D&D with an 8-years old

 Following the earlier post on HeroQuest, here I report my first real game of D&D with my son, now eight. It was massive fun.

The rules are the classic, 1st edition D&D, those from the Red Box.

The first causal game, just to explain how the system works, was a bit hit and miss. My son generated a Fighter which the named "The Viking". Armed with an axe and a shield, the Viking single-handedly assaulted a dungeon butchering the goblin guard, which was fun.

Scared by the commotion, the other goblins started barricading the only access door, but the Viking started happily axing the entrance, bent to bloodshed.

As terrified as the goblins were, they had enough presence to shoot him with their bows through the gaps of the door, and wounding him, then they ran to call their boss, an orc.

The Viking paid no heed to his wounds: he charged through the door at the orc but, lamentably, missed him and was dispatched with a single blow. Thus endeth the story of the murderous Viking. 

That wasn't fun, but it taught my son the value of assessing the power of an enemy and never underestimating a wound.

For the second game, I forced him to reroll a new character, which he named the Avenging Viking. He was, of course, the Viking's son.

The rolls were abysmal, since this Fighter has Str 8, Con 10, Int 7 and Wis 6. On the plus, he was nimble (Dex 13) and had decent outlooks (Chr 12).

The Avenging Viking (AV) was smarter than his late father. He killed the goblin guard but, being armed with a sword, had no means of bashing the barricaded door open, so the first day he left the goblins alone.

On the second day, the AV returned but failed to catch the goblin guard by surprise. He killed it but found the main door barricaded again.

On the third day again the AV assauled the dungeon: this time the goblin guard sounded the alarm and all the denizens of the dungeon ran out to face their besieger. The AV ran away, and the monsters decided not to pursue him since they had no love for the light of day. Realizing he lacked a ranged weapon, the AV returned to the village and sold the dead goblins' gear and his remaining money to buy a short bow and ten arrows.

On the fourth day the AV was unable to sneak on the goblin guard, and as the alarm sounded and all the monsters rushed off, the AV and them exchanged rounds of shooting, wounded each other lightly, but eventually came to a standoff. The AV left and, upon returning to the village, found he had become a the subject of local interest, with local elders offering unwanted advice and generally making good-humoured fun of his numerous attempts at killing the monsters. One of them suggested that the dungeon might have a backdoor, easier to attack.

On the fifth day, the AV looked for a backdoor but only found the den of a wormlike monster, which he managed to wound but not to kill. Then he assaulted again the main entrance, alarmed the monsters, ran away, exchanged volleys of arrows with them until they decided to pursue him. Luckily for him, the AV managed to distance them. That night, at the village, he learned that the creature he had found was a Carrion Crawler, a dangerous monster better left alone because he could paralyze victims with his tentacles.

On the sixth day, the AV manufactured himself a spear, which he used to attack the Carrion Crawler while keeping out of reach. The worm retreated into its hole, but the AV wisely decided not to crawl into it and follow suit. Again he disturbed the monsters, was chased, and eventually returned home with a couple of arrows sticking off his back. That night, the elders suggested that it was dangerous to go alone, and the AV should look for an adventuring companion at the tavern. This is where the AV met Banedon the Cleric, who wanted to fight evil monsters in the name of the Gods.

On the sixth day, the AV and Banedon approached the dungeon and were able to sneak on the goblin guard. Then they set up an ambush: while Banedon distracted the monsters, the AV would hide and attack their rear. Everything seemed to go well, when the AV fell on the orc and plunged his sword into its black heart, avenging the death of his father. But then the remaining two goblins decided to fight like cornered beasts: one killed Banedon and the other wounded badly the AV. Just before the killing blow that would have ended the Fighter's life, Banedon's warhammer shone of a divine light, distracting the goblins and allowing the AV to escape (yes, GM intervention, that's ok I guess, the player needs encouragement). The AV made his way back to the village, grieving his friend's death at the hands of the goblins.

This time the AV took a few days to heal from his wounds. Again, he looked at the tavern for a companion but only found a magician girl named Ghiscar, who was very keen to join him. At first the AV would not hear her pleas - he didn't like girl adventurers, thank you - but at last he was convinced by the lack of other options.

Three days later, the AV and Ghiscar made their way to the dungeon and found it abandoned: the surviving goblins had left, taking with them all the food and valuables they could. Exploring the ruins, the two adventurers avoided a pit trap and found a secret door that the orc might have known, but the goblins didn't. In a secret room they found a chest which they pried open: it contained, among other treasures, the axe of the Viking and a red sword. Overjoyed, the AV felt closure for his quest for vengeance. The heavy chest leaned on a door, also locked, as if the orc had tried to block it. The AV insisted on opening it but Ghiscar would not hear any of it (she was a lot more sensible than the AV and Banedon, it turns out).

Instead they explored the rest of the dungeon. In the main room they found human bones, which could have belonged to Banedon: they gave them a burial. In a side corridor, they discovered an entrance that led to the den of the Carrion Crawler, which they attacked from behind. Among bones and dirt they found many valuable gems, and returned to the village significantly richer than before. But most of all, the AV had avenged his father, retrieved his axe and a red sword which looked very much magical...

My son had massive fun, but I also admit that I had a good time. Red Box's rules are easy and fast paced enough to allow narrative gaming with minimum effort on number crunching. Next time, the AV is going back to open the sealed door... what will he find behind it? Since I have no idea yet, suggestions to the GM are welcome!

HeroQuest with a 6 years old - Part 3

Follows from Part 2, where we left the Evil Knight escaping from the Magician and his Zombies.

So far my son had been all about exploring the Dungeon, but now something clicked in him and suddenly he felt an urge that we all experienced in the first days of our roleplaying game - the  desire to loot. So, leaving the Magician and his minions behind, he went to the Magician's apartments and started checking every piece of furniture, collecting everything he liked - namely gold and a couple of Healing potions that fixed his critical condition - and discarding things he deemed useless or dangerous - a short sword and a phial of holy water. He also found a black stone, shining of strange colours, and upon touching it he regained all his spells!

Now healed and recharged, the Evil Knights prepared for the final battle.

Eventually, the Magician came back to his quarters and, upon realizing his archenemy was there, unleashed his Undead minions on him. 

The Evil Knight was still missing one room to explore, a room strangely locked with a bolt from his side and a peephole. Watching through the latter, the Wight saw an Elf, who immediately shouted at him: "Let me go! Free me! Whoever you are, I'll help you fight the Magician!".

 

 

My son gave some consideration to the proposal - the Elf was good, while the Knight was evil, after all. Could he trust him? As the Skeletons neared, he opened the cell door and jumped inside. With the Elf on the right and the Evil Knight on the left, everything that came through that door was quickly cut down.

This turned out to be a good decision, because somehow the Knight managed to score zero skulls (damage) when attacking in three different turns. The Skeletons were all killed by the Elf, who now proceeded to charge the Magician, left alone (blue arrow). But the Magician was cunning, and cast a Pass through Rock on himself and escaped in the side corridor (purple arrow).

It looked like the Magician was escaping! But the Evil Knight had his own spell restored by the Black Stone and so he could also cast Pass through Rock and block the Magician's flight (green arrow). The evil spellcaster turned his back and ran the opposite way (purple arrow).

The Magician moved 6 squares, and the Evil Knight rolled more than that, reaching him on the second round of chase. The Elf, running to help, was intercepted by the last Zombie standing.

"I got you!" With a blow of his longsword to the back, the Evil Knight cut down the Magician! His reign of terror is over!

The Knight walked back to the Elf, who managed to get rid of the Zombie, and confronted him.

"So... can I go now?" asked the Elf.

"Yes, a deal is a deal" said the Evil Knight "and thank you for the help!"

"Thank you for freeing me!"

Off the Elf went, out of the dungeon. The Evil Knight look around in the silence that followed: he was now, once again, Master of the Dungeon and Boss of all Evil Things!

That was massively fun! My son loved it and I also enjoyed playing it, as if I was a kid myself. Sometimes, I must say, jaded player can bring your hype down, but green ones, to whom everything is new, makes a GM's job really fun.

We'll play again soon. I hope you enjoyed reading this and found some good ideas for your next Dungeon crawl with the little ones!

HeroQuest with a 6 years old - Part 2

Follows from Part 1.

Here's how the game played. The Evil Knight descended into the Dungeon from the central staircase and went for the west door. As soon as he saw the Mummy he decided to go somewhere else, and walked around the room exploring the corridor. The Mummy, tasked with guarding the Western Section of the Dungeon, did not follow.

The Dungeon's Eastern Section hosted the Goblinoids, and a Goblin guard immediately charged the Evil Knight, and was easily dispatched.

The Knight opened one of the doors leading to the Goblins' Rooms and, upon finding two Goblins, he decided to escape and fight somewhere else. As one of the Goblins died, the other thought wiser to escape and warn the Magician, so he went straight to room H.

The Evil Knight followed into the Throne Room, where he saw his mortal enemy with the Goblin and his Skeleton guards. The Magician immediately escaped into room J, bringing his guards and leaving the lonely Goblin to delay the Evil Knight.

After slaying the Goblin, the Knight went to the study finding only the Skeleton guards; he cast Veil of Mist and walked past the Skeletons, reaching the Magician's bedroom. Unfortunately for him, the Magician was not to be found, but instead he had summoned two Fire Sprites.

Surrounded by enemies and with no Magician in sight, the Evil Knight decided to leave altogether, and cast Pass through Rock.  This brought him into the Treasure Room where the Magician was hiding, and again back into the Throne Room, from which he escaped into the corridor towards the Eastern Section. Frankly I don't know what my son was thinking, but I just played along. I assume he only wanted to explore the Dungeon at this point.

The thing is that now the Magician decided to gather all his minions and give chase. It was him, two Fire Sprites, two Skeletons and four Zombies from Room G. A fierce battle erupted in the corridor: luckily the Evil Knight could face one enemy at a time here.

But the enemies were many and he was alone, and wounded. At this point the Evil Knight cast Swift Wind, escaping out of sight of the enemy, who gave chase. However, although he apparently headed for the Eastern Section, he detoured and took a corridor back to the Western Section. The Zombies, not being particularly bright, just went east.

I thought funny that one of the Zombies, going to the end of the corridor, decided to enter the last room, which was of course the Spider Room. The critters jumped on him, not minding that his flesh was a bit stale, and quickly had the upper hand. My son thought this was massively funny and felt very smart that the monsters killed each other off.

While the Magician and his Zombies were looking for him, The Evil Knight quietly returned to the Magician's apartments. What happened will be told in Part 3.

HeroQuest with a 6 years old - Part 1

One of the best things about being a dad is to introduce your children to your hobbies, and enrich the bond between each other with the passion for nerdy things. This is how my elder son received a copy of HeroQuest for his sixth birthday.

For him it was love at first sight, but figuring out how the game actually works isn't that easy, especially since he can't read and count well yet. Under my guidance we played a number of solo games that were more role-play than board game, but he enjoyed it - still it was still an early phase where he would just explore rooms and run away from monsters, and fight only when he was cornered. I don't want to say that he was missing the point of the game, but in a way he did not understand yet the full range of possibilities available to him.

This was until the Covid19 quarantine - on an Easter weekend we managed to play an actual extended game that was really fun for both of us. For the benefit of other dads, I will record that here - hopefully it will give you some ideas on how to run a fun game with a child.

The Story

I asked my son to pick a character to play and give him a name. After some consideration, he picked a Wight and named him Evil Knight.

Then I asked him a story seed - why is the Evil Knight entering the dungeon. My son told me that he wants to be the boss of all the evil ones - again. When asked who is the current boss of the evil guys, my son picked the Necromancer, and named him Magician.

The story was clear now - the Evil Knight, once the Lord of Evil Things, had lost his position to the Magician. He wanted it back, so he entered the Dungeon to confront his nemesis.

In terms of Statistics, I had to generate a rather powerful character since the Dungeon is played solo, so here is it:

The Evil Knight
Wight
Movement 2 dice
Attack 3 dice
Defence 3 dice
Body Points 8 dice
Spells:
Swift Wind (Doubles Movement)
Veil of Mist (May move through enemies)
Pass through Rock (May move through walls)

The Dungeon

I built an easy dungeon in my mind, defining details as I went along - the picture below was drawn with HeroScribe after the game was finished. The dungeon is very simple - my son rolled the starting room with 2d6, and it was the central room. On one side I decided that the Magician lived, surrounded by undead minions. On the other side, he lodged his Goblinoid mercenaries. In one corner of the dungeon I placed an abandoned room full of independent monsters - the spiders.

Here's the Legend:
A - This is a practice room for the Goblinoid mercenaries. A rack full of rusty weapons is the only element of furniture.
B - This room houses two Orcs, the leaders of the Goblinoids.
C - These three rooms house two Goblins each.
D - This abandoned room has become a den of spiders. They will attack anyone entering.
E - A large room houses a temple to the Gods of Death, guarded by a Skeleton.
F - The sacristy of the temple contains ceremonial vases and a chest containing two random treasures.
G - This room contains 4 Zombies. This is where the Magician keeps them when he doesn't need them.
H - The Magician's Throne room is where he meets with his Goblinoid minions. Two Skeletons stand guard to the door behind the throne.
I - The Magician's study holds a big desk full of scrolls and scribblings. If searched it yields a Potion of Healing
J - The Magician sleeps here: the room only contains a simple bed.
K - The Treasure Room is locked with a door that can only be opened with a key found on the body of the Magician. It contains two chests, each yielding two random treasures, a cabinet, yielding one treasure, and a Black Stone. The Black Stone is obviously magical and, if touched, will restore all the Spells of a Magic User.
L - A Cell, closed by a door that can only be opened from outside, holds a prisoner, an Elf who was captured in the Dungeon. The prisoner, upon hearing the sound of battle, will plead to be freed and will help the Player against the Magician.

In Part 2 we will see how the game played...