Roleplaying Games for Kids

         Role-playing games began being published in the 1970s with the release of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons. The first set was a small set of booklets. However, in the decades since then, published tabletop game books tend to be written for late teenagers and adults. It can be difficult to find RPG material which is both fun and appropriate, particularly for children under 12.

• Emerald City's Gamefest: Role-Playing Games for Kids
  A good collection of games to recommend.
• RPGs to play with
  Wil Wheaton's post about a collection of RPGs for kids offered as a bundle.
• Edmund & Sophie's RPGs for Kids Page
  An excellent page outlining in better detail many RPGs which are suitable for younger children. (archived)
• The Youth Adventure League
  A site aimed at young people for introducing them and their parents to the exciting world of adventure games, created by the makers of "The Escapist" magazine. (archived)

Commercial RPGs for Kids

         The following are published print RPG products which are intended specifically for younger kids (pre-teen). In some cases I include links to postings which describe actual play using the games.

• Adventures in Oz by F. Douglas Wall
  A fantasy RPG set in the world of L. Frank Baum's Oz books. It has a simple system with seven traits. There is a combat but no death given the background.
• The Big Night by Alan Dotson
  A cooperative storytelling game with puppets to cut out and color, about helping Santa deliver presents on Christmas. See the example of play posts: "Sheckleton's Sacrifice" and "GenCon Kids Room".
• Cat by John Wick
  A game about playing cats, who defend unsuspecting humans from evil Boggins.
• Faery's Tale by Patrick Sweeney et al.
  A game about playing tiny faeries (pixies, brownies, sprites, and pookas) within the fairy-tale land of Brightwood.
• Hero Kids
  An RPG about child heroes in a fantasy world, aimed at players age 4-10. The characters are based on templates including Warrior, Hunter, Healer, Warlock, Brute, Rogue, and Knight.
• Monster Island: The Game of Giant Monster Combat by Patrick Sweeney and Bruce Harlick
  A game of playing monsters like Godzilla and other kaiju engaged in various fights.
• The Prince's Kingdom by Clinton Nixon
  A game of playing 5 to 11 year-old princes who solve problems within the string of islands that make up their kingdom.
• Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men by Annie Rush
  A game about playing gingerbread men who become magically animated for the twelve days prior to Christmas. Everyone bakes an actual cookie to represent their character, with stats depending on how they are decorated.
• Squirrel Attack! by Clash Bowley
  A game about playing squirrels from the magical kingdom of Nuttopia on a secret mission to raid the Mortal World for nuts.
• Tunnels & Trolls by Ken St. Andre
  A simple fantasy dungeon crawl system from the seventies. This is simpler than the current incarnations of Dungeons & Dragons, and has a number of solo modules -- like Choose Your Own Adventure books, but with rules and die rolls.
• Usagi Yojimbo by Greg Stolze
  A role-playing game set in medieval Japan based on the popular comic book about a samurai rabbit.
• Woodland Warriors by Simon Washbourne
  A medieval fantasy RPG with animal characters inspired by the Redwall series, using the Swords & Wizardry rules.
• The Zantabulous Zorcerer of Zo by Chad Underkoffler
  A fairy tale RPG in the style of the Wizard of Oz.

Free RPGs for Kids

         The following are free mini-RPGs available on the Internet that are designed for kids. They are not as well-supported as most of the published RPGs, but they may be good for one-off experiments. In most cases I include links to postings which describe actual play using the games.

• Nighttime Animals Save the World by Vincent Baker
  A simple game using only a few coins which can be played while walking around. See the example of play posts "A Squirrel and a Skunk" and "The Cat Mafia".
• Dungeon Squad and Advanced Dungeon Squad
  A 5-page free RPG by Jason Morningstar aimed at young players, and a 42-page sequel by Liam Brennan.
• Kids Easy Play RPG Rules
  A 32-page fantasy RPG closely based on third edition Dungeons & Dragons, simplified for ease of use by kids.
• Shadows by Zak Arntson
  A game about playing between a character and his shadow -- an invisible person or monster who always wants him to get in trouble. See his post on "Knights of the New Republic".
• The Adventures of the Good Knights and Other Stories by Vincent Baker
  A minimalist set of rules for playing with kids, with the kids rolling a pool of d6s against a single difficulty die. See the author's post on "Prydain, the Hobbit, Pendragon ... Fun for Kids!"
• My Working Process and Red Sky A.M.
  A story about a son sparking a new game design.

Actual Play Reports

         The following are just discussion posts about actual play with kids, which might be useful in seeing the strengths and weaknesses of different RPGs and role-playing styles.

• "Dungeons & Dragons for Kids" on ENWorld
• Playing Glorantha with Yoots
  Actual about a series of games of HQ played with the kid.
• A Form of Free: Pretend with Sebastian and Elliot
  A description of freeform, diceless games of pretend played with a 5 and 9 year-old.
• "Minis, Narr Techniques, and my 9 year old daughter"
  An account of playing a largely freeform game using miniature figures.
• Olde School Wizardry
  A blog about running old-school RPG games for (mostly) kids.