Cross posting on a few ttrpg communities, hopefully that is alright!
BLUF: Any recommendations for session zero, game systems to run, and co-dming with teens?
As a bit of background:
I used to run Hero Kids games with my wife back when the kids were 8, 6, and 4. They enjoyed them and we occasionally run other games with them now, but the younger ones aren’t as interested in them anymore, so getting them in has been more difficult. All of them have differing levels of ability to sit through a game, and keeping combat turns quick has been a key focus.
My eldest is now 12, and is interested in playing more TTRPGs and learning to DM her own games. She’s been playing D&D 5e weekly with a group of teens at a FLGS, but she’s probably one of the youngest ones there. She’s also neurodivergent, as are several others in that group. So there’s often been struggles with things not being done “the right way” as well as attention spans growing short and wandering. The gaming group has already grown too large and unruly and been split once, so now it’s two different games meeting every other week each instead of one game meeting every week.
The owners of the FLGS have expressed interest in having other people help run games for teens there, and I’m interested in helping, but I’m less fond of D&D 5e myself, especially for teens with short attention spans. So my idea currently is to come up with a “Survey of TTRPGs” and just run one shots in multiple systems, and end with offering some games where interested teens can run a one shot and I’d just serve as co-dm with them. I’d be available to help plan, as well as to help run the game day of.
My thought process here is that experiencing several different systems would help expand their experience of play styles, and would hopefully make it easier for them to accept players at their table having different preferred play styles. The experience would also hopefully illustrate different situations and scenarios in play, and make it easier to accept new ideas at the table. To me, the ideal help for the ongoing situation is to have a group of teens willing and interested to run games for other teens, and my daughter is interested in being one of those teens but isn’t comfortable doing so yet.
I want to start by coming up with a session zero that is geared for teens, and then do some very rules lite systems for the first few weeks. The goal being to introduce some role playing concepts and decision making options without a lot of rules involved up front, then work to other systems that have additional rules as time goes on. I imagine we’d start with something like Heroic Tales, work in Tiny D6 based games, look at some OSR type stuff, check out some PbtA, and end on D&D 5e and/or Pathfinder 2e. When we make it to the point of offering co-dm sessions, the kids could pick anything we’d run already as the base system.
My personal struggle is that I enjoy a lot of systems, and am interested in a lot more that I haven’t gotten to play yet. So I’ve been trying to work several of those into this idea. I tried to work out a list of systems, and eventually had 13 one shots I was going to try and run, with multiple options in systems at basically every one of them (and multiple genres to boot), and I feel like it is probably just a bit too ambitious, and want to pare it back further.
So does anyone have:
- Any tips to offer for running games for teens (current group is ages 12-17),
- Suggestions for systems that have quick combat turns to help maintain the interest of short attention spans,
- Extra tips for Session Zeros that come up more often with teens than adults
Good questions!
I would personally do a very narrative and/or rules-light system. Leaning into an existing well-established genre will give everyone very predictable beats to embrace and conventions to follow.
With that in mind I’d recommend:
Knave. Originally created for grade school kids to roleplay with. It’s fun, easy, mechanically light, but still offers a lot of OSR fun. Pair it with a Trilemma adventure for a lot of mileage.
Fiasco. GM-less, clearly embracing a movie genre, chaotic and fun and over the top. It’s modern but don’t let that stop you!
Something Powered by the Apocalypse. Doing narrative actions to activate moves makes a lot of intuitive sense and does not require a ton of deep system knowledge or precise positioning on a mini board.
I would definitely stay away from 5E or the other big book systems. There’s just too much crunch to be approachable in my opinion. But I also feel that way after decades of roleplaying, so I might be biased!
Agreed. During Covid I was asked to do something like this a couple of times and I created a very light system and a murder mystery “campaign” that kids could just pick up and play immediately with no prior setup or experience, and involving almost no combat. It turned out to be a really big hit the first time which is why I was asked back to do it again a second time.
Ooh, speaking of murder mysteries — Alice is Missing is a great one, and played primarily via text which makes it even easier for the Youths to interface with, what with all their texting and so on.
I saw the Kickstarter for Knave 2nd edition and backed that, but I think that is a ways out yet. I don’t have the 1st edition yet though. I didn’t realize it was created with grade school kids in mind, that’s pretty sweet! It was certainly already a contender, but I didn’t realize how big of a heavy hitter it was likely to be here.
I’ve heard of Fiasco, and am interested in it, but I hadn’t seen any way of increasing the player counts and wasn’t sure how well it handled 6+ people, since it describes itself as only up to 5. That was the biggest reason I haven’t gotten it yet, my gaming group is 6 people, and my family is 6 people now as well. Do you have experience with it, and are there ways to make it work with additional people?
I was definitely planning on something PbtA. I’ve already got Avatar: Legends, Masks, Dungeon World, and Monster of the Week. And I either already have them in print or I’m waiting on a delivery or a Kickstarter to get them in. I’ve not gotten to actually play one yet, but I know several people itching to try Avatar so I’m just waiting on the opportunity there.
My idea for an initial system was Heroic Tales which is quite rules lite at three pages for the entire system, including generators, and play tips! The PDF hits six pages via a cover page and two pages of blank character sheets… I’ve been having a lot of fun playing it online the last several months.
Before discovering Heroic Tales my favorite system had rapidly become the TinyD6 line from Gallant Knight Games and I still enjoy playing it quite a bit, and was planning on making it one of the offerings as well. It has a section on doing ranges for combats in theater of the mind that I have used with several groups and enjoyed. It also has quite a bit of different genres to play with as options and I’ve gotten most of them in print by now.
I was also considering throwing in a level zero funnel from Dungeon Crawl Classics, in part because the dice chain seems like a really neat concept, and the spell tables seem like a delightful way of handling getting more powerful as a mage over time.
I also have found I very much prefer less crunch in my games, but I know a lot of the teens hear “D&D” and want to actually play that as well. So I figure I’ll include it, but way at the end after they’ve gotten to try lots of other things. Hopefully I can help them learn many of the main mechanics and decision making skills before then so that all the rules don’t bog everything down too much!
Have you much experience playing with teens? Any things of note to make sure to mention we’ll be avoiding in a Session Zero? I really only have experience with my 12 year old in that regard, and am only just now getting to spend time around more teens due to involvement with her.