Building some characters for a group of kids

[Kaibis]

tl;dr
I am running a campaign with some kids. I need advice on the best races/classes for them (so that I can offer some recommendations to them). I am only new to the game, but I had a recent experience which made me realise that some classes are much better for beginners.

Long story:
My 8yo daughter has been begging me to run a campaign for her. She has heard me talking about Death House (not finished yet, so please no spoilers), and she loves what she is hearing. I am convinced that it is the perfect kids module (its colourful, and has so much going on). I have agreed to run a campaign for her, her 8yo friend, and my adult friend (maybe one more adult or child).

They have had experience with RPGs before, but only in a really kid sense (ie. We play a verbal game while we are on long car trips, at home we will use a d6 to help aid the story, and we also play another kids game that has some low level mechanics). They also play a lot of WoW. I will be fudging a gazillion rules and choosing story over mechanics - however I am keen for them to get a little taste of how the mechanics work (in part because they are always asking me how my [5e] games differ from the games we play together [in which one daughter is an emerald dragon, and the other is a Draenai, and they grew up in a village that sounds a lot like Goldshire].

My eldest daughter has chosen a ranger (bow and arrow, sword - perfect), my youngest a rogue (daggers, easy). I have two more coming who have no experience with RPGs, so I want to make the character building process as painless as possible.

Any advice?

[MxKit]

Hmmm... I'd minimize magic in the game for the 8-year-old kids; I don't usually steer new players away from spellcasters, even, but kids that young might not want to keep track of that sort of thing or get confused, so unless you know they'd be into it, it might be best avoided. So if the party needs a spellcaster, maybe see if you can get the other adult to play one, if they're interested/could catch on faster. If any of the kids want some magic, you can also go the route of "race with a little racial magic" or "Variant Human with a magic-related starting feat."

For simple new player classes, obviously the easiest ones are Barbarian, Fighter, and Rogue. For casters, I actually feel that the two easiest ones to play are Clerics and certain types of Wizards, as they're very straightforward about what they can do. For a party of four with brand new players, many of them (at least half!) young children... You already have a Ranger and a Rogue, and they're both likely to be Dex-based (since you mentioned bow and arrow). You might want to lean towards a Strength-based Fighter (Champion is a great training wheels class, but Battle Master is quite fun if you think they could handle a little more bookkeeping and would enjoy the extra things it can do, espeically if an adult player) or Barbarian (I feel like a new player running a Totem Warrior would feel like they're doing Cool ****, especially if you allow the extra "you also gain minor physical attributes that are reminiscent of your totem spirit" option) for one, and a Light Cleric or Evocation Wizard for the other (very straightforward and powerful-feeling when it comes to the actual subclass features, and encouraging more straightforward blasty spell choices).

For races, basically any would be good, though you might want to restrict what ones are available to avoid them feeling overwhelmed by choices; let them know what races would let them be the most powerful in the things they want to be powerful in, and what races would let them shore up their weak points. (EG, your youngest's Rogue, she might want to be an Elf or a Halfling for the Dex, but if she's starting with an 8 in Intelligence she might actually want to be a Gnome so she doesn't feel outright bad at anything.) Restricting everything to the PHB might actually be a good idea for this initial impression of the game and to make everyone feel less overwhelmed by choice.

Finally, if you're wanting to show the kids how to build their own characters and think they'd have fun with that, do all this at a session zero. I'm going to be running for kids in the near future, though not kids as young as 8 -- more middle- and high schoolers -- and I plan to do a Session 0 to introduce them to the character building part rather than just handing them pre-gens. I'm going to give them a list of the classes and races available to them and a tiny blurb on each so they can have some idea of what there is, and ask them each what kind of character they'd be interested in playing and try to help them figure out what pieces they need to build from their concept.

Alternately, if you want to hand them pre-gens, maybe with a bit of choice on their part, go ahead and ask the other two coming in what they might want to play before your first session, and build their characters based on that; your kids have solid ideas for their characters already, so that makes it easier for you. I wouldn't necessarily steer brand new adult players away from the more complex classes, even for their first character, but if one of them's a kid you might want to try to steer them away from Druid and Sorcerer especially, they might also have a harder time with Bard and Monk, and Warlock should be okay if you're the one building them, since IMO it's the process of making decisions about what you want your Warlock to be able to do that makes them so complicated; they're otherwise quite easy to actually play).

[Kaibis]

Hmmm... I'd minimize magic in the game for the 8-year-old kids; I don't usually steer new players away from spellcasters, even, but kids that young might not want to keep track of that sort of thing or get confused, so unless you know they'd be into it, it might be best avoided. So if the party needs a spellcaster, maybe see if you can get the other adult to play one, if they're interested/could catch on faster. If any of the kids want some magic, you can also go the route of "race with a little racial magic" or "Variant Human with a magic-related starting feat."


Thank you. I was thinking something similiar. Spell mechanics are hard. I think they could manage something simple. ie. You can cure wounds, but you can only do it twice, so use it carefully. Or give them one attack spell and just let them spam it in the way a paladin can spam her sword.



You might want to lean towards a Strength-based Fighter (Champion is a great training wheels class, but Battle Master is quite fun if you think they could handle a little more bookkeeping and would enjoy the extra things it can do, espeically if an adult player) or Barbarian (I feel like a new player running a Totem Warrior would feel like they're doing Cool ****, especially if you allow the extra "you also gain minor physical attributes that are reminiscent of your totem spirit" option) for one, and a Light Cleric or Evocation Wizard for the other (very straightforward and powerful-feeling when it comes to the actual subclass features, and encouraging more straightforward blasty spell choices).

Thank you again, I was thinking about barbarians (slightly off-topic, but do not google female barbarian with your 8yo beside you, it's a whole other conversation), but thank you so much for the specifics, I will have a look at a Totem Warrior etc.


For races, basically any would be good, though you might want to restrict what ones are available to avoid them feeling overwhelmed by choices; let them know what races would let them be the most powerful in the things they want to be powerful in... This is great thanks,


Finally, if you're wanting to show the kids how to build their own characters and think they'd have fun with that, do all this at a session zero. Yeh, I am opting for late night "mum can we work on my character" sessions on DnDBeyond. They want to build them. My 8yo told me she wanted to be a magpie, so I showed her the Aarakocra (I can deal with the flying) and explained how she can choose a black and white plumage. She had a great time discussing possible backstories (settled on an Outlander for her ranger... nice and simple). From her perspective she will shooting her bow and throwing her boomerang a lot (kids don't min/max lol).


Alternately, if you want to hand them pre-gens, maybe with a bit of choice on their part, go ahead and ask the other two coming in what they might want to play before your first session, and build their characters based on that; your kids have solid ideas for their characters already, so that makes it easier for you. I wouldn't necessarily steer brand new adult players away from the more complex classes, even for their first character... This is exactly what I was thinking, I don't really want pre-gens, but I do want to have in my head an idea about where to steer the kids, so I am not overwhelming them with choices and then retracting them when I realise they might be too difficult... The adults can go crazy if they like.

Thank you so much, you have been very helpful.

[ImproperJustice]

You may want to also take a look at a free RPG called Palaces and Princesses.

It’s mainly aimed at the 4-8 year old range, it’s rules light, and heavy on the kids feeling empowered.

I have used it with my kids before and it is a blast. I have also used D&D but find it to be a bit overwhelming for young players.

[FelineArchmage]

Perhaps if you want to keep the story at the forefront instead of keeping track of numbers, perhaps do all the rolling for them? Or at the very least, they roll but you do all the math - the kids and you have a copy of character sheets. That way, they roll, they tell you what they got, and you do a quick math instead of the flow of the game being interrupted when they figure that out.

Just a thought.

[BeefGood]

You are already thinking about rangers and aarakocra so my advice is obsolete. So instead of phrasing it as advice, I'll just say what I plan to do if/next time I start a campaign with kids (who are new to D&D):
I plan to use the basic ruleset, available as pdf on WotC website. This accomplishes several things:

Every player has free access to the rules, so I don't have to lend out my PHB and wonder if it will ever come back.
The classes are few and simple: Life Cleric, Thief Rogue, Champion Fighter, Evocation Wizard. This makes it much easier for the kids to learn their abilities and use them effectively.
(Worth a separate mention) There is no Beastmaster Ranger. If given the option, most kids will want to be a Beastmaster Ranger so they can have a pet wolf. This doesn't work. First, new (kid) players can't handle controlling two entities in combat. Understanding action/bonus action/reaction is challenging enough with just one entity. Second, the Beastmaster Ranger player essentially has two characters, so every kid will want an additional character. Before you know it, the party size doubles and combat takes forever.
Step-by-step leveling up instructions, to 5th level, are available if one chooses to use the Starter Set pregen characters (which are also available on WotC website I think).

Using the basic ruleset was not my idea; I saw it somewhere on this forum, but I think it's a great idea.

[Vogie]

Also make great use of Piggybacking - taking concepts they already know and exploiting that to smooth things over. Don't worry about optimization as much as flavor. I would actually also suggest making starting them at level 3-4, so they have some agency, and have an expected progression in mind for each.

For example, if someone does want to play a wizard, give them cards to indicate what their spells are, tapping into potential MTG and YuGiOh training.

Other thematic concepts that you could latch onto:

Moon Druid - Magical Werewolf
Battlemaster Fighter - Pirate Captain
Cavalier Fighter - Knight
Vengeance Paladin - Wonder Woman
Shadow Monk - Batman

And so on and so forth.

[Honest Tiefling]

Have some single, traditional premades available. With children, you sometimes get an extra one you weren't expecting anyway. So I think a Human Fighter/Halfing Rogue/Tiefling Warlock would probably suit many groups, with the tiefling appealing to those who like 'cool' characters or want a bit of a challenge. I think you should probably avoid spellcasters for now, but someone is going to want it because.

One thing I like to do is to have art on hand for newer players. It helps visualize the character for more visually oriented people, and it helps if people have an idea of what their character might look like. Maybe your daughter could help you pick some out...Especially if the newer ones are girls themselves. I think children are more likely to latch onto characters of the same gender.

[Kaibis]

You are already thinking about rangers and aarakocra so my advice is obsolete. So instead of phrasing it as advice, I'll just say what I plan to do if/next time I start a campaign with kids (who are new to D&D):
I plan to use the basic ruleset, available as pdf on WotC website. This accomplishes several things:

Every player has free access to the rules, so I don't have to lend out my PHB and wonder if it will ever come back.
The classes are few and simple: Life Cleric, Thief Rogue, Champion Fighter, Evocation Wizard. This makes it much easier for the kids to learn their abilities and use them effectively.
(Worth a separate mention) There is no Beastmaster Ranger. If given the option, most kids will want to be a Beastmaster Ranger so they can have a pet wolf. This doesn't work. First, new (kid) players can't handle controlling two entities in combat. Understanding action/bonus action/reaction is challenging enough with just one entity. Second, the Beastmaster Ranger player essentially has two characters, so every kid will want an additional character. Before you know it, the party size doubles and combat takes forever.
Step-by-step leveling up instructions, to 5th level, are available if one chooses to use the Starter Set pregen characters (which are also available on WotC website I think).

Using the basic ruleset was not my idea; I saw it somewhere on this forum, but I think it's a great idea.

Great tips, and thanks for the list of easy classes.

The kids can't read well enough to use a PHB or any kind of rulebook, otherwise I agree that it would simplify things a lot. The spell and weapon names will be more than enough for them to struggle over. I am perfectly fine with calling someone an Aarakocra, and even letting it fly a little (out of combat), without actually treating the race any differently than a human. I think I will just focus on what the classes do (rather than racial traits)... I plan to fudge a lot while still giving them a good taste of it.

Thanks for your thoughts about Beastmaster, I never thought of that but I will dissuade them from it (or I'll just control it myself, it would be a way for me to get an NPC on the field).

[Kaibis]

One thing I like to do is to have art on hand for newer players. It helps visualize the character for more visually oriented people, and it helps if people have an idea of what their character might look like. Maybe your daughter could help you pick some out...Especially if the newer ones are girls themselves. I think children are more likely to latch onto characters of the same gender.

Me too, I even find for myself that once I get a rough idea of what I want, I like to find a decent image to help me build the background story (Did I say earlier not to google female Barbarian, it will make you sad at the world).

I think a few pre-gens is a good idea, I think I will even do the cardinal sin of having a player character (e.g. A higher lvl cleric perhaps, tied up at one of the places where things get serious - basically to stand quietly in the corner and keep them alive).

[Armored Walrus]

Not sure if you're going to want to simplify the sneak attack/hiding rules. Given the numbers of discussions about it on these boards, even literate adults have a hard time grasping when they can and can't hide, or when they can or can't sneak attack.

I'd be careful about giving the kids a "dumbed down" spellcaster but an adult a full spellcaster. It might be a problem of "why does she get five spells and I only get one?"

Running Lost Mine of Phandelver with my tween nephew and his mostly disinterested dad, I also decided to remove the short rest/long rest language and just tell them, "These things you can do once every fight. These things you can do once during this play session."

Edit: Sorry gotta cut this short. Need to go google female barbarian.

[Kaibis]

Yeh, I am very good at fudging rules and modifying games on the fly for kids, and we also really successfully play ongoing "storymaster" games, which is 99.9% story based, and occasionally a d6 role, mostly we just wing it, with the StoryMaster having the final say about what is allowed in her world. So I am really confident in my ability to bend and break ever rule in order to enjoy the story.

We are going to play the "Death House" module, which I am personally half-way through playing (so no spoilers please). It is a fantastic module, especially given the amount of simple non-combat exploration that happens during the first hour of the game. It puts the RP right up front, with just a few perception/investigation/knowledge type rolls. I am really surprised that it isn't the primary intro game (as opposed to Mines of Phandelvar, which I have played a single session of - and found it rather boring in comparison).

I was thinking of adding a little combat opening sequence to Death House though, maybe they rescue a tied-up lvl10 Cleric, she explains the mission, and then promises to return as soon as she can... That would give her a plausible reason to return to the house if the party needed healing (not opposed to a memorable TPK, just considering avoiding permanent deaths that don't add value to the 8yo players).

[SirGraystone]

To help with spellcaster I would use token as spellslot, each time they use a level 1 spell they give a token to the DM, and the DM give them back to the player after a rest.

[SirGraystone]

I have run the "Death House" module and enjoyed it very much, without spoiling the story it is an horror story if you think the children will enjoy it, it can be fun. Lost Mine of Phandelver is more "standard" D&D story. Make sure the house have weird noise you would expect in ghost stories, I would keep the intro with the children in the street Rose and Thorn the same.

As for healing, I would give the healer a wand of cure wounds, maybe give a magic item or something special to each players, like the D&D cartoon.

[Blood of Gaea]

If one of the kids wants to play a spellcaster, I would recommend Warlock, as the spell slots are a bit less complicated to keep track of. After that, I would recommend Fighters, Barbarians, and Rogues.

I highly recommend listing all important abilities on flash cards, in large, clear writing.

[Kaibis]

I have run the "Death House" module and enjoyed it very much, without spoiling the story it is an horror story if you think the children will enjoy it, it can be fun. Lost Mine of Phandelver is more "standard" D&D story. Make sure the house have weird noise you would expect in ghost stories, I would keep the intro with the children in the street Rose and Thorn the same.

As for healing, I would give the healer a wand of cure wounds, maybe give a magic item or something special to each players, like the D&D cartoon.

A wand of cure wounds sounds brilliant (or another item) that's a great idea.

As for the horror aspect, idk, it might be kids of gamers, but they love horror. My 6yo came crying to me the other day because her friend only wants to play "princesses and mums" and my daughter wants to play "werewolves and monsters". Which we find amusing because it was only 6 months ago that she was frustrated because, while playing a fairy game, her older (8yo) sister *always* had to be a werewolf. During storytelling time at night by eldest bemoaned the fact that their are no stories written from a monsters point of view (and went on to have a really good discussion about evil/neutral/good, though we didn't use those terms). I met another mum last week who has an 8yo daughter (also a gaming family) and she told me that her daughter is also obsessed with werewolves.

I do want to set up some kind of sound effects app, I know they exist, to add sound and colour. There would have to be a CoS playlist somewhere?

[Kaibis]

If one of the kids wants to play a spellcaster, I would recommend Warlock, as the spell slots are a bit less complicated to keep track of. After that, I would recommend Fighters, Barbarians, and Rogues.

I highly recommend listing all important abilities on flash cards, in large, clear writing.

Thank you, and great idea. Clear writing and a good picture.

[Kaibis]

As for healing, I would give the healer a wand of cure wounds, maybe give a magic item or something special to each players, like the D&D cartoon.

I might even allow Goodberry to be a cantrip. This would give them good access to healing between fights (at low levels), but still present a good challenge while in combat.

[SirGraystone]

Syrinscape have sound effects for RPG

https://syrinscape.com/