Dungeons and dragons drama

By Anonymous - 17/05/2023 18:00 - Australia - Taren Point

Today, I found out why DnD is recommended for ages 13 and up. I ran a kids' session supposed to be for ages 12-16, but a few younger ones turned up. It took them an hour and a half to kill 3 zombies, and then they wanted to go on a murder rampage through the town. I'm secretly hoping they don't turn up next week. FML
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Top comments

Anderling 32

You’re the DM. You are responsible for safeguarding the atmosphere at the table and what you say goes. If these kids were spoiling the fun for others who *did* want to interact with the plot, reiterate the age limit and don’t let them play. Plus honestly? Even if they *weren’t* ruining the game for others, if you personally don’t want to supervise murderhobos you are also perfectly allowed to tell them no. You as a DM are supposed to have fun too. I know that a lot of DMs have difficulty with setting clear boundaries, but you kind of need to be able to do so. Otherwise you’re just going to end up on RPGHorrorStories on reddit as the guy who could have solved this by telling the problem player/s “no” but chose not to until everything exploded into messy bits. Edit: that said, cut your players a little slack on “it took an hour and a half to kill three zombies”. If they’re still learning the game everything’s going to take five times as long as it will eventually.

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Rake 14

You can make really good adventures even to 7+. You chose more closed scenarios, simpler rules and plots, and less freedom of choice to the players. Takes some practice but the kids gains a lot out of it

3 0

Comments

Anderling 32

You’re the DM. You are responsible for safeguarding the atmosphere at the table and what you say goes. If these kids were spoiling the fun for others who *did* want to interact with the plot, reiterate the age limit and don’t let them play. Plus honestly? Even if they *weren’t* ruining the game for others, if you personally don’t want to supervise murderhobos you are also perfectly allowed to tell them no. You as a DM are supposed to have fun too. I know that a lot of DMs have difficulty with setting clear boundaries, but you kind of need to be able to do so. Otherwise you’re just going to end up on RPGHorrorStories on reddit as the guy who could have solved this by telling the problem player/s “no” but chose not to until everything exploded into messy bits. Edit: that said, cut your players a little slack on “it took an hour and a half to kill three zombies”. If they’re still learning the game everything’s going to take five times as long as it will eventually.

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Rake 14

When you do any activity with small kids you need to give stricter rules and more guidance. The kids' characters should be treated as extensions of the kids. It's ok to just tell them no. No, you can't go kill town members, you have to stick with the plot. You can also describe the characters they play more deeply so they would understand what is expect of them. You play a dwaft that is gumpy yet good hearted (using archtypes from kid books also really helps).

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RichardPencil 30

Why secretly? Just put your foot down and don't let kids that are too young to play DnD. We don't need more incels.

1 4
Rake 14

You can make really good adventures even to 7+. You chose more closed scenarios, simpler rules and plots, and less freedom of choice to the players. Takes some practice but the kids gains a lot out of it

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vg 4

I don't allow murderhobos or anything of that calibre in my campaigns, no matter the age. If it doesn't work to talk to them (which has always worked for me) it's not really harder than making one of the people they try to kill a hidden lawfully good paladin, out doing the rightous work of protecting hobos. One paladin that happens to have 50 in speed, legendary actions, 500h, a CP at 30 and a non-nonsense attitude towards murderhobos. Shuts them up real quick when all their characters experience perma-deaths.

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IHaveThePower 16

Try seeing if they can play it as comedy improv. Murderhobos can be HILARIOUS.

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ODBeefalo 10

Like others said, be more strict with things to help guide younger players. but I would also give them some help to keep things rolling a bit. random bonuses, fudging misses to hits etc. the point with this sort of things when kids are involved isn't the same as with adults. you are more teaching them while they have fun. then they get more used to it and you can pull back a bit and eventually drop boulders on them for a full wipe learning experience.

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