Simple System For Young Kids

[Rourke]

I just thought up a simple system while baby-sitting my younger siblings and cousins.
Inspired by recent Legends and Lore articles, this system only has the six basic abilities, assigned from highest to lowest. For example a "wizard" might have the following array:
Amazing: Intelligence
Very Good: Wisdom
Good: Dexterity
Average: Constitution
Bad: Charisma
Very Bad: Strength
"Wizard" is in quotations because in this system, there are no classes or races. These are just role-playing guides so the player can say "I hit the goblin with my magic," instead of "I stab the goblin with my dagger," and "I cloak myself in illusion," as opposed to "I hide in the ally." You can easily see which is the wizard and which is the rogue without powers.
Rolls are made depending on the ability the player, monster, or NPC is using, 1d12+2 (Amazing), 1d12+1 (Very Good), 1d12 (Good), 1d10 (Average), 1d8 (Bad), and 1d6 (Very Bad). HP is Constitution x2. Opposed rolls are used to see if an attack or other action works against an opponent. For example, a dagger attack would be Dex vs. Dex (Aim vs. Dodge), a push would be Str vs. Con (Push vs. Stabability), trying to hide would be Dex vs. Wis (Stealth vs. Perception), and trying to lie would be Cha vs. Wis (Bluff vs. Insight).

That's about it for now. Tomorrow I will try it and figure out how characters get better (leveling up, equipment, ect.).

[Kuma Kode]

"Wizard" is in parenthesis
Wizard is in QUOTATIONS. :smallannoyed:


Rolls are made depending on the ability the player, monster, or NPC is using, 1d12+2 (Amazing), 1d12+1 (Very Good), 1d12 (Good), 1d10 (Average), 1d8 (Bad), and 1d6 (Very Bad). HP is Constitution x2. Opposed rolls are used to see if an attack or other action works against an opponent. For example, a dagger attack would be Dex vs. Dex (Aim vs. Dodge), a push would be Str vs. Con (Push vs. Stabability), trying to hide would be Dex vs. Wis (Stealth vs. Perception), and trying to lie would be Cha vs. Wis (Bluff vs. Insight).

How young are we talking? It's a nice start, but that still seems pretty complicated for some kids. You might want to check out Risus and adapt some of its genericness into your system. Not sure if something as book-keeping-y as equipment should really come up for little kids.

[Rourke]

Wizard is in QUOTATIONS. :smallannoyed:



How young are we talking? It's a nice start, but that still seems pretty complicated for some kids. You might want to check out Risus and adapt some of its genericness into your system. Not sure if something as book-keeping-y as equipment should really come up for little kids.

Fixed the mistake. *faceplam* Sorry about that.

As for the age I was thinking 7-9. Really the GM decides what the rolls are. The players only assign abilities (Which I did this afternoon. My 6-year-old brother finished in about a minute.) and announce their character's actions. As for the equipment-you'r probably right. I have no idea how that will work. :smallconfused: Do you have any ideas? What is Risus?

EDIT: Found it. Can't figure out how to download it.

[Kuma Kode]

Fixed the mistake. *faceplam* Sorry about that.

As for the age I was thinking 7-9. Really the GM decides what the rolls are. The players only assign abilities (Which I did this afternoon. My 6-year-old brother finished in about a minute.) and announce their character's actions. As for the equipment-you'r probably right. I have no idea how that will work. :smallconfused: Do you have any ideas? What is Risus?

EDIT: Found it. Can't figure out how to download it.

Risus (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1467555/Risus.pdf). Pretty damn good for rules-lite, I've seen it suggested around the boards a lot. It's a well-done system so it's definitely something to look at when building your own simple system. See what you like about it, see what you don't, and go from there.

Not that your system needs to be anything like Risus, it's just a suggestion to check out other simple systems.

[Rourke]

Thank you, Kuma Kode. That has some good ideas.

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

Don't underestimate the ability of children to understand the game rules.

That said, I would recommend you try a simplified system like D&D Miniatures, scaled down to the party level.

[ocel]

Wushu "The Ancient Art of Action Roleplaying", might be what your looking for, it has a Srd, Source Resource Document/Wiki, & numerous suggestions to simplify or complicate the rules.

[lothofkalroth]

As far as the die rolling goes, it seems fairly similar to savage worlds (one of my personal favorite systems, largely because of its simplicity).

You might want to think of some rules to relegate combat (rounds, grappling, being prone, damage, that kind of thing). For some reason combat seems to be an inescapable part of RPGs :smallsmile:

Keep up the good work amigo!