A little while ago I wrote about HeroKids and the “Mines of Martek” scenario that I had prepared, and just a few days after I had a chance to run it, not just once but twice. I’ve just been too busy to write about it before now. I had a run here at home with my son and stepson (age 6 and 10), and once at my kindergarten where I had four players (age 4 and 5) with a lot of spectators.
What’s interresting about both of these sessions is how creative the players turned out to be. They came up with solutions I know I wouldn’t have thought of. Just listen…
The first game was at home with my boys. They had delved into the mine and whacked the head of a few bats before they came to the wrecked rope bridge. Immediately the oldest asked if there were any loose boards lying around. “No, not that you can see” I replied. So he went a bit back and tried to pry the planks beneath the minecart tracks. He failed a Strength test so I said “Sorry, they are just too well set in the ground”. He lit up and said “Hey, I just remembered! On the map there was a pickaxe at the entrance. I use that to pry loose some planks.”
So I let him do it automatically, wondering what he was up to.
Back at the bridge, with several planks in his arm, he started laying them down across the bridge, perpendicular to the few boards already fixed to the rope, making a small “path” across the bridge.
Well played, young sir. :)
The other session, at the kindergarten was a fun one. All the kids had a grand time, even the ones watching it (they occationally piped in with suggestions, though, not managing to stay only as observers).
The players had chosen the following characters and given them names as well. The Rapunzel-like ranger with the long hair was strangely enough called Hest (which is the norwegian word for horse), the healer was named Rikki, the male sorceror (with flames) was named Enre, and the fourth character was the female sorceror (with the frost whip) was named Rapunzel, oddly enough.
The first stroke of brilliance came when they entered the chamber with the man stuck in the hole. One of the players had looted the rope from the entrance, but did they think of that? No way, that’s too conventional for kids. Instead one shouted out “Hest’s got long hair. Let’s drop it down and we can haul him up with it!”
And that’s exactly what they did. Hest dropped the braid down, while the other three pulled and heaved on it to pull up the poor man that had broken his leg when he fell in (the reason I used for him not climbing up himself when one of the kids asked).
The second bright idea also came at the bridge, just as it did at home. One player tried jumping over, from plank to plank, but fell into the water below where he driftet along into the past chamber.
That’s when one of them said “Hey, Rapunzel can freeze the bats. Perhaps she can do the same to the water?”
I was struck dumb!
Such a simple solution, yet I’m pretty sure most adults would have though of this combat-ability only in terms of combat, not outside of it. I made the player of Rapunzel do a Magic test at difficulty 5 to see if she made it, and wouldn’t you know it… The stream froze solid. They walked dryshod over and hoisted each other up the small rise on the other side, and they were across.
All in all the kids had a grand time. We had to break up when they entered the next room because it was time for lunch, but I took a few pictures of the character placements so we could continue later. Which we did, and they managed to go out scratched but victorious.
There’s nothing wrong with the images.
I’ve blurred out the faces of the kids from the kindergarten for privacy reasons.
Strange Realities 