Gaming with the Kids: A Barbarian and a Dwarf walk in to a dungeon

[Nuadha]

I ran another game with my nephews, but their friends' weren't there.     Trying to get them to roleplay, I still wanted them to only play one character each, so in the quest to capture Ulag, I introduced an NPC that accompanied them on the quest: The Imperial Noble who funded the reward (since Prince Magnus has so little money), Richter Von Duffenschmirtz.   This turned out to be a blast and kept the kids roleplaying all the way through the dungeon, since I played him up as the biggest most pompous person you could ever imagine who constantly remarked to them through the dungeon about just how awesome he was.    

I made a few small  changes to the quest besides adding an NPC.          I added a room off to a side with an Orc Shaman.    I changed a few goblins for goblin spearmen and a fanatic.    I also changed the Chaos Warrior in the room with a Squig Hound.       What self-respecting Orc Warboss wouldn't have a pet Squig to eat the warriors?

As the PC's struggled to fight the goblins and Ulag, Richter fought an epic battle against the Squig Hound.   They finally defeated the Orcs and dragged Ulag back to town as a prisoner, but by the time the heroes finished shopping with their reward money, they were hearing talk all over the town that Richter and a few henchmen brought Ulag to justice and that Richter single-handedly faced the biggest most nastiest Squig Hound you ever saw while the henchmen (the PCs) cowered.

[Nuadha]

"I heard the Squig was bigger than a horse!"

"I heard that before killing the beast, Richter Von Duffenschmirtz mounted the Squig and rode it around the dungeon!"

[MortiS-the-Lost]

cool, yea adding an NPC or 2 is a great way to encourage roleplaying among your players.

Richter Von Duffenschmirtz sounds like he'd make for an interesting (if not unwelcomed) recurring NPC, you could set up all kinds of scenarios around him. Imagine having to rescue 'an important noble' only to find out when they reach him that it's Richter and then after getting him to safety having him claim that he escaped by himself. Or reaching the end of a dungeon and getting the boss monster (maybe a dragon) down to 1 Body Point only to have Richter Von Duffenschmirtz leap out of the shadows, kill the beast and drag it's head back to town claiming all the glory! of course Richter would get his comeuppance eventually or maybe turn from rival to enemy to nemesis of the Heroes!  

[guzzi]

Its great playing with the kids!! How do their minds work?? I like the idea of an NPC, never tried it tho'. How deeply involved did yours get? Did he attack the Monsters and Heroes? I have a mini of Grima Wormtongue, often thought of bringing him in as the ghost of "Jacko".