Help Me Make a List of Games for Kids (Not Teens)

#1

Hello, I am trying to make a list of story games, RPGs, and LARPs designed for children, ideally playable by them without adult help (but that’s not a deal-breaker).I’m not talking about adult or young adult games that can work with children, but games designed with actual children in mind–family friendly games. If you contribute a suggestion I will curate a list in this initial post. Thanks for your help.

The List:
Superhero Bakery (LARP) (Jason Morningstar)
Let’s Be Dinosaurs (LARP/Story-Game) (Javier P. Beltrán)
Star Level Ten (LARP/Story-Game) (Madeline Wedig & Nick)
A Crow Funeral (LARP) (Tim Hutchings)
Still Life (LARP) (Wendy Gorman, David Hertz, and Heather Silsbee)
We Are Roommates Now (LARP) (Wendy Gorman)

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#2

Do you have any examples we could compare with?

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#3

Not really. I was hoping for some good ideas from others.

#4

I know this isn’t in your brief but I was playing OD&D when I was 8; my nephews were playing 4E and Dungeon World when they were 11. Precocious kids can figure it out and make it their own. I have no idea what “family friendly” means but, left to their own devices, kids are pretty bloody-minded in my experience. Consider letting them play whatever interests them and supporting their choices if they need help.

My game Superhero Bakery gets run as a larp for young kids regularly. So does Let’s Be Dinosaurs. Star Level Ten is a larp that was co-written by a 9-year-old and it is great. Let them play all three and then challenge them to write their own.

A Crow Funeral would work well with kids. Still Life might if they were in a calm mood and into it. We Are Roommates Now is silly and fun and prosocial in the best way.

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#5

By family friendly, I guess I meant Rated G.

#6

Scouts of the Wyrdwood Forest is designed for kids to play, with adults only taking on the part of animal companions that help and give advice.

Happy Birthday Robot will work great with small kids. Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple works fine for slightly older kids.

I played ACTION CASTLE with my kids as a bedtime story when they were young, and it worked great. Other Parsely games would probably work as well.

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#7

@Hopeless_Wanderer, as you and I have discussed, I’ve written a bunch of games intended for children, but none of my game texts are suitable for children. I would not at all be opposed to someone putting together such a text for one of my games, however.

I should probably put together “As the Worm Turns…” sometime, as I’ve had lots of fun playing that with children.

My own experience as a child mirrors Jason’s somewhat: we played D&D from the start, and we had fun (although it wasn’t always fun!). We had no trouble with complex rules, but we did struggle a lot with social authority issues, railroading, and similar “classic” foibles of traditional roleplaying.

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#8

A lot depends on the age of the kids. For younger kids I might not even have character sheets or rolls. They just want a cool story and be able to do neat things. Ask them what they do and tell them what happens. When my son was in elementary school they would do this on the playground. Just start telling a story and do stuff.

If you want something a little more rules-based I’ve heard good things about Hero Kids.

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#9

I am playing Freebooters on the Frontier with my 5yo and 8yo sons! They love it!

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#10

Two come to mind specifically for kids.

Princess World by Kevin Petker with help/inspiration from his daughter. It’s a modified PbtA game of princesses doing cool things. Because of the vocabulary level on some of the sheets, I think an adult might be needed to explain some things. It is still in development at this point.

Dinosaur Princesses by Hamish and Dana Cameron. Along with a fun theme and pretty straightforward rules, character sheets double as coloring book pages. Once you answer a few basic questions for character creation, you can design/color your own dinosaur princess.

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#11

“No thank you, Evil!” is an RPG designed for kids.

http://www.nothankyouevil.com/

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#12

I am playing Offworlders with my 8 year old. She likes it a lot. The Sci-Fi genre has less pre-conceived notions baked in than the fantasy ones and lets you play a wide array of stuff.

She likes watching about different cultures and history on PBS and that comes out a lot in our games. I have an Actual Play post on the RPG chat if you are interested in the expierence.