Zoe – Random Average

The Smartwood Kids: Session 5 (Halloween, pt 2)

We (myself, Kaylee, Sean, and Zoe) continue the adventures of Marzipan, Kenilworth, and Zoology Smartwood, as they defend the town from alien invasion on Halloween. http://randomaverage.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/2019-11-29-Smartwood-Halloween-pt-2.mp3Podcast (randompodcast): Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | RSS

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Minecraft – Underwater Edition

The family and I spend a bit of time playing Minecraft. One way we spend that time is on Testertopia, a realm server we can access via Switch, Windows 10, iPad, Android… whatever. Just lately, we found an ocean (finally), and after battling it out with some Guardians for control of an ancient ruin, we […]

Hogwarts RPG

Spent the afternoon playing Hogwarts with the kids. Elici Davies (fifth year Hufflepuff), Emma Quinn (1st year Gryffindor), and Will Finnegan (third year Ravenclaw) are ‘siblings’ fostered by the same magic-friendly muggle family. I asked them for something weird that happens on the train ride (while will studied “A New History of Hogwarts” and ate […]

More on the Adventures of the Smartwoods

The kids and I played the aforementioned Bikes and Books game a couple times over the weekend and Monday night, getting the Smartwood kids ever closer to figuring out how and why the Assistant Principle is trying to change the town’s history to make an entirely different list of people the heroes of Fayville’s illustrious […]

The Smartwood Children (a Lasers and Feelings hack for my kids)

This weekend has been chock-a-block with face to face gaming goodness with cool kids. Friday was the 14th session of Masks: Phoenix Academy game with Kaylee and the Jamies and, I think, possibly one of the best sessions so far. (Which is good, because we’re not going to be able to play again until something […]

A Potentially Gaming Heavy Weekend

Tonight, the first proper session of Apocalypse World: Ironwall with Kate and Kim and Amanda. Sunday, Masks: Phoenix Academy with Kaylee and Jaime and Jaime. Monday, Scum & Villainy: The Fast Buck, with the regular crew. (Also possibly boardgame night with coworkers on Saturday.) I’ve got a leeeettle bit of stress about all this, since […]

How to Train Your (Kid to Love Dungeons and) Dragon(s)

I’m probably (definitely) projecting, but the bit in How to Train Your Dragon where Hiccup and Astrid bring their kids to meet Toothless and Stormfly is a kind of “passing on this wonderful, magical secret in an otherwise mundane world” that really makes me think of introducing your kids to tabletop roleplaying. When their daughter’s […]

It was cute…

As I already mentioned, my kids and I are playing a game based on The Hollow (Netflix) using a hacked version of World of Dungeons: Turbo. Everyone’s having a good time, and is totally into it, but none so much as my five-year-old Zoe, who requests the game pretty much every evening. Needless to say, […]

The Hollow, by way of World of Dungeon: Turbo

I’m running a game for my kids, inspired by The Hollow series on Netflix, and for said game I’m basically using a loosey-goosey version of World of Dungeons: Turbo. However, the setup for the game doesn’t closely match the original World of Dungeons: Turbo premise, so I’ve already spent a fair amount of time scribbling […]

How to Train Your Dragon with Risus hacks

I’ve been playing an RPG with my kids set in the Archipelago of How to Train Your Dragon. As a prelude to writing about the play itself, here are the rules I’m using. Dragons: Wanderers of the Archipelago A Risus variation for How to Train Your Dragon Adventures (Based mostly on Risus Guard, a Mouse […]

PbtA with Little Kids

(I found this in a text snippet, as though I meant to post it, but as near as I can tell, I never did, so here it is.) The Rules Say what you are: a crystal lady, an adventurer, a princess with a big cat. When you face trouble, roll your two dice. If what […]

Slapped together a mix of World of Dungeons and my Star Wars World: Rebel Ops hack to play with my kids

Lucky isn't a real stat – it's a non-replenishable resource that gives you an auto success. The five stats should total +3 or so. Having a skill means you can't totally fail that thing. I'm still working out what all the special abilities do, especially "Force is with Me", which isn't automatic for anyone, even […]

After a long break, some No Thank You, Evil! this afternoon

+Sean Testerman (5 and a half) wandered into my office, pulled out the NTYE box, opened it up, and told me it had been too long since we played. We dusted off "Ado, the Sneaky Creature who Runs Like the Wind" (and his Invisible Friend with Big Ears, Ryan), and Ado announced he wanted to […]

Mouse Guard Risus with Sean and Kaylee (and Zoe!)

Last night, I swapped out normal bedtime activities for a little RPG fun with Sean and Kaylee, as I have been known to do. For some reason, I always seem to ‘find the time’ to do this sort of thing on a night when I have a hard stop looming (in this case, a Star […]