RPGs with Kids, 1: Into Thracia

Here's the thing, I've played (and more often run) a lot of online RPG stuff over the years. It's great, and I don't deny how much I enjoy it. Play-by-Forum has become a bit of an artform since I started in 2015, and I rarely have a dull day since those notifications always pop up with something delightful.

I don't have a local game group and don't really have the time to go find one, so I've put off live games for a while... until now. Until now, that is, because my oldest son, Ted, turned five years old a little while back, and I thought I'd risk possible over-the-headedness by offering to run a proper dungeon delve for him. He's already a very enthusiastic storyteller, so I didn't think it would be all that big a stretch for him to get into the game.

Opting to start as simply possible, it was a toss-up for me between using Maze Rats and Into the Odd for the game, and I opted for the latter, if for no other reason but because I've been running Maze Rats for two parallel tables of Hot Springs Island over on RPGGeek.com. So, Into the Odd it was, and Ted really enjoyed rolling up some characters. I decided that I'd run Caverns of Thracia for him...

Anjo, Roxley, and Rock descend into Thracia...

We ended up rolling eight individual characters using nifty little character sheets, then I let Ted choose his favorite, and I picked another as his sidekick. We ended up with Anjo and Roxley, two bumpkins with nothing going for them except a handful of rumors about some old jank ruins in the forest beyond their village. 

Ted, playing Anjo, crept up on the surface ruins with Roxley in tow. He surveyed the obvious entrances and asked to look around for other ways below the surface. He stumbled on a small hole not more than five feet across, and enthusiatically asked me what Anjo had in tow (I managed the character sheets... on account of him, you know, not being able to read and all that). Confident that his long coil of rope would do, he insisted that the pair rapel down into darkness. Plopping down onto a stone altar courtyard shrouded in darkness, Roxley lights a torch and surveys that everything to the left is totally, utterly pitch black. To the right is a narrow hallway, and to the north is a stone bridge. Anjo opts for the bridge, and realizing that about half-way through looks a bit funny, pokes the "stones" with his musket. It clunks like wood.

"Huh," Ted remarks. "Stone shouldn't sound like wood." He looks to me with a wry smile, "Roxley should step foward and check it out." I pilot Roxley when Ted opts to sit back, so I have him poke forward a bit and discerns it's not right. "Probably a hatch or something," Roxley says. Anjo gets down and fiddles with it, looking for a lock or something like that. Indeed, the boy wins out and finds a trapdoor in the bridge, then deals with it by jamming the catch. 

The pair makes it across the bridge and finds a big locked door to the left. "Hey, dad, what does Roxley have on him?" I check and list off the meager inventory from character creation. Of course, a random result gave Roxley a rocket. A wicked little grin grows on my son's face. "Let's blow up that door." Alright. I'm down. Roxley and Anjo scurry down the hall to the right, finding a little crawlspace and a stairwell down and to the left. Roxley lights the rocket fuse and off it goes, smashing into the door and exploding--absolutely blowing the door to pieces.

"What's that?" a voice calls from the darkness. Anjo and Roxley tense up, not expecting anyone else down here. "What do you do?" I ask. Ted mulls over options. "Roxley and me go and hide in the crawlspace." They do. Out saunters a man in leathers with a broad musculature and tiny moustache waxed up at the tips. He calls out again, looking alone, and Anjo and Roxley dip out to greet him. His name is Rock, and he's another adventurer (I rolled a 12 on a reaction table for what I assumed would be a hostile cultist NPC, but decided on the spot he would be a friendly party member). The trio makes friends with each other and Rock asks what the plan is, since this place is crawling with armored goons talking on and on about "The Dark One."

Ted decides to continue with the original plan, and runs into the room whose door was just exploded. There is a lever on the wall, four unlit sconces, two big stone chests on north and south walls, and a cage door along the back wall. "It's dark in here," Roxley says, and Ted has him light the four sconces. The room floods with light and Rock looks at the lever. Anjo pulls it. The cage door in the back opens, and a huge armored bear trundles out, growling at the party. Ted wants to fight, and I don't stop him. He's clever, though, and has Roxley strap a vial of fire oil to an arrow and fire it at the bear, which he otherwise thinks would be too tough to hit with a sword or hammer. Ted rolls max damage for Roxley's arrow and the bear hits critical damage, then fails its STR save (18 over 15!). I rule that the bear is now actively on fire and frantic, and Rock bashes it with his maul, thudding it to the ground with little ceremony. Ted is now standing on his chair, puming his fist and cheering.

The bear is dead, like, no question. Toasted. Rock is impressed. Anjo rejoices and continues exulting in the moment when Roxley gestures to the northern chest. He looks at the inscription and reads "If you are friends of the Dark, open me." Anjo is not impressed, and thinks it's a bad idead. Rock, however, is all-in (both controlled by my son, mind you). Rock grabs the lid and throws it open. It's empty, but Rock suddenly feels sapped of strength (STR reduced from 12 to 3!). The group puzzles it out for a while after reading the same inscription on the southern chest. Ted eventually wonders aloud, "if we are friends of the dark, why would we have torches lit?" I am gobsmacked, as that is exactly the solution the puzzle...

Sometimes you honestly hit the jackpot.

Roxley snuffs out his torch and the four lit along the sconces, then Anjo opens the southern chest. No effect. Inside is 800+ shillings worth of loot and a runic puzzle box of unknown contents. Ted is elated. He knows that we're playing for "milestones" per Into the Odd, but having found a huge treasure cache like this is clearly a victory for him, all the same. The group collects various goods such as a clutch of shillings, a grasp of jewels, a skull-headed obsidian mace, and a runic box covered in alll sorts of curious markings. I ask if the party wants to continue, and Ted says this is a good place to stop and it's a great point to listen to Adventures in Odyssey for the rest of the afternoon, so I oblige.

Sincerely, a far more amazing first RPG session with my son than I would ever have imagined.