Welcome to Subnet Kids! A Kid-Friendly tabletop RPG!
So, let's begin.
Tabletop:
My son is four. (Edit: He's six now!) He enjoys video games like Diablo, Minecraft, and the like. He likes swords, guns, and fighting zombies. He likes dice. So... why not combine all that?
I made a 9x15 grid on the back of a poster board, used some of his blocks to outline a castle, and populated it with some of his toys. "These are goblins. These are orcs. This is the boss."
I made cards for weapons, Great Swords (2d6), long swords (1d6), dagger (1d6-1), etc.
He would roll a d6 to see how many squares he would move, and if he would land in a square adjacent to an enemy, he could roll a d20 to see if he could hit it. The enemy would then roll a 'defensive roll' (adjusted with armor). If his roll was higher than the enemy's roll, the hit would succeed, and he could roll damage. In this case, the goblins had 4 hit points, and the orcs had 6.
Example turn:
Jacob: Rolls a d6. Lands on five. He could move five squares in any direction.
He lands next to a goblin. He decides to attack with his great sword card.
He rolls a d20 and gets a 14
The goblin rolls a d20 and gets a 12.
Jacob's hit succeeds.
Jacob rolls 2d6 and rolls a 1 and a 4 for a total of 5.
The goblin's total hit points are 4, so Jacob kills the goblin.
And thus, did Ser Jacob fight his way to the boss, who had a hit point total of 10. After a pitched battle, Jacob slew the evil boss and claimed the treasure chest for his own.
All in all, it was a success.
We went over basic math, addition and subtraction. ("If the goblin hits you for 1 damage and you have 10 hit points, how much health do you have left?") Greater than and lesser than. ("You rolled a 15 and he rolled an 18. Which one was higher?") And problem solving.
