Role-Playing Games for Kids

The combination of tweets like this and Google+ communities with ~2k members about to be deleted lead me to curating Yet Another List of RPGs for Children. Now that we’re all going to be Blogger Refugees again, I can keep coming back to this little markdown file on my laptop and add things as they arise or resurface in my memory.

• Hero Kids, by (fellow Australian) Justin Halliday is the first kid-centric fantasy RPG most people hear about nowadays, and with good reason. It is, from the lens of tactical D&D, a great intro to that style of play.
• The first cousin of that which I ever found on the web was the card-based Adventure Maximus.
• If your kids want to have more freedom than a single genre, Monte Cook games made a big splash with their two kickstarters for the genreless imaginary mashup of No Thank You, Evil!
• Similarly, Amazing Tales has multiple options in terms of setting.
• If you want cute little fuzzy characters but your kids aren’t able to handle the complexity of Mouse Guard, maybe you’d like to try something like The Woodlands for a more story-driven Redwall-esque tale, or even Michtim.
• The Magical Land of Yeld was born out of the Modest Medusa comics, and similarly, you might enjoy Sidekick Quests, from the eponymous comic!
• If you’re playing with fans of My Little Pony, maybe try Tails of Equestria.
• Fall of Magic is a beautiful game for any age, the emphasis is on story and characterisation, not at all on any kind of tactical combat. A digital version is also available.
• Wildlings might scratch your Lookouts itch, but in a few months, I’ll be releasing my free hack to play a kidventure with the Wardlings miniatures - see wave 1, wave 2.
• For super-simple systems, you can ditch the dice entirely and flip coins in FlipTales.
• Instant RPG is a free RPG which fits on a business card, is diceless, paperless, and practically ageless!

Oh, and suggestions are welcome, so if you know something I don’t, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!

PS: I totally forgot about those two official Wizards mini D&D games for youngsters.