Solo game for five year old

[Kallatari]

Have you considered something along the lines of park rangers, search and rescue, planetary mapper, or something like that. Give him an overall mission like map out these woods/continent/planet that are now part of the national park/king's park/interplanetary biological reserve. As he roams around (sandbox), he can find side adventures:

- He finds can deal with natural problems - fires, floods, avalanches, etc.
- He can interact with other travellers/explorers/settlers
- He can lead search and rescue missions
- He can find lost settlements/ruins/ancient alien artifacts and need to figure out puzzles/defeat traps
- He can have to survive on his own in the wilderness when food runs out or local water supplies dry up.
- He will need to deal with local animals, fend them off, find out their natural habitats and how to avoid them
- Other researchers/wizards might request he find a specific plant, animal, or even location for them. Add a time limit when it's to help deal with some sort of plague or disease.
- May have to deal/negotiate disputes between resource companies, environmental protectionists and/or locals inhabitants
- Find a way to get himself or a group of travellers across a chasm or waterfall
- If he can "talk to animals", perhaps help the animals out with their own local problems ("that pesky squirrel keeps stealing all my food")


You can have quite a lot of "adventure" without necessarily having a lot of combat... or when there is with wildlife, after a single injury, most realistic animals will likely flee so they don't have to be killed.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

Otherwise, children books about child detectives (starting with Enid Blyton and going forward to present days) are a neverending source of scenarios, complete with mystery, clues, villains and cast of NPC. But again, maybe not for a 5 years old. For 10-12 years old, however, it should be fine.

Oh nonono, that's actually a really good idea for this five-year-old. Playing a detective is right up his alley. I'd just have to avoid "assigning" cases to him by also playing the part of prospective clients from which he can pick and choose. Maybe even combine this with the Scooby-Doo suggestion above to be a local ghost hunter (without being a Ghostbuster and having the limitations of that setting).

Originally Posted by Kallatari

Have you considered something along the lines of park rangers, search and rescue, planetary mapper, or something like that.

Excellent idea! He would totally be into a science-fiction planet explorer. He'd probably also be interested in search and rescue, but that'd probably be too mundane for his imagination.

[Kallatari]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

Excellent idea! He would totally be into a science-fiction planet explorer. He'd probably also be interested in search and rescue, but that'd probably be too mundane for his imagination.

The reframe the search and rescue with supernatural elements. Rescuing someone who gets lost in a snowstorm is one thing. Rescuing someone from the encroaching magical snowstorm that spreads through the formation of magical crystals and can be stopped when the crystals are destroyed is another.

Or rescuing them from a miscast flight spell which doesn't let them land so they are stuck up in the air.

Or rescuing them from the angry "society of magical squirrels" who have captured them with their entangling magic. (Of course, alien plants with animated vines can do the trick and requires a bit of imagination as well.)

Or getting all the other mappers/campers/tourists out before the magical space locust plague that changes victims into more space locusts gets them all.


You can even make it completely fantasy by replacing sci-fi spaceships with magical flying boats that go through space a la Spelljammer.

Or, he's from a scientific world, and the world he's now exploring has magic, and the source of that magic is one of the main campaign mysteries to solve. Could even make his tech be unreliable when it doesn't always work on the magical world.


Anyway, regardless, I find that if you don't want the players to fight NPCs, and huge complicated social interaction settings are not for them (because of age, preference, whatever), then their challenge has to come from the environment, so best to use a setting that has lots of opportunities to vary the environment. Large-area wilderness-type games therefore work best for this. It doesn't eliminate either combat or social interactions, but lets you do lots of 'this is happening/in your way, so fix it/solve it' type scenarios.

[khorboth]

When I ran a game for my five year old, I started with the character. She decided on an Elven princess.

The scenarios are what really made it, though. Giving her a position of moderate power was great. She got directions from the king, but also got to make decisions for those who actually do the stabbing.

My girl loves animals, so I had some of her subordinates capture a Selkie to bring her as a prize. She ordered them to release it. She was interested in boats, so I had a shipwreck and a sailing contest. There was good action without stabbing. Conflict without combat. In general, she liked having a game that was close to what Mom and Dad played.

I gave her, as a character, a somewhat idealized 10-year-old. Then, I had a spoiled-brat 10-year old NPC as a foil. It worked well, and she learned to NOT take the other girl's word for things.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Kallatari

Anyway, regardless, I find that if you don't want the players to fight NPCs, and huge complicated social interaction settings are not for them (because of age, preference, whatever), then their challenge has to come from the environment, so best to use a setting that has lots of opportunities to vary the environment. Large-area wilderness-type games therefore work best for this. It doesn't eliminate either combat or social interactions, but lets you do lots of 'this is happening/in your way, so fix it/solve it' type scenarios.

Man versus man, man versus nature, man versus society, man versus God/fate, man versus self. And society versus society, as in war stories, but that's a bit abstract, perhaps.

[L.J.Steele]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

Excellent idea! He would totally be into a science-fiction planet explorer. He'd probably also be interested in search and rescue, but that'd probably be too mundane for his imagination.

Does he watch Wild Cratts? Edutainment nature show where the PCs travel around to study animals, with magical tech that lets them turn into animals. Most of the problems come from a group of over-the-top villains who want to poach animals for their own ends. Might give you some ideas.

For inspiration of your own on just how weird nature can be, the BBC Planet Earth series is amazing.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by L.J.Steele

Does he watch Wild Cratts?

He does. He might get a kick out of the idea of creature power suits, but that seems a very team-oriented and mission-based setup.

[khorboth]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

He does. He might get a kick out of the idea of creature power suits, but that seems a very team-oriented and mission-based setup.

Perhaps, but what if you riff on the idea? Half Wild Kratts, half Ben-10?

Give him a power-suit that will store X-number of creature powers. Touch to store, then dial-a-power. Powers degrade over time, so he can't save between adventures. Then... Animals are in trouble!

Start with something more mission-based where he gets contacted by <agency> but then establish a villain and a dastardly plot.

[dcarson]

Chip & Dale:Rescue Rangers might give ideas also.

[namada]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

Oh nonono, that's actually a really good idea for this five-year-old. Playing a detective is right up his alley. I'd just have to avoid "assigning" cases to him by also playing the part of prospective clients from which he can pick and choose. Maybe even combine this with the Scooby-Doo suggestion above to be a local ghost hunter (without being a Ghostbuster and having the limitations of that setting).

You could just grab GURPS Mysteries and go with it, however, if you want some adult-oriented entertainment while getting ideas for mysteries - check out Mike Tyson Mysteries and Archer. Both are fun to watch (Tyson being far more absurd), but do offer some good inspiration for this type of stuff. Some would say Archer is probably more GURPS Action than Mystery, but it's sort of a blend really.

If you want an all-in-one RPG experience, I did own Faery's Tale Deluxe at one point, and while it's easy to give it a darker turn, the main thing is that it's very kid-friendly and contains many scenario outlines, which aren't murder-focused.