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Shhalahr Windrider
2017-05-24, 05:49 PM
I recently introduced my 11-year-old nephew to D&D. I live 3 hours away, so we do not get to play very often. Our next game will be this coming weekend.

For this game, my nephew asked if he could help me DM the game. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to do that. The party is in the middle of the dungeon right now, so it’s not a good place for his character to take a break, and I think he still has a bit more about keeping player and character knowledge separate.


Still, I want to encourage his interest, so I don’t want to say no. Especially since it may be a couple months until our next game.
I would appreciate any thoughts anyone may have on how to make it work. Thanks in advance for any input.

sktarq
2017-05-24, 06:00 PM
"So you want to help me run a dungeon? okay. After game we'll start looking at options for dungeon to run together"

Grab a couple level appropriate prepacked adventures to show him.

Show him the various monsters he'd get to play in various places.

Make a big show of swearing to secrets in the book until the right time.

Next adventure - you've got a sidekick. Who is excited and ready to go.

The Cats
2017-05-27, 11:24 AM
Separate duties: Let him run the monster an act as certain NPCs while you do the descriptions and action consequences. Or however you want to split it.

Alternatively: Separate rooms. Give him specific rooms and encounters that are his and hand off the DM's hat to him for those sections.


Considering your situation: Have a sudden miniquest pop up in the dungeon, leading the party to a separate section. Nephew's character stays behind for some reason or stops in the first room to take care of a wounded explorer or something. The miniquest acts as a standalone one-shot and the plot points and NPCs therein are designed to have no impact on the overall plot of your campaign.

Mendicant
2017-05-27, 03:17 PM
I'll second the miniquest idea, though I'm guessing it's likely too late for this session. Would be really interested to hear what you did and how it went.