an outlet for their playful aggression – all in one place. It’s also a good way to connect and have fun.