Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 polt Jul 13, 2009 9:31:25	So one of my friend's uncle asked me to run Eberron for his kids. It's going to be a bunch of 10-11 year old kids. I want to run in 4e, since i haven't tried this before. And I want to run in Eberron. Just because I like Eberron, and I think it'll make it more fun for me, even though the kids my not see the uniqueness of the world right from the get go. I need some advice though. I'm not that experienced as a DM, and I'm not experienced at all running for kids. So anybody got any insight in what it takes to run a good D&D 4e, and a good Eberron game, for kids? Thanks a bunch!
#2 AvonRekaes Jul 13, 2009 10:03:13	My guess is to stear clear of political and/or intruige enemeis, like the Emerald Claw or the Inspired/Dreaming Dark. I think 10-11 year olds would have more fun killing monsters like owlbears and displacer beasts. There's a hunter's lodge in Stormreach. Maybe you can build an interesting campaign on hunting legendary creatures in Xen'drik.
#3 lugubrious Jul 13, 2009 10:14:05	Yeah, at 11 I wouldn't have given a crap about political intrigue or why Eberron is so much different than other worlds, but I would have been stoked to do what Avon suggested and hunt weird creatures in a largely unexplored continent.
#4 AvonRekaes Jul 13, 2009 10:25:25	Yeah. I do have a suggestion for humanoid enemies though: Rival hunters. Guys that keep stealing their kills and making fun of them. As 10-11 years olds, don't punish the players when they finally get fed up and decide to murder their rivals. It's just a game afterall (And how many times did you kill your friends in games of Cops & Robbers as a kid?) (Besides you can teach them then about knocking out foes instead of killing them once they've beaten their rivals)
#5 ellorin Jul 13, 2009 11:43:35	"Alien" invasion(for example, a necromancer and his undead minions or extraplanar threats ) might work too.
#6 polt Jul 15, 2009 3:38:01	Good posts all around. I'll try and rephrase the question a bit, for the sake of discussion. How do you run an Eberron game for minors, and still have it be Eberron in feel and style. In my mind, if you're going to Xen'Drik to hunt for treasures, you might as well play any other game out there. The only eberronian about that is the name Xen'Drik. How do you run a game that couldn't be run in other worlds except for Eberron, for kids?
#7 AvonRekaes Jul 15, 2009 10:01:19	Have them stumble upon ancient giant ruins and accidentally awaken Giant-forged warforged or other relics of the Giant-Quori war. Also remember that Xen'drik isn't just a jungle, it's a reality-warped shattered land, and you can use Eberronian elements like manifest zones and the Traveler's Curse to really get your players lost and stuck somewhere, trying to find their way back. I'm also pretty sure you can throw in the Emerald Claw, now that I think about it. They're the Nazis of Eberron, so there's not much moral grey or intruige you inherently have to use with them. They're just after something in Xen'drik, the PCs stumble upon them, and now the PCs realize that they have to stop whatever scheme the evil evil bad men are looking to do. They're essentially saturday morning cartoon villians, in the sense that they're simple to hate.
#8 Gilo Jul 16, 2009 5:39:19	Maybe make the PC minors themselves: "The Tavick Street Boys": a group of Sharn war orphans help their Medani inquisitive patron investigate crimes in the city.
#9 warfeind Jul 20, 2009 3:12:28	Fun for the wee folk and Eberron= shifters, warforged, techno-magic, and airships. I'd ephasize these things. If you take them to the Mournland focus on how creepy and spooky it is, like camp fire ghost stories. Kids can handle different kinds of stories just ratchet down the complexity level. Gatekeepers as good guys could catch their imagination, think green. They understand that. Hope some of this is useful. Good Luck
#10 arjomanes Jul 26, 2009 16:03:18	I think for that age group and new players something with an airship could be really cool, or a pirate adventure set in the Lhazaar principalities/Q'barra area. There is the potential for some really cool pulp adventures: A prison ship headed for Dreadhold capsizes in a storm and prisoners escape. The PCs are asked to join one of the many search parties recruited to help retrieve the dangerous prisoners. A tribe of fanatic kobolds or lizardmen has been raiding trade ships sailing down the jungle river between Newthrone and WhiteCliff. Cloudreaver pirates are raiding alog the coast of Q'barra and the PCs are recruited by House Lyrander to protect valuable shipments from the pirate attacks, or to recover lost cargo from the House. Find an ancient and powerful relic in the jungles, guarded by a tribe lizardfolk who are oath-sworn to protect the powerful artifact.
#11 warfeind Jul 27, 2009 13:21:01	Thanks op. This thread inspired me to get my 8 yr old son started gaming, plus the wife who has never played. It was very exciting for me to see him going back and forth between the PHB and PHB2 trying to decide between fighter and barbarian. Also the "why don't dragonborn have a tail and wings". I let him have the tail and kinda know where he's going for paragon.
#12 vigilant1 Jul 27, 2009 22:42:43	Someone mentioned about the Emerald Claw being like villains out of a cartoon, which made me think, maybe have them go up against the Lord of Blades. Make it like an episode of Transformers with the players helping good warforged fight against the LoB and his followers. Just an idea, even if it is a lame/stupid/cheesy one. Hope this doesn't anger people into believing I have sullied the world of Eberron.
#13 ellorin Jul 28, 2009 4:38:58	Nah, it sounds pretty good, especially if there is a warforged in the group.
#14 james88o Jul 28, 2009 19:26:29	At 10 and 11 I was really into Dragonball and Gundam (Im 21 now lol things changed). If anime & Japanese type story arches are still popular look into those. I would suggest asking the kids what their favorite shows/video games/characters are and why then research it and try and add those elements My guess is if they are interested in dungeons and dragons at this age they are ahead of the curve, I know I was'nt until late middle school. So maybe more mature themes are ok, politics, intrigue. I loved Goldeneye when i was a kid for those reasons. One thing though kids pretend to be in positions of power because they aren't yet, make them feel like when they are doing detective work they are really learning about something, reward their efforts, or if they are a soldier encourage them to make a really heroic deed part of their backstory.
#15 valgoth_dup Jul 29, 2009 10:16:17	When dealing with a group so young, it's helpful to have a very stark black-and-white alignment system, i.e. you're good, go kill evil. That will be your biggest problem in running Eberron, since the setting can be very ambiguious as far as alignment goes. Your second issue is the classic "how does the party get to be a party" question... even adult gamers have trouble with this, and in-character "meetings" are going to be somewhat foreign to kids that young. Finally, logical reasoning is pretty weak at that level for most kids... so you have to do a fair amount of pointing them in the right direction. My suggestion for running a game with a lot of Eberron flair that younger kids would enjoy... make them recruits in the Sharn watch, possibly a "special" group that works together on certain cases (kind of like any flavor of Law and Order). You have the captain, who gives them very cut-and-dry missions (cases), and can even suggest the best course of action ("You need to find The Strangler, a bugbear thug who's wanted on a string of muggings... we know he hangs out at The Watchful Eye Tavern in lower Dura.") All that, AND they get a feel for the greatest city in Khorvaire and life in Eberron.
#16 ambulacetus Jul 29, 2009 12:00:44	I think at 10 to 11, most kids can follow a fairly complicated plot. I agree don't delve too deeply into politics, but some intrigue can't be bad. A great (and easy) way to intrigue feel of Eberron across is betrayal. You might have them work with or work for an NPC who is really a badguy and turns on the players. Maybe give them a few hints during the game to see if some of them get suspicious, though don't be surprised if they confront them right away! Little kids understand betrayal and it is great way to make a villain they really despise.
#17 rekko Jul 29, 2009 13:02:48	I am DMing for a 3E group of 4 teens between 15 to 18 year-olds. They aren't mature gamers and it shows in the group composition: 2 Fighters, 1 Barbarian and 1 Cleric (because they needed someone to heal the rest of them). They are the typical Hack N Slash Kick in the Door type of play. Not much strategy or thinking. Basically, they like fighting and killing monsters, looting their treasure and magic items (mainly magic weapons). Monsters need to be a challenge, but they like to one-shot kill at least a few times in a gaming session. Moreover, they like to change and vary the monster types they are put against. As of now, they are tired of undeads and orcs, so I'm all with vermin and reptile monsters for the next few games, then I'll probably go with some abominations. Another thing that gets them exited is the terrain where they fight. The flat 6X10 empty rooms are quite dull. Add something special that they could use to their advantage or that it will be memorable. In example, in their next encounter, they'll found themselves hanging over an underground cliff that descend deep below. I'll make clear that they need to go down to continue their quest, for I know well too much that they can simply abandon. Therefore, there's 4 ways to go down, physically climb down..., use ropes to climb down, use giant spiders to climb down, or fall. In the last encounter, I they were fighting Spiders and I put hints there so they figure out by themselves that they need to use the spiders they didn't kill to climb down. The biggest spiders had saddles on them, maybe they can see down the chasm a kobold riding a spider. And you can count on me that they'll have a fight while climbing down. Rocks detaching from the cliff, Kobold traps to make them fall, Carrion Crawlers that can paralyse them, maybe a small flock of Spider Eaters attacking their mounts, and surely some Kobolds hanging on ropes or riding Spiders of their own. Something I manage to do to make them better role-players and make them work as a team is include two simple rules. Teamwork mechanical benefit and 3.5 Action Points. Teamwork includes Flanking, Covering their retreat/movement, but also aiding another for some skills or tasks. To use Action Points (+1d6 on their d20 roll) they need to give me a beautiful description of their spectacular (cinematic) action. Last game, I gave Action Points once for the Cleric who cast Control Water on a pond to create a wave on which he surfed with a wood board that was formally a bridge between to rock formations, he then charged while surfing on the Yuan-ti in front of him. The other two Action Points were given to the Barbarian for throwing one spider on the other and the Elven Fighter for swinging himself from onto the custom bridge to under while kicking the troglodyte who was under. I am aware that my players are older than yours, and we aren't playing in Eberron, but my style is very Eberron-ish. But they are still first timers. Slowly, I may be able to make one of them multiclass into Sorcerer and another into Rogue to vary the roles in the party. Then, maybe I'll be able to rally them around one or two organisations that have ideals, goals and rivals. Hope it helps. Rekko