D&D Kids: Creativity at the Table

Throughout the column I’ve often suggested that DMs should encourage kids to create characters and monsters and help them flash out these creations into works of good grammar, good rules and good fun. This month I want to discuss this subject in depth and bring some examples of awesome characters, monsters and settings created by my students this year.

I’m not going to dally on why encouraging self-expression is good for the kids, if you need an explanation on that then you’re obviously a construct of some sort or possibly a very lifelike undead. No, I want to talk on why it’s good and helpful for you. Yes, you, the DM, the alpha and the omega of the campaign, have a lot to gain from assisting the players in realizing their visions in your world.

First, you’ll get players who are a lot happier. Some young folks have an issue with authority and, as far they’re concerned, playing a race or a class from the PHB means bowing down to the Man. Maybe they just don’t feel any of the classes will allow them to play the role they want in this story. Perhaps they think that by creating their own character they could beat the system and be the strongest in the group (silly PCs, don’t they know that the DM is the strongest…), maybe the story they want to tell just can’t be told by a paladin or an assassin, but requires something in between. In any case, using an existing class is akin to jail for them. The freedom to design their own race is the key.

Secondly, kids don’t think the way adults do. They’re not smarter or dumber, they’re just different – they focus on different details, interpret events differently and experience different emotions while seeing the same thing an adult does. This means, simply put, that they will add elements to your campaign that you would never have thought about. From creating a class that slowly transforms their Halfling into a Kirre to deciding out of the blue to become gods – you can be sure that by letting the players do some of the world-building, you’ll get a world like nothing ever published before.

Don’t believe me? See for yourself some of the more formidable creations of my players, chosen for originality and excellence of execution. When reading these, bear in mind that they were translated from the Hebrew by yours (mostly) truly. While keeping my editorial knife sheathed most of the time, some bits of their voice may have nevertheless been replaced with mine.

We will begin with some original PCs and then proceed to settings, adventure seeds and art.

A Customized Hero

I have created a race; this is exactly what I want to play.

The customized hero is often the product of unbridled ambition and lust for power. It is a conglomerate of different body parts, different powers and different features creating a Frankensteinian monster that is the perfect compromise between what the player wants to get and what the DM is willing to give. Just like a customized car, it requires much more effort to create. Just like a customized car – it’s much more comfortable and efficient.

Now I’m going to write something blasphemous; a customized character doesn’t have to consist of a race and a class. Races and classes were designed to create a greater variety of characters by allowing combinations of set elements. Customized creatures are varied enough as they are, so the need for separation of what you are and what you do becomes much less acute. It’s a creature that advances, not unlike monsters in the third edition or elves and dwarves in the first edition.

Also, be aware that the creation of the customized creature is going to include a lot of bargaining. Always look for precedents – if a power is much stronger than other powers of the same level, then it’s too strong. If it’s weaker, then it’s too weak. When no precedent exists, make a judgment call but add the caveat that if the power turns out to be unbalanced, it will be changed.

Oh, one last phrase of advice – look out for Mary Sues!

The Champion of Kings (Sphere)

Weight: 160 Kg
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Intelligence
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Lowlight and peripheral; a third eye that can travel on the body and climb other objects

Languages: Common, Primordial
Skill bonuses: +2 Arcane, +2 nature

Steel Endurance: The feet can change their matter; if someone pushes the sphere, it can resist a number of squares equal to its Con modifier.

Slam: Because of its shoulders, the creature can skewer foes with a charge attack; 2d12 points of damage but if it misses, it falls prone and is immobilized.

Blood of the Elemental: Because my creature doesn’t have blood, it gains +2 to Will and Fortitude defenses when bleeding.

Change Matter State: The sphere can change its matter state and become liquid or gaseous, so it can go into tiny areas. Until the end of the sphere’s next turn, if it didn’t leave the location, it takes damage equal to one half its hp (inside the location, creatures can’t hit it, unless they’re small enough to enter).

Resistances: Resistance 5 to psychic, fire, lightning, acid, stone and cold; every three levels you gain a new resistance; vulnerability 2 to normal damage.

Origins: My city is a magic city and only Sphere races can see this city. People live on ceilings. They have acid pools where completely normal fish live, nobody knows how. The clouds are red and it rains blood instead of water. Dogs have green hair, four feet and two arms and they’re so strong they can lift trucks. There are strange explosions over there that kill people for no reason. It gets worse. All animals are different from one another and the light there is blue and bronze. Everything that should be stone becomes liquid metal and so all the buildings are made from the bones and nails of giant creatures. Anything that is not alive changes its form or matter. Anyone who enters the city and who is not a sphere starts to hallucinate. There is a waterfall of fire by the city and afterward there is a series of giant glaciers and after them there is a stinking fog full of death energies and then chasms and then storm clouds with mighty lightning and thunder. In an acid pool over there, there is a prehistoric creature that was once a fish that ate a small creature. This pre-historic creature got the powers of the fish that ate it. Since then this pre-historic creature grew and gained more powers. At the moment, the city is under threat.

Powers:

Falling Star (At Will 1)
Range 5, 1d6+str, and you teleport to a square adjacent to the target.
[This attack looks like jumping a hundred meters into the air and falling on your victim like a meteor - Uri]

Fists of Fire and Ice (At Will 1)
1d6+str damage and the target either takes 2 damage in the beginning of its next round (fire) or is slowed (cold).

Withering ray (Encounter 1)
Range 7, against fortitude, 2d8 plus 1d8 ongoing, if you miss the target than you’re stunned

Elemental Tail (Daily 1)
Psychic Tail: White (can’t be used in the morning). 2d4 and the target is weakened and dominated. While dominated, it gets +2 to all saves.
Fire Tail: 2d8 and 5 ongoing fire damage (4d8 in hell).
Cold Tail: Made from snow and ice. 4d4 and the target is slowed down.
Lightning Tail: 2d4 and the target faints until the beginning of your next round.
Acid Tail: Your next attack inflicts 5 additional ongoing acid damage.
Rock Tail: Petrifies the target (+2 to saves).
Normal Tail: Can move objects like a hand, very strong.

Elemental furnace (daily 5)
You fire a huge ray made of all elements, 4d4 damage of all types

Constant Movement (utility 6)
You gain the following movement types: 5 burrowing, 6 spider climb.

Wings (encounter 7)
My creatures starts growing wings (fly 2), also it gains the power Constant Storm; 2d8 points of damage and the target is pushed a number of squares equal to twice your Int + half level modifier.

Tail of Light (utility 9)
Target makes a saving throw every round:
First failure – slowed.
Second failure – immobilized.
Third failure – stunned.
Fourth failure – target at 0 hp.
Fifth failure – target is petrified.
Sixth failure – death.

The Tail of Death (daily 10)
You can attack with all tails at the same time but you only inflict the effects (except for petrifaction) not the damage, except for ongoing damage.

Dor and Sagi Barabi (aged 9 and 10) the Barabi brothers are the most ambitious players this side of the multiverse. I trust one day they will redirect their ambition from power and XP to more worldly matters and rule us all, hopefully as benign dictators. The above creature was created through much mutual effort to balance Dor’s lust for power and uniqueness with my need for fairness and equality at the table. Sagi’s creature is called Waterder, and it’s a kind of aquatic warrior. It is also very cool and I hope to share it with you some day in the foreseeable future.

Next week, the imported hero. A classic British sci-fi hero converted to 4th edition rules to make a special visit at your table. Guess who!

If you’ve enjoyed the series, you’re most cordially invited to follow my new DNDkids blog. It’ll feature advice articles, dilemmas and a lot of stuff created by the next generation of dice rollers. It will also feature cool art and photos from games and events.