I'm a teacher, and I want a Genesys setting for elementary age kids

I guess what I really need is a replacement for combat. Any ideas? Thanks!

Depends on the setting, I guess. Sports would be my first thought. Or you could go with the "children's game" anime style, where the combat represents the over-the-top but harmless card or toy game trends.

I think it'd be possible to run a problem-solving style game with Genesys that downplays combat. Maybe the PCs are a group of kid detectives, or regular kids, like in Stranger Things or The Goonies, where directly fighting the bad guys is a bad idea. The goal would be to find clues to lead to other locations, eventually leading to whatever your climax is. The climax doesn't have to be a fight; it could be stopping something bad from happening via other means, like the kids at the end of Goonies trying to free the pirate ship to save their neighborhood.

There are other systems that are explicitly set up to handle this sort of puzzle-solving gameplay, such as Gumshoe and its variants. But I default to this style of adventure design and use it with Star Wars and Genesys , and it works fine as long as you provide multiple ways to get the same information to progress to the next location. One way to do this is the "three-clue rule," which you can find explained here . In a nutshell, you make sure there are at least three ways to get a crucial clue that helps the PCs move forward in the plot.

Hope this helps. I think it could be a lot of fun!

Those are great ideas. I don't know much about sports but I'm sure the kids do. Puzzle solving is good too because I can always use the old (players cover your ears) whatever-the-players-think-of-is-what's-happening trick.

What about a skill list? If I just take out combat skills and rename a few things ... or is there a good *stand-in* for combat?

I want to avoid combat altogether just so I don't get myself in trouble ?

You'd need a team-based, elimination sport, rather than a score-based sport. Some variant of dodgeball would work; you've got all the basic parts, like movement, range, 'attacks', defense, 'weapons', but it's just sport. Although your mileage may vary on that.

As for skills, again it depends on the setting and era you're going for. Modern day? Fantasy? Futuristic? Just keep the skill list the same appropriate to whatever setting you're using, except remove the combat and magic skills.

Another option is to run magic like a Harry Potter book, where clever uses of spells and solving mysteries is the main theme. While combat may happen, it is just pushing people around and turning them into frogs.

Also, this is not Genesys related, but you may want to check this out:

https://www.classcraft.com/

Hmm. Reducing the skill list of combat options really amounts to dropping Brawl, Melee, Ranged, and Gunnery (and their variants). Of these, Brawl and Ranged arguably have non-combat implementations (like kicking down a door, or throwing a baseball). Of the two, I'd be most inclined to keep Ranged, perhaps renamed "Throwing." But another solution would be to just lump them both into Athletics.

If you really want to make a larger skill list, you can always add more Knowledge skills. For a game where the PCs are kids, Knowledge (Education) makes sense (covering the 3 R's), along with Knowledge ([insert name of town they are in]) to know random facts about Grocer Gary or which streets have pizza restaurants on them. If you do a sports theme, Knowledge ([Sport Name]) could cover the rules and various tactics in that sport.

2 hours ago, SavageBob said:

Knowledge ([insert name of town they are in]) to know random facts about Grocer Gary or which streets have pizza restaurants on them.

That's fantastic!

Definitely bring magic to the front and centre. I’m running a game for my 7 and 9 year old kids and magic is where they have all the fun.

I sat them down and said “your animals, but you talk, like Peter rabbit.” Then let them decide what they where each good at as far as characteristics and skills. Now we adventure in a world where pet dragons can be summoned and the dragons ancestors are worshiped as gods. Carrots are stolen, weasels and squirrels are plotting against the rabbits, a bunny got lost in the forest... it’s a kids cartoon of their making and I do zero prep just letting them go Wild!

12 hours ago, Kakita Shijin said:

I'm a teacher, and I want a Genesys setting for elementary age kids

I guess what I really need is a replacement for combat. Any ideas? Thanks!

10 hours ago, Kakita Shijin said:

Those are great ideas. I don't know much about sports but I'm sure the kids do. Puzzle solving is good too because I can always use the old (players cover your ears) whatever-the-players-think-of-is-what's-happening trick.

What about a skill list? If I just take out combat skills and rename a few things ... or is there a good *stand-in* for combat?

I want to avoid combat altogether just so I don't get myself in trouble ?

What sorts of TV shows are they watching?

The "Tails of Equestria" RPG might provide some ideas for encouraging Friendship in a game environment. Also, and I'm not sure if this is the correct age group, the Paw Patrol TV show is all about overcoming challenges through skill - you could look to that and see what sorts of skills the characters in the show use and then replace many (if not all) of the aggressive Genesys skills. Paw Patrol, in particular, could provide a framework for adding real world learning into the game, as the characters often have to research some specific knowledge each episode.

If you do use their favorite TV shows for inspiration, don't forget to "re-brand" the characters into your own setting/universe!

You could re-skin combat as the need to score x number of successes against a puzzle or challenge. Basically, give your puzzles a wound threshold.

Sports you might have to break down into some kind of rounds - I'm pretty sure the kids would not be happy to just roll once and win/lose a game.

I hope those ideas help!