DM Advice: 7 year old son Part 2. First encounter, Some questions.

[killem2]

My old thread is locked and done with. Lets hope this one can stay on track. :smallsmile:

Now, there were some awesome suggestions in the first thread. My son rolled a barbarian and I let him have a wild cohort since we have some rangers in our group who have companions and he likes that idea.


Zubrowka74: You might also solo-play how he meets his wolf.


This I believe will be a great way to get him started. He's a barbarian that comes from a tribe, he's 16 and is being sent out into the wild to find his companion for the future. The tribe elder tells him that he sees the cunning of the wolves in his eyes.

The encounter starts when he must head through a dangerous forest and comes upon a clearing. Here he see's three bug bears and four goblins (straight from mm).

What he doesn't know is there is a small pack of wolves that had been following this pack. (three of them, like MM, but one has max hp). I'm going to start the battle where the bug bears are behind the goblins, and he is about 45 feet away. (so he can have a chance to use his bow).

He currently wields a greatsword, and he has +6 to the damage so far. so 2d6+6. His AC is only 17, (not terrible but not great either right now).

I've ran through the encounter 5 times and only once did his wolf that will end up being his companion die. I make the bug bears (lil railroading) attack the guard wolves first.



My main question is however, how is XP handled here? Technically my son didn't beat everyone alone, but after it is all said and one, the only ones who will be standing is the Wolf (CR1) and him (EL 1).

Does this mean that he will get 1100 xp, or is still split among 3x cr 1's and himself?




The next question is: What next? I have to try and get him at least up to around level 3 half way to four, by the time our session comes around. i can story him up to place him in dungeon or at least get him with the party, but the area isn't really made of barbarians, it is more a dwarf/elf/gnome place very few humans in this small region.

[Johel]

So, he befriend a wolf in a Fire Forged Friendship (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FireForgedFriends) kind of way ?
Cool.

I would say just split the XP 50/50 and be done with it :
The point is more for barbarian kid and the wolf to become BFF.
I doubt your son will complain about the XP.
And if the rest of the players are the same age, they won't nickpick about it either.

Now, for what is next :
It is obvious that three wolf won't go through the trouble of starting a fight with more numerous, well-armed goblinoïds just for nothing.
Territory or preys are out of question : Wolves might be territorial but not stupid or suicidal.
Why did they attack the goblins ?

Might be the lead for an adventure, here.

[mattie_p]

I would say just split the XP 50/50 and be done with it : The point is more for barbarian kid and the wolf to become BFF.
I doubt your son will complain about the XP.
And if the rest of the players are the same age, they won't nickpick about it either.

Now, for what is next :
It is obvious that three wolf won't go through the trouble of starting a fight with more numerous, well-armed goblinoïds just for nothing.
Territory or preys are out of question : Wolves might be territorial but not stupid or suicidal.
Why did they attack the goblins ?

Might be the lead for an adventure, here.

Just call it 500 or 600 xp, killing the baddies, story adventure, DM reward, whatever. Make sure he rests up, heals up (and give him time, no 'random' encounters - you are the dm you can control this), then send something his way on the journey back to level up. Everyone likes leveling up, and I think you said everyone else was level 2? 3? I can't remember.

But yeah, why are the wolves attacking the baddies? Don't need to get really involved, maybe they are kidnapping pups to make their own animal companions. You should know, even if it never makes it to your son. He may or may not care, just rolling the dice and killing stuff is fun sometimes. But he may be interested, you never know.

[killem2]

But yeah, why are the wolves attacking the baddies? Don't need to get really involved, maybe they are kidnapping pups to make their own animal companions. You should know, even if it never makes it to your son. He may or may not care, just rolling the dice and killing stuff is fun sometimes. But he may be interested, you never know.

I think you just came up with the easiest way to explain it because I didn't have a reason lol.

That will be perfect. I'll tell him that you can see each goblin carrying a makeshift kennel that has a few wolf pups in each, yelping. Which might give me reason for the move silently of the other wolves.

[mattie_p]

My wife is writing a book right now - no idea if it will ever be published, but she is motivated and I am helping by reading stuff and giving feedback, as a good husband should. One of the things that I am telling her is that she should know the rationale behind the physics of the time travel she is using (oh yeah, good stuff) and the motivations of the characters - even if it never explicitly comes out, so that other actions can be thought out as well. Writing a book is role-playing all the characters at once, in the scenario that the dm (also the author) lays out, according to the rules of the story (also invented by the dm author).

The point is that to make a seamless story, there should be some kind of motivation, even if you are the only person to know it. You are the author of this universe, it is only as good as you make it. For a 7-year old, maybe not much story is needed, but have it anyway, because it is fun to make this stuff up.

[Voyager_I]

You know, nothing says you have to start your son's character at Level 1 (many DM's actually avoid starting games at extremely low levels because it's the territory where a single lucky crit from an enemy can instagib a PC) or follow standard XP progression rules.

If he asks, just be honest and tell him you're accelerating the first few levels to catch him up with the rest of the group quickly. A 7 year old should be able to understand that.

[eclipsic]

In response to your first thread, about the kind of adventures to create for your son, WotC did a great series of articles when 3.0 came out, setting up an encounter to demonstrate each of a number of typical things that might happen in combat, like ranged touch attacks, charging, riding a mount, etc etc. You can find the articles here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/gs). They might give you some inspiration on a way to expose your son to some of the rules.

[Loren]

Is it truely important to use xp? In particualr does he need to know how XP scores are generated?
If not, handwave and advance him at the speed of plot.
If so, treat the wolves as level one characters to make generating xp simple and divy the total xp out among the party of wolves and barbarian.

[killem2]

Is it truely important to use xp? In particualr does he need to know how XP scores are generated?
If not, handwave and advance him at the speed of plot.
If so, treat the wolves as level one characters to make generating xp simple and divy the total xp out among the party of wolves and barbarian.

Well, I think he likes the idea of XP, because he has played numerous rpgs. Fire emblem, world of warcraft, he's played borderland, (got bored with that though), even in the need for speed series it is now an XP driven style of leveling through it.



In response to your first thread, about the kind of adventures to create for your son, WotC did a great series of articles when 3.0 came out, setting up an encounter to demonstrate each of a number of typical things that might happen in combat, like ranged touch attacks, charging, riding a mount, etc etc. You can find the articles here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/gs). They might give you some inspiration on a way to expose your son to some of the rules.


I'll have to look at home, *shakes fist* work blocks WOTC!

[danzibr]

My wife is writing a book right now - no idea if it will ever be published, but she is motivated and I am helping by reading stuff and giving feedback, as a good husband should. One of the things that I am telling her is that she should know the rationale behind the physics of the time travel she is using (oh yeah, good stuff) and the motivations of the characters - even if it never explicitly comes out, so that other actions can be thought out as well. Writing a book is role-playing all the characters at once, in the scenario that the dm (also the author) lays out, according to the rules of the story (also invented by the dm author).

The point is that to make a seamless story, there should be some kind of motivation, even if you are the only person to know it. You are the author of this universe, it is only as good as you make it. For a 7-year old, maybe not much story is needed, but have it anyway, because it is fun to make this stuff up.
Ya know, I'm writing a book two. The first one's done, most of the way through the second. I wish my wife was as helpful as you are.

EDIT: And to actually be productive... I'd base it on how quickly you want to level him up rather than RAW. If you want to do 6 sessions to get him to level 4 so he can party up with the others, by all means do a level every other session. It's way faster than RAW, but that's would I would do.

[killem2]

My wife had wrote some stuff, but she has never moved forward to publish it, no matter how much I tell her it'll be great. :smallsigh:

[killem2]

We did the encounter, it was great. He LOVES intimidate lol.


Two wolves died, main one lived, he attempted to free the pups by striking the heavy duty locks, he rolled a 1.

Dead puppy. Sorry! But he kept trying and saved three of them and he wanted to see if he could stablize (shows he's been reading like I told him too lol) the other wolves, he nailed both rolls with a 19/20 + 2 wis, easy heal check.

treasure was 90gp and two pots cure light wounds which the tribe elder could see right away, the other is an unidentified mage armor pot. They sit him off to a sister tribe (just hapens to be about 20 miles south of the main area that I have had set up already) to try and find out what this mysterious potion is.

His tribe leader has sent message, that if he makes it through the forest they will forge him a new sword (weighted great sword out of a bastion press book. 2d8 18-20 x2 crit pretty nasty weapon).

So far so good. He loved it.

He used the new found fortune to buy a light horse and cart and saddle. So next time he won't have to leave behind gear found on bodies lol

[danzibr]

He used the new found fortune to buy a light horse and cart and saddle. So next time he won't have to leave behind gear found on bodies lol
The entire post was cool, but I liked this in particular. I hope my son's doing this sort of thing when he's 7 (currently 14 months, whoo!).

Anyways, grats with the good times and please keep the updates rolling. By the way, how did you determine doing experience?

[killem2]

The entire post was cool, but I liked this in particular. I hope my son's doing this sort of thing when he's 7 (currently 14 months, whoo!).

Anyways, grats with the good times and please keep the updates rolling. By the way, how did you determine doing experience?



Yeah we spent about 3 solid minutes discussing why he couldn't carry on his own the gear form 4x goblins, and 3x bugbears lol.

[Particle_Man]

Dead puppy. Sorry!

That is pretty hardcore for a 7 year old. :smallbiggrin:

[killem2]

That is pretty hardcore for a 7 year old. :smallbiggrin:

Yeah, I warned him several times that swinging a giant two handed sword at a tiny object like a lock could be very dangerous. He got over it pretty quick though.

I was hoping he would have just said, ok I'll carry the cases my self.

He didn't. :smallbiggrin: