Simple RPG For Kids With Fudge Dice

My kids are beginning to understand the concepts behind role playing games. They play their characters, and they interact with the setting, but they still do not work well with character sheets.

I devised a simple game using different colored Fudge dice that requires no pencils or paper. I have 16 different colors of fudge dice that are all the same size. I put the dice in a large dice bag and my son and daughter each get to pick three dice at random. Each color represents a super power. Red might be super speed, purple is flight, gold is armor, and so on, and so on.

Now the kids decide on their super hero names and I describe the first scene based upon the room that we are currently in. The kids play their heroes, and I play the villains and the innocent bystanders. We act out the scene and rough house a little bit, but the kids get to use their powers when they choose by rolling one of their Fudge dice. If the dice comes up a minus sign their power failed, a blank side and their power worked, and a plus sign means that their power worked with additional benefits. Once a dice is rolled I take it and keep it separate from the remaining dice in the bag.

As each scene concludes I describe where the heroes can go be describing what the scene is like in the adjacent rooms. The kids choose which room they want to go into and they choose new random dice from the bag. Each scene becomes a little bit more challenging, and I start to drop hints about which powers might work better in different rooms.

Now some of the rooms are combat scenes, some are encounters with NPCs, and some are challenges to overcome. Yet the final scene is always a fight against Dr. Bizarro the heroes evil nemesis, and it always takes place in the last room of the house that the kids choose to investigate. Dr. Bizarro also has dice and this final confrontation sometimes requires the heroes to retreat and look for new clues. Yet the heroes always save the day eventually, and the kids earn a treat if they were good sports throughout the game.

Like I said, the game is simple, but my kids eat it up! They love to play the game, and they surprise me with how quickly they are improving at solving my puzzles with each game played. I’m slowly adding more complex rules as parts of certain challenges, and I’m beginning to hand cards to the kids with simple notes of items that they can use later in the game. Eventually I am sure this will lead to character sheets and actual Fudge games around the table.

But for now I am happy to take the kids on a tour of the house and to play Dr. Bizzarro for their amusement!

Have any tips for playing games with kids? Ever run a Fudge game for tiny people? Leave a comment below and share your experience with the rest of us!