S’up /tg/, so I have a story to share about a D&D session with the kids at my work yesterday.
I was so god damn tired by the time we were starting our session, that I let one of the more creative kids take over GM’ing for today’s session. I was really gambling with the dice giving that kid the responsibility, but he did not disappoint.
So there were three of us. GM Kid, a chaotic stupid halfling druid (I don’t even use the alignment system with the kids and this kid still rolls as chaotic neutral), and my warforged cleric who’s mute.
GM Kid sets up this whole encounter with a city of mice people deep within the woods we’re exploring. We walked up to the little city and were greeted respectfully by their king, who asked us of our business here. Since my cleric is mute, he nudges the druid kid to speak for us.
“uhh… we were just exploring and stumbled upon your city…” The druid kid trails off, not really sure what else to say.
The mouse king quickly replies “well if you have no business here, then I must ask you to leave.”
Within moments, the chaotic stupid druid kid announces that he’s going to attack the mouse king by casting Thunder Wave.
>>44266167
Internally I went into panic mode. This was the reason why I maintained being Forever GM with the kids, because they all can easily go from zero to complete asshole in one second and I use my role as GM to guide them to make better choices, or give them consequences for their stupidity. However, since I wasn’t GM this session, I had to use my character to dissuade the druid kid from being an asshat who attacks a city of mice people. “I try stopping Druid Kid from attacking the King…”
“Don’t worry,” said GM Kid “I know what’s going to happen.”
So he lets Druid Kid roll his dice and determine the damage, but in a twist of fate, a mouse wizard shields the king with a spell and the Thunder Wave spell is redirected at us. We’re knocked the fuck to the ground as more mice people come up to fisticuffs with these two jackass adventurers getting up in their shit.
Druid Kid picks himself up and casts Fog Cloud, but then we found out that this mouse wizard is this ridiculously fucking old wizard who can fuck shit up hardcore. The Mouse Wizard summons a bullette who practically pile drives the Druid kid unconscious.
My cleric more or less gestures “I apologize for my idiot friend” and the King was like “you’re cool, but you’re friend is going to have to be put on trial.”
At that moment, I realized this session was going to be kick ass. “My cleric is going to represent the Druid Kid as his defense attorney. This is happening.”
>>44266182
We drew out the tiny, mouse people sized court room, the defense table too small for my warforged cleric to really sit at. The chaotic stupid druid kid was stuffed in a hanging cage, sapped of his abilities through a potion. We skipped the arraignment all that other bullshit and went straight for the trial.
As GM Kid, started setting up who was who of the court. Druid Kid and I found out that the Judge was the Mouse King and the bailiff was his daughter. “Dude,” I whispered to the Druid Kid “I think we’re going to have to seek a plea bargain, since the person you attacked IS THE JUDGE.”
The Druid Kid was charged with two things:
1. Property Damage
2.Attempted assault against the crown
If found guilty of property damage (which apparently happened, because the Thunderwave Spell hit a guard tower), he would be fined for 60,000 blocks of cheese.
If found guilty of attempted assault against the crown, he would face 16 cats in prison. I thought the GM Kid meant cat lives or something, but he literally meant cats, 16 very angry cats. He started explaining to us how the cat prison system works, but he started losing me on the finer details.
After a discussion of how court proceedings worked, we brought to the stand the first witness, The Great Mouse Wizard of Fucking Yo Shit Up. The Mouse DA asked the Wizard to recount what had happened and why he felt it necessary to subdue the Druid. “He casted an offensive spell against the person of the highest standing within our society” was the witnesses key point.
I had no idea how I was going to present my defense. Do I stick with a not guilty and question the authority of the witnesses? How the fuck am I supposed to discredit the fucking wizard of fucking yo shit up? Do I switch to a plea of insanity? Is that a viable route? Wait no, I’ll make some shit up about use being sent on a quest by another king.
>>44266201
Here's a pic of our hastily drawn courtroom.
>>44266201
Once it was time to cross-examine the witness, I didn’t really cross-examine the witness. We skipped arguing of cases, so I argued my defendant’s case instead of cross-examining, I was going to going to cross-examine, but I’ll get to why it didn’t happen soon.
So this mute warforged cleric begins making his case, it was performed through a lot of gesturing and drawing on the board. I illustrated a story of how we were sent on a mission by another king to seek out a gang of shapeshifting monsters lurking in these woods, because they’ve been terrorizing the neighboring colonies. A promising trail led us in this direction and we happened upon your city. I noted that the chaotic stupid druid kid has a tendency of being mistrusting and often quick to jump to conclusions, so he attempted to attack believing that your people were the shape shifters disguised as peaceful mice people.
Before I could continue my case, the GM Kid announced that a mouse person walked into the courthouse, moved towards the center of the courtroom right in front of my cleric, turned into a humanoid monster and attacked me. The monster threw his sword and it ricocheted off of my cleric’s metal body and into the judge’s podium. Since we were in a court room, my cleric didn’t have his trusty warhammer, so he yanked out the sword from the podium and swung it at the monster, knocking it back against the jury box. It turned into some other creatures and tried to fight back, but between the Wizard and I, we royally fucked up that shapeshifting monster.
In the end, the Druid Kid’s charges were dropped by the Mouse King, because of my cleric’s heroics in defending his people.
>>44266236
Kektacular!
Playing with kids is the funniest shit.
Whenever I play D&D with my sons, it's always funny to see what kind of shit they come up with.
>>44266254
This was the first time this kid had Gm’ed a game, so I was quite impressed that he was able to bestow an appropriate consequence for a player’s actions, as well as improvise his story when I made up some bullshit about us going on a mission to kill shapeshifter. All in all, it was a good session.
Does anyone else have a story of playing D&D with kids or their game turning into a courtroom drama? I wanna hear them. I want to hear all of them.
>>44266254
Someone screencap this, I want this story to last.
>>44266266
Old time players tend to lose the "magic", so to say, when the have played enough to start considering the game a set of rules to bend and tools to engineer with. You lose enthusiasm the more you play, unfortunately.
Kids on the other hand just want to have cool adventures.
>>44266266
Right?
One time, I had a larger group of kids and they were traversing a dense jungle. Full of all kinds of animals and shit.
The scouting party, who were two siblings, had an argument with the rest of the team over whether or not native bird calls were viable as a signal that the coast was clear. After an intense discussion, they decided that native bird calls in this jungle were a viable signal, so the scouting team started moving head.
They started moving their minis across the board a few inches, stopped, and started cawing. "Ca- CAAAW! Ca- CAAAW!" They fucking cawed like crows in unison! This cycle was repeated again and again. I could barely go on, because I was dying of laughter.
>>44266367
It's definitely hard to maintain that "magic" while playing sometimes. Personally, it's especially hard when I have players who have strict no-nonsense attitude over storytelling and lore. I've had players be bothered over the fact that I gave the party a magic wand with a unicorn head at it's tip. It shoots rainbows from its mouth and causes radiant damage. Apparently, barfing unicorn wands is too silly for a fantasy game.
It's why I love playing this game with kids. I can give them barfing unicorn wands, potions that read "Caturday Surprise" on its label, or orbs of detect slope. They're always down for cool shit.
>>44266167
>Warforged Cleric who's mute
Oh my god you special snowflake faggot, you're just as had as the halfling. Players who make their characters mute are the fucking worst, might as well add on "and I'm dark and brooding and h8 my dad, I'm gonna go do my own thing cause the party doesn't understand me"
Kill yourself
>>44266551
Thanks, you too.
>>44266551
You know what is so good about kids? They have no idea about what the fuck special snowflakes means and won't judge people based on that. They see a robot pope and think that's cool, instead.
In this, they are way better than many anons.
>>44266167
>>44266182
>>44266201
>>44266254
That was bretty gud OP. I'm totally stealing the Lawful mouse kingdom who fine in terms of blocks of cheese and putting them into my dungeon. They could serve as a foil to the Goblin kingdom on level 2.
>>44266551
Come the fuck on man. It's pretty obvious that OP is playing a mute in order to allow the other player to actually play. Its a child we're talking about, and one who plays chaotically - they don't need you to be behind them, pushing the train down the rails in order to have a good time.
>>44266839
I hope the lawful mice will prove to be an excellent addition to your campaign. I'm still laughing over the 16 cats in prison.
Yeah, I really wanted Druid Kid to take the lead. Despite the fun being had, I was bummed that Druid Kid taking the lead equaled attacking the mouse kingdom that he had helped create. I wanted to give Druid Kid a voice in the game, empower him and shit, but not if he's gonna be a dick.
I have only two rules with my kids, Be respectful and be kind. Everything else falls under those two rules. But honestly, I wish I could condense that down to one golden rule: Don't be a dick.
pic-related, I play my cleric like Bernardo from Zorro.
OP here, gonna contribute some more.
One of my younger players brought a bunch of miniature toy sharks one day.
Now this kid is cool, he really wanted to be a cleric, so we made him a cleric. However, I gave him a "wrestling" background, because this kid is obsessed with wrestling. His dad took him to whatever big wrestling thing happened in New York earlier this year. Plus, he's not quite a muscle-brained jock yet, so he's still a pretty nice kid.
Anyways, back to the sharks. This luchador cleric asked me if we could use the sharks in the game and I was like fuck yes. We were in a wizard's tower, so all manners of shenanigans can happen, especially sharks.
So I set up our game, presented the party with a room with a bunch of old decrepit mirrors and one lone mirror that still gleaned like new. The mirror was a gateway into another realm where they could breath underwater, however, within seconds, a bunch of sharks started circling them.
A shark tries to take a bite out of the kids and then a fight ensues between the party and these motherfucking sharks.
The coolest thing that happened was that many of the kids came up with inventive ways to combat the sharks, especially since swimming above and below the sharks were options. All the while, I was encouraging the luchador cleric to grapple the sharks and punch them in the face.
It was was a fantastic encounter.
>>44267383
Thanks for the stories, op
>>44267482
It's my pleasure, Anon.
I really would like to hear other stories too, if anyone has any.
>>44266284
For you, Anon
It's all for you
>>44266201
You realize you're going to have to use that cat thunderdome idea at some point, right? You have to.
>>44268279
Holy fuck, you're right. I wish I paid more close attention to DM Kid's 16 cats prison, he was totally describing cat thunderdome.
>>44268279
There also needs to be at least one mouse that survived cat thunderdome and is celebrated for being a complete badass.
>>44266167
Hey OP, you're cool. Mind if I ask you how you manage the sessions? I work in school and I'd really love to play some RPGs with my kids, but it's basically impossible to manage to get a small number of children away from the other scheduled activities for a decent amount of time, and god forbid if I use recess. The best I managed was improvising a "character generation" of sorts after a creative writing activity we did once.
>>44268279
>>44268531
This sounds like something that would come up in Mouse Guard.
>>44268531
Kill a rat, face the cat!
>>44268717
I'm going to suggest this to GM Kid after winter break.
>>44269022
I need to read more Mouse Guard.
>>44268812
Aw thanks, Anon!
I have to admit, it is rather tough to manage the sessions. I work at an after school setting, so I have a little bit more freedom. However, we do run several other programs that are mandatory for us to run, so squeezing it can be tough. Especially if our hands are tied and I need to supervise more than just 6 kids.
I often use our free choice hours or any special events where we're open later to run games.
Furthermore, you have to come to terms with your sessions most likely being about 30-45 minutes long. Between timeslots and attention spans, you don't have a whole lot of time to work with. I try to treat each session as an episode of DBZ than an episode of Game of Thrones. Also streamline things as much as possible.
Perhaps you can run an afterschool club? There are plenty of those in the school district we work with. If you need to convince some big wigs, sell it as a high yield activity. Youth have to use basic math regular to calculate what they do in game, it builds on teamwork and social competence (if you do it right), brain teasers and riddles are involved to challenge youth's cognitive skills, innovative and creative thinking is use to come up with solutions in game, and it provides a roleplay environment for youth to make good decisions and empower their voice.
>>44269849
Well, I'm working in after school programs too, but as I said I mostly have my hands tied with programs and schedules. I have a bit more freedom during the summer programmes, and I managed to get some creative endeavours there (one year I showed the kids my monster manuals and we made a fantastic bestiary together). But "proper" RPGs are something else. In any case, you've given me some food for thought, good luck with your work!
>>44270018
Do you manage the HW help program or are buddies with the person who does? Character building is easy to do as an extra activity if they're finished with their hw.
>>44266167
>warforged cleric who’s mute
How are you casting Vocal component spells?
Why are you even picking a spellcasting class when you are a mute?
>>44270602
There is a Silent Spell feat for a reason, last I remember.
For that matter, there is also a Still Spell feat, so he could be mute, quadriplegic, and STILL cast his spells (especially to power his hovering wheelchair or any other form of locomotion).
>>44270849
That's three feats and two spell levels worth of stupid.
>>44270923
And you're a sad sot who doesn't like fun.
>>44270602
>>44270923
How's it feel to be a perfect example of what >>44266367 was saying?
>>44270602
>>44271106
The more imporant question is: How does a mute cleric pray?
>>44271252
Like you need to talk to speak with God.
>>44271306
Kind of hard to give a sermon from your holy text, though. Unless you plan on teaching the peasants to read, that is.
>>44270602
I didn't think that far ahead. Hahahahahah
>>44271252
>>44271306
>>44271336
Actions speak louder than words.
