Picked up the young adventurer books thinking that they had simpler kid rules, but I guess they have no rules (you’re supposed to just be motivated to buy a starter set or something). So I played with my niece (8) and nephew (5) without any rules and they LOVED it. Right after our first short adventure they wanted to play again.
I basically just made them roll for anything they wanted to do in combat and took turns as usual. Let them roll to respond to any attack back at them. No HP, just descriptions of injuries.
They loved upgrading their swords into go-go-gadget everything weapons with buttons to shoot spikes, or light on fire - so I let them. Even the boat they needed had to become a sword upgrade magic inflatable raft haha.
Anyway, highly recommend for young players.
This is the way, in all sincerity. The OG books all had a small blurb in the beginning to remind the reader that the rules contained therein were earnestly playtested by a group of geeks a lot like themselves, but that your own group’s interests and goals were more important than RAW, etc. Which, of course, makes the upcoming 6E bullshit all the more egregious: no “core” books, only “sourcebooks” for encapsulated lore, races, items, adventures, etc. 🤢🖕🏽
Yeah. Because the OG books were written by people who loved the game. There are still a few people at WotC who love the game, but they’re trying to hold back the tide of people who want to extract as much money as they can out of it.
Sadness