My 11 year old son and I are writing an adventure to publish for Tiny Dungeon 2e. I know I'm biased, but I think he came up with a pretty creative story.
I've been writing it, doing layout, and helping him to refine the plot when it gets a bit too juvenile. He's doing the main story, some of the unique creatures, and maps (although I'll help with maps so they are presentable). We are choosing images to use together. We have the basic plot, a few side quests, and major characters and creatures and I'm half done with the writing.
We will release it under my nascent company, "Wicked Cool Games" on DriveThru RPG for a couple of bucks and aim it toward adults that would run a game for kids 13 and under.
With this in mind, what elements do you think would make for a successful kid's adventure? Thanks.
Cool idea!
Simplicity of course, but you have that covered.
Having run many games for my kids since they were 10 or 11, my advice would be to embrace the fascination with the macabre that kids innately possess. Witches stuffing kids in to ovens, people getting baked in to pies, imps stealing babies. Brothers Grimm stuff.
However, that's a challenge because it's the adult who pays for the adventure and these days most adults are wusses.
Quote from: Vic99 on July 04, 2023, 02:30:50 PM
We will release it under my nascent company, "Wicked Cool Games" on DriveThru RPG for a couple of bucks and aim it toward adults that would run a game for kids 13 and under.
With this in mind, what elements do you think would make for a successful kid's adventure? Thanks.
Are you aiming for around ages 11-13? Or do you want to include younger than that? Many years ago, I did a 3rd edition adventure for an 11-year-old's birthday party, but I wasn't that well keyed into modern D&D at the time.
https://jhkimrpg.livejournal.com/59156.html
I feel many of the typical introductory dungeons suck - they're boring and have no flavor, and feel like monsters thrown together with little sense. I felt having a clear mission and a distinctive main opponent were really helpful by comparison.
Rytrasmi,
Good advice. In the last year or two I've taken an interest in folklore and kids stories and I've skewed some of my adventures in that direction. My first publication, last month was actually a fairy tale like adventure for OSR games like OSE, DCC, Shadowdark, and the like.
https://wicked-cool-games.itch.io/the-murks-curse (https://wicked-cool-games.itch.io/the-murks-curse)
This is awesome: a father and son team doing this hobby together.
I hope to do this with one of my sons one day.
Quote from: Cathode Ray on July 05, 2023, 07:21:25 PM
This is awesome: a father and son team doing this hobby together.
I hope to do this with one of my sons one day.
It is a great feeling. My son is 23 now. I don't publish commercially, but we worked together on a campaign setting under development. The current document is here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19ZadR7QUcyFsZ7u5x1MukSgY2cA7_CmZog7MgrxcxCU/edit?pli=1
jhkim, that's great. It is a good feeling. He's 11 and comes up with stuff that needs to be refined, but he also does some out of the box thinking that only youth can do.
I'm aiming for the under 12 crowd, but I'm writing it for an adult GM - although I imagine many kids will be able to follow it.
My DriveThru OSR Adventure and GM Tools to date:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/24813/Wicked-Cool-Games?term=wicked+cool (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/24813/Wicked-Cool-Games?term=wicked+cool)
and Itch.io
https://wicked-cool-games.itch.io/the-murks-curse (https://wicked-cool-games.itch.io/the-murks-curse)
:) How heart-warming. I wish you the best of luck!
(Best suggestion I have is maybe less chasing Child-like Absurdity, a la "Axe Cop can only eat candy canes; Axe Cop hates eating candy canes,"? I dunno it might have been done to death by now.)