Treasure Tables is on hiatus as of December 13th, 2007 -- after two years of daily posts, I needed a break. If you're looking for GMing material, I have two recommendations: the hundreds of posts in TT's archives, and my new project, the multi-author GMing blog Gnome Stew. Happy GMing! -- Martin

GMing for Kids: An Actual Play Report

Mon. May 28, 2007 

Veteran game master John Kim (who I interviewed for TT back in 2006) has posted an account of running D&D for an eleventh birthday party.

With the gaming area decorated like a D&D dungeon, John ran a dungeon crawl for seven kids that sounds like it was blast for everyone involved. If you’re interested in GMing for a group of kids, there are some excellent ideas in his post.

I know there are lots of TT readers who have kids of their own, and there aren’t neatly enough GMing resources online about how to run games for children. Teaching children to roleplay, on the TT forums, offers some good links, but on the whole this topic seems ripe for some comprehensive coverage.

Have you ever GMed an adventure for kids? Do you know of any articles, sites or other resources geared towards helping GMs run RPGs for children?

More posts about: Approaches and Techniques

Comments

9 Responses to “GMing for Kids: An Actual Play Report”

  1. WJWalton on May 28th, 2007 9:10 am

    Well, there IS my little side project, The Young Person’s Adventure League. It’s limited to a list of good game choices at the moment, but will eventually be beefed up with articles and tips and such.

    http://www.theescapist.com/ypal

  2. WJWalton on May 28th, 2007 9:33 am

    …which, if I had read the “Teaching children to roleplay” thread sooner, I would have realized had already been linked to. :)

    Sorry ’bout that…

  3. John Arcadian on May 29th, 2007 3:38 am

    Well now I know how I’m redecorating my apartment . . .

  4. Martin on May 30th, 2007 10:21 am

    WJWalton: I’m a fan of The Escapist, and I think the YPAL is a great foundation for getting kids into gaming. If you add to it, will you drop me a line to let me know?

  5. beldar1215 on May 30th, 2007 11:58 am

    I actually run a bi-weekly game at a game store for a group of kids. They range in age from 11-16. We are currently taking a short break from the Age of Worms adventure path and playing a Mutants and Masterminds game. I really haven’t read much about running games for kids. I just learned as I went.

  6. Martin on June 3rd, 2007 3:50 pm

    Just a quick note that Roleplaying Tips has another article on this topic:

    Role-Playing Games and Kids

    Looks pretty solid.

  7. GMing for Kids: Tips Aplenty - Treasure Tables on June 4th, 2007 8:36 am

    [...] In GMing for Kids: An Actual Play Report, I mentioned that I wished there was more comprehensive advice available on this topic. Lots of GMs have kids, and assuming my future kids are interested in gaming, I’ll be curious about this myself before too long. [...]

  8. JD on June 15th, 2007 8:36 am

    Over at my blog, I’ve posted an article on Running D&D For Kids.

  9. Martin on June 17th, 2007 9:49 am

    That’s a good set of tips, JD — thank you.