Dust Raven Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 My very heroic son wants to play Champions. My very heroic son is ten years old. Any suggestions? Some possibly useful information: My son's name is Jacob. Jacob is very intelligent and is excellent in math. Jacob hates to do his homework, especially math. Jacob hates to read or follow instruction, but otherwise loves to read. Jacob is uncannily imaginitave and creative and loves to tell stories. Most of Jacob's stories involve his current favorite characters from whatever he's gotten massively interested in lately. Jacob's primary interest includes NASCAR and anything to do with racing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JmOz Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play I had the opposite problem, my son was a terrible reader, and terrible in math, Champions helped him alot What I did was I made the character for him and his sister, while both characters were different I kept them fairly simple (Both OIHID Bricks, one slightly faster, the other slightly stronger), used 0 endurance alot (to help with book keeping). I kept the adventures fairly simple, emphasising problem solving, but with a big fight at the end. alot of patience also helped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointyman2000 Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play I'd suggest going about with a series of questions as to what kind of superhero your son wants to play. Build it for him, probably using just basic powers (no heavy emphasis on power advantages and limitations first) It might be a good idea to have the superhero be his age, and dealing with all sorts of things that are mundane, but impossible for a child of his age to do. Maybe things like lifting heavy objects, using his flight or speed to stop something no one could have caught, stuff like that. Kids usually love the idea of being larger than life (then again, adults do too). JmOz has good advice in terms of keeping adventures fairly simple, emphasising problem solving and with a big fight. All the elements of a good game for kids. Have NPCs that admire the boy when he does something heroic. Having adults look up to him will bolster his self-esteem, and having backup in the form of an older advisor or mentor for the young hero will be most appreciated as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play Keep the game four-color and carefully PG rated. When Mentor's two sons joined our group (at different times) both were about the same age, and we had to change the tone slightly and the native girls had to acquire bikini tops. It can be a lot of fun gaming with kids. It reminds you of why playing superheroes is cool. If he's into NASCAR, maybe a speedster/brick might be a fun archetype for him (IOW, a speedster with high defenses and maybe moderately high STR). A kid that young needs a fairly simple character build. Let the kid run 300 MPH, bounce bullets off his chest, and pick up cars, and he'll have a blast. (I recommend a fairly high SPD, like 6. Kids that age bore easily and you don't want him to have to wait too long between his Phases.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamrok Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play Keep the game four-color and carefully PG rated. When Mentor's two son's joined our group (at different times) both were about the same age' date=' and we had to change the tone slightly and the native girls had to acquire bikini tops.[/quote'] When the kids play, all the taverns serve juice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamrok Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play I haven't had too much success with getting my kids into regular gaming. We play a few sessions every now and then, but discipline breaks down when I'm the GM, since it is hard to be dad and GM at the same time. My nine year old takes everything too seriously, going into extreme funks every time something bad happens to his character. My seven year starts giggling and can't stop. Maybe next year. When we play, we use Savage Worlds, since the system is a lot easier to grasp, and character building is a pretty simple menu-driven process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiral Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play What I did a few years ago with a younger cousin and a few of his friends (ages 12 -14) who wanted to learn how to play was first talk to thier parents (some non gaming parents might have trouble at first but since they all knew me it was really no problem) Then arranged a Saturday afternoon and I helped them build their characters which I had all ready done the base characters all they needed to do was some tweaking for the first ones. Keep it simple is the key. I made them a note card with some basic info (such as 11+their OCV - the targets DCV is the number they have to hit of get under). They had a blast and the game actually lasted for a few months that summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Hiemforth Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play Are there any particular superhero cartoons or comic books that your son likes? If so, then playing in that setting (at least at first) might be worthwhile. You could build a HERO System version of one of the setting's well-known characters that your son likes, and have him play that character until his RPG feet are nice and wet. This has a few advantages: He already knows what the fictional character can do, which will make it easier to match up the stuff on the character sheet to the stuff he knows the character can do. He already knows basically how the character acts, which might be less daunting for a novice role-player than creating a personality out of whole cloth. He's already familiar with the setting, the other heroes, some of the bad guys, etc. So he doesn't have to try to learn the world at the same time as he's learning the game. Once he "gets the hang of it," you might try having him create a new character to play in the same world, or jump over to a wholly-original setting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play My kids are just starting to express an interest in trying to play a bit more as well. My son is nine, my daughter is eight. Both have been watching stuff like Power Rangers and Teen Titans for a while and have been watching me and the others play during those infrequent FtF sessions... We've only played a couple of times so far, and we're using randomly generated chars using the tables in CU... Right now, my kids are interested mainly in rolling dice and knocking bad guys all over the map which makes it pretty easy overall... Stuff I'm doing: Intro just enough plot that it isn't just beat stuff up... Keep everything simple (which for me is hard, since I have entirely too much fun complicating things, but I have an online game to really torment people ;D). My patience and the kids attention spans both have finite limits so 'scenes' should be pretty short. Background setting rests pretty heavily on both the aforementioned PR and TT stuff they already know. Avoiding killing attacks and 'mature' themes like the plague... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbarron Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play Great! All you guys keep converting your children, and in 10 years we'll have twice as many roleplayers, and twice as many Hero gamers. Growth of the game through growth of the population. I love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prestidigitator Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play Good thing it's not homework! If he wants to play, he'll likely be motivated to learn the system and the basic math involved. Help him build a character with an awesome Vehicle, and play up the Combat Driving! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play KISS - Keep it Simple, Son. I first got into gaming at the exact same age - 10 years old, with Marvel. Ah. The memories. Where was I? Oh yes. I'm not a parent, but I remember being a kid. Don't water things down, just ramp up differently. If he says "I want the car to be able to go up buildings!" show him how to build it. Oh, and for story ideas. Did you ever see the (bad, old) TV Series "Pole Position?" I think it was on... half a season? Also, there are some Hot Wheels CGIs out there, but the gist is pretty simple. The driving is the main action, including racing, combat driving, trading paint, and so on. Those make for some great scenes in a game, done properly, and allows you to use maps, props, and learn about cars yourself. So. The other element is being OUT of the vehicle. The Pit Crew, the 'love interest' if he's old enough to care (I was, dunno about anyone else, but I think I liked girls from birth). The leader of the Evil Team, and their Best Driver (his rival). I mean it's absolutely chock-full of classic story tropes that you can use for aeons without rehashing material. And "always getting to the next race" is a big deal. Watch some NASCAR - there's also a very cool documentary with Keifer Sutherland narrating I saw in IMAX which was chez groovy. Grab that. Then watch IGPX on Cartoon Network, if you haven't seen it already. Racing, melee fighting Giant Robots. I've almost done a conversion of it but haven't just yet. See also: Outlaw Star - PG rated anime which has a lot of space-based racing. Great show, lots of fun. And... those are some of my thoughts on the matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play If he's into NASCAR' date=' maybe a speedster/brick might be a fun archetype for him (IOW, a speedster with high defenses and maybe moderately high STR). A kid that young needs a fairly simple character build. Let the kid run 300 MPH, bounce bullets off his chest, and pick up cars, and he'll have a blast. (I recommend a fairly high SPD, like 6. Kids that age bore easily and you don't want him to have to wait too long between his Phases.)[/quote'] This is a neat idea. I was thinking Autobot however. Jazz is cool. Actually, I don't if the kids are into Transformers anymore. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyon Posted July 12, 2006 Report Share Posted July 12, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play My very heroic son wants to play Champions. My very heroic son is ten years old. Any suggestions? Yep let him play. I too have a 10 year old and our weekly game lasts from 7-11:30. He comes in form Taekwondo at 8:15 I let him into the game till 9:00 and then scoot him out. I just make sure nothing age approprate does not happen when he is in. Ok that was the simple answer here is the better one. Right now you are a hero in his eyes. What better thing to do than step up and share a little time in an activaty that you like, with him. He will rememebr that when he grows up and build a nice bond between you two. When you look at it that way there is no down side to letting him sit in. And hey, when you 90 and in the old folks home. He just may stop in with his buds and let you play Hero Systems V72 for an hour. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted July 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play Great! All you guys keep converting your children' date=' and in 10 years we'll have twice as many roleplayers, and twice as many Hero gamers. Growth of the game through growth of the population. I love it![/quote'] Neat! Then Hero System will be the Mormons of the RPG community! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted July 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play Thank you everybody for you excellent advice and suggestions! I'll shovel out the rep eventually... Extra kudos to trebuchet for the suggestion for playing a speedster. I brought it up to him this afternoon and his eyes lit up and immediately asked if he could play Dash from The Incredibles. Poof! Instant character, quasi-established setting and easily accessible source material. My GF has offered to sit in and play Violet so the two of them can go on their adolescent adventures while Mom and Dad are out of town fighting some greater evil (or something like that). I don't know when we'll actually start (I have him every other weekend plus every Monday and Tuesday), but I'm looking foward to it. The only thing I'm having trouble with is coming up with a simple adventure suitable for a 10 year old superhero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JmOz Posted July 13, 2006 Report Share Posted July 13, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play Quick adventure ideas: School Problems: The bully in school all of a suden is being nice, whereing a shirt and tie to class, always being respectful, and using the word "Chum" alot. At first this is welcome, but soon other kids start acting this way also. What is going on, and what does the evil (Kids least favorite subject here)teacher have to do with it... Babysitting: Vi has been told to watch Little Jack for the night, but when he gets out (remember the kid is a huge metamorph) Dash and Vi need to find him, while avoiding property damage, there parents (Who are on an aniversery date, that mom DOES NOT want ruined), and a couple low grade super villains (Out to get Mr. Incredible) In the stars: Dash finds cute little pet from space, little pet from space is really running from badguy, dash needs to protect his new friend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEFCON Clown Posted July 13, 2006 Report Share Posted July 13, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play Neat! Then Hero System will be the Mormons of the RPG community! Yeah but we don't have special underwear like the mormons! *Checks online store* Nevermind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted July 13, 2006 Report Share Posted July 13, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play There is a Champions Dash and Violet on my website. As for adventures... I'll have to plug Teen Champions as having some good ideas for school-based adventures. As well as Villany Amok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointyman2000 Posted July 14, 2006 Report Share Posted July 14, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play Dash and Violet? Cool. Here's your chance to send them up against Bomb Voyage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentor Posted July 14, 2006 Report Share Posted July 14, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play To follow up on Treb's post, both of my son's joined our Champs game when they turned ten. The oldest, now 16, is the most mature for his age and picked up the rules concepts instantly. The youger, now 12, was less mature on the rules end, but absolutely the master of the roleplay/adventure/superhero genre, even compared to most adults I have ever gamed with. Our campaign was already Four color, so no changes were really needed there. I think I can honestly say that neither Trebuchet, Blackjack, El Tripon, or Dangerous Dan ever felt that we dumbed a game down intellectually or watered it down in terms of adventure or intensity because of the presence of the kids. The main benefit is that my kids know that they are part of their dad's hobby, they are friends with their dad's friends and dad doesn't always have to choose between game time or family time and that, as the commercial says, is priceless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted July 15, 2006 Report Share Posted July 15, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play To follow up on Treb's post' date=' both of my son's joined our Champs game when they turned ten. The oldest, now 16, is the most mature for his age and picked up the rules concepts instantly. The youger, now 12, was less mature on the rules end, but absolutely the master of the roleplay/adventure/superhero genre, even compared to most adults I have ever gamed with. Our campaign was already Four color, so no changes were really needed there. I think I can honestly say that neither Trebuchet, Blackjack, El Tripon, or Dangerous Dan ever felt that we dumbed a game down intellectually or watered it down in terms of adventure or intensity because of the presence of the kids.[/quote']Not in the least. The main changes required were in the adults' behavior - no off-color jokes or four-letter words while we play. That's not really a bad thing IMO; I swear too much anyway. A few game situations had to be described differently - naked or half-naked native girls became "traditionally dressed," etc. And both boys were infectious in their enthusiasm for the genre and excitement about playing superheroes. (And they do understand the genre. Mentor's eldest was recently complaining about getting bored with his PC - a very powerful EB named Thunderbird - because T'bird never gets beaten, or even knocked out. He knows that even in the comics heroes get whipped sometimes. I've played with adults that have never grasped that, and literally whined when it happened.) The main benefit is that my kids know that they are part of their dad's hobby, they are friends with their dad's friends and dad doesn't always have to choose between game time or family time and that, as the commercial says, is priceless.All I can say is that, from the perspective of another gamer in the group, is that Mentor's boys have been great additions. I only wish some of us others had kids to bring into the game too; but alas! The rest of us are all bachelors with little prospect of children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyon Posted July 15, 2006 Report Share Posted July 15, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play Here is a strange update. My son came in on Thursday and went off to do his own thing. About 30 minutes later one of the guys asked where he was? I think they missed him, LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrakazog Posted July 18, 2006 Report Share Posted July 18, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play Autoduel Champions His PC is a math teacher. 'Nuff said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentor Posted July 19, 2006 Report Share Posted July 19, 2006 Re: My Son What's To Play A bit of advice when plotting games for kids. Make the adventures grown up, not juvenile. It has been my experience that kids want to play the superhero, not the sidekick or a kid with powers. Anyone remember the old "Superfriends" cartoon, in which they insisted on centering the plot around the dorky kids and the dog? The Justice Leaguers were almost an afterthought as far as plot, dialogue and action were concerned. Most kids want to be Green Lantern or Ben Grimm and make their own decisions, not Kid Flash or Robin and follow the orders of their elders. They have to do that in RL anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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