Introducing Children to Role-Playing Games

There are many ways to introduce children to role-playing games (RPG) for tabletop such as Dungeons and Dragons (DND) and Pathfinder. There are cute RPG board games out there that have been reviewed online that are fantastic for children, just search “children + rpg” with Google. However, I ended up introducing my two young nieces to DND on a whim with just a couple of dice and our imagination.

Background

While my nieces were visiting, they ran across my bag of gaming dice. It is large and decorated and they asked to see what was inside. I opened it and dumped all the dice onto the floor. For those that do not know what tabletop dice look like, there are seven types of dice with various number of sides and they come in all kinds of colors and materials. The questions began. They wanted to know what they were, how we played with them, why there were so many, and if they could play.

I then let each girl pick out her own two sets of dice to use. I took them through a short story that I thought up along the way and had them roll for things here and there so they could help me build the story, which is really what tabletop RPGs are all about.

While I do refer to the game we played as DND since it has some of the rules of DND, it was simplified and I did not give the monsters real statistics. However, I dubbed it DND since that is the game that inspired the moment.

As they have grown older, I have introduced 5th edition rules, cracked open the Player’s Handbook by Wizards RPG team, and had them help me fill out their character sheets.

If you are curious how that very first gameplay went or need inspiration for a family-friendly tabletop RPG story to walk through with little ones, keep reading. All you need to start are d20 and d6 dice.

The Adventure

Far away in a land in a whole other galaxy, there is a world that is similar to ours from long ago. There are castles, fighters, princesses, wizards, and all kinds of magic. There are not any cars and the only weapons are swords and shields or magic. Our story begins in a village far away from any big city or castle. It is a beautiful and thriving village and there live two magical sisters.

I then look over to my oldest niece. “What do you want to be called?”

“Sophie,” my niece replies.

I look over at the youngest and ask, “And you?”

“Sophine,” the other replies.

You two, Sophie and Sophine, are the best of friends and the youngest people in the village. You have all kinds of time to run around and play outside and especially love exploring the woods near your home and both of you have a big secret.

You have run across and befriended a young unicorn that lives deep in the woods. It is kept a secret since this unicorn is magical and you are afraid the village people may try to capture him. The unicorn can sense good from evil and can hide from anyone. His name is Felix.

When Felix met you both, he saw a chance to make friends, for being the only unicorn in the forest can be a bit lonely, and he knew you both have the truest of hearts.

Today, the village is buzzing about how the crops out in the farms quit growing and some are starting to wilt. There are whispers that something bad may have happened in the area. You begin to worry about Felix and go to find him.

However, he is nowhere to be found.

“Sophie, would you like to look for clues?” I ask. She nods. “Okay, I need you to roll a d20. That is the big dice with 20 sides. Let’s see what your investigation is.”

In my head, I decided everything that was a 10 or above would be a pass and anything below would be a fail. However, Failures are not complete fails for exploration and knowledge checks. I would have them find a little something and tell more of the story so they could look again later. A fail prolonged things, but the story still moved forward and the girls felt engaged.

“I want to look for clues too!” Sophine called out.

“Of course, roll your d20 as well”

Sophie had a 9 and Sophine had a 15.

Sophie, you glance around and notice some leaves that are beginning to wilt in places but she is not able to gauge the direction of the wilt or anywhere Felix may be.

Sophine, you get down on her hands and knees and look close at the ground. You then notice a spot that Felix particularly likes to rest in is a bit messed up. It looks like he may have been pulled and he dug his back hooves in like he didn’t want to go. You think Felix may have been led out toward the main road going away from the village.

What do you girls want to do?

“I want to follow the trail,” Sophie said and Sophine nodded.

You both begin to follow the trail, Sophine stopping every now and then to find another hoof print. Eventually, you arrive at the main road, but the trail goes over the road and continues off into the other part of the forest that is further out than either of you have ever been before.

“Do you still follow the trail?” I ask.

They nod.

You gather your courage and continue following the trail. Eventually, they come across a cave.

“Do you all try to be sneaky in case there are bad guys?”

Sophine looks like she is leaning toward no. I can tell she will make a fine fighter one day.

Sophie decides to be cautious and Sophine agrees since Sophie seems so confident in the decision.

“Alright, I need to you both to roll the d20 again for a stealth check to see how sneaky you are.”

Each girl rolls above a 10 this time.

“Nice you two!”

Slowly, you both approach the cave’s entrance in total silence. That’s when you notice the forest is too quiet. Usually, there are birds, cicadas, and shuffling sounds as little animals scurry around, but not here. There is only the sound of the trees swaying in the breeze and…

“Both of you, roll me a perception check to see if you notice anything else.”

The girls are now completely in the story and roll quickly. However, both roll below 10.

…and you do not notice anything else yet. You creep a little bit closer and then just outside of the cave entrance, you see a short goblin standing watch and he is holding a big club. He looks grumpy, but he does not appear to have noticed you both yet.

“What do you all want to do? You both are magical and know two spells. You can try to cast sleep on him or you can try to freeze him in place with ice. Another option may be to try to sneak past him. Both of you also have a backpack that has a 50ft rope, food, tent, bed roll, and stuff to make a campfire.”

Sophine is ready for some action and says, “Let’s freeze him!” Sophie quickly agrees to this plan.

“Since you want to attack, I need you all to roll a d20 to see who goes first. This is called initiative. The goblin gets to roll as well; however, his first turn will be skipped since you two snuck up on him.”

They roll well.

You two sit up and begin to focus, muttering a spell quietly to yourselves as you move your fingers around to create a snowflake pattern in the air. Sophie gets the first frostbite spell blast off toward the goblin.

“Sophie, roll a d20 to see if you hit the goblin,” I say.

Sophie rolls and hits her mark.

“Nice job! Now roll a d6, the normal-looking cube die, and see if he gets frozen. The goblin also gets to roll to see if he can handle a little bit of cold.”

Sophie rolls 5 damage and the goblin rolls poorly for his constitution check and takes full ice damage.

The goblin did not see the tight stream of cold air coming and it hits him squarely in the chest. He also was not able to shake off the cold and takes the full five points of damage. Sophine just finishes her spell as well and shoots off her blast of cold as Sophie begins to voice her second spell.

“Roll me a d20, Sophine.”

Sophine rolls and it is below a ten.

Sophine shoots off her blast of cold, but the goblin sees this one coming and ducks, but you notice his arms are a little stiff and slow. Sophie then lets off another cold blast and the turn order continues.

“Your turn Sophie.”

Sophie rolls and also misses.

This goblin was put on guard duty probably because he was the best at dodging. He starts to run toward you both with his club raised high. Sophine lets off another blast!

“Roll Sophine! Quick!”

Sophine quickly rolls and it is above 10.

“Yes! Roll a d6 to see how much cold you hit him with.”

She rolls a 3 and once again the goblin fails his constitution save.

As the goblin charges forward, swinging his club around, Sophine, still sitting, finishes her spell and shoots a cold blast right at the goblin’s legs and feet. Frost forms on his feet and travels up and meets the cold from earlier in his chest and he becomes frozen in place, still blinking with his club raised.

You both know that he will stay frozen like that long enough for the village police to come and pick him up since goblins should not be attacking people in the woods. Now, you both stand up and, looking around, you do not see any other goblins and the cave stands unguarded.

“What do you do?” I ask.

Sophie states, “We go into the cave.”

“Sounds good, are you sneaky when you do it?”

“Yes,” they both reply.

The girls roll their stealth checks and this time, one rolls low for her check.

You both stand and begin to approach the cave, but before your eyes adjust to the darkness within the cave, Sophine trips on a rock and makes a fairly loud grunt. You both stand still, listening.

“Both of you, please roll me a perception check with a d20 to find out what you hear.”

Sophine, you hear some water some distance away like there may be an underwater creek in this cave and you hear drips. You think it is probably water dripping off the stalactites.

Sophie, you hear the same, except you also hear various creatures arguing further down into the cave. It does not sound like anyone has noticed you two yet. As you continue into the cave, you do come across that small creek, but it looks small enough that you may be able to jump over it.

“If you jump over it, you risk making more noise than if you wade through it. But wading through it is risky since you cannot see the bottom and it may be deep.” The girls, having no fear of water, decide to stay quiet and try to wade through the water.

Luckily, as you slowly check each step as you go, you find that the water does not go deeper than knee-deep and you manage to wade safely across the creek.

Once past the water, the passageway splits into a “Y”. There is a tunnel on your left and a tunnel on your right. Listening, you both now hear the arguing going on down the left side.

“Roll again for perception to discover if you hear more.”

Sophie this time rolls a perfect 20.

Sophie, you hear soft crying and sniffling down the right tunnel.

Sophie and Sophine immediately want to know who is crying and decide to go down the right tunnel.

As you both go down into the dark tunnel, you start to see an opening ahead that appears to be lit by torches. Slowly, you creep and peek into the room and you see an ogre.

But this is not a giant ogre like those that live far to the north. This ogre seems to be rather short and the skin is slightly tinged pink instead of gray. While it does have bulging muscles and scary teeth that stick out from its mouth, you notice she, for she is a girl, is wearing a homespun dress that is dirty.

She currently is holding a tissue and is blowing her nose so loud, she does not hear you approach. Across from the ogre is Felix. He seems to be standing there calmly regarding the ogre. A rope is still attached around his neck, however, it is lying forgotten on the ground.

“Why is the ogre crying?” asks Sophine.

“Do you want to ask the ogre why she is crying?”

“Yes,” replies Sophine.

Sophie stays in the shadows, but Sophine, you cautiously step into the open and ask the ogre why she is crying.

The ogre startles and then stares for a little while before replying. “No one wants to be my friend. The unicorn was nice to me, so I thought he would like to come and live with me, but he does not like the caves and the goblins are not friends with anyone.”

“Why do you live with the goblins then?” asks Sophie.

“They raised me. My parents left me in the woods. At least the goblins have a use for me. I’m big and…and…,” she pauses to blow her nose as tears begin to well up again in her eyes. “and I’m scary.”

“I do not think you are scary,” says Sophine.

“Sophine, roll a d20 for persuasion to see if the ogre believes you,” I say.

Sophine blows on her d20 this time and shakes it extra hard. I can tell she really wants the ogre to believe her.

She rolls a 13.

“Really?” replies the ogre.

“Really,” says Sophine. Sophie quickly jumps in. “No! If you were scary, we would be running away.”

I’m so proud that Sophie is also completely wrapped up in the story.

The ogre wipes some of her tears away and begins to calm down a little.

Sophie then asks “What is your name?”

The ogre grimaces and whispers, “Stompy”

“You do not like your name?” asks Sophie.

“No” replies the ogre.

“What would you want to be called?” asks Sophine.

The ogre thinks for a minute and replies, “I like the name Gem.”

Making a decision, Sophie says, “Well, Gem, we’ll be your friends and Felix probably will be too if you let him go live in his woods.” Sophine nods her agreement.

Gem sighs and tears begin to glisten again. “But, I will be lonely!” Just as Gem bursts out crying again, a goblin approaches the room and yells an alarm back to his companions. “No!” yells Gem as she dives between you both and the goblin.

“Great job you all at helping tell the story. Now what will you two do?”

“Freeze the goblins!” the girls yell together.

“Okay! Roll for initiative!”

The battle ensued. To save having to provide you, the reader, with the blow-by-blow battle at the end, I will just say both girls did take some hits with sticks or clubs but stayed up (no death or extreme violence in this storytelling) and they managed to freeze all the goblins so the police could come and pick them up.

The dust settles and all the goblins appear to be frozen. You go back to lead Felix home when Gem begins to cry again.

“Why don’t you live in the forest with Felix instead? We can come visit you then?” says Sophie.

Gem perks up. Felix neighs in agreement. “Okay, that sounds really nice. Thank you!” says Gem. Gem then beckons them to follow her. “I want to give you both something. The goblins will not be needing it anymore.”

Gem leads the girls down to the other tunnel where the goblins ran from and takes them to a large open room. Near the back of the room is a wooden throne with a large chest behind it. Gem opens the chest and there is gold and jewels filling the chest to the brim. “You can have these. I do not need them and the mean goblins will be going to jail anyway.”

The girls, with Gem’s help, load the chest onto Felix. The friends then leave the cave only to find a group of stern-looking police from the village with bows and swords. They already have the one goblin from outside, that was just starting to melt, thrown over the back of an extra pony. The captain in front calls out. “Sophie and Sophine! I will save you and he starts to draw his sword and gallop toward Gem.”

“No!” cried both the girls.

“How do you stop him?” I ask.

“We hug Gem and tell the guard that Gem is our friend,” says Sophie.

“Sophie, roll a d20 in persuasion again. Sophine, if you want to help, that gives Sophie an advantage and she gets to roll twice and take the highest roll. Do you want to help?”

Sophine nods and Sophie rolls twice.

Both of you lunge at Gem wrapping your arms as best you can around her neck and waist crying out to the guard that Gem is nice and is your friend.

The guard is taken aback enough to stop and ask what you mean. You both look back and see that Felix has disguised himself like a normal pony. He is really quick with his magic.

You, Sophie, tell the story of exploring and making friends with Gem and freezing all the goblins. The captain is so impressed with your good deeds, that he agrees you should be able to keep the treasure for your families and he agrees that Gem should be welcome in the village since she protected you both in the cave.

In the end, you both return Felix to his home and find Gem a cozy hollow tree to live in and promise to help her build a tree house starting off the next day. You are pretty sure that your dad will help with the house too.

As soon as Felix enters his woods again, the wilted leaves immediately spring back to full healthy leaves reaching for the sun and all the flowers bloom.

It is his magic that keeps all the plants and crops of the land healthy. You return home as well with the treasure and share it among your family and the village and all prosper and live happily ever after.

Conclusion

This is how the story went for us. Feel free to tweak it as needed for your children. The children could have gotten lost in the woods and needed more checks to find the trail. Some children may go into the cave boldly and fight the goblins first and find the treasure before they discover Gem. Another path may have been for them to freeze Gem before ever learning her story. Or, they could have snuck through the whole thing and rescued Felix without finding or discovering anything. It is up to you as the Game Master (GM) to gently guide your players to tell the story themselves.

I hope this article is helpful and you enjoy the fun of tabletop games with your family and friends!