Mighty deeds of a seven year old

[Skyscraper]

I'm introducing my 7-year old son to pen and paper RPG. We used to play entirely in our imaginations, but now that he knows how to count and write, we can add the character sheet and dice. I'm playing using essentially DCC rules.

I've been using the mighty deed mechanic for his knight (who is close to a level 1 DCC warrior mechanically). What I do however, is allow the deed to work notwithstanding whether he successfully hits his opponent or not. So he might deal damage, accomplish some kind of stunt of his imagination, or both. This has worked out very well in the little we've played up to now. Since he's the only player at the table (his PC now has two NPC friends) it allows his PC to shine more often. Last session, for example, he wasn't able to hit an opponent with his d20, or just about. However, he disarmed one of his crossbow (that flew out the window to break 10 meters below) and he also broke an old wooden staircase underneath a leashed dog, essentially trapping the dog under the staircase. He tried pushing the BBEG underneath a large rotating wind mill grind stone a couple of time, but that didn't work and the BBEG escaped.

I'm simply sharing this experience for those who might find it useful for their games because I thought that the deed-separated-from-the-attack mechanic worked out well and really got him excited about attacking. If I had used the DCC rules that his mighty deed only worked on a successful hit, he would have hit opponents only twice in the entire session and no deed would have worked; and his NPC friends would have done most of the work. For a 7 year old, that doesn't make for a very heroic game.

[finarvyn]

1. Congrats on bringing a 7-year-old into the world of RPGs. I suspect that both of your lives with be that much better for it.

2. Nice to see his ideas at work. I think a lot of veteran gamers tend to fall into the "this is how you are supposed to do it" mentality, whereas newbies often ask "can I do this?" and the results are often really remarkable.

Thumbs up from me!

[GnomeBoy]

Another approach -- especially with a single player like this -- is to just make all of the bad guy ACs pretty low. Then he can hit them without too much trouble. Usually kids have no expectation of "this guy is probably tough" or not, and don't see anything wonky about it being as easy to hit and hurt a guy in plate as it is to hit the broad side of a barn.

Bit by bit, more variety can be introduced -- which makes the first time they face someone with a high(-ish) AC more of a dramatic situation.

[Skyscraper]

Another approach -- especially with a single player like this -- is to just make all of the bad guy ACs pretty low. Then he can hit them without too much trouble. Usually kids have no expectation of "this guy is probably tough" or not, and don't see anything wonky about it being as easy to hit and hurt a guy in plate as it is to hit the broad side of a barn.

Bit by bit, more variety can be introduced -- which makes the first time they face someone with a high(-ish) AC more of a dramatic situation.

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep that in mind.

[ragboy]

This is actually an interesting idea. If you don't hit with your d20, but the deed goes off, perhaps there are other effects. Like, "you swing wildly at the orc, missing, but your strike a picture on the wall, which falls and distracts your opponent (-2 to next attack)" ... or something.

Sounds fun and chaotic and a way for the judge to bring more narration into the combat.