Quests for Kids during the covid 19 outbreak

[Looten]

Our school is temporarily shutting its doors and sending daily work packets home with the kiddos during this time. With the economic level of most of our students internet connection is not guaranteed but I am looking for a way to let them escape into their imaginations a bit during these trying times. Though we will not be able to continue our story proper at this time I was looking for ways to give them mini quests or challenges but I honestly at a loss at a smooth, easy way to do this so I am looking for any help from the noble minds of the shield wall.

Obstacles:

• needs to work offline so no Roll20,Discord, etc.
• reading levels are low for some kids so it has to be easy to understand
• try to keep to 1 page
• might not have access to “roll playing dice”…so we might need to use 2d6 which we have enough to send out to kids
• we try to push learning social, math and problem solving skills (npc interaction,gold and room puzzles)
• nothing too graphic content wise but no need to make it PG

I know that is a lot to work with but I wanted to set some guidelines.

My initial thoughts would be to send a copy of their character sheet, items, and two d6. I would have an adjusted room rating, some small challenge ( two 1/2 heart goblins block a locked door. if you do not get through the door in X rounds the guards catch up and you lose the challenge), a small drawing of the room and some glass beads to use to mark their character and the opponents. then have them write how their first attempt went.

Instead of a 20 they would just roll the two d6,add bonus to see if they hit the adjusted room rating. basic 1d6-2 effort, weapon 1d6, magic 1d6+2 effort. I think monster ai would have to be extremely simple- guard 1 has a bow and will attack any time you get near, guard 2 has a sword and will move to follow you and attack once a round if able…something like that.

I have 0 idea if this will even work but I really want the kids to have something other than homework to look forward to. In my mind its like a daily comic strip of Conan or Prince Valiant, just a little taste of adventure.

Let’s see what we can do for the kids, ANY help is welcome and thank you in advance I am truly grateful for all of you and your help.

Thanks for your time,
Looten

((I will most likely be unable to check comments often at this time))

—UPDATE—

This is the cover letter I will be sending out with the first Quest. I will add in their Map and Quest Page as well as a drawn out example for the movement cards

" Hail and well met,

I am hoping for us to continue to play Realm Guard even though we are far apart on our own quests! That said some things will have to change especially since I will not be there to run things for you and you won’t have your trusty dice by your side, but fear not! Below I will go over how things are changing and what to expect for our adventures for the time being. I will be sending home a Quest with your homework, one side will have details you need to know for you to set up the start of the Quest. The other side will have a map of where you will be encountering whatever dangers lay before you that day. Each time you run a new quest for the first time I want you to write out what happened and what choices you made then send it back with the rest of your homework. It just has to be legible, I am not concerned about spelling and all that.

Things that are changing-

Character sheet- you will have a condensed version of your character sheet and a single weapon (I will individualize them). As for your items I will give you a short list of what you have on hand for each Quest which may change every time. Nothing carries over, no cheating.

Range/ Movement- instead of a marker length you will be using a playing card to measure.

• Close- still right by something, need to be touching
• Near- the small side of a playing card
• Far- the long side of a playing card

Card Deck instead of dice- this is probably the biggest change but still pretty simple. Whenever you would need to make a roll for something you will instead draw two cards add them together then add your stats to that if it beats the room rating then you succeed. 2-10 are whatever the number on the card says. J,Q,K are each 10, Aces are 11 and jokers are an automatic fail.

-For an example if I say you need to make a DEX check to cross an old bridge when you try to cross the bridge you would first Draw Two Cards, (lets say they are a King and a 3), next you would Add those two cards together which would be 13 (10+3=13) then add your stat bonus to it, (lets say you have a 1 in DEX) so 1+13=14 making your ‘roll’ 14. If its higher or equal to the Room Rating on the Map you succeed! Shuffle the cards back into the deck.

Damage- you still have 10hp and will start each quest with full hp. If you make a successful attack follow the chart to figure out how much damage you will do.

• Basic- Draw 1 card, divide by half
• Weapon- Draw 1 card, only 2-10 count- redraw if its a J,Q,K or Ace
• Magic- Draw 1 card
• Ultimate- (if your two cards add up to 20)- Draw 2 cards

Monsters- I will not be there to run monsters but I will give you instructions on each Quest for how to run them. An example might be “ Kobold 1 has a sword. Each turn it will use one NEAR movement to try to get to you and if it is CLOSE it will use the sword to attack”. You will draw for their ‘rolls’ just the same as for your ‘rolls’ (see example above). I will tell you their stats and health in each Quest as well. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU DON’T CHEAT. When you are running the monsters on their turn, pretend you are the monsters and don’t do things they wouldn’t do. If they are blocking a door, they wouldn’t just move out of the way for you right? There is no way I can check this so it’s up to you to stick to it… plus it’s less fun right?

I will try to have a phone call with each of you to help with any questions because I know this is a lot. If something comes up, which I’m sure it will, then you will have to put your flexible thinking hats and let me know how you problem solved it when you write your summary! As for your character pieces and monster pieces you will have to use what you can find laying around. It could be coins, rocks, lego people, scraps of paper… as long as you know what each thing is and it starts in the right place at the beginning of the Quest it’s totally fine by me! I will also send an example map and quick guide to help make this as simple as I can. Realmguard and the Card system are based off of ICRPG and I want to thank them quickly for the use of their system.

Thank you all and best of luck on your Quests,

Mr. Looten"

Quest 1

After the world turns grey you find yourself alone in a long, dark tunnel. Ahead you see a light and can hear low murmuring but can’t understand what is being said. You notice that besides your weapon your other items are gone. The world feels different somehow. You slowly sneak ahead and find yourself looking out into a small cave. To your left you see a small passage between an earthen column, to your right three small wooden boxes and in front a grand oak door with two Goblins at its guard who haven’t noticed your presence…yet. A hollow thud behind you warns of something approaching from the darkness. Looks like your only way is forward through that door. Lets hope you make it in time.

Important Stuff:

• Room Rating is 12. HARD is 15, EASY is 9.
• The door is locked, and needs 10 damage to get through.
• The boxes need 5 damage to break.
• Any attempt at stealth is HARD and uses DEX. If you fail the goblins will notice you and start attacking.
• The Goblins don’t seem to understand you and are very hostile
• There are loose rocks and pebbles all over the ground
• There is one torch on the wall by the door
• You have 8 rounds to get through the door or you lose the Quest and whatever was following you catches up. Try again if you would like.

You:

• you start at 10 hp
• you have 1 potion to heal you 6hp

Monsters:

Goblin 1 (G1)

5 hp

Sword- weapon effort

Close, STR to hit

+1 when adding stats

If it notices you it will move FAR towards you each turn until it’s CLOSE to you. If it is CLOSE it will attack with its sword (weapon effort) and will continue to follow you if you move.

Goblin 2 (G2)

5 hp

Bow- weapon effort

Far- DEX to hit

+1 when adding stats

If it notices you it will move to stay NEAR to FAR away from you each turn will attack with its bow (weapon effort). It will only move if you get NEAR or CLOSE to it.

The monsters will try and protect the door at all costs. If you get through the door they lose.

[Wheels]

I have moved completely over to ICRPG and this feels almost sacrilegious to mention another game on this forum, but given your very unique situation and requirements around simplicity and dice, I would consider a one page rpg. Lasers and Feelings helped really push this genre and I link to it below. I know a number of others have hacked it as well for other genres or you could easily do so to make the content more appropriate to kids. Anyway, my two cents…

http://onesevendesign.com/lasers_and_feelings_rpg.pdf

[DMChef]

If you search there a bunch of different settings for Lasers & Feelings.

[Looten]

I use to run Hero Kids but love ICRPG and it’s versatility way more. If I knew they all had dice or if we had the budget I’d send them home with the correct dice but for now we have to make due. I’ve heard some rumblings about Lasers and Feelings so I’ll have to check it out. Thanks!

[Looten]

I will have to check it out for sure then, seems like a step in the right direction.

[Sweenie_McGuffin]

I think there is an alternative to dice rolls using playing cards… Ghost Mountain rules maybe?

[Chaosmeister]

Here is a list of a ton of hacks for L&F, my favourite “Lets go and play” game ever.

Lasers & Feelings & Assorted L&F Mods

[Ardon]

Maybe look at tiny dungeon, very simple and easy to learn rules.

[Looten]

Oh yeah! That’s right! We are sending cards out with the packets anyways. I’ll have to review it to make sure it’s something they can handle. I can’t believe I forgot about that. Thank you

[Looten]

Awesome! This is great!

[Andreas]

Thank you for helping kids during this time

Do the kids have to do this without a GM present?

[Looten]

No thanks needed, they deserve it. Yes they will have to run without me and I am looking for ways to make that as easy as possible for them.

I am hoping to send a two sided page along with their daily homework; one with a map and the other a short summery of whats going on for that days quest ( again, I’m looking at this like a tiny snippet of an adventure like a daily for Prince Valiant or Conan in the news paper). I will be using the card deck that @Sweenie_McGuffin reminded me of since they are getting ones in their care packets anyways. I need help looking for small scenarios for them and simple monster ai if needed for that day.

[Ardon]

Maybe special foes/NPCs could have a 1d6 “behaviour table” to make their responses unpredictable. Also could augment this with certain rules to make it more dynamic. Eg. “If you just upset them in any way, ignore any roll of 3 or below”

[Looten]

I will certainly try and add that in there, I like that.

[Andreas]

Ok, so you’d pretty much have to make the series of encounters linear, but there’s flexibility for surprises within each encounter. That could be fun. How will they handle it when they want to try something outside the box? Do they just put on a GM hat for a moment, pick the best stat, and roll against a binary pass/fail? I could see conversations between students popping up, of you have some sort of forum. “How did you beat the Troll Chef? How did you save the baby?”

[Looten]

That’s it in a nut shell. We won’t have any internet access but we will be making daily communications with each student so I might go over some of the finer details like that over the phone or just ask them how they handled it. It helps teach them flexible thinking as well (hopefully).

[Looten]

Here is the first quest I hope to send out

Quest 1

After the world turns grey you find yourself alone in a long, dark tunnel. Ahead you see a light and can hear low murmuring but can’t understand what is being said. You notice that besides your weapon your other items are gone. The world feels different somehow. You slowly sneak ahead and find yourself looking out into a small cave. To your left you see a small passage between an earthen column, to your right three small wooden boxes and in front a grand oak door with two Goblins at its guard who haven’t noticed your presence…yet. A hollow thud behind you warns of something approaching from the darkness. Looks like your only way is forward through that door. Lets hope you make it in time.

Important Stuff:

• Room Rating is 12. HARD is 15, EASY is 9.
• The door is locked, and needs 10 damage to get through.
• The boxes need 5 damage to break.
• Any attempt at stealth is HARD and uses DEX. If you fail the goblins will notice you and start attacking.
• The Goblins don’t seem to understand you and are very hostile
• There are loose rocks and pebbles all over the ground
• There is one torch on the wall by the door
• You have 8 rounds to get through the door or you lose the Quest and whatever was following you catches up. Try again if you would like.

You:

• you start at 10 hp
• you have 1 potion to heal you 6hp

Monsters:

Goblin 1 (G1)

5 hp

Sword- weapon effort

Close, STR to hit

+1 when adding stats

If it notices you it will move FAR towards you each turn until it’s CLOSE to you. If it is CLOSE it will attack with its sword (weapon effort) and will continue to follow you if you move.

Goblin 2 (G2)

5 hp

Bow- weapon effort

Far- DEX to hit

+1 when adding stats

If it notices you it will move to stay NEAR to FAR away from you each turn will attack with its bow (weapon effort). It will only move if you get NEAR or CLOSE to it.

The monsters will try and protect the door at all costs. If you get through the door they lose.

[Looten]

I want this first one to be pretty easy and I will know when I talk with them if it worked out. I hope to do two of these a week. The only thing I know I will need to tell them and add next time is turn order, but I’m hoping they can figure that out on their own this time around.

[Looten]

Quest 2

After bursting through the first door you see a split in the cave in front of you and you are hit with the smell of cooking meat and warm bread. To the left is a door with dust on the handle and a hallway.To the right you hear snoring coming from down the passage. Choices, Choices. No time to stop and think,though, since the noise behind you grows louder with each passing second.

Important Stuff:

• Room Rating is 12. HARD is 15, EASY is 9.
• All Doors are locked, and need 10 damage to get through. This is loud and will alert anyone who may be sleeping.
• The Chest needs 15 damage to break.
• Any attempt at stealth is HARD and uses DEX. If you fail the goblins will notice you and start attacking. Re roll for stealth at the beginning of each of your turns if you choose to be sneaky
• The Goblins don’t seem to understand you and are very hostile
• There are loose rocks and pebbles all over the ground
• If you cross the dotted lines going into room 2 you must make a HARD DEX save, if you fail suffer 4 damage as the trap springs
• You have 12 Rounds to get through the door in the breakroom or you lose the Quest. More Goblins arrive for dinner and guess who’s on the menu. Try again if you would like.
• Room 1 is the break room filled with tables, chairs and a cabinet. G3 guards the storage room door and G2 is eating a late meal at the round table.
• G1 is sleeping in a cove off the main passageway
• Room 2 is a not so hidden storage room

You:

• you start at 10 hp
• you have 1 potion to heal you 6hp

Monsters:

Goblin 1-3 (G1,G2,G3)

5 hp

Sword- weapon effort

Close, STR to hit

+1 when adding stats

If it notices you it will move FAR towards you each turn until it’s CLOSE to you. If it is CLOSE it will attack with its sword (weapon effort) and will continue to follow you if you move.

Turn Order: You,G1,G2,G3 then start back at you.

[Jkroy]

I am totally gonna play these out. Thanks for sharing. I hope your students have fun with these!