Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 cyberpunk Aug 30, 2014 7:08:20	I wanted to get some opinions on what to do about difficulty in my game. A little background, I've been playing since the late nineties, the very tail end of 2e. I have never had a consistent group though and even my longest lasting groups had revolving doors of players, the longest I ever played with the same person was about 18 months. Then a few years back my son showed interest in the game. He was only about 7 at the time and I showed him the book and said when you can make a character mostly on your own we'll play. About 2 years ago I decided to help along and we tried out 4e but neither of us was interested really. We then tried pathfinder, which I was playing in a very light roleplay group, but I still think it was too early. So last week I decided to give it another shot with 5e, which I like alot. So we both made two characters, so that I can run published adventures with minimal prep. My son chose a human bard named Echo, which I thought was incredibly clever, and a tiefling dragon blood sorcerer, that he named with his go-to default video game handle. I added a hafling barbarian, and a tiefling warlock. We started Mines, and only had time for the first ambush. It went well but he wants to use everyone of his powers to do too much. I had fun and so did he. So I took him back to his mother's where he lives during the week. When he showed up this week the first words out of his mouth were "hi daddy, are we gonna play dnd tonight? ", and he told how he told all his new friends and teachers in school(first week of school here, and it's a new school for him) about how he was gonna play dnd this weekend. So we had session 2, which was fun. We cleared out the cave. He kept wanting to do things like using firebolt to blow up a rock and make it land on a goblins head outside the cave, and instantly train one of the wolves to be his pet. While I want to encourage the outta the box thinking, I'm not sure how to constrain it. I also pulled a lot of punches to get us through that cave in one piece. Once we got done with the combat and he doesn't seem to quite grasp that its supposed to be a living world where other creatures are living too. As an example he wanted to stop and take a short rest in the room right before Klargs room when the last goblin fled into that room. Or he wanted to try to set the forest on fire to kill two goblins. tldr: I guess what I want to know is should I run creatures effectively and tech him school of hardknox why we can't rest just because our hp is low? how do I reign in his creativity when one moment he has a very inspired name choice, and the next he lacks any imagination? How do I get him to interact with NPCs?
#2 DM_HEEGZ Aug 30, 2014 8:46:25	I get my best results from when I really get into roleplaying NPCs and creatures. "The goblins attack" never gets the results I want. Describing the goblins, speaking in pretend goblin from one of them to the next, having the goblins (or other) taunt or parley with the PCs prior to combat using common is a good one. Also, you are well positioned to add personality and roleplay potential in Phandalin, with the plethora of NPCs to engage. Also, the next combat scenario with the Redbrands involves plenty of humans and common speakers for you to role play. I find that the more effort I put into roleplaying NPCs and creatures, the more roleplay responses I get from my players, including my young kids. I even encourage my kids to change their voice and stand up and play act their actions. On occasion I have had them roleplay the monster's reactions and voices in response to what they are doing with their PC, ie. "When I kick the goblin he screams "AAAAAHHH!"" etc.   I guess this really goes with why I like to DM. I like to roleplay monsters and evil NPCs. Really get into bringing the opposition and NPCs to life and in my experience, the players respond likewise. Good luck.
#3 Kentus Aug 30, 2014 8:52:33	OK, this is a hard one and you should remember, that kids aren't like adults. Most children wants to have and using it, until its boring or broken, most adults which are longtime players know how good it feel, to actually earn it.   I don't know your son, but first of all: Be patient.   Second, decide which ideas are good, which are creative but unlikely (like blasting that rock) and which won't work that easily (like overwriting the ownership of a wolf instantly). And of course those ideas, which aren't working at all (the time you need to burn a forest is too long to keep the goblins from escaping through it). Then you start by applying one of these things: Rewarding: Just keep your mouth shut and let your son do his thing Rolling: Ideas which are unlikely are simply unlikely, not entirely impossible. Depending on the size of a Rock, give it hit points. And for deciding, if the timing is right to actually pull it off, let's take a Intelligence check with DC 15 or even 20. Make it harder to succeed, most children are more accepting of rules than adults, if you rule those requirements, your son might feel the thrill or comes to the result, that this action is too risky. Saying no: I consider your son old enough and with a personality, to actually reason with (small children are tendencially more accepting to restrictions without further explanation), just explain what problems might arise, if his characters would pull some actions off.   Third, about lacking creativity: Happens to the best, if the creativity is lacking, try some pointers and if these won't work: Simple is often efficient enough.   Fourth: Let him actually talk as a character ingame with those NPCs (and talk as the NPC). Don't let him go too easy away with talking at 3rd person and tell him more about thoe NPCs, which makes them more personal and likeable. Details are important to create the right mood. I made a post on my blog about being a better roleplayer, but some of these are working well for NPCs, too.   For short rest: Simply ask him, if he could relax, if he would sitting inside a muddy, stinky dungeon, eating his meal, which gets the aftertaste of fungus when eaten there and the chance, that the moment you can actually find you comfortable, monsters might coming and challenging him in a battle of life and death. Or maybe more like: How good can he relax in the classroom? ;)
#4 Shiroiken Aug 30, 2014 9:08:50	It's a bit hard to teach younger kids the consequences of their actions without hurting their feelings. Since you have two characters in the "group," you can use them to provide logical advice in the game to warn him. The short rest is a problem, but you could advise that they hide somewhere in the cave or outside of it (which will allow the bad guys to regroup and plan a defense). The wolf training should come with a warning about their feral nature, and a suggestion of a charm (I'd probablly allow the Charm Person to work in this case) to aid in the befrending. The Firebolt causing rocks to fall is quit clever: i would suggest having him make an Intelligence (Stoneworking) check instead of an attack roll, OR you could have him make the attack roll, and have the falling rocks deal an equivalent amount of bludgeoning damage. Interacting with NPCs would be to have them interact first (this is best in the next chapter of LMoP), and staying in 1st person.
#5 cyberpunk Aug 30, 2014 9:17:45	thanks for the advice. We have a full day to play today(some video games, and maybe a movie or something to) with the wife and my little ones outta town. I'll definitely try to make the most of it.
(Reply to #4) cyberpunk	Shiroiken wrote:
#7 Detoxifier Aug 30, 2014 10:28:07	Let him have at it.  Theres little reason to try to constrain his thinking, it will pay larger dividends and he will have a better time if you don't.  Too many kids have their imaginations beaten out of them at an early age, it won't hurt to let him have that kind of fun.  Just as an example, a fireball could simply be reflavored as a falling rock.  It he fireballs a rock just have the rock be subject to the same rules as the fireball, xd6 with a ref save etc (or whatever rules apply with 5e).   I say encourage his creativity and don't worry too much about the living world.  Kids have a hard time understanding with moral grey areas like a forest with both kobolds and bunny rabbits, so keep it nice, clean and simple.  "You embark into the evil forest to slay the kobolds".    Its cheesy but prevents your 7 year old from having to figure out how to deal with moral quandries until hes old enough to handle it.   I say let him have his fun for now, and introduct the rules bit by bit, piecemealing them together as his capacity to handle them grows.