Best funnel for young players? Advice sought.

[cthulhudarren]

For now I think the only way I will be able to play DCC RPG is running for my 11 y.o. son. But I don't want to run the wrong kind of stories for his age.

My preference would be for Sailors of the Starless Sea, I love that one. Do you think that has too much occult material for a kid?

I was thinking of eventually running the old D&D "A series" Slaver's modules and then the "G" giants series. I do have other DCC modules to plug in, I love Doom of the Savage Kings and Jewels of Carnefex(sp?).

But I also have to think about how many characters for him to run and what adjustments to make. Anyone have experience with running DCC RPG for small party size and younger players?

THanks,

[beermotor]

Portal Under the Stars is your best bet IMHO. You could also try Attack of the Frawgs, and the Perils of the Sunken City / Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk combo.

I think the others are probably better for 16+... I think at 11ish they're just unlikely to "get" the dynamics of, say, DoTSK, or People of the Pit or Jewels of the Carnifex. Or, even SotSS. IMO, YMMV.

[Ravenheart87]

Ah, good old days... When I was eleven I was busy killing occult creatures in Quake I and Doom I-II. Bought my first rpg rulebook when I was twelve...

Yeah, I know. I'm young.

Back to the original topic: go with Sailors. There's nothing wrong with that module in my opinion.

[ragboy]

But I also have to think about how many characters for him to run and what adjustments to make. Anyone have experience with running DCC RPG for small party size and younger players?

I've played with my kids since my oldest (now 19) was 9 or 10. The secret to playing with kids is to give them stuff to do other than bash monsters. They love the monster bashing, but I was surprised to find that they like the roleplaying aspects just as much. If you can make it a little scary, all the better. Here's what I made sure they could do in any adventure:

- Save someone (especially an animal)
- Train an animal...or monster...they all want pets
- Give them a "weird" henchman -- in D&D this was invariably a kobold, but it could be anything
- Give them opportunities to do other stuff

As far as DCC goes -- they love the funnel. I was worried that they'd get down about how many of the funnel characters die in horrible ways, but it didn't seem to phase them.

I think I mentioned in a previous post -- I was running my youngest son and his buddy (both 12) through barrowmaze, and I had them find a broken down farmhouse and barn far enough away from the dungeon to be safe, but close enough to give them easy access without having to go all the way back to town. Before I could say "Farmville" they were more interested in improving the farmhouse and setting up farming operations. Literally, the cheesemaker spent a session milking their three cows and making cheese. The hunter and the elf went off to the woods to hunt up some grub, while some other characters built a smokehouse... it was a little frustrating at first, but then I realized they were playing the game they wanted to play.

I guess, overall, be flexible. Let them dictate the tone. Don't expect them to be the gamers you've played with before. Sandbox is better than set adventures.

Also -- Jimm Johnson has a "kids roleplaying game" out there -- it's essentially whitebox base with some kids stuff painted over it. http://cubeofquazar.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... -kids.html -- Also -- I *think* Brave Halfling is going to publish this...can't remember. I know he wrote an adventure for Appendix N adventures.

[themightyeroc]

A great one would be Dungeon Crawl Classics #0, Legends are made, not born. SKU# GMG5100R

It was for DnD 3.5, but would fit easily into DCC. It centers on a group of villagers who are fed up with the outrageous demands of a local Ogre that has been terrorizing them. I'm pretty sure it is still avaiable, in PDF too I think. It is pretty tame and could be given a nice "Harry Potter" whitewash for the young ones.

On a side note my 10yr. old daughter is a main player in my current campaign and she played through Sailors on the starless Sea. I just PG thirteened a few of my descriptions of things and it worked out fine.

[themightyeroc]

DCC #0 is available as a PDF at RPGnow. $6.99

[cjoepar]

Why not build your own from scratch? I almost never run modules for anything, and when I do, I make significant modifications.

I also like Ragboy's comments, and I think that applies to anyone, not just young kids. I have had plenty of adults get more interested in developing their blacksmithing skills than in doing a dungeon crawl.

[cthulhudarren]

Why not build your own from scratch? I almost never run modules for anything, and when I do, I make significant modifications.

I have so many awesome DCC RPG modules, DnD modules, and LotFP modules that I wanna use 'em!

[cthulhudarren]

- Save someone (especially an animal)
- Train an animal...or monster...they all want pets
- Give them a "weird" henchman -- in D&D this was invariably a kobold, but it could be anything
- Give them opportunities to do other stuff

These are awesome ideas. I remember some old DnD module where the players find a baby cave bear, I think that would go over big. Same for a kobold or other weird "house elf" type of servant.

My son loves minecraft, there has to be something I could do with that.

[beermotor]

Pets are useful, but squishy. In RC's PbP game, my thief has ... uh ... earned the ire of the local thieves' guild. He's a rather independent dude. Anyway, rather than be continually looking over his shoulder, he bought a guard dog. Hopefully that'll protect him. But the dog is having a rough time in the undead-caverns of Barrowmaze... worried it's going to go bananas and get eaten. It wasn't cheap.

The finding a baby X and training it up sounds cool. But I'd imagine a big, nasty "pet" would take a long time to grow, as well as train.

Maybe better to charm an adult!?

[Flexi]

+1 for Perils of the Sunken City, DCC#0 and Sailors of the Starless Sea.

[IronWolf]

I have run Sailors and Portal for my son (9 years old). Okay, Portal was pretty short, the group TPK'ed by like room 3 or 4..

Perils of the Sunken City would be good as well. Ooze Pits has some child sacrifice, so for a kid I might consider tweaking that component just a bit. Depends on the kid I suppose.