Topic: HARP Setting Idea: Alternate Fantasy/Horror Dimension w/ Kids As PCs

[SamwiseSeven]

Both of those look interesting.  I wish I had more money to give to my favorite gaming companies. 

 

[kreider204]

Amen!

[jasonbrisbane]

Hi,

Just jumping into the topic here....

I havent read any of the stories above so I no NOTHING about the way they are written, or the topic, etc.... So I may be completely off base here....

I like the idea of Kids as NPC's, especially if the GM handles the PC creation etc and lets the kids run through the adventure roleplaying as they want to (the age 6-12 would be perfect for this....)...

I think a few addition sets of skills would be required (kids versions and kids skills) and a few  training packages too...



Id see a few maneuvers using skills from the general, physical and subterfuge categories being used but an Mysticl or two might be good...
It would be hard for kids to think of and create characters but if presented with a few presets then they could run with it to start with and maybe a third or fourth adventure they might want to create their own character with a different set of skills....

Skills used:
Climbing, jumping, swimming, stalk & hide, rope mastery, storytelling, to name a few...

I suppose a primary idea would be a story to get people in the vein of what this "genre" is about...

[SamwiseSeven]

Having kids playing kids in a game, is an interesting idea.  Though the horror elements might scare some of them a little.  But if I remember right, I always liked ghost stories as a kid, and this would be like playing in a ghost story.

I've put my Midnight translation on the back burner lately, and have been working on this new setting.  The idea just popped into my head, and now I can't seem to let it go.  hehe.

I've been working more on things when I have time.

http://shadowchildren.bravehost.com

[kreider204]

I always liked ghost stories as a kid too . . . but then they always gave me nightmares!    :'(  I wouldn't want the responsiblity of GMing a bunch of kids, I could see their parents yelling at me a lot . . . 

[jasonbrisbane]

Have you read some of the newer childrens books??
(There is a series I cant think of the name of - colourful covers...)

The passage I read scared the bejesus out of me!!

Somehow I don't think kids would be a problem... It'll be the kids parents and me that would be the problem....

But good luck for your setting! 

[ClineCON]

Hello,

SamwiseSeven has graciously offered to try out his ideas (discussed here) by running an event at CHUCK-a-CON on September 19-20 in Pittsburgh, PA.

http://www.chuck-a-con.net/ConRPG.html

Thank you SamwiseSeven!

(ha!, they still let me post here!  )

[ClineCON]

Have you read some of the newer childrens books??
(There is a series I cant think of the name of - colourful covers...)

The passage I read scared the bejesus out of me!!

Somehow I don't think kids would be a problem... It'll be the kids parents and me that would be the problem....

But good luck for your setting! 

There are lots of things we teach children or used to teach them that if you stopped to think about them (and/or if you know meaning or origin), you would wonder.  For example, the bedtime prayer:

Before I lay me down to sleep
Pray the Lord my soul to keep
And if I die before I wake
Pray the Lord my soul to take.

This is very old, it originated in a time when people died in ways we don't care to imagine, but when you stop to think about it, you wonder what the heck kind of thing is this to have a child say before going to sleep?  Put the fear in them that in any night they might die before they wake again?

Or, try the children's nursery rhyme, Ring Around the Rosie.

Ring around the rosie,
Pocket full of posies
Ashes to Ashes,
We all fall down.

This one is very old.  So old that few people think about what it means.  It comes from the time of the Black Plague.  Children still sing it today.  Every one of us has heard it.

Or how about Mary, Mary Quite Contrary. I don't remember the words properly, but it's about Mary I, Queen of Scots ("Bloody Mary"), who usurped Queen Elizabeth I's rule and executed Protestants (and was herself executed by consent so that her son James I could become king).  Not quite the subject for children, eh?

You don't need modern or new children's books to find things that scare the bejesus out of you.

As a side note, when I first discussed this idea with SamwiseSeven, it reminded me of a very strange movie, "City of Lost Children" that I have not watched in a long time.  I'll have to dust it off. 

[masque1223]

Or, try the children's nursery rhyme, Ring Around the Rosie.

Ring around the rosie,
Pocket full of posies
Ashes to Ashes,
We all fall down.

This one is very old.  So old that few people think about what it means.  It comes from the time of the Black Plague.  Children still sing it today.  Every one of us has heard it.

http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.asp

Or how about Mary, Mary Quite Contrary. I don't remember the words properly, but it's about Mary I, Queen of Scots ("Bloody Mary"), who usurped Queen Elizabeth I's rule and executed Protestants (and was herself executed by consent so that her son James I could become king).  Not quite the subject for children, eh?

Mary, Queen of Scots never usurped Queen Elizabeth I, although she was imprisoned by QEI and later executed for plotting against the queen.  Mary I, "Bloody Mary", succeeded to the throne after Edward VI, before Elizabeth I, and had no children, but did kill a bunch of Protestants.  James I was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, however, not Bloody Mary.

[GMLovlie]

Children stories and old folk lore never scared me as a kid, they were fun stories about trolls and killing trolls and witches, but when I reread the stuff in later years, when I understood it all in a rational way, I was scared and almost appalled by the grotesque nature of the story, moral and actions of the protagonists.

I think this is a very good idea, but I would play it with children rather than grown-ups/post-adolescents, because these are less likely to play and think like children do... there is something malevolent and scary about the "innocent" mind of a child.