A Faerie Story

[JellyPooga]

My 8 year old niece has an extremely vivid imagination (as most do at that age!) and my sister suggested that I run a role-playing game for her. Naturally, I accepted the challenge; I remember playing my first game of AD&D at that age and enjoying it immensely. Emily (my niece) joins in the other games we, as a family, play like Settlers of Catan and Agricola and doesn't have too many problems with the rules. She's also played Heroquest (the MB/GW board game) more than once and wouldn't stop pestering me to carry on to mission after mission, so I guess she had fun! The point is, is that I think she'd enjoy playing make believe with rules (i.e. RP-ing).

Being an 8 year old girl, she's into princesses and fairies and such, so I thought I'd run a fairy-tale type of game. I don't want to make it too complex nor do I want any given session to be too long (children are not, generally, known for their patience or long attention spans). Obviously, the rules have to be fairly simple, so I'm going to run the game using Risus; you can't get a lot simpler before you're taking away the rules altogether.

Anyway, to the point...I'm here looking for ideas and advice. For an idea on what sort of setting, think Grimms Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Anderson and the like...evil witches in gingerbread houses, brave knights with magic swords and damsels in distress, cunning goblins with devilish riddles, clever dwarves in the glittering caves and flighty fairies in the enchanted forest, the tallest tower in the castle, magic spinning wheels, talking swans and trees that walk, the fire-breathing dragon, the man-eating giant and the mystical unicorn.

Here's what I've got so far:

My niece is playing a Sorceress, the Queens personal magician. The King died in battle only a few years ago with the Evil Goblin King, leaving the Queen to rule the kingdom and raise their only son, who is only a young boy. For many years, the Evil Goblin King has been trying to usurp the throne, but he's never come so close as he has in the past couple of years since the King has died. The Prince has gone missing and the Queen has recieved a message from the Goblin King saying that he's captured the Prince and that she must abdicate in favour of the Goblin King or he'll kill the boy (or somesuch). The Queen decides to send her most trusted ally, her Sorceress (my niece), to rescue her son accompanied by [anyone else that is playing...an, as yet, undecided number].

That's about it. I only came up with the idea to run a game today, so haven't exactly had a lot of time to plan yet (hence the only rudimentary plot so far), but I thought the sooner I get ideas in, the longer I'll have to weigh up options, ideas and suggestions to make a good first game for my niece. Any help you can give me would be much appreciated...ideas for NPCs, scenarios and encounters, advice for running games for a younger audience or in a fairy-tale setting or generally any tips at all will all be useful!

Cheers,

JP

[Narmoth]

I think this comic could be inspirational: http://www.forthewicked.net/

[elonin]

Don't have any direct advise but would recomend drawing from the Labrynth movie.

[Talya]

You're in Wales! The only place one might find more inspirations for a fey-based game would be my ancestral homeland across the other side of St. George's Channel.

I must say I approve of your ideas, even if I have little to add at present. :)

[Thane of Fife]

Perhaps check out some of the King's Quest games, or A Tale of Two Kingdoms, all of which are good examples of fairy tale adventures.

Remember that combat is generally very rare in fairy tales - the hero is far more likely to trick the giants or ogres or what have you then to kill them.

You're in Wales! The only place one might find more inspirations for a fey-based game would be my ancestral homeland across the other side of St. George's Channel.

My first thought on reading that was "What does Ontario have to do with fairy tales?"

[dspeyer]

One classic from old folktales that might carry well here is to have three side-quests along the way in which she helps random creatures that have also suffered from the goblin king. Each tells her, "I can't imagine what one as lowly as myself could do to help you, but if there ever is anything, call me." When she reaches the goblin king's fortress, she finds reasons to call on all of them.

[Talya]

My first thought on reading that was "What does Ontario have to do with fairy tales?"

Ancestral! Not my own!

Actually ye did nae need to go that far back, anyway. Me mother and father are from Belfast. I'm only a second generation Canadian.

[JellyPooga]

One classic from old folktales that might carry well here is to have three side-quests along the way in which she helps random creatures that have also suffered from the goblin king. Each tells her, "I can't imagine what one as lowly as myself could do to help you, but if there ever is anything, call me." When she reaches the goblin king's fortress, she finds reasons to call on all of them.

This is gold! And encouraging using her wits rather than brute force is a good idea too (moral obligations and all that!). Thanks for the replies guys.

I've been having a little think and have come across a specific snag that I hope you might be able to help with.

As I said, my niece wants to play as a Sorceress, so magic is going to be a fairly big part of every session. As such, I'm looking for ways to make magic retain its mystique. One way, I'm thinking, is to have different types of magic which each have different abilities and different ways of doing them. Here's what I have so far:

Fairy Magic: Illusions and enchantments. Nothing created by Fairy Magic is real, but it can have very real effects (like making someone believe there's a bridge over a chasm when there isn't). This is the simplest magic to use, a wave of a wand (or just your hand if you're in a pinch!) and a rhyming phrase (the longer and more complex the rhyme, the more detailed the effect) is all that is required, but it is probably also the hardest magic to make use of (given that nothing it creates is real).

Witches Magic: Curses and divinations. Evil magic not suited for those of good conscience as it often involves trafficking with demons and other dark powers. Good for scrying on others, causing wasting ailments, poisoning others and the like. Lots of paraphenalia involved in using Witches Magic, like cauldrons and candles, mirrors and skulls, dead animals and smelly potions, so it takes a long time to cast any spells.

Wizards Magic: Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, Light Spells, Telekinesis and such. This is the magic you think of when you think of a stereotypical Wizard (with scorched eybrows, a robe and a pointy hat). This magic has very immediate and usually destructive effects that sometimes backfire. Requires much hand waving, incantations and bizarre implements, but is much quicker than the long rituals required to do Witches Magic.

What do you think? Is it overcomplicating things for an 8-year old, or do you think it will help having set boundaries on the different types of magic?

[Lycanthromancer]

If you want a darker tone to the game (assuming you want to go with more original versions of the 'fairy tale,') have a look at this webcomic. It retains the mystique of the fairy tale, takes the darker stories, and runs with them.

It has that thrill and near-nonsensical ambiance of the original tales, mashes them all together, and forges a brilliant story out of them.

Even if it's the wrong approach, it should give you some great ideas for your game (if only for the bad guys).

[Lupy]

I would make the "Witch's Magic" a little lighter. Just saying.

Maybe making it brewing potions and such instead?

[JellyPooga]

If you want a darker tone to the game (assuming you want to go with more original versions of the 'fairy tale,') have a look at this webcomic. It retains the mystique of the fairy tale, takes the darker stories, and runs with them.

It has that thrill and near-nonsensical ambiance of the original tales, mashes them all together, and forges a brilliant story out of them.

Even if it's the wrong approach, it should give you some great ideas for your game (if only for the bad guys).

Yeah, I've seen that comic and I like the take. However, I'm not really going for quite as dark as the originals; my niece is only 8, after all.

I would make the "Witch's Magic" a little lighter. Just saying.

Maybe making it brewing potions and such instead?

That's a good idea actually (better than mine!). Makes Witches Magic not neccesarily evil, per se, but instead could be associated with evil witches more than it is good witches. I think making it potions and charms would expand it's scope a little.

[Dixieboy]

Hans Christian Anderson

So involving suicide, abduction, murder and stealing?

Pet peeve: AndersEn, we don't translate your names, don't translate ours (Denmarkians (on purpose ) )

Anyway, i'll stop being a douche now, i like your idea of magic, but as Lupy said, make witch magic non-evil, just have it be mostly used by the witches and the like

A good guy can brew an anti-frog-transformation potion for example