Goblin Quest, adventures in gaming with a four year old.

[Erny]

Rab over at Rab’s Geekly Digest has put together a little game to play with his five year old.

http://geeklydigest.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/goblinquest-ready-for-playtesting.html

Called Goblin quest it pits heroic knights and their retainers against hordes of evil monsters in search of adventure, fame and gold.

Not wanting to do a blown review post I've done a little battle report with my son. Here is how we got on. Fuller discussion and report on the Blog.
http://ernysplace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/goblin-quest-battle-report.html

[Mister Rab]

Great to see it in use by another dads and his lads, and I'm glad you enjoyed it 

I love the photo write-up; did you use a specific program, or just your mad skillz (TM) in photoshop?

I'll certainly look again at the movement change you put in place; I think we've been using a smaller dungeon than you did, so it didn't cause a problem for us (yet!).

[Erny]

Ah yes I had been thinking it may be down to dungeon size. But we are both action now sort of kids so that may be it too.

I've used a combination of The Gimp for transparency work and Comic Life for all the rest. I find it super easy.

[Kiltedyaksman]

Is that the cavern tiles set or something different?

My kids are so ready for this

[Erny]

Fat Dragon cavern tiles yes.

Printed out and stuck onto depron.

[JollyBob]

I've downloaded this for a look through (my little lad's not quite a year old so it may be a while before it gets played, mind... unless his mum wants to have a go) and so far I like the way it looks, although I would be tempted to do away with so many different types of dice simply because I have loads of D6 but no poly-sided ones.

And I get confused easily, so a small child would only embarrass me... 

It also strikes me that you could run a fairly fast game on an old Heroquest board or something similar.

[Erny]

You are bang on the money. After he did a good impression of platoon, hands in air, all is lost and then ran into the other room sobbing (what a bad dad I am) I figured we needed to do something to console him. I suggested the only way to save the elf was to get rid of all the other goblins and carry him out to take to the healers.

[Damien]

Great little game, loved the pics of your children playing with the minis on your blog, the huzzah pic was the best of the lot.

Your a cool dad,
 Damien

[Mister Rab]

Might sound a bit silly to us but might I suggest you modify the rules a little so hero's cant die. Have them captured by the goblins if they 'die' so your little minime's dont get all upset. Permanent loss and shades of grey are confronting concepts at their age.

If a hero fell and got added to the pile of captured village children waiting for rescue the game effect will be exactly the same as if the character fell in battle the big difference will be no tears before bath time and it will refocus the childs attention on the games goal.

Interesting point. I guess it depends on the child. If they treat the knight/hero/dwarf/elf as an extension, however small, of themselves then they'll invest more in the game but you also run the risk of tears before bathtime. Fairy tales are full of gruesome endings, but only rarely for the hero, or at least not without some kind of extension (as a special tree, a voice on the wind, or a special animal).

I like the idea of adding them to the "captured pile", or needing to succeed to get them to the healer.

I'll add them to the "points to ponder" list 

[jp1885]

A lovely little AAR - nice one!
If only I could get my 4 year old daughter into wargaming - i'd increase the amount of games I play per year a thousand-fold!
Oh, and kudos to your son for wearing a Mike the Knight top for extra hero-ness 

[Erny]

That's exactly my point of view and what I would be after from any game aimed at young children and parents to play together.

Success is if the child involved wants to play, enjoys playing and is actually playing the rules however simple. I'm less concerned about him dealing with character loss or even in a broad sense losing well. That can wait.

If at the end of the day, in his imagination, he has explored a cavern, dealt with some goblins and got out with all his characters alive then he has just had a really magical experience. And I've just got to share it with him too.