Me to my 12 year old daughter: "What would you like to do for your birthday?"
Daughter: "I would like to invite friends over to play Dungeons & Dragons"
Me: "Yes. A thousand times, yes."

I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) since I was 8 years old and have been obsessed with the game for over 40 years. As a parent, I always look for opportunities to introduce my kids to my geeky pursuits, and D&D ranks highly among those.

So, when my daughter recently asked me to run a D&D adventure for her 12th birthday, I was ecstatic. Little did she know though - I had already been preparing an entire campaign for her.

What precipitated its creation - I discovered that there haven’t been many good approaches to building adventures for children.

It was a surprising discovery, as the game is profoundly educational - they’re learning new words, math, reading and social skills.

So, that is what we want to do - create a D&D game aimed at children.

In this article, I’ll give some examples of the characters and the flavor text for a few encounters, as it demonstrates the sort of storytelling approach that I intend to take with the adventure. The focus of the encounters will be on imaginative roleplaying and social interactions, but there will still be opportunities for combat as well.

At the end, we'll talk about where we'll go from there (including a published module series and NFTs).

Familiar Things

This will be the first adventure in a series of D&D adventures made for kids. It will be a kid-friendly adventure with lots of handouts, battle maps, and visuals.

In “Familiar Things”, they will play the magical creatures and companions to wizards who have gone missing.

In a cabin at the edge of Grindlebrier Forest, Nevermore the raven, Vayliss the owl, Erb the herb garden golem, Slink the ferret, and Ember the fire elemental have been patiently awaiting the return of their wizards.

When an unexpected message arrives telling them that their wizards are lost, they are forced to leave their home in search for the whereabout of their wizards.

Cast of Characters

Nevermore the Raven

How to role-play Nevermore:

Nevermore is always out to prove himself to be the smartest familiar. Nevermore is particularly sensitive about he is perceived (most people have a poor opinion of ravens, and consider them to be bad omens).

Fun fact about Nevermore:

He doesn’t like going into the village. The last time he was asked to go to the baker with Vayliss the Owl to pick up bread, Nevermore was chased out of the shop by the baker’s wife, who shooed him out with a broom. Did I mention that most people think ravens to be “bad omens”?

Erb the Herb Garden Gollem

How to role-play Erb:

Erb large, bulky and strong, but he is actually gentle of spirit and heart. He loves exploring the world with a child-like wonder, as he is still relatively new to it (only a couple years old). Approach everything as if you are a small child. There are many things that you may be seeing for the first time.

Fun fact about Erb: He is an “herb garden golem”, so at any time he is likely growing oregano, mint, and any number of other flavorful things. He smells pleasantly of mint, most often. He has also grown milkweed. While not an herb, caterpillars eat the milkweed. Erb really likes butterflies, and wanted to watch them come out of their chrysalis.

Ember the fire elemental

How to role-play Ember: Ember loves learning. She will be intensely curious.

Fun fact about Ember: Ember once started a fire in the library when she snuck in for some late night reading. The book had been open on the reading desk, and she planned to observe it from a distance. It had such colorful illustrations! Unfortunately, she got a little too close for too long, and the pages ignited. A whole section of the library caught fire…she did apologize, though….

Slink the Ferret

How to role-play Slink: Mischievous and fun-loving, Slink enjoys nothing more than discovering new trinkets…and taking them back to his room. You can’t help it. If you see something that catches your interest, you’re likely to try taking it…preferably without anyone else noticing.

Fun fact about Slink: Slink once took one of the wizard’s potted plants (it was pretty…a luminous purple), only to discover that it was both nocturnal and carnivorous. It was the fastest Slink has ever returned something.

Introduction

At the edge of Grindlebrier Forest, nestled in a quiet farming town, lies an unassuming cabin.

If houses were like people, this one would be like a polite and kind woodsman who carries out a solitary, yet contented life.

The porch is well-swept. The shutters are weathered, but well maintained. The door is inscribed with patterns that show that the occupant values woodworking and honest craftsmanship.

From the outside, the windows radiate the warm glow of a fire in the hearth, and the wood smoke traces a lazy trail from the chimney through the overhanging tree branches. The air outside smells of cypress and rich earth.

In short, the cabin looks welcoming.

But, this is no ordinary woodman’s cottage, and its small size and presence holds a great secret, for this is actually the home of wizards.

Within the cabin, it has not just a single room, but dozens of rooms, the size of which couldn’t possible fit inside this quiet cottage.

In truth, this home contains an entire apothecary, a smithy and forge, a room made of plants, and the greatest library to be found within the kingdom - all within the confines of an unassuming cabin in the woods.

This is the place that the wizards call home; but the wizards are not home.

In fact, they have been gone for quite some time (much longer than expected).

The cabin is currently home to their familiars (magical creatures and companions to the wizards) and the various living creations of their sorcery.

And they have been patiently awaiting the return of their wizards.

That all changed when they received a message from an altogether unexpected source…

The library and the bookwyrm

Battlemap for the library

Flavor Text:

This room is FILLED with books. From floor to ceiling are shelves of tattered tomes, leather-bound books, and rolled scrolls. Bookshelves line each wall, and the topmost books can only be reached by climbing a ladder. The whole room has the pleasant musty smell of old books.

The wizards library is truly the greatest collection of books to be found within the kingdom - even kings and queens don’t have access to the amount of knowledge contained in this room.

These wondrous tomes were acquired through all of their travels, and their collection has some truly unique books.

One corner of the room is ACTUALLY snowing. On snow-caked pedestals are ice tablets into which an old poem is etched. The wizards had acquired these from the lair of Gnarl, the frost giant, and the only way to keep them from melting is magic.

Hanging from the ceiling by a chain is an iron cage, which contains a particularly vicious book. The Tome of Tarantellin is a grotesque black leather book with sinewy bat wings and a mouth filled with sharp teeth.

Almost on queue, it notices you and launches itself against the walls of the iron cage that holds it, batting its wings furiously and gnashing its teeth.

At the center of the room, resting on a small, colorful (and seemingly comfortable) pillow is a diminutive silver dragon. Her name is Wysiwyg, and she is the librarian. The wizards refer to her as a book wyrm - not the slippery, slimy earth worm, which is spelled “W-O-R-M”, but an old word, which means “dragon”, spelled “W-Y-R-M”.

Hearing the Tome of Tarantellum rattling furiously in its cage, Wysiwyg wakes from her sleep, unfurls her wings, stretches and yawns.

Wysiwyg lazily scans the group. When she spots Ember the fire elemental, and she stands upright, her eyes wide with terror. “No! No! ABSOLUTELY not!”, and waggles a tiny scaled finger at Ember.

A giant problem

Flavor Text:

You’ve heard of giants in stories. They’re a cruel and mean folk that live in the rugged outskirts of civilization. When a farmer’s livestock has gone missing, it’s often because a giant has taken one to snack on.

This is the first time that you’ve seen one up close, and it is larger and more terrifying than you had imagined.

This giant is sitting on top of a boulder. He has long arms that are so muscular, they look as though he could pick up a cart (with horses attached) and toss it. His massive hands sit resting on a bulging belly that you imagine could hold a whole person (and it probably does)!

You don’t know if all giants are like this, but this one is also gigantically ugly. His nose is shifted to the right and one eyelid droops down, as though a big boulder had fallen on his face. His shoulder length hair is matted, greasy, and snarled. A squirrel seems to have gotten trapped in his hair and looks at you pleadingly.

At first, you think that he’s talking to himself. As you maneuver to get a better look, you confirm that you were right…sort of. He is talking to himself…because he has two heads, and they appear to be arguing.

A giant problem!

Head 1: I’m tired because I couldn’t sleep! You snored in my ear all night…

Head 2: Well…I can’t help that!

Head 1: …and you fart in your sleep!

Head 2: That’s your fault! You know that halflings make our stomach upset!

…and on and on it goes, with each head grumbling about the other.

Where we'll go from here

It is my intention to create a series of published adventure modules. These will be available for purchase, regardless of any NFT purchase.

I will also run paid online sessions, after which each player will receive an allowlist to mint the character they’ve played (wanna know my approach to NFT projects? This sums it up).

I’m still working out the benefits, but these are among the considerations:

  • onchain collector's edition modules for each adventure in the series
  • comic book (assembled from the "best of" submitted stories from the kid's own sessions)
  • further on-going benefits

Want to hear more? Join the /dungeonmaster channel. I’ll be posting more details there as I build it out. Follow along!

I would greatly welcome comments and questions! If you want to follow along on progress, I'll be posting updates along the way, so connect with me on socials!

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