10 Best Kid-Friendly Dungeons & Dragons Modules
There is nothing better than players sharing their favorite game with their loved ones, and for some families, that includes all their favorite (potentially nerdy) pastimes, like Dungeons & Dragons. That being said, D&D isn’t exactly the easiest game for kids to play, and if even a seasoned DM ever wants to run a game for them, they have to be ready to make many adjustments.
However, the module itself doesn’t have to be difficult. Pulling from popular children’s movies and shows is always a good start, but DMs may want a module with a more classic D&D feel. Thankfully, there are several different ideas that they can pull from, ranging from iconic to outright hilarious.
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10
Be Astronauts With Spelljammer
Every Child is Fascinated by Space
When you ask a classroom of children what they want to be when they grow up, at least one will exclaim that they want to be an astronaut – and with the Spelljammer setting, that’s exactly what they can be. Space, referred to in D&D as the Astral Sea (Astral Plane), is boundless, timeless, and as the githyanki call it: home. And to young, NASA-aspiring minds, it’s the perfect backdrop for an adventure.
Space adventures are about as fantastical and wonderous as you could get for a child, capturing the same magic as those inflatable star domes that displayed constellations in elementary school, if anyone remembers those. If kids want to lean into a sci-fi route (a la Star Wars), it can easily move in that direction as well. Even many adults think space is cool, so a module set in the Astral Plane would be an excellent bonding experience for all parties.
9
Go On a Wild Sheep Chase
A Free Module With a Funny Plot
One of the loveliest things about D&D is the massive amount of support that the community tends to have with one another, sharing as many resources and offering as much help as they can. This includes sharing modules, which is exactly what happened for A Wild Sheep Chase on DM’s Guild. It outlines the party in a town as normal when there’s a wild sheep on the loose that they have to chase down.
Upon catching the sheep, there’s a much deeper plot to follow, but when it comes to DMing a campaign for kids, the module could simply be trying to catch that sheep. Wacky hijinks and laughter are essential for childhood joy, and there’s nothing as funny as a Tom and Jerry type of chase sequence, complete with “baa’d puns.”
8
Tell the Tale of An Ogre and His Cake
Available At DM’s Guild For Any Price
DM’s Guild continues to be a resource, and this includes modules written by parents for parents, such as in the case of An Ogre and His Cake. It’s Pay What You Want as well, allowing all parents to have access to the PDF. It’s a wholesome campaign about an ogre taking a birthday cake, so the party must get it back, complete with children’s drawings as the artwork.
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The ogre, Clonker, is a gem and ends up becoming adored by many children who play the module. It’s specifically designed with the most basic and bare-bones character sheets that DMs could use with kids, a genuinely family-friendly experience that allows everyone to experience D&D. This could potentially open up other food-related adventures, and kids always have a blast with those.
7
Encourage Kids to Protect Animals and Nature
Bonus Points For Furry Friends At the Table
Animals are another particularly special interest for children, especially if they grow up in a pet-friendly household. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary if any kids in your party wanted to be druids, especially if they have a love of animals and nature. Thankfully, it has a lot of relatively simple cantrips that they can use as simplified and low-level characters.
You could easily DM a classic, eco-friendly story surrounding them protecting nature or any animals. The plant or animal could be endangered or magical/special in some way if DMs want to emphasize any rarity in the story. If parents are also firm believers of field trips, they could easily play this game after a fun trip at the zoo, implementing all the cool facts that they learned.
6
Escort Missions Are Easy to Follow
Just Be Sure To Not Overwhelm
It’s important to remember that sessions for children need to be short and simple, as they can typically only handle about an hour at a time, maybe two hours if they’re older kids. So a single mission is typically enough for an entire session, so an escort mission can fit snugly in that timeline. It could be as simple as helping someone move to a new town.
Just be sure to remember not to overwhelm kids with too much to juggle. Escort missions can be tedious for even adults, depending on who they have to escort – so it’s best to make sure the NPC is fairly self-sufficient. It is a party comprised of children, after all.
5
Seasonal One Shots Are Always Fun
Plus A Great Game For the Holidays
Using holiday get-togethers is another wonderful way to introduce D&D to children, especially as a game everyone can have fun with. Regardless of what they celebrate, players could flavor the holiday campaign however they wish. It could be about Santa and his elves around Christmastime, a fantastical myth around Lunar New Year, or one could rework it to simply be a seasonal festival.
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It’s a fun way to be festive, regardless of the celebration, all while allowing it to be an easy experience for first-time players. The holidays are a backdrop and a reason, everything else the DM can easily build up from there. Just be sure to make sure that every child is able to have fun, especially if it’s a larger group.
4
Magic Item Quests Pique Interest
Plus It’s Like Children’s Shows
Sometimes, the plot can be something as simple as a quest to find a mythical magic item — bonus points if it’s only a legend in the world. It’s not something that kids are unfamiliar with in stories, with shows like Adventure Time featuring this storyline in various anecdotal episodes.
The item could be anything that the DM (or the kids) wants it to be, and its importance will obviously vary depending on the table. However, what kids want is that sense of adventure, being just as excited about the fantastical journey as they are about the destination.
3
Pure, Classic Dungeon Diving Always Works
An Easy Campaign For All Ages
Perhaps one of the easiest sessions that can be run is a module of pure dungeon-crawling, of simply fighting various (balanced) enemies and being gratuitously rewarded as a result. It’s without a doubt the most flexible module, without requiring any overarching plot or timeframe. This allows the campaign to be a basic one-shot, or it could go on for several sessions if players want to play more.
This is even easier when working with kids, as enemies could have incredibly low CR ratings to make it a lower challenge. The DM won’t want to be too hard and make the kids angry (and they especially don’t want to devastate any of them with player character death), so throwing easy enemies at them to fight is the best way to approach it.
2
Slay the Dragon-Like Heroes
It’s Not Called “Dungeons and Dragons” For No Reason
Huge disclaimer: yes, dragons in actual D&D are insanely powerful and difficult to defeat. It would be unreasonable to throw a legitimate, lore-accurate dragon at a party consisting of children, so the combat encounter would definitely have to be homebrewed at least some. They’re playing as great heroes, they should feel like great heroes – so let them slay the dragon.
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If a particular sheet is preferable, using a Wyrmling is an excellent way to do this (just say that it’s a dragon) – the kids aren’t supposed to look behind the DM screen, after all. Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time adults have had to re-brand something common in order for children not to fuss. It happens with food all the time. How would “slaying a grand dragon” be any different?
1
Save the Princess is Iconic
A Classic Fantasy Trope is an Excellent Starter
There is perhaps no story trope that is as iconic and as familiar to children as the classic Save the Princess story. It’s an easy concept that crosses generations, with classic Disney movies being no greater example of this – therefore, it would be an equally easy objective for kids to follow. If they’re already fans of games like Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda where saving the princess is the plot, this will be a very easy campaign.
There are many easy archetypes that children are already familiar with when it comes to these stories about rescuing royalty, which they could use as a template. They could easily replicate characters they’re familiar with, which would only make learning about D&D even easier. If the DM is coming up short on all ideas, perhaps all they need to do is have a princess locked away in a tower, and the kids will know what to do from there.
Dungeons and Dragons
A fantasy roleplaying tabletop game designed for adventure-seekers, the original incarnation of Dungeons & Dragons was created by Gary Gygax in 1974.
- Franchise
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Dungeons & Dragons
- Original Release Date
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January 26, 1974
- Publisher
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Wizards of the Coast, TSR Inc.
- Designer
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E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson
- Player Count
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4-8 Players Recommended
- Age Recommendation
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12+
- Length per Game
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3 hours +
- Expansions
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Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
Summary
Dungeons & Dragons is the fantasy tabletop role-playing game that has persevered for nearly 50 years and continues to grow strong. Created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the game first made publication in 1974 and now falls under the Wizards of the Coast publishing wing. A typical game of DnD consists of 4-6 players, with one player acting as the Dungeon Master. Players can take a sheet and by consulting the various rule books and expansions, can create their own character with weapons, skills, and physical appearance. Once all characters are created, the Dungeon Master sets them off in a campaign of their choosing or design, where players will have to follow the rules of the DM as they roleplay their way through storylines. The characters will level up, find equipment, and experience permanent changes based on the way the story plays out. A roll of the dice can mean the difference between a successful hit, and a painful end. The most recent edition of Dungeons & Dragons is the 5th edition rule book.
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