Kid Friendly D&D Adventures
What if I told you that a 6-year-old could learn to play Dungeons and Dragons? Before we get into how, let’s look at some of the most frequently asked questions about kids and D&D.
D&D FAQs
There’s no official kids version of the game from Wizards of the Coast. However, DMingDad has developed a kids’ version of D&D. DMingDad provides kid friendly adventures as well as DM Tips for running Dungeons & Dragons for kids.
Here are some DnD adventures and campaign journals from DMingDad’s DnD campaign for kids. If your looking for an official D&D campaign setting to run for kids, Wild Beyond the Witchlight is whimsical and can be simplified for kids. Wizards of the Coast also published a kit with the book and accessories like maps and encounter cards.
Absolutely, a 7-year-old can play Dungeons and Dragons. Keep reading to find out how. The only skills needed are basic math, reading and writing. In fact, D&D can help improve math, reading and writing skills.
Yes, but 6-years-old is about the youngest I would recommend. This is because players must be able to read and do some basic addition and subtraction. If you were to dispense with character sheets and the Player’s Handbook, you could play with any kid that understands how to “play pretend” and will abide the rules.
Get some dice. Download the rules for free here. Only print the rules that apply to the specific character class the player(s) will play. Pick out an adventure. DMingDad has free to download pre-made characters here and more pre-made characters here. You don’t necessarily need character sheets, see below.
Building D&D Campaigns for Kids.
I have covered many tips for how to simplify Dungeons & Dragons to make it kid friendly. See my DM Tips for more detailed information.
Let’s see if we can get you up and playing a game today. Planning a whole campaign is an ambitious task. If you are going down that road, I recommend you start with mashing a few good movies, comics, and cartoons together. Don’t take it too seriously because your kids certainly wont!
Make a list one to three things you like (stuff you are going to steal) from each of the following:
- Harry Potter, Fart Quest, Lord of the Rings or any other fantasy book series.
- Dragon Price, Owl House, Gravity Falls or any other fantastic cartoon series.
- Princess Bride, Marvel Cinematic universe, Dune, Percy Jackson, How to Train Your Dragon or any other movie franchise.
Next choose a faerie tale or parable and flip it on its head. For example, the trolls under the bridge are just building contractors trying to get paid for the work they did (Troll Bridge). Here’s another one, the dragon guarding the tower is actually a cursed princess, and the pretty lady in the tower is the evil witch (Princess in a Tower).
That’s it! Now you have a world and an adventure. Next you need players and characters…
Characters, Not Character Sheets
Kids who can barely read don’t need a complicated character sheet. Keep it simple. Ask the kids what kid of character they want to play. Make a list of three special things they can do:
- Once per day – An ability they can only do one time per day because it is so powerful and draining that they need a good night’s rest to do it again.
- Three times a day – An ability that they can do a few times, but doing it too much tires them out.
- All the time – an ability they can do anytime they want.
But what about character classes and races (species) you ask?
For younger players, the classes aren’t really that important. Keep the choices simple and use language they understand. For example, sorcerers are like superheroes, that have abilities that get stronger as they learn how to use them.
Character races (species) in D&D are really all about the back story, stat bonuses, and skills. You don’t really need any of these, so let the kids be whatever they want. Heck, one of my kids plays a Kerby knockoff, complete with swallowing and spitting bad guys.
What are the best classes for kids?
In my experience, here are the most common things young kids want to play:
- Superhero
- Fairie princess
- Battle Princess
- And my personal favorite, “a really strong fighter guy that can throw stuff like bad guys really far”
What are the worst classes for kids?
Avoid anything that requires a lot of reading as part of game play. Wizards are the worst for young players. I haven’t met a kid yet that wants to play a student that studies all the time and has to keep track of books and complicated rules to cast spells. If they want to be a Wizard, don’t give them too many spells. Maybe make spell cards with pictures of the spells in action with a big number that show how many time per day they can cast that spell.
How can kids play a Wizard or cast spells if they can’t read?
I am a fan of the token system. Create some “power” or “spell” tokens and have the kids turn them into the DM when they are used.
- Get some paper or card stock and draw a picture of the spell effect like lighting bolt. Put clear tape on both sides.
- Go to the comic store and buy some cheap Magic the Gathering, Pokemon cards, or a comic book and cut them up to make your spell tokens. My comic store has a circle cutter and will cut them up and even turn them into buttons for me.
But what about damage and spell effects?
Keep it simple. All damage uses the same dice. It doesn’t really matter if you use a d4, d6, d8 or a d12 as long as all the kids get the same couple of dice to handle damage. I recomend ranged attacks do less damage and melee range (5-10 feet) weapons do more damage.
Spell effects should be simplified too. The spell should be simple enough to explain in one sentence. Here are a few simplified versions of D&D Spells for kids.
- Magic missile – You shoot a magic arrow that automatically hits anything you can see and does 1d4 points of damage.
- Mage Hand – You create a magic hand that is strong enough to pick up a gallon of milk but is too weak to hit anything.
- Mold Earth – You can dig a 5-foot hole or tunnel through the dirt.
Keep Combat Simple
Come up with one or two attacks the character can use like a sword and a bow. The attacks will use the d8 for damage OR you can use the 3 strikes rule. Basically, that is where a bad guy can be defeated with:
- One perfect hit (a 20 on the d20 OR 8 on a d8)
- Two solid hits
- Three okay hits
Dice Rolls, Not Armor Class
You can have armor, but not all characters are allowed to use armor. So, it can get complicated if you have multiple players. Keep the combat simple by focusing on the dice rolls instead of armor class. Here is how to assign difficulty when rolling a d20 to hit an opponent in combat:
- 1 always misses
- Easy to Hit: 5
- Not So Easy to Hit: 10
- Hard to hit: 15
- Almost impossible to hit: 19
- 20 always hits
Now give the players a d20 and a d8. They should roll both at the same time. The d20 tells if you hit and the d8 tells you how much damage or how good of a hit it was.
They're Places, Not Maps
While having a good map makes the game much easier to run, you really need to remember that we are exploring places, not maps.
Engage the senses:
- The lite smell like flowers on the breeze .
- The leaves rustle in the trees, creaking as they bend an sway in the breeze.
- The breeze is cool and dry. It feels good after your long walk here…
- There is a stack of oddly rounded, almost polished rocks in the center of the clearing.
Monsters & Bad Guys
Yes, we need bad guys for the characters to fight, but keep it age appropriate. I suggest asking the players what kind of bad guys they want to go up against. You might get Plankton from SpongeBob or they may surprise you with some really fantastical monster they dream up. Roll with it. Remember that D&D is a cooperative storytelling game where the DM provides the story structure and referees.
D&D has some really good, kid-friendly monsters. Here are some of my favorites:
- Rust Monster – These little critters are the size of dogs and will rust and eat your character’s metal armor and weapons. Think of them as scorpions that are as big and smart as a large dog.
- Mimics – These are clever, intelligent creatures that can look like anything. The bigger they are the smarter they get. They are super sticky and love to eat anything that wanders by and will fit in their stomach. From coins and tea cups to full-sized castle towers, these guys can be anything, anywhere and any size.
- Almiraj – D&D’s Bunny unicorn – If you want to see your kids squeal with glee, let them find one of these. Think of them as wild rabbits with unicorn horns and they can magically dig tunnels very fast. They make great pets, if you can catch one.
- Skeletons – These guys are easy for kids to relate to because they see them all over at Halloween. They can be spooky, scary, or friendly. Not all skeletons are bad. Check out Skeleton Dance.
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3 Responses
As a 12 year old, do you have any pre made adventures that I can be a dungeon master for?
All of the adventures on this site should be age appropriate for you. Welcome to the DM’s chair!
Hey there! I LOVE DND! I never really got to be in an actual DND campaign though… Though, When I looked at this website, I was Excited! I’d LOVE to host a DND Campaign. I was always interested In the Traditional DND Style, but this seems pretty interesting too! If there’s a way I could help host a DND campaign, or be a part of one, that’s be amazing!