Advice for a returning player and dad?

[VoodooGuru]

Hello, I am a long, long time lurker who is now getting up the gumption to come back to the game I loved so much. Now I am a father of two teenagers, both of whom have become players independently of me. Today I gave them their first rulebooks, 5th edition, and sat down and tried to make characters with them. The new edition looks *excellent* and I felt the old pull toward it, and enjoyed the creative spark I felt when trying to imagine who this new character might be.

Now, I started playing when I was their age, all the way back into first edition. I've played first, second, third, and 3.5, but not fourth. Now, I really want to bring a game to life for them, but I might need some advice, because holy moly I don't know where to start anymore.

I suspect I need to acquire the books for myself and try and get a game on my own, and reestablish my own confidence with the game. What I would really love to do is try and create a story for us to share, but my DM chops were never that sharp.

Other parents, how do you game with your kids? Or do you just let them go and discover it for themselves?

[strangebloke]

I tried gaming with my daughter but at her age there's too great a rush she'll swallow the dice.

But as to getting started, I would say, pick up mines of phandalin if they haven't already played it. As modules go it's pretty good and also pretty short and cheap. It starts at level one which is in my experience the easiest level to manage as a DM. From there it's very easy to go into a longer module if you want, or to scrap that campaign and start from scratch.

Learning the system... Is not easy. While there are fewer rules than in 3.5, the problem is that every character needs to know all the rules. In 3.5 if you sheet didn't have "improved bullrush" in it then you didn't need to know the rules for bullrushing. But in 5e even the wizard can shove/grapple people sometimes.

Overall though it's way easier to DM and that why I dragged my players over to this edition.

As to Making a campaign of your own, well... Ask them what they want to do. Do they want a simple story with complex exploration and combat challenges? Do they want mostly freeform character acting with occasional high stakes combat? Do they want horror? High fantasy? Sandbox?

Once you have some constraints for yourself, that will fuel your creativity.

[Drache64]

Hello, I am a long, long time lurker who is now getting up the gumption to come back to the game I loved so much. Now I am a father of two teenagers, both of whom have become players independently of me. Today I gave them their first rulebooks, 5th edition, and sat down and tried to make characters with them. The new edition looks *excellent* and I felt the old pull toward it, and enjoyed the creative spark I felt when trying to imagine who this new character might be.

Now, I started playing when I was their age, all the way back into first edition. I've played first, second, third, and 3.5, but not fourth. Now, I really want to bring a game to life for them, but I might need some advice, because holy moly I don't know where to start anymore.

I suspect I need to acquire the books for myself and try and get a game on my own, and reestablish my own confidence with the game. What I would really love to do is try and create a story for us to share, but my DM chops were never that sharp.

Other parents, how do you game with your kids? Or do you just let them go and discover it for themselves?

Well I am a Dad, but my kids are 7, 5, and 2months. HOWEVER I also work with teens and have taught a bunch of teens how to play, so I do have the mind of a Dad, the intention to teach my kids one day, and the knack for running games for teens.

So I use games to connect with my kids, I tried the whole playing with action figured thing and I found my imagination in that regards is all but gone. But I then introduced my kids to Pokemon and the TCG, My son plays heroclix, and is interested in Warhammer, D&D is the next thing I will introduce to him.

When I introduced teens to D&D for the first time, I ran a pretty open world with a few missions on rails just to get them used to playing. After a few sessions they got super involved in making their own characters and having fun with the game, then we focused on rules.

TLDR: I introduce my kids into hobbies I love, when you start with new players let the imagination run wild with them, don't worry too much about rules until they start getting the hang of the hobby.

[Safety Sword]

I have a family game at home (this is why you have 3 kids and a wife, so you always have a full party to DM for :smallwink:) and another with my a few of my fiends and their kids (that my oldest son plays in). That's a big game with 9 players and me as the DM. Don't do that as a first game. :smallamused:

D&D has made an impact on how close we are and sharing an experience together. Highly recommend playing games as a family. It's definitely a hobby that families can do together in a wide range of ages.

As for DM chops, you develop those on the job. If you think its fun and you describe things well, you're well on your way.

As for stories, perhaps try a pre-made one to start. Also, and this is a big one, don't be afraid to buy a book and then change almost everything in it.

I'm running a very highly modified version of Storm King's Thunder. I highly recommend the book for not only its interesting story, but the way it outlines a lot of locations that give you tonne of inspiration to get your creativity kicking along. The new D&D Essentials kit is also very good. I got that for my daughter as a present and run a session for her and her friends for her birthday. Another game to DM now :smallbiggrin:

In the end, strangebloke also has some good advice there. Once people have agreed to play a game, it's all about what type of game it is. So ask.

[Lyracian]

My daughter is 11 and we have started 3 games with her and friends children aged 8-13.

The Starter set and new Essentials kit are both good adventures. There is also lots of cheap modules on DMsGuild.

We have been having 2-3 hour sessions to cope with shorter attention spans. We have also started every one as single class characters. Now they have a bit of experience some of them have Multiclassed

[nickl_2000]

I have run one 2 hour game for my children (10, 8, 6) and they adored it. They didn't optimize, they didn't always make smart moves but they had a whole lot of fun. They want to play again, but I haven't been able to find the time to do it. I just presented it as something that I play every other week or so and really enjoy. Since, they are younger I lead them through class and race selection and I did some spell selection based on what they told me they wanted to do with their characters. In case you are curious, at level 2.
10 YO - Sorcerer - Focused mostly on burning things with Create Bonfire because he could.
8 YO - Ranger - Promptly forgot about wanting to make friends with animals (although I made sure to put some in there for him) and poked stuff with swords.
6 YO - Life Cleric - Healed and tanked pretty effectively.

There is a group on Facebook that I'm a part of that is focused solely on playing D&D with kids, you are welcome to join and learn from others. I would advise you going there and asking, it's a really really positive and friendly community.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1180750442102143/