Today we have a guest post by RPG writer and publisher Christopher Grey, detailing his experience at Strategicon’s Gamex, running Gallant Knight Games’ Tiny Dungeon 2e! Read on to hear what Christopher thought!

That Time I Ran ‘Tiny Dungeon 2E’ for a Bunch of Kids

When I told my friend Tomes that I’d be willing to run an RPG session for Kids Game on Demand at Strategicon’s Gamex this past May I immediately thought about Tiny Dungeon. It is a slick, flexible, quick game that emulates the D&D experience well. I was excited to give this a try–especially since I had NO time for prep.

The big day came, I was excited. Having run tons of games for my ten year-old I thought, “I got this.” I printed out all of the Heritage pages and had plenty of copies of the traits. I rolled out my vinyl mat, broke out the close/near/far chart. I was set.

I even rolled randomly in the book and figured out I was doing a desert adventure. I made it a glass desert, cause that sounded fun. Decided the big bad would be a mummy dragon. Because… mummy dragons. I just snagged the dragon stats and rolled with it.

Three eager kids decided to join this game. First up, my veteran gamer son, who had this in the bag. He picked the Salamar. Next kid, I’m guessing maybe 7, was very insistent on playing a knight. His mother was with him and helped me to negotiate. We settled on a dwarf that was, of course, a knight. He got into it the moment I barked at him in a bad Scottish accent.

And the last kid–very active young man, probably 7 or 8–decided he was definitely playing a werecat. And I said, “Oh, okay, like a big tiger or something?”

He said, “No! NO! People ALWAYS say that. A cat. A were… CAT. A little cat! Black and white.”

At this point, I put away the heritages.

“Okay, so… that means you’re probably fast. That means you get an extra move. That’s your trait, you can turn into a cat and get an extra move.”

“And I can claw people.”

“So your claws do 1 damage, okay.”

“And I have an amulet that shoots fire and water.”

“So that also does 1 damage, but can do it at range, okay?”

“COOL!”

So at this point, I threw away the list of traits and went onto my kid, “What’s your trait?”

“I spit acid.”

“Alright, so you can hit someone at a range and it does 1 damage when you hit them, and another damage the next round, okay?”

Then the last kid.

“I have a weapon that turns into whatever weapon I want, whenever I want it.”

“Right, so that means you get to pick what range you can attack something before you attack. Just conjure whatever weapon you want.”

And that’s when I realized Alan has produced a game that works on the madness of kids. All I literally had them do for the rest of the session was roll for successes on basically anything crazy they wanted to do, and it was a blast.

I set up personal goals for everyone, by asking them why they were in the Forbidden Desert of Glass and that drove the story. They encountered a horrible glass sandstorm, but after some successes took refuge in a canyon.

They met a crone who gave them gifts and told them to not go in the pyramid from above. They found the secret entrance to the pyramid, they made friends with a goblin, and also a construct. Eventually they battled the mummy dragon and accomplished all of their goals.

It was a fun and memorable experience and these kids were very much into it. I am so thankful, in retrospect, that I selected this particular game. If I’d walked into that situation with literally any other game I was considering it would have been a nightmare.

It’s great when played by the book, but .. as it turns out, it’s equally great when you completely wing it as well.

-Christopher Grey

Thanks for the great write-up Christopher! We loved it. You can find and purchase games from Christopher at his website! Just click THIS LINK!

Have you had any stories about running TinyD6 games with friends or family? We want to hear!