Have a Kid Looking To Get Into Dungeons and Dragons? Here’s Where To Start!

I was a kid in the late 80’s and early 90’s. When I was 12, I was fortunate to meet a group of guys who introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons. The stories, friendship, creativity and pure, unbridled imagination had a profound effect on shaping who I became as an adult. Many of the guys who I played with then, I’m still playing with today more than 20 years later!

Unfortunately, at that time, D&D was a lot harder to learn: 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons was amazing but also required a lot of resources to play. you generally needed to know someone who owned at least a Player’s Handbook and a Dungeon Master’s Guide. The game itself had some fairly clunky rules as well that weren’t easy to sort out. Suffice to say a lot has changed since then.

With a whole generation of tabletop RPG enthusiasts coming of age, it makes sense that more focus has been put on making D&D and other role-playing games easier for kids as young as 6 to understand. Getting your kids into tabletop gaming is a great way to connect, share experiences, have fun and just get creative.

We’re going to look at some of the things available out there for kids who are interested in learning more about tabletop RPGs. So let’s do this thing!

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Dice

As any experienced gamer will tell you, your set of dice quickly become an extension of your character. With so much of the game revolving around dice rolls, your dice are in a way the connection between the character and the player. Not just for attacking and basic character creation, dice rolls are used for performance, lock picking, persuasion, acrobatics and so much more.

In recent years, it has become much easier to find really cool and unique dice sets that are super affordable. There’s even the option of buying multiple sets at once, just in case there’s more than one kid looking to play or maybe the family wants to get involved!

The set shown here is available at Wal-Mart for just over 30 bucks which, for 5 sets of dice is a really, really good deal. Better still, it means everyone gets their own dice which is literally a gamer changer in the tabletop world.

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D&D: The Adventure Begins

Publisher: Hasbro
Number of Player: 2 to 4 (or 5 if one person takes Dungeon Master)
Age: 6+
Time to Play: Varies

So you’ve bought dice for the whole gang. Now what? While there are a lot of ways to wade into the world of RPGs and tabletop gaming, it’s best to start somewhere that breaks the game up into nice, small, bite-size amounts. Here’s where a game like Dungeons and Dragons: The Adventure Begins becomes really handy. This is a one stop shop that allows up to 4 adventurers to sally forth and take part in epic quests.

While the box has an age range of 10 and up, many people in the gaming community would tell you that younger kids can play with a little extra help from older players. While the game rules dictate that players take turns playing the dungeon master, there’s no reason one person can’t take on that role and let younger kids play as the heroes. Well known board game publisher, Hasbro, explains the game like this,

“In the game, players choose their characters, then journey through the lands of Neverwinter, working together to overcome fantastic obstacles, battle monsters, and defeat the Boss monster terrorizing the realm. The role of Dungeon Master passes from player to player with each turn, so everyone gets to be part of the storytelling.“

This game is a great place to start your journey into the land of fantasy and adventure. Along the way, you’ll encounter all sorts of monsters that are laying siege to the land. Battle evil creatures such as the dreaded Beholder, a huge, sword wielding Fire Giant and an acid spitting Green Dragon named Deathsleep.

It’s all in the box. If you’re looking for somewhere to start your gaming, Dungeons and Dragons: The Adventure Begins is the perfect game to pick and bring home.

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D&D: Wrath Of Ashardalon

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Number of Players: 1 to 5
Time to Play: 60 min

For the slightly older crowd (think 10 and up) there’s a collection of boxed D&D games that offer players a number of campaigns to play through. We’re going to focus on Wrath of Ashardalon as it’s the game that introduced me to the set and the one I own. This is an exploration game where adventurers flip random tiles to expand and grow the playing area…which unsurprisingly is usually a dungeon.

Players take on the rolls of classic character types such as dwarven fighters, elven wizards and so on. As the dungeon is explored, fight through waves of monsters and avoid deadly traps. Some of the campaigns involve finding treasure (Accomplished by slaying beasts) while other require the heroes to vanquish boss monsters such as a huge, red dragon.

Wrath of Ashardalon sets a nice tone: it’s not super hard to play but it’s also not an easy game to beat. Some of the later campaigns are actually quite hard as the monsters become tougher to beat.

As this is a random tile game, every playthrough feels different. Magical items make this game extra fun as things like flying carpets, powerful swords and potions of healing make the adventures all the more potent.

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As mentioned earlier, there are a number of installments for this game system. If you’re looking for something with a spookier vibe, there’s always the Castle Ravenloft version; complete with vampires, werewolves and all sorts of other undead monsters to vanquish.

The miniatures that come with these games are good quality as well. You get lots of them too…which is necessary as there is going to be lots and lots of combat in this game. Many hobbyists take the extra measure of painting them. Painting miniatures is another great pastime for kids who are showing an interest in RPG style games.