So, I've been playing a short while (only 2 sessions, really) with a friend of mine and his kids.
He's my age and his kids are 12 and 15.
Now, here's the thing; his oldest has taken to roleplaying like a fish to water. And her character has developed a certain banter with her dad's character.
But, the youngest has kind of felt a bit left out by this.

So, I'm going to introduce another player character to the group.
Namely his youngest daughter.
She's only 10, but I think she can manage to play a kid in the game.

So my plan is that she'll be a force sensitive kid that they have to rescue from the empire (and some thugs in general).
She'll take a liking to the 12 year olds character, because it's a Dug, and thus looks like a pet to this kid (who¨'s spent an isolated life in imperial facilities). The Dug won't like this, but that doesn't matter because it will sort of mirror the relationship that's developed between the other two characters.

So, I thought I'd make her character before the next session, without her.
But I don't know how to make a child character.
I was thinking of omitting obligations and duty completely to make it easier on her. Especially since she'll be force sensitive, meaning she'll have to deal with morality as well.
I was also considering not giving her a class, really. And instead just make a "base" character, but that doesn't feel like a good solution.
But then, what class would she have? And would she have full access to that class, or just limited?

I don't really see any class fitting her as she's only 10 years old and you don't really have a "class" by then.

1 hour ago, OddballE8 said:

So my plan is that she'll be a force sensitive kid that they have to rescue from the empire (and some thugs in general).
She'll take a liking to the 12 year olds character, because it's a Dug, and thus looks like a pet to this kid (who¨'s spent an isolated life in imperial facilities). The Dug won't like this, but that doesn't matter because it will sort of mirror the relationship that's developed between the other two characters.

Even though the player is a kid, I'm not sure why you're deciding this sentiment for them. That seems like something that develops (or not) through the session. But anyway...

Kids of almost any age are able to play this game, plenty of threads on kids younger than 10. And most kids don't need to play a kid in order to enjoy it...just like they don't need to be 20 year old boys to identify with Luke Skywalker. My friend is playing D&D with his kids (12 and 8), and they run adult wizards and rangers (albeit young adults). Kids often like to play someone they themselves might want to look up to or become.

I would ask what kind of character they want, and try to identify something in a media they know. If they watch TCW or Rebels, do they like Ahsoka, Hera, Sabine, Ezra...Hondo? Or if they've never seen these shows, are there any other shows they might identify with? Even basic archetypes like "warrior princess" or "computer wizard" can be enough grounding. Then just make the character normally, using an appropriate class, and maybe go easy on the Obligation/Morality so they aren't overwhelmed by the complexity.

If you know roughly what she'd like to be able to do, you can give her the Force Sensitive Exile (or Emergent) and give her some skills as career skills that cater to her.

I agree with the above. I'd add that I would shy away from nerfing the character simply because she's supposed to be a kid. Anakin was a full-fledged PC in The Phantom Menace ; he ran a full pod race and participated in dogfights! If anything, being a kid should probably just be a narrative decision, not a mechanical one. For instance, if the kid-character rolls threat on a social check, you might assign a setback on the next check, since everyone dismisses the character as "just a kid." On the other hand, advantage might equal a boost, since people find the character cute or whatever.

TL;DR: Just treat this as a normal character, with youth acting as a narrative (not mechanical) effect.

I agree with the others. Don't make being a "kid" anything special mechanically. Also, if this character is going to be Force sensitive, I suggest having her start out with an F&D career, with Morality and everything.

1 hour ago, whafrog said:

Even though the player is a kid, I'm not sure why you're deciding this sentiment for them. That seems like something that develops (or not) through the session. But anyway...

Kids of almost any age are able to play this game, plenty of threads on kids younger than 10. And most kids don't need to play a kid in order to enjoy it...just like they don't need to be 20 year old boys to identify with Luke Skywalker. My friend is playing D&D with his kids (12 and 8), and they run adult wizards and rangers (albeit young adults). Kids often like to play someone they themselves might want to look up to or become.

I would ask what kind of character they want, and try to identify something in a media they know. If they watch TCW or Rebels, do they like Ahsoka, Hera, Sabine, Ezra...Hondo? Or if they've never seen these shows, are there any other shows they might identify with? Even basic archetypes like "warrior princess" or "computer wizard" can be enough grounding. Then just make the character normally, using an appropriate class, and maybe go easy on the Obligation/Morality so they aren't overwhelmed by the complexity.

We talked about it and she was happy with the idea.

And since I've worked with kids for over 20 years and played with young kids (8-12) for almost 5 years, this is how I've learned to handle a new arrival to the RPG scene. They get premade characters and a short description of likes/behaviors, and then they get to grow from there.

As for not giving it any mechanical disadvantage, it just feels odd to have a 10 year old kid with the same amount of skill as a 30 year old bounty hunter (for example).

Well, considering that most "30 year old Bounty Hunters" are going to be more experienced than a starting character anyway, I don't see why this new character shouldn't simply be built as by RAW, as any other starting character. Most starting characters are teenagers, early twenties at the oldest.

22 minutes ago, OddballE8 said:

As for not giving it any mechanical disadvantage, it just feels odd to have a 10 year old kid with the same amount of skill as a 30 year old bounty hunter (for example).

Again, consider the source material. The Phantom Menace has a kid as a main character, and he doesn't seem particularly nerfed compared to the other stars. Wicket the Ewok is supposed to be a kid in Return of the Jedi . Then there's a host of fiction out there with fully capable kids as main characters, ranging from The Goonies to the Harry Potter books.

I suppose if you really wanted to distinguish, say, a child Nikto from an adult Nikto (or whatever), you might swap a point of Brawn, Agility, or Willpower for an extra point of Cunning or Presence. Maybe do -2 Wound Threshold, +2 Strain Threshold. But that's only if you really are set on making a kid mechanically different from an adult.

The only other "option" is to follow the rules for juvenile creatures on page 415 of the F&D core rules.

7 hours ago, SavageBob said:

Again, consider the source material. The Phantom Menace has a kid as a main character, and he doesn't seem particularly nerfed compared to the other stars. Wicket the Ewok is supposed to be a kid in Return of the Jedi . Then there's a host of fiction out there with fully capable kids as main characters, ranging from The Goonies to the Harry Potter books.

People keep bringing up anakin in the phantom menace, but I don't think that's a fair example.
He's supposed to be the strongest force sensetive person ever.

4 hours ago, Tramp Graphics said:

The only other "option" is to follow the rules for juvenile creatures on page 415 of the F&D core rules.

Thanks! I didn't even know that existed! (don't use F&D much)

Well, despite pretty much everyone saying "there's no difference between a 10 year old child and a grown man", I've decided to go with there being a difference.
Mainly because I work with kids that age and I know for a fact that there's a massive difference.

I looked at the juvenile creatures rules on page 415 of F&D and decided not to use those.

Here's how I'm going to do it.
A child will have less starting abilities, but the ability to increase its characteristics after character creation.
A child starts with half the XP that a regular character would, but is allowed to increase its characteristics using earned XP while playing until they've reached the base XP that their species has.
After that it works as any other character.

11 hours ago, OddballE8 said:

Well, despite pretty much everyone saying "there's no difference between a 10 year old child and a grown man", I've decided to go with there being a difference.
Mainly because I work with kids that age and I know for a fact that there's a massive difference.

I looked at the juvenile creatures rules on page 415 of F&D and decided not to use those.

Here's how I'm going to do it.
A child will have less starting abilities, but the ability to increase its characteristics after character creation.
A child starts with half the XP that a regular character would, but is allowed to increase its characteristics using earned XP while playing until they've reached the base XP that their species has.
After that it works as any other character.

Consider the player's point of view. What fun is it to come to the GM with a cool character concept, only to have the GM nerf the character for the sake of "realism"? This is a cinematic game, not a realistic one. But it's your table, and you're gonna do what you're gonna do, so best of luck and have fun.

11 hours ago, OddballE8 said:

A child will have less starting abilities, but the ability to increase its characteristics after character creation.
A child starts with half the XP that a regular character would, but is allowed to increase its characteristics using earned XP while playing until they've reached the base XP that their species has.

Starting characters are pretty nerfed to begin with, and the PC will be hard pressed to find relevance, much less contribute meaningfully to the party. I started my son with 2 specs, from 2 different careers, essentially for free- just to realize the character he wanted to play. His character is also not 6 years old, as he is, but rather "Ezra's age from the first season of Rebels."

I am not sure why you came to the forum seeking advice, when you seem pretty resistant to following any of it. It seems to me that you are needlessly limiting the potential of a new character, and probably making a young new player's first exposure to role playing considerably less fun.

edit: And please at least allow the child to have some input in the creation of the character.

If you insist on some form of mechanical deviation, I would limit it to lowering their Brawn stat to a 1 (and giving them 20 extra starting XP). Anything beyond that might be realistic, but this is Star Wars that we're talking about.

1 hour ago, Edgehawk said:

I am not sure why you came to the forum seeking advice, when you seem pretty resistant to following any of it.

Well, maybe because I asked for advice on how to make a child character and the responses were "don't".
Not exactly helpful in my book.

As for why I'm starting the character pre-made and making it a 10 year old child, let's just leave it at me knowing this child infinitely better than anyone here since nobody here has ever met her.
I've played with kids for many years, and I've found that kids who have never played an RPG and don't know what it is, have a much easier time of getting into it if they get a premade character and some motivations than for them to make the character themselves.
I play with kids at work, since I work at a school, and I've done so for many years now.
With older kids, you can let them make their character from scratch the first time.
With the younger ones, I've found that making pre-mades is the best way. Sure, some can handle making up their own character, but most don't and it's up to me to judge that ability on an individual basis.

The only things I usually let the kids pick (if I'm not using the pre-mades in the starter kits) is the name, gender, species and possibly career. Then I do all the other mechanical stuff. In this case, I've let her pick the name, gender and species, since the character will start out as a 10 year old and thus not have a career.


Besides, it seems you guys think I just made the character and didn't speak a word with the child.
I sat her down and explained the situation with her and she was very positive to the whole thing. She liked the concept and was completely onboard.
So can we please drop the whole discussion around the IF and concentrate on the HOW.

I'm going to make a child character (whether you like it or not) and that character will start with a disadvantage compared to a fully grown character (because no 10 year old is as skilled and physically developed as an adult), but will quickly catch up as we play.

So, anyone got any actual tips on the best way to simulate a 10 year old character in-game?

My suggestion: Keep the stats as RAW, but introduced an obligation for the character.

1 minute ago, kaosoe said:

My suggestion: Keep the stats as RAW, but introduced an obligation for the character.

Hmm.
What obligation would that be?
"grow up"?

Actually, that's not a bad idea, with some modifications.

Obligation: Grow up (or some other fitting title).
Character gets -1 in Brawn, Intellect and Presence until the age of X.
At said age, remove this obligation.

Or something like that.

(btw. going by what was considered adult in the past, I'd say 14 or 15 would be sufficient age to be considered adult)

12 minutes ago, OddballE8 said:

Hmm.
What obligation would that be?
"grow up"?

Actually, that's not a bad idea, with some modifications.

Obligation: Grow up (or some other fitting title).
Character gets -1 in Brawn, Intellect and Presence until the age of X.
At said age, remove this obligation.

Or something like that.

(btw. going by what was considered adult in the past, I'd say 14 or 15 would be sufficient age to be considered adult)

For humans in most games, 16 is considered "adult" physically at least. It varies with species though. For example, Chiss are adults at 13, and Hutts don't reach adulthood for a couple of hundred years.

The problem with nerfing the attributes in this game is the scale is so compact. There are no "weak" humans. Adult Twi'leks default to Brawn 1. Weequay default to Int 1, but then so do worms. There's just no wiggle room, and the impact on the mechanics is huge. (If this were, say, D&D, there'd be a lot more numeric room for flavour.)

It's tempting to think you'll just be able to scale things for them...but almost every skill test would have to be Easy or Average, and the way the game is constructed, all the other PCs will have as good or better chance of doing that skill themselves. So it just increases the chance the player will feel their PC is "insufficient".

However, if you're dead set on dropping attributes, I'd just make the PC "as they will be when adult", then ask the player (or decide yourself) which attribute(s) to drop by 1. Rather than offering XP to use later to boost it back up, just say that when the time comes (e.g.: they become a teenager) they'll get that -1 back. That way they could still have a "computer whiz kid"...Brawn might be 1, but there isn't a real reason for Intellect to not remain a 4 if that's what they want. Creating a web of house rules for XP expenditure and Obligation just seems too complicated for a one-time thing.

As for "I work with kids", I guess actually having kids doesn't count? If I told my son, especially at that age, what his PC thought of something, he'd have lost interest. There's a difference between saying "You think PC X is a cute puppy, so you like her" vs "You've never seen a Dug before, kind of looks like a cute pet" and let the player decide what to do with that info.

I don't want to sound condescending (which inevitably means I will), but having played with your own kids and having played with dozens if not a hundred kids over the years is a bit different in comparison to each other.

I use roleplaying games as a pedagogical tool at school. I've played with somewhere around a hundred kids over the years.
It's not the same as having played with your own kids. It's different.

But I do think you're right in that the best way to simulated childhood is to make the "adult" character and drop some attributes by 1.
Doing it with an obligation or the like would be the easiest way to keep track of it and let the player know that it's something temporary.
Other than that, I'll stay away from obligations for this PC since they'll be dealing with morality instead.
The PC will have a force class of some sort, I suppose, but will be more set up as a "kid with force powers".
This is also where the player will have an advantage compared to the other players, despite their physical disadvantage. So that'll hopefully even it out.

24 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

For humans in most games, 16 is considered "adult" physically at least. It varies with species though. For example, Chiss are adults at 13, and Hutts don't reach adulthood for a couple of hundred years.

Yeah, I've met 12 year olds that are almost as strong as me, and taller than me.
So it's very individual.
But I'm going to go with either 14 or 15.
I plan on advancing time in this campaign pretty decently. They'll be doing a few adventures every year in-game, so after maby six to ten sessions, she'll be nearing the right age.

I don't think anyone here has any issue with you creating the kid's PC for them. If you think that's best for this situation, do it. It works for con games.

We're telling you that nerfing the PC is a bad idea. And it is. But you seem to be resistant to all the logic folks here have outlined, so why do you keep coming back to this discussion?

4 minutes ago, OddballE8 said:

Yeah, I've met 12 year olds that are almost as strong as me, and taller than me.
So it's very individual.
But I'm going to go with either 14 or 15.
I plan on advancing time in this campaign pretty decently. They'll be doing a few adventures every year in-game, so after maby six to ten sessions, she'll be nearing the right age.

Well, that's not quite what I mean. What I mean is that the actual age of adulthood varies radically from one species to the next. Specifically, who quickly a given species reaches physical adulthood is different for each species.