Faery's Tale: Introducing girls to gaming
My daughter's Brownie troop is pretty progressive, and it sounds like the leader is interested in having the girls try out an RPG. Faery's Tale from Firefly Games is probably a good introductory game to see what the girls think of role-playing games.
Faery's Tale is a relatively simple system that does not use a complex character sheet, and so it is good for younger audiences. Each faery character has a Mind, Body, and Spirit stat that gives them a varying number of dice with which to perform actions. Every even number is a success, and more successes are required for heroic and spectacular actions.
When a faery wants to do something really special, he or she can spend an Essence point as a way to fuel magic or do special things. For example, if a Pooka wants to change shape into a dog, he needs to spend an Essence. Or if a Pixie really want to bop the mean cat on the nose, she might spend an Essence to be able to roll an extra die.
With this type of dice pool system, it is easy to do an adventure on the fly that can quickly adapt to the wild imaginations of 2nd and 3rd graders. Come up with a setting and a plot hook, and then just watch to see what happens. We also recommend doing some shopping to help set the mood for the players. We now have a collection of faery toys and even a troll doll to use in acting out or describing the actions of the characters.
Another kid friendly game
Another kid friendly game out there is The Princes' Kingdom. I've heard good things about it, and the system that it stems from is a very tight and inspired system. It may seem boy-centric at first glance, but I've been assured that there is content that makes it more accessible (Prince, I believe, is a general neutral term in the world of the game, which may or may not be enough).
it sounds like a good way to
it sounds like a good way to organize the sort of make-believe stuff girls tend to do on their own. I'd suggest more of a structured story since while wandering around is fun, it doesn't do much to tell a story. Stories are more memorable than 'that time you were the dog and I was the cat kicker'. If you want them to play in this world more than a couple of times, you need more excitement to keep them coming back. That shouldn't be hard however. An evil witch sending her pets after them can easily become an old villain you want to face again and again.
I guess I oversimplified my style a bit
I do usually have an idea of the antagonists and protagonists as well as a problem that needs to be solved or addressed, but I've seen kids come up with some ideas that I never would have imagined. That means I try to be pretty open to the possibilities. The one thing I do have to say is a bit of a drawback to Faery's Tale is that there's not any strong sort of character advancement. We've used magic items to get the faeries something to gain through their adventures, but there's no real XP system beyond the free-form gain and loss of Essence through heroic or villainous actions.
Advancement
Boons and titles also provide some advancement in Faery's Tale - you can use boons to boost attribute scores or buy new gifts, and earning titles gives your faery access to new abilities, too.
Ah, that's pretty cool.
Ah, that's pretty cool. Maybe you should develop something for that, or perhaps it was designed so they can just pull up a new character each time.
I am unfarmiliar with this
I am unfarmiliar with this RPG but if it's simple it sounds like it could really get the kids involved. I am all for bringing more women/girls into the gaming world. More power to ya! I will hope for good things!
Leslie
ShadowRun for KIDZ!
Sorry - stats like Body and Essence, variable dicepools, odd rules like 'even numbers generate sucesses' (meaning that a two is better than a five) and . . . well, Pixies punching cats in the face, I guess . . . all bring me back to FASA.
"I bwaze fofth, unwoading wiff my paiw of twin-winked femi-auto-maticth! Eat hawt wead, you diwty go-gangew scum-bagth!"
"Uh oh, sweetheart - it looks like the troll war-leader has Hardened Armor: 8! And a Panther assault cannon! You've got initiative - what do you do?"
"Hawdened awmow? F-him! I gwab my di-kote kadana and swing fow the bweacews!"
They grow up so fast.
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