Chaos Vs. Good Vs. Law [Archive] - Wizards Community

Chaos Vs. Good Vs. Law [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
tiejaz
12-11-05, 07:19 PM I'm DM'ing for my seven and nine-year old neighbors, and my thirteen year old brother. My brother is one of us, but my neighbors are relatively new to the game. They understand the roleplay aspect of it, but the rules come slower to them.

Their characters are - My brother is playing a CG Catfolk Swashbuckler.
The seven year old is a CG elven ranger.
And the nine year old is a LG elven paladin.

They went into a town and when the ranger got arrested for assault in a tavern, they paid 400 gp bail, and he only has to spend the night, instead of a week. They paid it, left, and came back, and attacked the guards. Both of them were knocked out by the guards and put in jail. They leveled up for this experience. My idea is to change the ranger's alignment to CN, which is fine with him. The paladin was the one that broke down the door to the guard's building with a crit from the Greataxe he took from a defeated gnoll. I want to change him to CG. He thinks I'm changing his character, but really he is. I said he can atone and he says no. I tell him he can begin taking levels in liberator,a CG paladin from dragon magazine. He is fine, but thinks he's going to have all the same abilities, as if I'm letting him trade in levels. He doesn't understand this. Should I let him trade them in, or make him multiclass?(I don't enforce XP penalties)
Save My Game!
Board_Rider
12-11-05, 07:55 PM I would allow substitution only because of age. However you could "teach" the kid by punishment of ability loss. Depends on how far you wish to take it.
Conners_of_Sharptooth
12-11-05, 08:53 PM I think this comes down to what you want this game to be. If you want to have just a friendly game with these kids then just bend the rules a little. On the other hand, if you want them to actually learn the rules of the game, then you should enforce them. Personally I believe that if you disregard important rules then you kind of destroy the game by making it something else besides dnd. I don't know the maturity of these kids so I don't know how they'de take it if you told them they coudln't do something in the game. If these kids aren't mature enough to play dnd then I probably wouldn't have started playing with them to begin with. On the other hand, if enforcing the rules means endding your game then you should probaly ask your self if it's worth it.
jagraham
12-11-05, 09:44 PM With beginning players, as DM you should not give them much leeway on what they do. You can say, "yeah but you decide its a bad idea". Since the local townsfolks and guards are who they see, they are likely targets. Its best to get the party into the field, where just about everything is a valid target. Or have the field come to them. For instance, the party wants to go beat up the town guard, but then a swarm of kobolds attack, and they have to fight alongside the guards. Most of my early game experiences were pretty existential, and good fun.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
tiejaz 12-11-05, 07:19 PM	I'm DM'ing for my seven and nine-year old neighbors, and my thirteen year old brother. My brother is one of us, but my neighbors are relatively new to the game. They understand the roleplay aspect of it, but the rules come slower to them. Their characters are - My brother is playing a CG Catfolk Swashbuckler. The seven year old is a CG elven ranger. And the nine year old is a LG elven paladin. They went into a town and when the ranger got arrested for assault in a tavern, they paid 400 gp bail, and he only has to spend the night, instead of a week. They paid it, left, and came back, and attacked the guards. Both of them were knocked out by the guards and put in jail. They leveled up for this experience. My idea is to change the ranger's alignment to CN, which is fine with him. The paladin was the one that broke down the door to the guard's building with a crit from the Greataxe he took from a defeated gnoll. I want to change him to CG. He thinks I'm changing his character, but really he is. I said he can atone and he says no. I tell him he can begin taking levels in liberator,a CG paladin from dragon magazine. He is fine, but thinks he's going to have all the same abilities, as if I'm letting him trade in levels. He doesn't understand this. Should I let him trade them in, or make him multiclass?(I don't enforce XP penalties) Save My Game!
Board_Rider 12-11-05, 07:55 PM	I would allow substitution only because of age. However you could "teach" the kid by punishment of ability loss. Depends on how far you wish to take it.
Conners_of_Sharptooth 12-11-05, 08:53 PM	I think this comes down to what you want this game to be. If you want to have just a friendly game with these kids then just bend the rules a little. On the other hand, if you want them to actually learn the rules of the game, then you should enforce them. Personally I believe that if you disregard important rules then you kind of destroy the game by making it something else besides dnd. I don't know the maturity of these kids so I don't know how they'de take it if you told them they coudln't do something in the game. If these kids aren't mature enough to play dnd then I probably wouldn't have started playing with them to begin with. On the other hand, if enforcing the rules means endding your game then you should probaly ask your self if it's worth it.
jagraham 12-11-05, 09:44 PM	With beginning players, as DM you should not give them much leeway on what they do. You can say, "yeah but you decide its a bad idea". Since the local townsfolks and guards are who they see, they are likely targets. Its best to get the party into the field, where just about everything is a valid target. Or have the field come to them. For instance, the party wants to go beat up the town guard, but then a swarm of kobolds attack, and they have to fight alongside the guards. Most of my early game experiences were pretty existential, and good fun.