Kids RPG: Lessons Learned II

Session 2 was much more challenging than the first session. There were more kids at the table, and attention tended to wander toward bathroom humor. Huh. That sounds like some adult groups I've played with. This session's lessons seem simple, but have a big impact.

And if all else fails, throw hordes of
negative energy squirrel ninjas at 'em.

1) Step up the pacing
I tend to let the game happen, letting the players control things rather than driving the action. With shorter attention spans, I got wandering attention and loss of players down irrelevant ratholes. So I need to push a little harder to keep them focused. Note to self: pay attention and do it faster next time.

Kids play for a living. In order to keep the game more interesting than things they would invent on their own, keep the pace of the action fast and keep them making decisions. Reacting to an immediate threat is easier than deciding a direction to explore.

2) Lean on the rules to maintain order
In order to keep the pacing going, I gave each player a limited time to decide what they were doing before jumping to the next player. I'd come back to check on anyone I skipped so everyone had something to do in a turn. I strongly enforced initiative and only doing one thing per turn to curb the tendency to hog the spotlight.

I think that worked out pretty well once we got into it. I think it took me too long to get to that point. I almost lost them to their own devices and fisticuffs over a glowing staff before they united against a common enemy. I almost lost my patience as I had to shout to make myself heard above the 3 simultaneous conversations happening. I gave them too much space to fill before focusing on the situation at hand.

3) Give information explicitly

Too subtle? Hm. You're right.

Since the party basically marched into a cave full of orcs prepared for war, they were going to be overwhelmed if they decided to stay to the bitter end. I don't know what I was thinking trying to drop hints that there were more coming instead of just telling them "You guessed there were 20 orcs here, but you were wrong. Right now, it sounds more like 50 orcs coming at you, and if you stay you'll be captured or killed."

Lesson learned.

4) Take a break if needed
It's a game. It's supposed to be fun. If there's no fun happening, or if there's no game happening as everyone makes their own fun, take a break and regroup after everyone gets their yayas out.

5) Nobody spent luck points this time
I just realized that they could have spent luck and changed the game significantly. I think they may have still lost in the end, but it would have made the game more interesting. Next game, challenge them more and remind them that they have the power to rewrite the game reality a bit.

This session was a harder game to run, but I had a certain amount of control that I didn't exercise at first. I'm interested in finding out their reaction to retreating from the warband cave instead of standing their ground and thinking they were invincible against any odds. I've got the next game scheduled in April, so stay tuned for more.

Onward and upward!