Baby's First D&D Adventure

[jane_somebody]

A real land-mark day - prince_eldarion, aged seven-and-a-third, has just played his first D&D session :-)

Inspired by kargicq's starting his children off role-playing, skordh dug out our old D&D rulebook. El spotted it and was interested enough that he has been reading it for the past few nights for his bedtime reading! So after school today, Skordh helped him generate a

Comments

[ashkitty]

somehow, I am not surprised that your kids are awesome. ;)

[jane_somebody]

Aw, thanks :-) It's definitely times like this that make it all worthwhile! One of my favourites is the time they fought the Vashta Nerada with lumos maxima :-D And tonight at dinner Fro stabbed his sausage in the middle, dipped one end in the ketchup, then the other end, and announced: "I think this must be how Darth Maul eats his sausages." :-D ...possibly other parents find different things to be proud of ;-)

[ashkitty]

Possibly, but those are pretty excellent things. ;)

[kargicq]

Enquiring minds want to know: what class and race did El pick?

I have been a victim of my own success. Katy has talked her brother + three friends into generating characters and playing a short encounter each. But now it is proving impossible to find a time when they are all free! Hoping to establish a regular session eventually.

[skordh]

We're using the Basic D&D rules I had as a child (1981 edition) so he's chosen an Elf, which also counts as a class - they can use magic as well as using any weapons & armour.

Since the encounter with the hobgoblins we've played a quick pre-bedtime extra session which frodo_lad wanted to join in for, but he didn't have time to generate a character, so he took over the NPC (human) Cleric I'd rolled up to be El's sidekick. He was *very* disgruntled to be only wearing chainmail, as El had invested in a suit of plate armour. I tried to gloss over the fact that his mace only did 1d6 damage and El's sword did 1d8...

Sadly the pre-bedtime session ended in them both being knocked out by zombies (though Fro killed one first). They were saved by some mysterious moon-priestesses who have healed them and, as it turns out, may have a job for them...

Anyway a key lesson for me is: do *not* play D&D at bedtime!! they were both very non-settled after that zombie fight.

I hope you get your party together soon! What characters have Katy &co chosen?

[kargicq]

Good tip about avoiding bedtime! I'm aiming for the classic Saturday at 2 p.m., once I can gather the troops. The party has two Elven Clerics (one male, one female - Katy), two Human Magic-Users (one male - Dan, one female) and a (male) Dwarven Fighter.

4th Edition D&D is, I think, more video-game-raised child friendly than old-school... each character and monster has zillions of HP, can heal quickly, and starts with four or five really good attacks or spells, which recharge at different rates (I like the idea of 'once per fight' powers instead of daily, especially when it comes to spells). It's a lot of fun, and I am really anxious to start the dungeon-crawling!

Hope that El and Fro recover from the zombies quickly enough.

[skordh]

It sounds like a very good system! I'll look into it, and think I might in any case vary the rules so we can have 'once per fight' spells, otherwise magic is particularly useless at low level...

[lil_1337]

El playing D&D is awesome. What a great milestone.

[ladyofastolat]

Gosh. Not only does he have a far better knowledge of fine wines than all the adults then present, he also approaches hobgoblin related problems with more sense and maturity than any roleplaying party I've ever known. (I'm thinking particularly of the first level basic D&D party we played last year, average hit points 2, average fighting skill 0, who nevertheless went charging pugnaciously into a huge cave packed to the brim with goblins.) He'll be ruling the world in ten years, while we adults just stand around and mill. :-D

[ashkitty]

I am just putting this here because I want to make sure you see it! Are you free then?

[jane_somebody]

Thanks so much for the heads-up! Yay yay yay I can come!