Role-playing games for children question

**warramra** · 10-23-2009, 04:10 PM

I have a question for fans of role-playing, narrative games. I found a role-playing game based on fairy tales that I want to play with my children. They create 'fairy' characters that take on roles in various fairy tale stories.

I have never played role-playing games and was wondering how to keep all the attributes and characteristics of the characters straight, especially for a 7 & 10 year old.

These girls make up long, involved role-playing games with their friends that they actually act out when playing outside. I thought that a narrative-based role-playing game would be fun to play as the weather gets yuckier...but we are having a hard time keeping everything straight. I'd really like to make this something 'they' own so any simple suggestions for how to keep track of the story, characters and rewards would be helpful.

TIA

**Contrary Housewife** · 10-23-2009, 08:37 PM

Usually, with a published game there is a "character sheet", a form that you fill out with the name, and all those characteristics and the numbers. When everybody has the same sheet with everything in the same place, it's easier to remember where to find things and the girls can remind each other.

For the person running the game it's not so organized. You'll probably want to make up a chart ahead of time with information on the various other characters they will meet, and anything important like their special powers or magic items. It's a little bit of work ahead of time on your part, but it makes the actual play-time a lot easier.

As for keeping track of who did what, for rewards at the end of the game, either you can take notes or the girls can. It might be educational for them to take responsibility for this simple record keeping. (opened the locked door, found the magic wand, warned the princess, etc.)

**Thevail** · 10-23-2009, 10:43 PM

You'll need at least a character sheet for each girl's character.
What makes their character different from others, how fast are they, how nimble, how strong?

A "treasure" sheet. What did they "find/get"?, who/where from?, what does it do? who is carrying it?

A "contacts" sheet. Who did they meet? Was the person friendly, or angry, or neutral? What "groups" did they meet/join?

These things are really useful to just look over before the next game to remember where you were, what you did, etc. But for the person running the game it's even more important because then you can use all those different things to bring a sense of continuity to the story..

What if the prince of the winter realm wants his grandfather's sword BACK? What if he actually NEEDS it to be crowned? etc.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 10-24-2009, 12:59 AM

LARPing is actually pretty good and people get into it quite a bit, which is what I think your girls are doing.

If you're looking for a good RP game for your girls, D&D is good... but a lot of it takes a large group of people to do it with and they can sink several hours into it. It'll come with a character sheet, but it also requires dice and figures and maps...

it's pretty extensive.

If it's something small, you could try to find a duplicate character sheet online and print them out for the girls.