Dagger "Underworld and Wilderness Adventure"

[tetramorph]

Brave Halfing folks (and AustinJimm!) -- apparently it is not good enough for my kids (daughter 7 and son 8) just to play D&D (using Dagger, roughly, and AustinJimm's Planet Eris house rules, cobbled together with some of my own stuff, but hey, we are OSR, right?), but also, they must be like their "Papa," and be the dungeon master too!

At first they did this with me, consulting with me on the side every now and then. But then they wanted to play just with one another when I was unavailable. So, behold, a DMG easy enough for a 7 year old!

Random Monster Encounter
Roll d20

1. Evil Knight
2. Evil Wizard
3. Thief
4. Elf (good)
5. Dwarf (good)
6. Goblin
7. Orc
8. Hobgoblin
9. Ogre
10. Troll
11. Giant
12. Skeleton
13. Zombie
14. Mummy
15. Vampire
16. Giant Spider
17. Giant Ant
18. Werewolf
19. "Frankenstein"
20. Dragon!

Monster Information
(For when they can't find it in the books. Yes, they have actually figured out how to use all this info with a "to hit" matrix! Repetition is the key!)

HD / AC / ST
1 / 9 / 17
2 / 8 / 16
3 / 7 / 15
4 / 6 / 14
5 / 5 / 13
6 / 4 / 12
7 / 3 / 11
8 / 2 / 12
9 / 1 / 11
10 / 0 / 10
11 / -1 / 9
12 / -2 / 8

Random Treasure Table:
1d6 X 100 = gp
1 on a d6 determines: gems, jewelry, map/magic item
1d6 determines number of gems/jewelry, each worth 100 gp
If you roll a map/ magic item COME FIND PAPA and he will help!

This has made for a really great day! Can't believe your kids could do this too? My boy says to me, "but Papa, I don't know how to times by 100." I said, "sure you do." I rolled the die: 2. "What is 2 times 100?" "I don't know." "Yes you do, it is 200." Big wide eyes. "Oh, I get it." Rolls the die: 6. Boy: "Wow, 600 gold pieces!" Papa: "Exactly." Actual conversation.

I love D&D (and Dagger, of course). Thanks!

[tetramorph]

Apparently my "Dagger DMG" isn't just good for 7 year olds.

My wife plays with me and the kids. She's always wanted to do a pirate adventure. But when she looks at all the rules, she just shrugs and says "forget it."

My wife DMed for my boy today for the very first time. My simplified rules led the way!

Now she is making plans for an adventure on the high seas. And I am looking forward to it!

[thorswulf]

Congratulations Tetramorph! A family gaming together like this gives me some hope as well for bringing my wife into the fold.

[archersix]

Awesome stuff!

[skars]

What are the characters the kids play? I love to hear what they come up with. Honestly, out of all the (made for kids) rpgs Dagger/D&D has been the best at being easy to get started and in the spirit of roleplaying outside the bounds of rules. Adventure Maximus has fantastic production value and some fun mechanisms, but Dagger was the easiest for them to pickup and play.

[tetramorph]

We've been playing about a year and half now. My boy has a 7lvl MU and the girl a 6lvl "scout" (lawful thief, like Robin Hood). He's got a tower and has set up a pretty good potion business that gets him into a lot of trouble. Lots of bandits on the way to the nearest city with that kind of buying power. She has a wooden scout fort and is serving as the sheriff of Little Village (their home base). Recently she has decided that monsters and fighting scare her (this was not the case a year ago. I think kids go thru phases.) So she administers things in town and goes around finding and disarming traps for treasure! The boy fireballs bands of orcs on the way to the big city to sell his magical wares. All in all, we are all having fun. It is not the direction I would have gone. But I was truly inspired by something @robsconely said about how he was the ref who was famous for the fact that you could "trash his sandbox," nothing really messes up his campaign world. If the players were having fun, he was. This helped me flow with my kids more. A powerful scout who won't fight anymore. Hhm: how about disarming traps? A wizard who could take on a kingdom wants to settle down and sell potions. Hhm: okay, but there are dangers on that road! So we are all still having fun. Thanks for asking. Peace

[skars]

"Yes, but it's complicated" is one of the core rules of Adventure maximus and it falls in with your concept of breaking the sandbox. I totally agree, let players drive the storyline, 6 minds working on the plot comes off with many more creative avenues than just one DM.

Dagger in particular opens up to playing all sorts of races and creatures, much like OD&D without a ton of rules to boot. I think when my daughters can as easily play a blue hippo with red eyes as a human barbarian the rules are flexible