Playing with children means adapting pace, clarity, guidance and expectations. This chapter offers simple guidelines to keep sessions smooth, safe and fun.
Pace: short games and simple scenes
Children have a limited attention span. To avoid tiredness and disengagement:
- Favour sessions of 30 to 90 minutes depending on age.
- Break the story into short scenes with a clear stake.
- Reduce waiting times: everyone must get to act regularly.
- Alternate moments of action, discussion, listening and discovery.
- End the session before the first signs of restlessness or weariness.
Tip: a “problem → choice → consequence” structure works very well.
Attention: capturing and holding interest
To keep children engaged:
- Present situations in a concrete and visual way.
- Use their interests if you know them (animals, magic, food, etc.).
- Vary your approaches: questions, objects to touch, quick drawings, facial expressions.
- Give NPCs simple, recognisable traits (a voice, a tic, a catchphrase).
- Rephrase often and check their understanding with short questions.
Children respond well to repetition, small mysteries and decisions with a limited set of choices.
Introducing the rules gradually
There is no need to explain the whole system before playing. Do not aim for absolute precision: favour a smooth flow.
Proceed step by step:
- Start without rules: description, choices, free narration.
- Introduce dice rolls only when an action is uncertain.
- Explain successes and complications after a first roll.
- Add the energy reserve once they have got the hang of the game’s rhythm.
- Introduce marvels once the basics are mastered.
- Add rerolls.
- Finally, add advantages and disadvantages.
Emotional safety: a clear and reassuring framework
Children must know that they are playing in a safe environment:
- No detailed violence and no themes that are too heavy.
- Threats should be symbolic rather than traumatic.
- PCs do not die: they fail, learn, or are put out of action.
- Let them say “stop” or “let’s change this” at any time.
- Always make sure the story ends on a positive — or at least a soothed — resolution.
Participation: encouraging guided creativity
Children love seeing their ideas shape the story. Encourage them, but give them a framework:
- Ask open but simple questions regularly.
- Value their suggestions, even imperfect ones.
- Let them create details (an animal’s name, the colour of a door, etc.).
- Offer two or three clear choices rather than a wide range of options.
- Use their ideas to feed the next scene.
Closing a session
After the game:
- Go around the table: “What did you like best?”
- Sum up what the characters achieved.
- Give them one small thing to remember: an object, a memory, a grateful NPC.
- Hint at what could come next time.