Taking my life and imagination in hand, I had my first playtest with my two sons and two daughters of one of the folks in my regular gaming group. They started through the first adventure in the “Why Did the City Burn Down” adventure.

The number one thing that I learned is – kids have more imagination than you think. Lots more.

We started by creating characters. Seems obvious, but this was an important step for four kids aged 8 – 10. The two girls Mom was there and is a longtime gamer, so the process took less than an hour. Thank you Dungeon World for putting pretty much everything on the character sheets.

Our cast:

Luxeanus – Human Paladin

Halywar – Elven Wizard (Evil)

Raven – Human Cleric (Deity is Dumba – hockey fan)

Julia – Human Fighter (Zombie killing sword called Ruby)

The group started in the cellar of an inn directly after a dragon has blasted the rest of the city. They emerge and must decide what to do.

I tried to make things simple and direct them to the adventure. No need really. All it took was seeing a group of militia charge down an alley, and then come running back afraid for them to get in and start “adventuring”!

I guess the other thing I learned is that kids don’t know all the fantasy tropes. For example, the Paladin had to have the whole chivalry thing explained to him. A couple times. The evil wizard seemed to catch on right away. Refreshingly, looting the bodies hasn’t started being an issue.

Draco Roboticus