I started a little game for the tiny weasels (they are 6, 7 and 8 years old). So I wanted something easy and flexible and ready made (for the most part). I water down the rules significantly (or keep track of them in my head) and just let the kiddos roll dice and listen to what happens.
1st Lesson learned: Small kids require something to look at. They don't understand the game unless they can move their figure somewhere. I have a big tear away grid map that works to draw out homes, buildings, caves, etc.
2nd Lesson learned: Kids like to be silly. This is hard for me to keep up with as the Ref. I like silly, but I can't stay at the 6 year old silly level for long. But they didn't seem to mind when I moved them along.
The setup:
Dawning Star is a futuristic campaign based on the notion that Earth sent out 40 million colonistes in 20 giant vessels just a few years before the Earth was to be wiped out by a massive (moon sized) plantoid. On the way the fleet encountered an alien "jump gate". The gate was ancient, abandoned and malfunctioning. The primary terra forming vessel, the Dawning Star, was winked away to an alien system with several inhabitable planets. The jump gate would not function to return the Dawning Star and they were forced to make landing on a new home--the planet Eos. The new system was dubbed "Helios." The game timeline takes place 60 years after the Dawning Star lands on Eos. It is a roughly Earth equivalent world, with compatible life and atmosphere. The planet held other humanoid life at some time, but appears to be nearly vacant now. Their is a race of humanoids that live as nomadic tribes across the planet known as the Velin. They have a roughly Native American culture.
The game I've set up is on this world with 3 players (the kids). Logan and Rose are siblings living outside the smalltown of New Haven. The primary economy is ranching and farming. Both are 16 and free to roam most of the time. Their family owns a dragon farm (dragons are oversized lizards that act as horses for ranchers). Logan prefers his hover bike to the dragons and wears the latest pilot gear. His sister has made friends with the Velin. She rides a dragon very well and has a fine set of Velin leathers. Logan is a crack shot with a rifle, his sister prefers the bow.
The last character is my youngest boy. He wanted to play "a monster" so I had him look through the Star Wars Alien Anthology and pick one. He, of course, picked the biggest one possible. A Craigmodon (or something like that). Basically a huge elephantine humanoid. He doesn't have many skills, but he smashes things really well. He named him "Hiyah" (like the karate chop). Hiyah is a alien that crashed on this planet some time ago. He's lived alone in his cave for several years, he can't really remember how he got here. Logan and Rose found him a couple of years ago and they've all become friends. No one in the town knows about Hiyah and the kids' parents think he's made up.
Their very first adventure was exploring the new passage in Hiyah's cave. A recent earthquake exposed a new fissure in the back of his home. The passage leads back to a few natural chambers filled with giant spiders. But one chamber held robots of a strange design that activated when they walked in. Further exploration revealed a constructed mechanical doorway. Eos is known to have many abandoned ruins of the lost civilization that it once held. The 3 set to expore the new discovery. In the first room they encounter 5 more robots that are very tough. Hiyah has been doing great smashing things to bits so far, but even the giant can't stand in front of all the weapons fire and he goes down. Logan and Rose barely knock off the rest and then spend the next 3 days nursing their friend back to health while avoiding mom and dad (sneaking out).
That's was the first part... I'm sure they'll do more...
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