My Kids' Campaign

A few summers back, I decided to run a very simple campaign for my children.  They had been obsessed with my copy of d20 BESM for months and wanted desperately to make characters of their own.  I said cool and sat down with them, helped pick out their classes and skills and everything else and the end results were a party of pre-teen adventurers based in the city of Eveningstar in the Kingdom of Cormyr. 

They were:
Alyssa Jewel – a human female Shapechanger.  Her ability to change form was limited to cosmetic modifications only, about half of the effect you would get out of a Change Self spell.  By the end of the second adventure, she has also capable of minor elongation. 

Jackie Woo – a human Ninja.  His mother had emigrated from Kara-Tur while he was still very young and found work as a washer-woman in a house of one of the kingdom’s more affluent families.  He had prodigious leaping abilities and carried flashbombs that he was supposed use to blind foes so he could make quick getaways. 

Then there was Jack Mann, the youngest member of the group and a Pet Monster Trainer.  His abilities were focused on the instruction of “Furball”, a bright orange one-eyed “Wooly Roller”.  He has basically an orange… well, furball, and could roll himself up like an armadillo and then “bowl” itself into foes – striking (pardon the pun) with punishing force.

Their first expedition took them to Rivior’s Keep on the 12th day of Kythorn, 1370 DR. 

Three children from the town of Eveningstar sneak away from their homes, chores and families to play at being “real” adventurers.  They explore Rivior’s Keep, a former bandit stronghold on the way to the Haunted Halls and fight some rats and skeletons.  Although he is the youngest, Jack Mann proves to be the most capable in battle.  He and his pet, a heretofore unknown creature that he calls a Wooly Roller, defeat the majority of the enemies he and his friends face. 

A little over a week later, they went back, this time pressing on to the Halls themselves.  I substituted the map from the Sunless Citadel because I had my Eveningstar module boxed up and didn’t want to go looking for it.  My two oldest children spent most of the adventure trying to sabotage each other and this time, the group did very poorly and I was forced to introduce an NPC to help them out (the kids chose the Giant Robot as my character class).  Anyway… 

They soon discovered the dungeon was overrun with kobolds and goblins who are at war with each other.  They found a battered, metal statue half-buried in the rubble of a collapsed room. They dug the statue out and began to fiddle with it when its eyes lit up and it began asking for "Designations" and "Updating Mission Parameters". The scout robot joined the party and helped Alyssa open a sealed coffin containing a troll. 

The robot helped the children defeat the troll.  As the group continued to explore, they met a kobold named Meepo who convinced them to help him find his tribe’s missing dragon.  The group agreed and, despite friction between Jackie and Alyssa, was successful in locating the hatchling. 

Alyssa startled the dragon and it attacked her in self defense and chaos ensued with both Alyssa and Jackie fighting among themselves until both ended up dead in a pit trap.  Jack Mann and the scout robot “AP” headed back to Eveningstar, swearing to never return to the dungeon again.