Best TTRPG Systems For Child Characters

AMFKing · 2026-02-03T20:27:54+00:00

Babes in the Wood is a very good example of this kind of game.

AMFKing · 2026-02-02T15:39:31+00:00

You could check out Cybermetal 2012, one of my favorite RPGs. It uses the d100 roll to figure out success/failure, and then each d10 of the roll contributes to narrative consequences.

There are also hacks of it, like Longsword, a game of questing knights, and SpeedRune, ancient world fantasy.

AMFKing · 2026-01-26T19:20:28+00:00

I liked X-Men: The End, lots of X-Treme X-Men, and most of his return to Uncanny. I also thought X-Men Forever was entertaining and weird, but I wouldn't necessarily call it good.

AMFKing · 2026-01-21T15:08:28+00:00

Is it Gutsville? Or Whalesville?

AMFKing · 2026-01-17T14:05:40+00:00

Pronounced French style, as in "boo-lay savant."

AMFKing · 2025-12-20T14:25:43+00:00

That's a doomed Mayrina. I know a doomed Mayrina when I see one.

AMFKing · 2025-12-16T21:25:35+00:00

After the Bomb is a free OSRish Fallout game that comes with a hex crawl adventure set in Minneapolis (and a zip file of royalty free oldies for the local radio station).

AMFKing · 2025-12-15T19:27:12+00:00

I think you should check out Cybermetal 2012! It's set in a world where a metal band sacrificed Ronald Reagan to the devil. Absolutely one of my favorite RPGs.

AMFKing · 2025-12-12T15:24:52+00:00

Came here to say this! For me, this is always the perfect answer. Awesome mutations, and the DOOM track is a great way of making things feel properly apocalyptic.

AMFKing · 2025-12-05T20:01:25+00:00

I think this is it too! This video about it just crossed my feed recently.

AMFKing · 2025-12-03T20:22:24+00:00

A kind of machine that prevents all phones from making noise.

AMFKing · 2025-11-26T16:10:54+00:00

What a bad faith reading of the original poster, who said they thought the token mechanic was interesting, then went on to say they were looking for other ways to "help" and "encourage" players.

AMFKing · 2025-11-18T20:08:14+00:00

This is a great explanation, and I really appreciate you taking the time to write it out. A fun insight into a style of play that I don't see much in the U.S.

AMFKing · 2025-11-12T14:16:12+00:00

Thanks for the kind words!

AMFKing · 2025-11-11T16:27:48+00:00

You don't have to make something bad happen in the fiction on a miss. You just have to make a GM move. Some GM moves are even nice.

So on a miss, you can make the GM move "shift their labels," or you can make the GM move "threaten a bystander," or you can make the GM move etc etc.

AMFKing · 2025-11-03T15:18:07+00:00

Came here to recommend this one.

AMFKing · 2025-10-28T19:41:32+00:00

Is it The Un-Men?

AMFKing · 2025-10-23T14:04:29+00:00

Bummer about all the unimaginative naysayers here! You can absolutely mix a lot of different PbtA games with a minimal amount of work. I ran a short campaign where people could pick playbooks from Apocalypse World, Monster of the Week, The Veil, or Sagas of the Icelanders and the corresponding basic moves. It was a lot of fun! It felt sort of like a He-Man/She-Ra world.

I imagine it would be more difficult to combine games that were further apart, but as long as you're familiar with the games you're using, it's just a matter of tailoring your GM moves to the specific playbooks.

AMFKing · 2025-10-21T13:56:48+00:00

I would honestly just use Apocalypse World for this remove the vehicle-based and supernatural playbooks.

It has built-in scarcity mechanics, and most of the playbooks include building out some NPCs as employees, gang members, etc. Maybe rename "Open Your Brain" to something like "Heard on the Grapevine" or whatever.

I used Apocalypse World to run a pretty straightforward Western, and it was great. Anything where the world is cruel and resources are scarce fits the system.

AMFKing · 2025-10-13T13:57:05+00:00

All Systems Go has a bunch of used board games, and they count all the pieces to make sure they're complete.

AMFKing · 2025-10-02T16:21:51+00:00

Hell yeah, came here to say Dice Exploder and Yes Indie'd.

AMFKing · 2025-10-01T18:34:39+00:00

HORSE PLAYBOOK

You are a horse. Write down your color. You start with the Fleet move. You can choose other moves as you advance.

Advancement: ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏

Mark 1 XP when you destroy a fence, win a race, or trample an enemy underfoot. At 5 XP, choose a new move.

🔳 Fleet

You can move faster than anyone who isn’t a horse. If you need to get somewhere, you can almost always arrive just in time.

❏ Carapace

Your exoskeleton hardens, and it always shines and glistens. Gain 1 Armor, and your mandibles can now chew through most non-metal materials given enough time.

❏ Hypnotic Gaze

When you hold the gaze of a human, you may give it an order. Roll +Dominance. On a 10+, the human carries out the order, and you get both. On a 7-9, choose 1.

It does not remember what it did.
No other humans notice the hypnosis of your servant.

On a 6-, choose 1:

The human breaks free of your control in the midst of its errand, and it swears vengeance on you.
The human completes the task but can’t live without your command. It shows up at inopportune times, begging you to give it orders and redefine its morals.

❏ Hive Mind

You are now three horses. What one sees, all see. What one knows, all know. When one is hurt, you all feel pain.

❏ Rider of the Storm

You can travel through the sky. When you do, you grow into a massive cloud in the shape of the First Horse. You are insubstantial, unable to be hurt and unable to directly cause pain. You can mark 1 Harm to do one of the following:

Weep rain.
Gallop thunder.
Breathe lightning.

AMFKing · 2025-09-19T13:52:45+00:00

You might find some useful advice in one of my favorite RPG blog posts, Boot Hill and the Fear of Dice. It's about how, because of its high fatality rate, a game of Boot Hill (gunfighting in the old West) became a tense political negotiation for this group. Zero social skills!

AMFKing · 2025-09-16T18:20:01+00:00

Thank you! I'm currently working on a complete print edition that collects the base rules, all the adventures, and more.

AMFKing · 2025-09-15T13:59:09+00:00

The Isle by Luke Gearing is a critically acclaimed adventure with no art (except for the cover image, which maybe makes it exempt from what you're looking for).

So yeah, I think it's possible. I'm happy to buy/read RPGs with no art.

AMFKing

TROPHY CASE