#growing up with ttrpgs | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

openstorygames · 10 months

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Kids Play TTRPGs

There are plenty of people who started playing D&D or other TTRPGs as kids. Heck, imaginative play (which all kids engage in on some level and in some manner) is central to what TTRPGs do. Roleplaying is a critical part of developing your child self as a person!

So what's the benefit of giving kids a rule-bound system like D&D, Quest, or Kids on Bikes? Why should kids play TTRPGs and not just make-believe?

TTRPGs teach boundaries.

Some of this depends on how a particular group runs, but a healthy TTRPG group teaches kids where boundaries are and how to respect them.

This can show up in lots of ways.

letting dice determine success

working within the limitations of a class, feature, or spell description

avoiding upsetting or scary topics, as requested by a player

offering trigger warnings and safety tools

accepting when a GM says no

respecting when another player says no

Some of those things are organic to telling a story together. Some of them are brought in to keep the game fun for everyone, like safety tools. All of these examples—and more!—help kids practice boundaries one step removed from real life, where things are a bit harder.

TTRPGS provide escape.

As adults, we think of TTRPGs as escape from the crushing reality we live in. We can free ourselves from the news cycle or our social media feeds for a few hours and pretend we live in a world where our actions are world-changing (and I'm talking saving-the-world-from-evil-powers world-changing).

Kids need escape too! Not so that they're living outside of the world, but so they can practice the skills they need to live within it.

It's way easier to advocate for your PC who's scared of creepy crawlies than it is to admit your skin crawls around your buddy's pet snake.

Kids can practice all sorts of social skills in the freedom of TTRPGs because those games provide escape and distance from the world they actually inhabit. For example:

admitting fears

facing conflict

handling disagreement

learning about themselves

experimenting with consequences (from stealing a loaf of bread to going full murderhobo at times)

setting goals and making plans

Games are low stakes ways for all of us to practice tough conversations or new social skills. Why not let kids get a leg up by teaching them to role play?

TTRPGs build confidence.

Practice makes perfect, and TTRPGs are a great place to practice your sense of self (while inhabiting a character).

As kids get more confident roleplaying their PC, they learn gain confidence in who they are and speaking from that place.

This doesn't look like adults might expect though. We think of the bard suddenly offering a grand speech, or the shy loner forging bonds with the rest of the party.

Kids gaining confidence might not look like what you expect (more on that another time), but TTRPGs help clear the path for confident, empowered kids. And that's something worth making space for!

#ttrpgs #ttrpgkids #kids play ttrpgs #gamer kids #growing up with ttrpgs #growing up with dnd #confidence #social skills #boundaries #dnd #D&D #roleplaying #roleplaying games #tabletop #ttrpg community #make believe #make believe is for kids too

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tinydragondice · 1 year

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The Taylor Swift Speak Now dice collection will drop May 14 at 1pm EST on the Tiny Dragon Dice site!

Mine

Haunted

Enchanted

Speak Now

Sparks Fly

Long Live

Never Grow Up

Ours

D20 set (1 of each design)

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desiquest · 5 months

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This one goes out to all the 2nd gen kids 💕

Watch Episode 3 Tuesday 12/12 6pm PT @ DesiQuest.com/Watch

ft. Anjali Bhimani, Luis Carazo, Jasmine Bhullar

#desiquest #ttrpg #d20 #growing up desi #2nd gen

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ladyeroway · 9 months

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My poor dear boy Gideon. He has really gone through it. After being cursed by Yig, losing someone he loved, bitten and poisoned by a very large snake, and then shot - I decided it was time for a little upgrade and redesign.

#gideon ambrose #call of cthulhu #pulp cthulhu #CoC #chaosium #artists on tumblr #ttrpg art #ttrpg oc #i used a new set of brushes and i really love it #i decided that he would grow in a beard #partly because shaving would have been hard due to the gun shot and bite #then of course the doctor had to open up the bites to drain the poison #he also just didnt care to keep on top of it in his grief #erowayart #erowayarts

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metamatar · 3 months

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last weekend i played this board game called above and beyond which is a classic resource acquisition type game but with an added element of prewritten rpg adventures dropped in as a mechanic and it turns out. i think i would like ttrpgs.

#wow what a surprise #i have never played ttrpgs b4 idk anyone who played them growing up

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babsaros · 7 months

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recent art-dump of my blades character, catch. they're having a good time :)

#my art #my oc #blades in the dark #ttrpg art #bitd #they are a mold growing directly in the trenches of my brain i think #catch uses they/them (and xe/xem/xyr)#first two are just for fun 🙈#and to show off some tattoos #third one is them experiencing like. one of the top 3 most traumatic things of their life #mid score trying to re-abduct a fucked up little sopping wet german heir that is obsessed with them #he's in the bg being assaulted by a pet monkey with the same name #im being so normal about all of it 🥴#*kubrick staring at the calendar waiting for it to be game day again*

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vaciiosol · 7 months

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Painting over an old dnd oc I never used from like. 2 years ago I think. His name is Ares and he was supposed to be my Oath of the Ancients Paladin but now I'll probably try to make him in bg3

#dnd art #tiefling #d&d #ttrpg #doodles #my ocs #he was supposed to lose his memory of his children iirc bc he was dead for some years then brought back #of course. missing some of the younger ones growing up and the olders ones growing older than him #emotional damage I was going to put him thru....

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love-and-hex · 20 days

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Love and Hex #96: Giving In

Tamilda has exhausted her options. Probably should have gone to Kayra from the beginning, but in fairness to her, feelings can be complicated when your relationship begins with attempted murder.

#comic #webcomic #comics #dnd #dungeons and dragons #friendship #friends #relationships #witches #hags #growing up #art #ttrpg art

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cts-games · 2 months

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Breakheart: Dev Diary 2

Fortune Prime SRD and the issue with 'Fused System' games.

Breakheart is a fusion of two different games, Anima: Prime and the Fortune System used in Last Stand, both of which I've provided rundowns of in the past, here and here.

I am by no means breaking new ground with this. Games that just take two existing games and duct tape them together have existed for decades. ICON is perhaps one of the better known examples, and also serves as a great example of my issue with these 'fused system' games.

The biggest issue with fused system games is... they are made up of two games.

Well, yes, obviously. But why is that an issue?

ICON is made up of two portions: a DnD4e like game for combat and a FitD system for everything outside of combat. ICON prides itself on the flexibility of both of these subsystems and how any option you take in one system will not restrict your decisions in the other. The way you act in combat and the way you act out of combat are not bound together.

The way ICON accomplishes this is... by just not having the systems interact at all. As you play through ICON, you are essentially just flipping back and forth between two entirely different games. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but it does very much FEEL like switching between two games, and lacks a cohesive element to really bind the two together. Indeed, most fan made character sheets for ICON just have two entirely different character sheets for in combat and out of combat.

Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoy ICON. I wish I was able to play it more often, it's rather delightful. I have a soft spot in my heart for 4e-likes and FitD both, so ICON scratches a nice itch. But the two just don't meld together well.

I'd go so far as to say you would be better served by using Strike! RPG as the combat portion of ICON because at least then you would maintain the element of the game only using d6's, instead of swapping dice entirely between the two subsystems. As it stands now, the game lacks a cohesive element.

Without synergy between its systems, ICON will never really be able to become more than the sum of its parts. The systems won't flow into each other in elegant ways that make for a delight of game design.

The game is still in pre-release and subject to change. Maybe this issue will be fixed before release! However, it does not seem to be a priority for Massif Press, the game is close to feature complete, and the community certainly is nowhere near as bothered about it as I am.

So... if im the only one who has this problem... does it really need to be fixed? I'm not sure it does. I dont think it was a mistake to glue those two games together. The game is designed to use the ease of play that FitD brings and make the out of combat experience more enjoyable, while keeping the feel of its combat the same as the sources it draws from. And the game accomplishes this!

If the game DID use Strike! RPG as a base, sure, if would have more consistency and open more potential for synergy, but it would lose that feeling of rolling that d20 in combat, and seeing it land on that critical success. No amount of synergy and elegance between the two subsystems will allow a d6 to roll a natural 20.

Sure, there are ways you could approximately replicate the probability of a natural 20 on a handful of d6, but that's not the same. The feel at the table is different, and that feel is important.

So often in game design, we design a rather solid system as a first draft. Something beautiful and elegant that looks fantastic. And then you bring it to the table and... you have to scrape major parts of it. Beautiful parts of it. Because at the end of the day, as nice as they are, they just don't replicate the FEEL of the game you want. The tone is off. The rule is hard to remember. It's too confusing for first time players.

A first draft of a game will rarely survive playtesting. Fused system or not.

So, it's important to note that this is the first draft of my game. It can be hard to tell what will survive and what won't. I dont think i can even begin to comprehend what the finished game will actually look like. And so for now... I am focusing on the innate synergy between the two systems.

I mentioned consistency of dice up above, so let's start there. Last Stand uses only d10's, meanwhile Anima: Prime uses only d6. So, if we want to maintain consistency of dice, we are left with 3 options: Change Anima: Prime to use d10's, change Last Stand to use d6's, or change both of them to use something else entirely.

Well, changing them all to d6's sounds great! I love d6's! They are the easiest one to buy in bulk, and most people own a board game or two they can scrounge up a few d6's from. Problem solved!

Except the actual changes aren't that easy. The Fortune System that Last Stand uses is very reliant on probability. Being able to gamble your resources for a chance to get more, as well as how additional effects are triggered, is absolutely vital to the game. I prototyped a few different concepts like using specific combinations of values or using dice of multiple colors to trigger specific results... but in the end it just ended up adding more complexity without much more design space. So, d6's are out.

I could alter both systems to allow their dice probabilities to line up a bit nicer, but in the end, it ran into the same issues. There is just too much to manage for too little benefit.

So, that leaves us with converting Anima to using a d10. It maps decently enough. Manuever dice have a 50% chance of becoming Strike dice, same as the original. With Charge Dice we have to make a decision. Originally a Manuever Die had a ~16% chance of becoming a Charge Die. We can either keep it to only 1 result on the d10 producing a Charge Die (10% chance), or two results (20% chance). I'm opting for the latter.

Being 4 percentage points more likely to gain a Charge Dice, and thus 4 percentage points less likely to roll a failure, is not that big of a change. The overall wider range for results does make it a tad more cumbersome, but I think it should work well enough. Remembering the thresholds of 1-3, 4-8, and 9-10 isn't that much more difficult (hopefully) than the original of 1-2, 3-5, and 6.

And with that, we now have a throughline connecting both of the games core systems. We have achieved perfect synergy!

... okay, no, not really. We have just made a game that has a consistent type of dice it uses. It doesn't even use the same checks across the two systems. Having a single die type does provide a stable foundation to build more synergistic elements off of, but if that was all it took to make a system, the game would already be released.

But I didn't choose Anima: Prime and Last Stand just because they are two of my favorite TTRPGs of all time. There is FAR more synergy between the two than just that. Enough to fill an entire extra Dev Diary on it! So I'll be posting more about that next week. Assuming I'm not too distracted with moving to my new apartment, that is.

#breakheart #dev diary #ttrpg #ttrpg dev #to clarify: Fused System is not an industry term #i made it up because i couldnt find another term to describe 'a game where its two other games mashed together'#which surprised me because its really become a growing genre lately

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openstorygames · 3 months

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If you've never played a TTRPG with tweens, you're missing out.

These kids are clever and creative and funny (sometimes in unintentional ways).

They're old enough to grasp complex rules but young enough to not care enough to be rules lawyers (mostly).

They still believe that adventure is just around the corner in their real lives. They love the freedom of making their own choices in a game, but they're still learning how to be a team player.

They break out in song randomly. Or start wrestling each other irl.

They latch onto details you didn't think mattered—and in their own way, that adult groups don't.

They'll make silly and immature decisions because they are silly and immature, in the best way, just like they should be!

They're willing to take risks that adult players often avoid, and when the GM rewards those risks, they are so wonderfully proud of themselves.

They don't mind consequences for bad choices, provided you make it fun.

They speak up when they don't like something (including consequences for bad choices), and they're creative collaborators to find a better a solution.

But most of all, tweens deserve a place where an adult treats them like they're a little more grown-up than they are. Where it's safe for them to try new things (even things like swearing under their breath) without being immediately corrected or squeezed into a box that doesn't feel quite right.

They deserve the chance to discover what it means to be people who care about others, who feel compassion, who recognize dignity in creatures not like themselves (whether that's smelly boys or giggling girls or a geriatric robot who stutters).

They deserve space to practice being human. And TTRPGs can be a beautiful way to give them that space.

Tweens are incredible, creative, valuable humans. Playing TTRPGs with them will make you better, more willing to laugh at yourself, and more aware of the brilliance within those kids you only thought you knew before.

#ttrpgs #ttrpgkids #tweenttrpg #forever dm #growing up #dnd5e #middle school #ttrpg #ttrpg community

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cappurrccino · 8 months

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me: maybe i'll make elaina be in like... her 30s? she is a level 15 wizard, after all

also me: wait, actually what if i make her like 19

#//juri speaks #juri's ttrpgs #oc: elaina #girl had to grow up quick but also had a gandalf-esque mentor/guardian to learn from

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desiquest · 4 months

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BECAUSE YOU ASKED: Due to the holidays, we won't be dropping Ep 4 until the new year BUT!!!! DESIQUEST SESSION 0 DROPS TODAY! 🥳 ✨ 12/26 @ 6pm PT @ the link below!!

📺 Watch Jasmine help the cast create their characters!!

Ft. Jasmine Bhullar, Rekha Shankar

#desiquest #ttrpg #actualplay #d20 #growing up desi

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just-browsing1222 · 3 months

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Not me learning about tectonic plates because I wanted to play a solo RPG.

#i'm over-doing it with the setting #i don't need a fully realized world #I barely need a fully realized settlement in order to start #but if I'm already tearing a little eladrin boy from his home plane I may as well give a geologically-realistic plane to grow up in #at least a continent #*sigh*#it's fun at least #map making and such #map making #dnd #ttrpg #adhd

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officialjimmybuffett · 7 months

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greg otgw undead/great old one warlock. you see the vision

#LISTENNN. greg if wirt never found him #greg if he made a deal w the beast to let wirt leave the forest. greg if he was just a little boy who didn’t realize he was dead #half dead boy half tree. the beast is his patron. he’s coughing up leaves and wheezing bc there are branches growing inside him #but he always goes oh it’s just my asthma 😁👍#his deal w the beast is both to help keep the lantern lit and to bring more lost travelers to him. bc who wouldn’t follow greg #i just fuckinmg. loveeee when children in horror r fucked up and don’t realize it #i just love child ttrpg characters in general actually #also obsessed with him not fully understanding what’s going on and patiently waiting until he gets to see his #step brother again. just filling his days not realizing how many days it has been. how many years.#hes having a good time!!!! until he Isn’t

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ridrawsart · 1 year

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Something I'm working on currently: Tieflings and swords!! I'm being very slow because of *depression* but I'm having fun with it anyways.

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cyberdragoninfinity · 2 years

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Weird ask but what do you think bakura would do like for a job

He’s just a weird little guy (affectionate) but I can’t imagine him working

OH THIS IS A GOOD QUESTION I LIKE THIS

I've thought a lot about bakura like, very post-canon and what he would end up doing with his life...... i genuinely feel like he's just going to settle into like. work from home-type data entry/copywriting/very mundane office work a ways after high school and college lmao. like i love the concept of him having this very normal downright boring job but then on the side he's like a moderator on some niche ttrpg forum and very active in some haunted antiques facebook groups and DMing ishizu to talk about using his inherited domino musuem connections to get some egyptian relics back to their country of origin. like all of ryou's coworkers think he's just a sweet, softspoken kind of bland guy but if they talk to him for more than a quick spell it's like. oh so you are a WILD little guy actually, hello

that being said, i am also very partial to the post-canon scenario my friend and i cooked up where the summer after graduating bakura gets a job at the doggy daycare joey's working at and they just spend the summer taking care of unruly dogs. i think fondly and often of that one.

#ygo posting #asks #electricgaslight #i just think so much about ryou bakura growing up to be the most Boring Passing adult who is actually a bit unhinged #he has a zoom meeting in the morning and a gruesome horror ttrpg campaign to DM at night

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