Today I had the first RPG game ever with my lads. My youngest is five, and my eldest nine years old, although my eldest is mentally behind my youngest both in intelligence and emotion.
I chose to run a Micro Chapbook by Noah Patterson, namely the Skeleton Cavern. It’s designed for solo play, and has random generation of the dungeon. It’s also a first for me, with this system, even though I’ve read the “Deluxe” offerings true the last couple of days, and got the basic ones of the 0.0 and 1.0 series as it wasn’t an expense, really, so might as well. So we went in together!
Just a quick little thing; It’s not more of an RPG then early CRPG's, but it’s fun enough, and my kids haven’t tried anything else - yet.
Instead of one adventure going in, I had them team up. They both wanted to be fighters, so yey(!), which means they basically have “advantage” on strength rolls - attacking, and forcing doors open. My wee one then wanted to put all his points in strength which made him some bad ass fighter to be sure, and my eldest went with wits - suppose he liked being the smart one in our fantasy, and good for him! Then they had to choose a race. Human, hobbit (well, it’s called halfling), dwarf and elf. Races add a point to one of the four stats. My young one wanted to be a shark… He got this pirate ship toy for Christmas with one of the pirates being what we would likely call a wereshark, so I figured that would be a strength bonus (the stats are strength, dexterity, wits and charisma),and when my big one wanted to be a fox… well, wits would fit fine, and it worked with the “build” of his in-game persona.
The only random roll in persona creation is for gold. Both rolled three on a 2d6! That’s a bad start, I tell you. Well, the shark got a short sword (insisting it was long) and a shield, and the fox got a dagger and a cloak. Cool looking to be sure. But then dad helped them pick it out with their limited funds, so how could it be any other way!
The character sheets in our local tongue are here, for what it’s worth,
The dungeon is generated by first rolling a d6 to find the size in squares (deluxe make that 2d6 FYI) and they are required by decree of the mighty N. Patterson to be orthogonally connected! I learned a new word - thankyou Noah. But hey, draw as you like, kids.
After this you roll for the number of doors, and if these are trapped, locked, the type of room, and the monsters present - there are monsters present in any room not yet explored, except the first.
First they went and found a tunnel into the mountain side, with a door at the end, and one on either side. The floor was muddy (we are not supposed to roll for that in the first room, but I forgot) which my youngest found glorious as he slid along on his shield. Good times. They chose a door to the west, and discovered the room had a stone floor, and there was a rat with wings flapping about in there. There may appear up to six of these abominations, but we rolled only one. Good start. They rolled to see if they lost their nerve, which they both did (my youngest protested this) and so lost some of the derived stat “will”. Then the shark attacked, won, and dad forgot to roll damage. After a round more I realized this, rolled, and we then nullified the second round as the critter was offed by that first cut.
They got two gold for their trouble (100g. can buy you a level), and then went through the western door, even though my young one wanted to go north, while still insisting that his big brother should choose, this time… well, west they went. The door was trapped, but my big guy took care of that with his wits, and they entered the smallest crypt one could imagine, with four skeleton archers rolling out of their cuffins. My big’un starts losing focus, and laughing happily continuously from now on, but we get through the battle by the, end with me running his persona as he wanted mommys tablet, from now on. But he had a good time. I think he got hyped by his disarming success. We did celebrate it! Or maybe it was my youngest idea that throwing his shield at the skeletons over and over was the best way of takeing them down, who knows. Oh, and they got one tiny gold coin for their troubles *sigh*.
The shark and fox are now all out of “will” which impacts their dice rolls. They are basically scared, or have lost hope. But we go back east, and up north, finding another crypt with four skeleton archers! Slams the door, back to town. Live to fight another day, you know. I guess they can heal at the inn, for a gold coin, bringing them to full fighting strength.
They both want to play again, and as long as they have fun, I’m glad!
The map we ended the session with looks like this:
Happy New Year!
~J
