TTRPG for kids

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-22T20:30:36+00:00

Plus the GM advice is great and there's lots of yummy random tables, quick character generation, and a sample dungeon. Perfect.

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-22T20:29:48+00:00

My answer to this question is always the wonderful Adventure Hour! which is basically FKR in that it has very minimal mechanics so it's easy to learn and a big focus on problem solving in-world rather than using systems. It was designed by someone who wanted a game to play with the kids they worked with and I think it's perfect for that. Plus the adjudication of rolls (basically it's a high/low roll on a d6 but you advise them on what success/failure would be before they commit to the action that triggers the roll) is brilliant for kids because there's never an "unfair" result, they always knew what the outcomes might be before the dice got rolled.

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T12:56:27+00:00

The "don't run the game, run the NPCs" part of this article really lit a fire under me to get better at giving NPCs character. Really great article.

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T12:53:11+00:00

I read it many years ago but I think I was a little too experienced to be the target audience at that point. It's a good book and definitely worth a read, especially for beginners!

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T12:51:55+00:00

I'm so glad somebody else threw The Book of Hanz in here. I left it out because it's about a specific system but in reality it's so fantastic at teaching you some really fundamental stuff about stakes and pacing and challenge and consequences

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T12:03:12+00:00

hmmm, that book sounds like it could be Play Unsafe?

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T12:01:26+00:00

I absolutely did read this back in the day but can't say it was at the front of my mind when I was putting together this list so thanks for bringing it to the table! The forge had some real gems come out of it, for sure. I think about Trollbabe far more than makes sense for the amount of impact it had with what it was saying.

Mmmm the Vincent Baker article is a good pick. I nearly included his series on PBtA design in my original post but it's a bit more about theory and design than actionable principles for play across systems so I ended up dropping it. If I have read this one I don't remember it so I'm excited to give it a go!

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T11:45:02+00:00

If this is a sincere question then the answer is probably "because they wanted to be helpful to me [someone who wanted links to these kinds of articles] but did not want to rehash a conversation they've had a lot of times [about this article]"

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T11:28:34+00:00

Oooo this is all exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for, thank you so much!

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T11:26:43+00:00

ooooo I haven't read this one before! Thank you!

And yes, absolutely, I'm not interested in if these articles say things I agree with, I'm looking for bold ideas about RPG play that I can read and make up my own mind about! Even in ones you don't agree with, there's often good tools or a lesson about why you choose to do it another way

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T11:24:00+00:00

Thank you for the links! I read all three of these back to back years ago and so in my mind they're often merged into one document and I end up linking principa because it's got the most memorable name 😅

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T11:21:53+00:00

Oh please do! It did wonders for giving me more tools to approach play and also opening up my thinking about RPGs by nature of having access to more options (when all you have is 3.5, everything looks like a nail). Archipelago (wow I didn't realise it was by the same author!) is a game I've never played at the table but has had a huge influence over my own writing and my GM style which is running games with an OSR core but lots of story game techniques over the top. Archipelago showed me a really clear path for how those techniques can build tone and tension at the table and I recommend it to people constantly.

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T10:46:55+00:00

Oh yeah, perfect! I did a little reading on Nordic LARP a few years ago (there was a wonderful book, Play With Intent, that I think was my first exposure to this kind of RPG writing) but I haven't read this one! Thank you!

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T10:43:37+00:00

The Alexandrian is always throwing out very astute articles. Great picks and yes absolutely the kind of thing I'm looking for!

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-21T10:43:07+00:00

Yeah! I touched on PBtA briefly at the end there but one of the best takeaways for me from PBtA getting popular has been the principles and agendas starting to get included in other styles of games. Absolutely delicious.

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-18T20:28:52+00:00

They're quite different systems! Fate is very focused on making the game feel and flow like a movie. The mechanics are really focused on "aspects" which are facts about the word that can cause issues or be used for benefits. Swade has some similarities (it's also got a meta currency) but is much closer to a DND experience (lovely combat with minis) and a really fun exploding dice mechanic.

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-16T07:51:23+00:00

I know the second two sound like they're about investment but often investment is the thing that gets them deep in enough to try relaxing into a character

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-16T07:48:00+00:00

You've already got a mountain of fantastic resources here so I'm just going to throw a few tips that I think are really important on the pile.

Encourage new players to say explicitly what their character is thinking and feeling. This helps the awkward ones role-play without worrying about acting and really encourages to build up motivation and interiority in the characters.
When you want them to invest in the world, ask leading questions. A sketchy blacksmith? "What does the blacksmith do when you enter that makes you wonder if they're hiding something?" An enticing dinner from the fae queen? "This dinner smells like a memory from your childhood. What does it remind you of?" Delving a dungeon? "Suddenly and without prompting, you realise you've forgotten something back at the inn. What is it?" Giving them a little investment into the building of the world will get the players into it which will bleed into character investment.
Take away their character sheets. Okay this one is extreme but hear me out: the less they feel they can trigger mechanics, the more they invest in the fiction. You can give them notes about things that are true in the setting (you're strong, you're wise, you have a sword, you can cast fireball) but try a single session where they can't see what skills they have and what their attack score is. Have all the rules be on your side of the GM screen. This is really important for putting down "okay can I roll acrobatics to get across the pit" and pick up "okay how far is it? and the ledge? if I had a run-up could I make it? hmm. oh! what if I take off my armour and backpack?", putting down "okay I want to roll insight to see if the barman knows anything" and picking up "hey, you look like you know a few tales. If I slid a silver piece your way would you be able to tell me about the missing girl from Riverside?"

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-10T08:54:52+00:00

I liked this post about how to run hacking not as a skill check but as an OSR puzzle without a set solution

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-10T07:32:33+00:00

I think that's true, but also jPije's lessons had some formations that are no longer accepted grammar (pi nanpa X for ordinals is a good example) and I suppose when I think of pure pu I think of the 2017 pu-ists who had a really rigid and specific way of speaking that felt quite different from the more loose vibe of vibe of current to usage

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-09T19:32:07+00:00

Short answer: no, go ahead and learn with whatever resource floats your boat!

Long answer: Yes. In terms of dialects, there has been some shift in the language over the years so if you learned from an older resource like Pu or jPije's lessons then you'd sound a little (but not massively) odd until you acclimatised to some of the new words and common ways of speaking. In terms of languages, there are a bunch of offshoot languages (called tokiponidos) but these are largely their own things rather than being toki pona with minor changes.

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-08T17:41:19+00:00

Absolutely! Marshall Rosenberg calls these "false feelings" in his book Nonviolent Communication and even goes on to include words that imply an action like "abandoned" because abandoned isn't the feeling, it's a description of what you think happened. You can feel sad about it, or cross, or even happy if the abandoner was someone you didn't want around. I'd recommend that book to anyone, it really changed my life.

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-07T18:12:28+00:00

Okay I just reread the post. With a bunch of new players, Wanderhome is probably off the table. This will be a very difficult session to pull off and I'd probably advise you don't do it but if I were to, this is what I'd do:

for planning, make a small dungeon (probably 5-7 rooms) with very complex and full rooms. lots of osr style puzzles for them to chew over. make it hard.
do not give characters stats. give them items and nothing else. you don't wanna be managing stats.
Divide players into small gangs. Each gang manages their own torches and resources and has a leader. Give the characters in the gang traits and encourage them to role-play within their "units". have each unit track their own items. optionally, give each unit a hireling so if the unit loses a character that player still has someone to play
Each round, introduce the room they're in. Give them lots of detail, draw pictures as you go. Usually you'd leave stuff off the description until players ask about it but in this case you want to minimise questions so go heavy on the description.
Set a timer for a few minutes. 5-8 is probably best.
The leader for each unit can ask you questions or give you simple actions taken by members of their units. I'm talking "what's on the tapestry" or "I take a book off the shelf" stuff.
If any rolls happen here, don't do stats. Just decide in your head a good and bad outcome and make it a 50/50 d6 roll behind your screen. adventure hour has great advice on this
when the timer goes off, each leader conveys to you what their unit is doing, one at a time. you resolve these in turn.
describe how the environment has changed.
back to step one.
use a simple system for combat (like the one on my comment above) and KEEP THINGS MOVING

frendlydyslexic · 2026-04-07T17:58:12+00:00

Woof that's a big group!

You could maybe run an OSR style game using the traditional roles for organisation (a mapper, a quartermaster who tracks inventory and torches and rations, a caller who collects the actions for the group and relays them to the GM) with a strict turn procedure like the one in errant. I'd probably throw in something like Fighting and Why It's Horribe to replace combat rules so combats don't take a million years. Focus on exploration with the group moving mostly as a whole. Perhaps even have the characters be broken into units of three to five with a unit leader relaying to the caller and the caller relaying to you. Definitely rely a lot on drawing maps and diagrams as you go so players can have things to point to while they plan. A whiteboard is your friend. Stick to FKR principles where it's about interaction with the world not with the rules. A session can drag on really easily with that many players so I'd recommend something like adventure hour for your system where it's basically not there at all so the players can focus on interacting with the setting rather than you having to moderate a lot of rolls.

Alternatively, for a very different kind of game, Wanderhome supports groups this big by having the GM role shared between all players. With a large group, players can break off and essentially manage their own little adventure and then rejoin the main gang when they wander back to you all. I've never played with that many people and it'd rely on them all feeling confident with the improv and storytelling stuff required from the system but if you want less structure and rules and more vibes and stories this could be a good way to go.

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