During the Christmas holidays I used our large collection of medieval playmobils to play a little fantasy role playing game for our kids (4.5 and 6.5 years old).
I had set-up a tower, a village, a forest, a few ruins, etc. with people to talk to, enemies and monsters to fight , treasures to find, etc.
I improvised a very simple game mechanics and it worked just fine for them:
Characters have "life stones" (little glass gems) to represent their "hit points". I made them start with three stones. They gained 2 more stones after having completed a few quests. I also allowed mounted character another temporary stone to give them an advantage. The foes they encountered had between 3 and 8 life stones.
Attacks are rolled with red dices. 1 dice per weapon (so that would be one or two attack per klicky).
The dice size is dependant on the weapon and the strength of the attacker.
d4 for dagger and wooden clubs
d6 for most weapons such as sword, spears, axes, bows, etc.
d8, d10, d12, d20 for magic weapons, spells, strong guys and big monsters (e.g. maybe d20 for dragons)
Defense is rolled with blue dices. 1 dice per item of defense.
1d6 free for dodging (maybe 1d8 for quick people / animals)
1d6 per shield, helm, breastplate, set of arm armor, set of leg armor
Magic armor items use d8 instead.
Attacker designate their target
All attackers roll their red die or dices
Defender rolls all his/her blue dices
A blue dice roll with a higher number than the red dice blocks that attack. Otherwise the attack hits and the target loses a life stone.
Then the defender(s) -if not vanquished- attack and attackers defend.
When an opponent is out of life stone, he is vanquished.
As, you can see. Nothing very fancy or complicated here. It would not work for large scale combat, but we managed some epic fights with up to 7 characters without much problem.
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I made them a little scenario where they had to deliver their princely brother who had been captured by the evil black knight. To know where their brother was being held captive, they had to ask a woodland fairy that requested that they do four good deeds before she would give them any help. So they killed a wolf that was terrorizing a shepherd, they returned a goat that had been stolen by a goblin, they captured a wanted highway brigand and returned goods that a group of bandits had stolen. After that, the fairy told them were the castle of the evil knight was (in the master bedroom
and where to find a magic sword to fight the evil knight (in a crypt guarded by a skeleton knight), where to find a magical instrument to put the dragon to sleep (in the tower of a witch) and where to find a key to open the gate of the castle (in the ruins of a keep guarded by a ghost rider).
There was a inn were they could rest, sale their loot, purchase armor, weapons and horses, and hire the help of a knight to help them during their first few quests (because they started with only a knife and no armor).
With this story and game mechanics (plus a lot of playmobil stuff), I managed to hold their attention for more than 4 hours straight. Considering their age, this is quite amazing.
I should have taken pictures…
