How do you play a child adventurer? - General Discussion - D&D Beyond General - D&D Beyond Forums (2024)

Hi, beyonders.

For a long time now, I have been trying to figure out how to play a child adventurer. I make a lot of teenage characters and always end up playing them as either little adults, or annoying brats neither are very satisfying to play.

When I look around at teenagers in the real world, I see people who are starting to physically mature. They are not weak and helpless anymore, but still have a lot of growing up to do. They are sometimes too judgmental or too trusting; they haven't seen or experienced a lot of the world and often still like to play. In some ways, they are very much young adults, but in many other ways, they are still very much children.

Teenagers are at a stage in their lives where the boundaries between childhood and adulthood are blurred, and the two life stages often mix in confusingly terrifying silly ways that make life seem like the grandest adventurer of all, with everything else being the icing on the cake.

So; beyonders, do you have any advice for me, on how to play a child or rather, teenage adventurer?

I am looking forward to what you have to say.

Thanks

Foxes

this will be out someday don't know when as I cannot find a release date

https://www.renegadegamestudios.com/news/2019/3/13/renegade-game-studios-and-wizkids-partner-to-bring-wardlings-story-to-life

As stupid as this sounds, go watch Power Rangers. Yes, it's adults pretending to be teens acting like children, and it's completely stupid, but it is what kids thinkthey would be like if they were superheroes. D&D characters are heroes, so this is a great show for inspiration for what you want to do.

My kids both loved power rangers more than a proper superhero like Batman, The Flash, X-Men and would run around doinggoofy kung-fu pretending to be them.

(This is more for 7-10 year old range, for early teens, Teenage mutant ninja turtles...)

Quote from CharlesThePlant >>

See Also

Dungeons & Dragons 5EOne Simple D&D House Rule Encourages Creative Problem SolvingD&D: Why Your Campaign Should (Almost) Never Start At Level OneWhat is the rule 0 in 5e?

My go-to for younger characters is to leave their personalities open to being influenced by the people around them, especially people whose opinions they value more. Study your party's behavior and work out what elements your character would learn from them.

So, say one of the party rescued the kid from a werewolf attack, the kid might look up to them and want to be like them, so they'd try to dress like them and act like them and fight like them because they see that person as being a hero that doesn't need to be afraid of anything. While at the same time, being protective of their hero and wanting to fight for them and defending them whenever anybody says anything wrong against them, and being influenced into the kind of friends they make based upon who their hero likes and dislikes?

Maybe also, trying to prove themselves by saving someone else, as their hero once saved them?

Not quite sure if this is the kind of thing you mean or not.

Quote from Skavies >>

As stupid as this sounds, go watch Power Rangers. Yes, it's adults pretending to be teens acting like children, and it's completely stupid, but it is what kids thinkthey would be like if they were superheroes. D&D characters are heroes, so this is a great show for inspiration for what you want to do.

My kids both loved power rangers more than a proper superhero like Batman, The Flash, X-Men and would run around doinggoofy kung-fu pretending to be them.

(This is more for 7-10 year old range, for early teens, Teenage mutant ninja turtles...)

I used to love power rangers when I was younger, but I was already an early teen 12/13 the first time I saw it. Maybe I should rewatch it and try to remember why I liked it so much and how it felt to pretend to be them.

If you know anyone with kids the age you want to play, ask them what their kids like to watch that is heroic/superheroic. TMNT was me from 12-15, but I also read the comics where they drank beer, swore and killed people. The cartoon was pizza, cowabunga and only killing robots. I liked the cartoon more at the younger end of that age and the comics more at the end of that range.

I was easily late 20's before power rangers so missed my age for liking that show.

The first thing that comes to my head is to try to do everything bigger. Tryto have the character feel more: as you noted they can be too judgmental or too trusting, but they'll also be too angry or too sad or too happy. They'll dream bigger too, have bigger plans and ideas.

By far the most important thing I think is to try to make sure that "teenager" isn't the sole focus of their identity. I have an aarakocram who's in roughly that stage of life and while he's definitely following a lot of these traits, it's not his focus. It certainly influences his personality, sure. He firmly believes in his own invincibility and the fantastic things he was going to accomplish, but he's fairly inexperienced in the real world - he's overly trusting of people, especially his friends. In romance, everything he knows comes from books and he's stuck in that awkward can't-spit-it-out moment. Hethinks he's not only smarter than everyone else in the room (which, in fairness to him, is usually true - he's the only int-based class in the group), but also the wisest too (which is very *not* true). Etc., etc.

All of those are traits that make a lot of sense for a typical teenager - I know I certainly acted in line with some of those when I was younger. But "teenager" is not a character, and that circles me to the second point: try to make sure the character is as nuanced as anyone else you've played. Being a teenager doesn't provide goals or motivations any more than being an adult does. It might influence them: this character's big goal is to find a spell or potion that can stop aarakocram from aging to 'save' his sister - it's a very big and very naive solution to a relatively small problem, because the only thing his sister is suffering from is her natural lifespan, but he loves her and doesn't want her to die, ever. But that goal came from his parents dying a perfectly natural death that he felt was far too soon, not from his age.

The same is true of his personality. Everyone is a little different, and that's definitely true of teen characters as well; make sure "teenager" is not your personality. This same aarakocram is incredibly self-sacrificing, and that's not something that comes from his age, but rather from the life experiences he's had. Being a teen may certainly amplify it, because he doesn't have the maturity to truly understand that he can't fix everything and everyone and does have a lot more confidence in his own ability than he probably should. But that trait didn't come from him being a teenager, it came from him hatching late in life and his parents knowing that they didn't have a lot of time with him, so they tried to impress him with a sense ofnoblesse oblige and that's one of the things that he remembers most about them.

Essentially: start by building them just like you would any other character, with their hopes and goals and fears and the history that made them who they are. But try to view that through the lens of a character who's going to feel more and likely lacks some of the emotional maturity needed to temper their expectations with how the real world works.

Yeah that's one way of doing it, though it need not always be so overt. Maybe the kid subconsciously always tries to come up with really creative solutions to problems because they've started to think like the party mage who's maybe served as their tutor while adventuring. Or maybe the kid develops a serious, direct mindset to offset the overly goofy and aloof rogue- not to say they have anything against the rogue, it's just someone's gotta keep the party on track.

Party members can influence you any number of ways, which might take the form of emulation (like in your example), internalized thought processes, reaction, and anything else you might think of. That way, you're not putting yourself in the box of "ok I'm just gonna do everything this other character does", you still have the freedom to determine which characters influence you in which ways

Quote from DxJxC >>

I am generally opposed to underaged adventurers (anything under 16 or less than 90% their race's adult age). I feel like anything less than that hasn't earned having a background.

I'd argue that Urchin, in particular, makes more sense for a teenage character than an actual adult.

There are definitely backgrounds where I agree with you; you're going to have to explain how you're playing a fifteen year old mercenary veteran, for one example. But there's a lot of other backgrounds that are pretty age-neutral. Haunted One makes a *lot* of sense for a character on the younger side to be sure, and Inheritor very much does as well.

Quote from DxJxC >>

I am generally opposed to underaged adventurers (anything under 16 or less than 90% their race's adult age). I feel like anything less than that hasn't earned having a background.

100%
agreed. I’d have them be “background less” and during the course of the campaign, they earn one based off their actions and such, and as a side effect then get the features of the background, like proficiencies and such.

but, then lies a problem: personality traits, ideals, bonds, flaws.....

in summary: D&D 5es entire system of mechanics isn’t set up for children to run off and save the world like an RPG or Naruto. (Insert shonen anime really).

and that’s why every race says their lifespan, and when they reach adulthood. The game is essentially stating RAI, that children adventurers don’t exist.

the guy joked about being overwhelmed by 2 Orcs and dying... but that’s quite realistic. I don’t recall any campaigns where if you don’t save the kid. The kid frees himself. Or if you get captured, a rogue farmers kid saves you.

Quote from 5PercentGlory >>

Quote from DxJxC >>

I am generally opposed to underaged adventurers (anything under 16 or less than 90% their race's adult age). I feel like anything less than that hasn't earned having a background.

100%
agreed. I’d have them be “background less” and during the course of the campaign, they earn one based off their actions and such, and as a side effect then get the features of the background, like proficiencies and such.

but, then lies a problem: personality traits, ideals, bonds, flaws.....

in summary: D&D 5es entire system of mechanics isn’t set up for children to run off and save the world like an RPG or Naruto. (Insert shonen anime really).

and that’s why every race says their lifespan, and when they reach adulthood. The game is essentially stating RAI, that children adventurers don’t exist.

the guy joked about being overwhelmed by 2 Orcs and dying... but that’s quite realistic. I don’t recall any campaigns where if you don’t save the kid. The kid frees himself. Or if you get captured, a rogue farmers kid saves you.

Quote from Kestral287 >>

Quote from 5PercentGlory >>

Quote from DxJxC >>

I am generally opposed to underaged adventurers (anything under 16 or less than 90% their race's adult age). I feel like anything less than that hasn't earned having a background.

100%
agreed. I’d have them be “background less” and during the course of the campaign, they earn one based off their actions and such, and as a side effect then get the features of the background, like proficiencies and such.

but, then lies a problem: personality traits, ideals, bonds, flaws.....

in summary: D&D 5es entire system of mechanics isn’t set up for children to run off and save the world like an RPG or Naruto. (Insert shonen anime really).

and that’s why every race says their lifespan, and when they reach adulthood. The game is essentially stating RAI, that children adventurers don’t exist.

the guy joked about being overwhelmed by 2 Orcs and dying... but that’s quite realistic. I don’t recall any campaigns where if you don’t save the kid. The kid frees himself. Or if you get captured, a rogue farmers kid saves you.

Why can a fifteen year old not have personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws? You're really arguing that the "entire system of mechanics" doesn't work because of backgrounds having a 'Suggested Characteristics' section? Something that even the PHB says are nothing more than a good starting point?

How do monsters and NPCs have personalities in your worlds? Do you presume that each and every one of them must also have chosen one of those backgrounds? They're certainly not in any monsters' default stat blocks, after all.

Not in any monsters default stat blocks?

you sure about that?

NPCs the modules tell you their personalities. When you homebrew, you create them yourself.

monsters. Does it not say things like: (Example Yuan-ti) “Wearing cloaks and cowls they masquerade as humans and infiltrate civilized lands gathering information...”

is this not personality traits and etc?

strange.

that aside. You want to change the goalposts from the OPs’ and My point? I’ll discuss YOUR goalposts in DM.

Quote from 5PercentGlory >>

Quote from DxJxC >>

I am generally opposed to underaged adventurers (anything under 16 or less than 90% their race's adult age). I feel like anything less than that hasn't earned having a background.

100%
agreed. I’d have them be “background less” and during the course of the campaign, they earn one based off their actions and such, and as a side effect then get the features of the background, like proficiencies and such.

but, then lies a problem: personality traits, ideals, bonds, flaws.....

this is me stating, that as a DM, when giving the background based off their exploits and RP and all that, if you factor in their traits flaws ideals and bonds into their background, or do you not.

I should have stated that much more clearly before. I see where the confusion that lead to trying to change goalposts came from. But I will also happily, in DM, discuss your different goalpost scenario as well.

Quote from 5PercentGlory >>

Quote from Kestral287 >>

Quote from 5PercentGlory >>

Quote from DxJxC >>

I am generally opposed to underaged adventurers (anything under 16 or less than 90% their race's adult age). I feel like anything less than that hasn't earned having a background.

100%
agreed. I’d have them be “background less” and during the course of the campaign, they earn one based off their actions and such, and as a side effect then get the features of the background, like proficiencies and such.

but, then lies a problem: personality traits, ideals, bonds, flaws.....

in summary: D&D 5es entire system of mechanics isn’t set up for children to run off and save the world like an RPG or Naruto. (Insert shonen anime really).

and that’s why every race says their lifespan, and when they reach adulthood. The game is essentially stating RAI, that children adventurers don’t exist.

the guy joked about being overwhelmed by 2 Orcs and dying... but that’s quite realistic. I don’t recall any campaigns where if you don’t save the kid. The kid frees himself. Or if you get captured, a rogue farmers kid saves you.

Why can a fifteen year old not have personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws? You're really arguing that the "entire system of mechanics" doesn't work because of backgrounds having a 'Suggested Characteristics' section? Something that even the PHB says are nothing more than a good starting point?

How do monsters and NPCs have personalities in your worlds? Do you presume that each and every one of them must also have chosen one of those backgrounds? They're certainly not in any monsters' default stat blocks, after all.

Not in any monsters default stat blocks?

you sure about that?

NPCs the modules tell you their personalities. When you homebrew, you create them yourself.

monsters. Does it not say things like: (Example Yuan-ti) “Wearing cloaks and cowls they masquerade as humans and infiltrate civilized lands gathering information...”

is this not personality traits and etc?

strange.

that aside. You want to change the goalposts from the OPs’ and My point? I’ll discuss YOUR goalposts in DM.

Ah! So we understand that personalities and such can come from places other than backgrounds. Excellent. Now why is a character not having a background (solely because their DM decided to deny them one) leading to them suddenly not being allowed to have a personality?

I'm also very confused about what goalpost I've possibly shifted when literally all I've done is question something you said, which is that personality traits et al are a "problem" if you don't have a background.

Of course, all of that is very easily solved by just... not randomly denying characters having a background. You want to restrict certain ones? Sure that makes a lot of sense and is something DMs pretty routinely do anyway. But arguing that they can't have a background at all seems... difficult to justify, especially when there's one explicitly pointed in the direction of children in the PHB (urchin, in case you missed the earlier post), and especially when the PHB uses exactly that background for example characters and notes that it occurred during one such example character's (Tiki's, if you want to look) childhood.

It seems very disingenuous to first deny your players having a background for a half-baked rationale and then second claim that because they don't have a background they don't get to give their character personality traits.

Half baked rationale...

player character: “I want to be a 16 year old elf”

PhB “elf typically reaches adulthood at 100”

yes. Half baked. That the 16 year old elf. Who is the equivalent of a 2.88 year old human. How half baked to ask how this person is a Folk Hero. Or an entertainer. Or a spy.

all of this^
is the goalpost being changed. The OP wants to know How to play a child adventurer and it be fun.

the ways he’s been doing. Which is your goalpost you keep trying to change back to “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” OP has not been finding fun.

I offered OP a scenario where he begins backgroundless and develops it as his adventurer grows and matured, as an alternative to be/have fun.

you can stay on topic. Not change the goalposts. Or take the off topic to DM, as I requested politely.

They say that an old man has an easier time writing a young man, than a young man has writing an old man.

The old man remembers what it was like to have youth, but the young man does not know what it's like to decay into old age.

You were young once, as were we. Simply remember back to what it was like to be a child.

I would say that playing a child seems a bit absurd: the skills and stats represent years of training. One doesn't simply pick up a spell book or a sword and become a fighter or a mage. A child who can do anything as well as an adult level one is likely the most talented child who ever lived: a progidy of the highest order.