My daughter came home yesterday and immediately demanded we play D&D. Since the last campaign was over, I grabbed my notes for 13 Dungeons and had her roll up a character using my homebrew system. Three minutes later, she had created Faythe the Paladin. (She didn’t know what a paladin was, she just chose the abilities Heal, Holy Fire, and Duelist, which I think is a pretty good build for a paladin.)
The mystery of the stolen gold
Faythe wandered into the fishing village of Anglerhead and found two sailors from the Orca Delima accusing the local fishermen of stealing the gold from their ship. Our hero immediately intervened and offered to find the missing gold. The sailors gave her one day before they would destroy the town!
Faythe began exploring the area. There was gold dust in the tidal pools on the coral beach! She also saw a little girl being chased by a huge steaming Kettle Crab. The paladin unleashed her Holy Fire and cooked the crab to death. The girl thanked her, said she knew nothing about the missing gold, but had heard some strange singing up near Dwindle Cliff.
The lighthouse
At the top of the cliff, Faythe found a small lighthouse. The creepy old lightkeeper invited her in, but Faythe declined. She snooped around outside, and fought off a Dire Pelican with her sword. The noise brought the old woman outside again. This time, she led Faythe to the edge of the cliff to show her the gold dust under the waves. Then she tried to shove Faythe to her doom. The paladin just barely grabbed the edge of the cliff and climbed back up. When the old woman attacked again, Faythe ran her through with her sword, and the woman fell into the sea. Back inside the lighthouse, Faythe found some silver coins, and obtained a magic lantern that could clear away a foggy sky.
An insightful interlude
It was at this moment that my 9yo daughter turned to me and said, “I think I’m the villain. I just killed an old lady, and stole all her things. That’s villain stuff.” Then she laughed and continued the game.
Dangerous investigations
Through the dense fog, Faythe heard the sailors singing on the Orca Delima, and a woman singing near the Dwindle Cliff. The paladin climbed down to the beach, and then worked her way along the rocks. A huge wave almost drowned her, and smashed on the rocks. Then she spotted some stone stairs on the cliff, and the gold under the water. She dove into the sea and swam down into the glittering cave. Defying the powerful current and avoiding the deadly sharks and barnacles, she emerged in a flooded cave. She spotted thirteen mounds of gold, and one tentacled sea witch!
The witch attacked with stinging tentacles, but Faythe blasted her back with Holy Fire. Then the sea witch unleashed her magical song, but Faythe sang back at her, and overwhelmed her with holy music. With the sea witch weakened, Faythe grabbed the gold bricks from the Orca Delima and swam to safety. She returned the gold to the sailors and saved the village!
DM Notes
Another win for the homebrew system, we got a game started in just a couple minutes and had a great time. As always, I was excited to see how versatile and creative my little girl was in dealing with strange people, problems, and creatures. But most of all, I was impressed with her realization that her “heroic actions” were not so heroic!
It’s so interesting to see the problem solving done by younger people. I don’t think anyone at my table would try and out sing the sea witch but the logic is there.
If it’s not a bother could you write about your homebrew system? It sounds light weight and interesting. Cheers.
Absolutely, I’m trying to get more playtesting and tweaking done before I put the homebrew out for all to see, but I will try to blog about it soon. Thanks!