12yr old DM adventure suggestions

[KyleG]

My son has been wanting to take up the dm chair. He was originally thinking a little big trying to create some sort of halo themed game.

I've suggested a one shot or small campaign and the theme that struck a cord was zombie apocalypse, so I'm thinking marauders, zombies and wild animals. Any suggestions that fit the bill people may have seen that are fairly basic. Even a one page adventure. He wants to make it his own but he needs a frame I think.

[Khrysaes]

My son has been wanting to take up the dm chair. He was originally thinking a little big trying to create some sort of halo themed game.

I've suggested a one shot or small campaign and the theme that struck a cord was zombie apocalypse, so I'm thinking marauders, zombies and wild animals. Any suggestions that fit the bill people may have seen that are fairly basic. Even a one page adventure. He wants to make it his own but he needs a frame I think.

I think Lost Mines of Phandelver is supposed to be good at getting used to DMing. Otherwise, maybe look at the adventures for Adventurer's league?

[KyleG]

Too complicated for a regular 12yr old. Just a handle of pages is Max and something over 1-2 sessions

[Khrysaes]

Too complicated for a regular 12yr old. Just a handle of pages is Max and something over 1-2 sessions

I am not sure how good these are, but I googled "one page one shots"

https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2020/01/dd-need-an-adventure-in-a-hurry-here-are-60-one-page-adventures.html

https://www.sageadvice.eu/need-an-adventure-one-page-dungeon/

https://onepagemage.com/

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/320502/The-OnePage-OneShot-Toolkit

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/322066/OnePage-OneShots-Volume-One?src=also_purchased

https://one-sheet-one-shots.tumblr.com/

https://www.kassoon.com/dnd/one-shots/


As an alternative, suggest he runs one scene or encounter rather than a full adventure.
Maybe two or three..

The 5 room dungeon format is an option too, make 5 scenes, not necessarily in a dungeon.

[Unk]

he can try Wild Sheep Chase or The Wolves of Welton by Winghorn press

they are both free

[Burley]

I'm not sure if you can find PDFs anywhere, but there was a D&D/Nerds (the candy) crossover. It required you to buy a half-dozen Nerds products, but I think you got a little one-shot campaign.
Plus, there's great art of the little Nerd creatures dressed as rogues and warlocks.

Edit: You can download HERE!!! (https://bombardgames.com/nerds-dungeons-dragons-adventure-7-adventure-together/) Adventure 7 is the only one for group play, but you could maybe do a couple of the Solo Adventures with him, as practice.

[Kurt Kurageous]

1. Have him identify the dramatic themes, messages, and lessons of Halo. He will need help here, mostly you asking him to explain it to you and you keep asking "why?" Complete role reversal, I know.
2. Have him look through the monster manual and pick out monsters he wants to run.
3. Have him look at magic items and treasures in the DMG for things he wants his players to want/get.
4. Have him draw a quick crappy map and place all of the above there, with a village called "Reach" in the very middle.

This is how I wished my dad had nurtured me when I was 12 and interested in DMing.

[Sorinth]

Assuming they played 5e as a player before then there's no real issue with them creating their own adventure/campaign. The easiest would be to just have a series of missions and for the most part skip the travel. Each session is a small "dungeon" that you expect to clear in the 1 session. Each session starts with the DM giving a small narrative speech about the mission and setting up the theme/mood they want and then the players are there outside the dungeon and the game starts.

One good thing about the whole series of missions is that you can be more video-gamey and if something was mistuned and the DM accidently TPKs the party it's easy to just say oops let's reload the auto-save and restart from the begining of the adventure with everyone back to normal.

[KyleG]

1. Have him identify the dramatic themes, messages, and lessons of Halo. He will need help here, mostly you asking him to explain it to you and you keep asking "why?" Complete role reversal, I know.
2. Have him look through the monster manual and pick out monsters he wants to run.
3. Have him look at magic items and treasures in the DMG for things he wants his players to want/get.
4. Have him draw a quick crappy map and place all of the above there, with a village called "Reach" in the very middle.

This is how I wished my dad had nurtured me when I was 12 and interested in DMing.

Good advice. I don't want to be too involved as I'm one of his players. But I'll see what I can do with that.