This weekend I'll be at a family reunion, I've been playing with some of my nephews for a couple of years, but they have younger siblings that also want to play. With that in mind, I'll be prepping to play with all of them but split into an older group (10-13) and a younger (8-10). This article is for the younger group (mostly because they haven't played so I won't need to fill you, dear reader, in on anything).

With that as background, there are two things I think I need to focus on. 1 Keep Moving Maintaining focus for young kids for more than 20 minutes is hard. Combat encounters need to be relatively straightforward (since they're new and combat can be overwhelming with options) and 3 rounds or less. Don't Kill Them Making them scared of dying in the game can be a good way to build tension/buy-in. Killing them in the first session does the opposite. They'll probably never want to play again. In light of this (and the fact that the party is two kids) I'm probably going to be scaling back combat. I'll do that by chopping off hitpoints (which I can usually do on the fly pretty well. I run combat until I think this is going to go too long/poorly and decide this monster will die the next time they hit it), and by reducing damage (which I'll accomplish by omitting the bonus, instead of 1d8+3 slashing damage, simply 1d8). Of course, these modifications won't be necessary all the time, but they are very easy to modify while running combat and don't take a lot of processing power.

Pick an Adventure

Beware the Shadowed Shores In a land few have heard of, and fewer still have visited, lies untold adventure, treasure, and fame. The renowned Captain Farsail has sent out word that she will undertake an expedition to Serpent Isle, but is in need of a crew. Anyone able to hold a sword or cast a spell is welcome, but be warned, the island is as deadly as it is beautiful.

Picking an adventure can be tricky, for now, I just want something short, with maps. I used AdventureLookup and filtered down to early levels and less than 100 pages to find Serpent Isle (to follow along, you might want to pick it up). I wanted something a little different, I'm already running two games set in the same area (not having them interact with each other) and I'd rather not add a third. A jungle island with fiendish snakes sounds like a good change of pace.

I read over the overarching structure of the adventure, it starts with three potential points of interest. Perfect. If needed there are hooks to guide my players in a direction, and a few random encounter tables for creatures and environments.

For this adventure, I think the quicksand would be a good first encounter for a new group. Perhaps give them a chance to reenact The Princess Bride. Later I can use the quicksand as a terrain feature for other random encounters.

An Aside on Random Encounters

I often pick a random encounter that I like and put a little more design into that encounter. Then if/when we roll a random encounter it's a well-designed experience that is genuinely unexpected (the what was prepared, the when was not). Here's a map for the quicksand encounter. The characters might find themselves in the quicksand and need to pull themselves out, as they do maybe a boa will drop on them (if the quicksand isn't dramatic enough). So I drew up this battle map (I'll use small tape measurers and minis on card stock for this weekend since I don't want to travel with my vinyl grid). Thornbushes are either difficult terrain, or you can ignore the movement penalty and take some damage (current thought is 1d2 for every 5 feet you travel in it).

Another note on random encounters: you can push them. You can throw a monster that is way too scary at your party. Treat it like it has half to two-thirds the health. The griffon doesn't want to die, and if its prey is too much bother, it can just leave.

Main Encounters

There are three paths in the adventure: Covewatch Point, Serpent's Lair, and Devil's Spire. The encounters listed here are fairly sparse. Typically I'll prep with a map and a couple of notes and that's plenty. Easily the most complicated encounter is the last, so let's talk about it.

The Covewatch Point is a simple encounter with a few tribal warriors and a lurking tiger.

Serpents Lair is another simple encounter with a charmed crew member and a hypnopython.

There's a spire in the jungle where a devil-worshipper is trying to summon infernal allies from the Hells. The spire has 4 levels, and there's a Spined Devil on a ledge outside. There's a pretty simple dungeon, no need to change it too much. I might drop the damage on the Spined Devil and run the Lemures with minion rules (which you can find in the minions section of this pdf).

Characters

Since I have new players, I'll be pre-making a few characters if they don't want to go through character generation (which is usually where I lose new players). I think options for Cleric, Fighter, Rouge, and Sorcerer would be good. Likely they will decide they want to make their characters from scratch (maybe out of a sense that that's how "real" D&D is played, whatever that is).

When making pre-gen characters, I only fill out the mechanical portions, and I use the "standard array" method in the Player's Handbook: assign the numbers [15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8] to whatever abilities you wish, then apply bonuses. I don't include backgrounds, but ask the players "what do you think you were doing before the adventure?"

The Cleric

Life Domain

Proficiencies

Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma

Skills: History (+3), Medicine (+6)

Weapons/Armor: Simple Weapons, All Armor, Shields

Senses: Perception +3

Languages Common +1

Feats

Warcaster
You have practiced casting spells in the midst of combat, learning techniques that grant you the following benefits:

• You have advantage on Constitution saving throws that you make to maintain your concentration on a spell when you take damage.
• You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands.
• When a hostile creature's movement provokes an opportunity attack from you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature, rather than making an opportunity attack. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature.

Spells (+5, DC 13)

Cantrips: Light, Thaumaturgy, Sacred Flame

Level 1 [2-Slots]: bless, cure wounds, detect magic, guiding bolt, inflict wounds, shield of faith

Actions

• Mace: Action +4 to hit, 1d6+2 bludgeoning damage.

The Fighter

Two-Weapon Fighting

Proficiencies

Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution

Skills: Actobatics, Survival, Perception

Weapons/Armor: All Weapons, All Armor, Shields

Senses: Perception +4, Darkvision

Languages Common, Elvish

Abilities

Mask of the Wild
You can attempt to hide when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.

Fey Ancestry
You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.

Trance
Elves don't sleep, instead, they meditate for 4 hours daily.

Second Wind
On your turn, you can use your bonus action to regain 1d10+LVL hit points. Once you use this, you can't until you finish a short or long rest.

Two-Weapon Fighting
When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.

Actions

• Shortsword: Action +5 to hit, 1d6+3 slashing
• Off-Hand Shortsword: Bonus Action +5 to hit, 1d6+3 slashing
• Longbow: Action +5 to hit, 1d8+3 piercing

The Rogue

Proficiencies

Saving Throws: Dexterity, Intelligence

Tools/Skills: Thieves Tools (+7), Acrobatics (+5), Intimidation (+4), Investigation (+4), Stealth (+7)

Weapons/Armor: Light Armor, Simple Weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords

Senses: Perception +2

Languages Common, Halfling

Abilities

Lucky
When you roll a 1 on a d20 for an attack, saving throw or ability check, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.

Brave
You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Halfling Nimbleness You can move through the space of any creature that is medium or larger.

Expertise
Double your proficiencies with two skills (stealth, thieves' tools)

Sneak Attack
Once per turn, deal an additional 1d6 damage on an attack. To use this benefit you must use a finesse or ranged weapon and either have advantage on the attack or have an ally within 5 feet of the target.

Actions

• Rapier: Action +5 to hit, 1d8+3 piercing damage.
• Shortbow: Action +5 to hit, 1d6+3 piercing damage.
• Dagger: Action +5 to hit, 1d4+3 piercing damage.
• Off-Hand Dagger Bonus Action +5 to hit 1d6 piercing damage

The Sorcerer

Brass Dragon Bloodline (Fire)

Proficiencies

Saving Throws: Constitution, Charisma

Skills: Arcana, Persuasion

Weapons/Armor: Daggers, darts, slings, quarterstaff, light crossbows

Senses: Perception -1

Languages Common, Draconic +1

Spells

Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Dancing Lights, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation

Level 1 [2-Slots]: Burning Hands, Magic Misile

Actions

Quarterstaff: Action +2 to hit, 1d6(8) bludgeoning damage.

Music

Last but most importantly is prepping some ambiance. I made this playlist. It has a few different vibes, from peaceful interlude to stressful jungle exploration.