A couple of years ago, I got it into my head that I needed to introduce a new generation to the wonders of roleplaying, so I wrote up a simple system and setting that I planned to run for my regular players’ kids. Now, as I know zilch about kids (I technically was one at one point, but in all honesty, I was never particularly good at it!), so I just stuck to the principle that one should cater to one’s intended audience and asked my players what the little rugrats liked. Turns out, one of them liked robots, another was really into dinosaurs, and the third was fond of unicorns.
So I created The Magic Kingdom of DinoCircuit – a setting populated by dinosaurs, robots and unicorns. I’m honestly kind of pleased with how absolutely idiotic it is.
As for the system, I feel it’s at once light and flexible. You get a Talent from your race, you choose a Skill freely, and that’s about it for chargen. Whenever you do something, you roll a d6 for free, another d6 if you involve your Skill, a third if you involve your Talent, and a fourth if another player is helping you in some way. If any of the dice rolls 4+, you succeed. There are no hit points or similar injury mechanics, because this game is honest about the fact that the players simply aren’t going to fail at anything permanently, it’s just a matter of how many different approaches they have to try. Call it railroading or training wheels as you prefer.
Alas, my plans fell victim to my usual inability to get stuff done in a timely fashion. I did run a trial session for the players themselves, but I dithered and dragged my feet about running one for the actual kids, and I fussed over a particular part of the adventure that hadn’t worked too well, and then I got a new job, and, long story short, I never got around to it. And now I think the young’uns have gotten old enough that if I still wanted to introduce them to roleplaying, I’d be better off running an actual game, albeit probably not one of my high-crunch, grimdark favourites – I wouldn’t wish to scar them for life…
But, I figure I can at least show off the game itself to anyone who might be interested. You can download it here, and the link is also on the Links and Downloads page now. Enjoy.