Introducing children to tabletop

[Mnemius]

So, my family has expanded a bit in the past year. I went from 1 niece to having 4 nieces and nephews (3rd grade through 6th grade).

So, they all are interested in tabletop. Their parents would love some respite. So... time to teach them pathfinder!
I currently have Rise of the Rune Lords, Iron Gods, and Crypt of the Everflame.

Opinions on which one is most newbie/kid friendly? (I'm already know I'm likely to have to edit some pieces of whatever I choose.)

Or should I hop ship, pick up 5e, buy the monster manual, dmg, and one of the 5e adventures?

[J-H]

Before starting with full-on D&D, how about playing some "lighter" RPGs with fewer numbers and crunch? I'm not sure exactly what to suggest, but I would start with a rules-light system first.

[Palanan]

Rise of the Runelords is absolutely not kid-appropriate. I'm not sure if other Pathfinder APs are much better in that regard.

I would second the suggestion for a rules-light system, preferably something more kid-friendly as well. I've heard of Ponyfinder, not sure how much of a separate system it is mechanically, but "ponies & magic" seems more suited for grade-schoolers.

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[Particle_Man]

I would say that 5e is pretty simple.

[Troacctid]

6th graders should be able to handle Pathfinder well enough. 3rd graders might be iffier, especially if you don't hook them right away and they get antsy, which has happened sometimes with younger players in my games. Hopefully you know the kids better than we do and will have a better idea of their temperament. But either way, I would suggest 5e rather than Pathfinder, as it is both easier to learn and easier to teach, and the Starter Set provides an excellent introduction to roleplaying.

[Malphegor]

What I’ve found with kids is that virtually any setting will work... And also that kids really enjoy villains that are utterly evil and horrifying on all levels. Avoid sexual content, obviously, but abuse and emotional cruelty is fair game.

Feel free to be terrifying. Children enjoy it when a villain is so bad that when they win, winning is in of itself a decent reward. It makes them feel heroic.
(a lot of kids media treats them like they’re incapable of handling death, torture, and criminality in stories- I assure you, kids are generally ok with this stuff if you decompress these things after in discussion)

I’d avoid abstract evil though- you don’t want them trying to take down unchecked capitalism gone wrong, when they might not even have pocket money yet.

Where possible, get an idea of the interests of these children. Maybe you’ve got one who’s into courtly drama and Disneyfied romance. Or one who relishes sports in their real life. Weave these into the game if you can, it’ll help their investment into what’s happening, even if it means you’re ending up playing cursed football against the zombie army whilst the other is busy flirting with the lich king to get them to give up.

For children especially go deep into descriptions. It’s not just a direbear, it’s a hulking behemoth of a direvear, stinking of its breath and dried blood, its mouth glistening and frothing with spit... This will get them hyped as you boot up a disgusting image in their brains.

Above all else, don’t sweat the maths too hard. If a kid has a cool idea, maybe just fudge things so it just works occasionally.

[Troacctid]

Above all else, don’t sweat the maths too hard. If a kid has a cool idea, maybe just fudge things so it just works occasionally.
This is one of the reasons why I prefer a rules-light system for newer players—more flexibility in allowing for cool cinematic things.

[Albions_Angel]

5e is nice, rules light, easy to understand BUT they might end up very resistant to converting to a harder system. Thats certainly true of EVERY adult I have met who learned 5th before learning 3.5. Maybe children are more willing. I do know that if you DO get 5e players to try 3.5e, you can turn about half of them.

That said, I think you can introduce kids to 3.5e. If they can add single and double digit numbers, they can play 3.5e. Dont do an AP. Do a custom scenario. Something small and relatable. Very black and white. Ask them what sort of thing they would like to play and build them characters (thats the hardest part). Play it as intended. They wont know wizards can spend tons of downtime becoming Batman. They wont know Fighters are sub par. But thats ok, because for new players THEY ARNT. Even monks (if pointed towards the UA archetypes) can be very effective at low to mid levels.

A dad did a campaign log with his children last year. Druid focused nature campaign. They did fine. Im happy to help come up with scenarios if you want :)

[heavyfuel]

I second running 5e as it's more rules light.

If you're unfamiliar with 5e and want to run 3.x, then I suggest going by Rule of Cool more often than not.

There are A BUNCH of rules that first timers need not concern with. Especially in regards to character creation. Your first goal should be to introduce them to concept of role playing and basic game mechanics. Once they get the hang of it after a short adventure, THEN you should introduce rules like Ability Score generation, skills and feats selection, swift actions, etc.

Don't focus too much on actions can or can't do things. Inexperienced players, especially children, won't break the game even if you give them a lot of freedom.

I suggest starting at low levels, but not level 1. Level 1 is very swingy, and a couple of bad rolls can mean death. I recommend lv 3.

Make a few pre-gen characters and let them pick amongst the roster. This way you don't have to explain how you got to the numbers, you just have to explain what the numbers mean.

Speaking of numbers, I fully recommend not having Ability Scores and just writing down the Ability Score Modifiers for first timers. So a character doesn't have 16 (+3) Str. It simply has +3 Str. Don't give the pre-gen casters spells that influence ability scores (such as Bull's Strength or Enlarge Person) and it'll be fine.

Don't worry too much about stacking rules. Let them stack any named bonuses they want. Again, they won't be able to break the game yet.

If they later decide to get more serious with their gaming, explain that you were playing a rule light version, and now that they are already familiar with the basic concepts, you will start to implement more actual rules.

Don't underestimate the amount of rules we already know and are familiar with. Every small rule adds up, and when you have to explain 30 basic rules at once, it can get overwhelming very fast. If your first timers get overwhelmed they will only be turned away from the game.

Anyway, glhf

[flappeercraft]

I have experience being the kid who was introduced to tabletop, in my case 3.0. I was introduced when I was in 5th grade and honestly don’t worry about the innocence of a child as the media portrays it, I definitely want to put emphasis into that. How rules heavy you want to go depends on the kids and what they like so I can’t comment there. I would say introduce them the basic rules in a session 0 and what they can expect but make it 20 minutes at most if they have short attention spans or up to an hour for longer ones.

[Calthropstu]

Kids, this is a table. This part here is the top. That is where you set things.

[Fizban]

Does Pathfinder have a Starter Set? I started with the 3.0 starter set in middle school, so 6th or 7th grade. Or make your own- the important part is that as awesome as character creation is, you can't care about character creation until you know something about the game. So make an array of pre-made 1st level characters and start with some simple adventures before you try a Proper Campaign. When they want to start personalizing or make their own from scratch you know you've got the interest.

[Gwyllgi]

So, my family has expanded a bit in the past year. I went from 1 niece to having 4 nieces and nephews (3rd grade through 6th grade).

So, they all are interested in tabletop. Their parents would love some respite. So... time to teach them pathfinder!
I currently have Rise of the Rune Lords, Iron Gods, and Crypt of the Everflame.

Opinions on which one is most newbie/kid friendly? (I'm already know I'm likely to have to edit some pieces of whatever I choose.)

Or should I hop ship, pick up 5e, buy the monster manual, dmg, and one of the 5e adventures?

No that's like training a astronaut to be a sailor. Get them into 3.5 and use BoVD.

[Quertus]

OK, having trained multiple 7-year-olds to play, I think that your own custom content, tailored to the individual kids' likes, in 3e (or maybe pf?) is likely optimal.

That having been said, you're likely making their characters for them with their input / based on their descriptions.

Personal preference, but I prefer to stay one-on-one, familiarize them with their sheet & the basic mechanic (d20+ attack bonus / skill bonus / save bonus vs DC). Then give them a combat scenario with multiple valid tactics; show them the other possibilities afterwards. Give them a noncombat scenario with multiple possible approaches; discuss some of their other options afterwards. Basically, introduce them to the mechanics and freedoms of the game. Then, when everyone is ready, let them play a game.

[Bohandas]

Don't shell out for 5e. If you're going to pick up a new system to introduce kids to tabletop RPGs pick up Toon by Steve Jackson Games

[Eldariel]

You can do fudgy 3e just fine. johnbragg has a journal on it, actually (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?476248-Campaign-Journal-Dad-is-the-DM), and it's pretty good if for a tad younger players than yours. You can do similar stuff; keep the core mechanics, but don't make them take the initiative or keep track of everything on their own just yet. It's fine to run a "mentor" sort of DMPC with them who doesn't do much but keeps informing them of things in-character. Obviously it's easier to start on lower level and with single-classed characters (and Pathfinder in particular has a bit of an ability bloat so keep to the simpler ones). Maybe level 1 with fudging or level 3 without. And a simple adventure. It's actually a good place to teach the kids the utility of math. Though to that end I'd actually rather introduce them to AD&D spellcasters.

[JMS]

As a person currently in High School with younger siblings/cousins/friends of the 2nd to 6th grade range, I can attest to a lot of the stuff up thread - Simplify, Simplify, Simplify! My DMing style is no prep - respond to actions. You may have a different style. remember attention spans - anything over an hour of play is pushing things for me.

I played a game of 5e with the mentioned siblings, and after building characters, I set up a simple scenarion of trying to discover a plot to end a peace summit. After a few hijinks involving the warlock's disguise stealth, sleep, and a few other spells, I built an encounter with some traitorous guards and a shapeshifter who planed to kill some dignitaries for a third nation. None of the end was forseen by me. I just payed attention to what they did, and provided made up knowledge on the fly.

Don't be afraid to goof off. Kids will be silly, and the humor holds their attention.