Child and Adolescent Protagonists in RPGs


I'm working my way through season 2 of Netflix's Stranger Things. I've commented previously that one of the things I find fascinating about the show is I was the same age as the characters at the time the show takes place - in fall of 1983 I was 12, just like the characters on the show.

With an 12-year old with a massive taste for reading (some very advanced stuff), I've had cause to reread It to make sure I was able to discuss it with her. It's caused me to reflect on the amount of fiction, film, etc. where some or all of the protagonists are children - preadolescents to adolescents. Just from media consumed in the past few months I can think of:

  • The main protagonists of Stranger Things
  • The Losers' Club of It
  • Ellie in The Last of Us
  • Mark Petrie of Salems' Lot
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Seasons 1-3)
I'm also contemplating the overlap of these with young adult fiction - both feature children - typically of early to mid adolescence - while young adult fiction is primarily targeted at young adults. In this category I can think of Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, the Fifth Wave, Divergent, etc. Looking through that list, apocalypses are big...

Looking at the list I've compiled, when I think of RPGs with child protagonists, the model I would go for is one with a normal society and a monster that is "hidden". Something like It and Stranger Things - the world appears normal - the kids aren't part of an elite monster hunting organization, though they may be special in some way. The world is normal - people don't believe in monsters. What is striking to me about both those examples is they were written by their authors such that the time period marked the authors' own childhood time period - It's early sequences taking place in 1957-1958 while being published in the mid-1980s and Stranger Things taking place in the 1983-1984 (so far). 

I can see some good logic behind this. Though I've two daughters, 12 and 15, I'm not with them all day. I don't know perfectly the give and take of the school day or the "language" of them and their peers. It's a lot easier for me to go back to my adolescence of the 1980s. The 1980s weren't a retro period, they were normal to me and my peers. I remember the explosive emergences of Michael Jackson and Madonna. Party invitations distributed on paper (not that a geek like me got invited to much). 

As I write this, it seems the horror/paranormal genre is what I'm thinking of. You've got your kids who have a connection with the supernatural. No one will believe them - certainly no adults. And in a period game, they lack the technology to record proof of such encounters. Such characters aren't "warriors" so while combat may be a part of such a game, running and fleeing will be an essential combat strategy. Kids need to worry about curfews, making it to school, etc. One of the things that makes such tales so compelling is we experience the challenges of the protagonists' mundane worlds. 

While I've played a game or two with one of the PCs as a child, I don't believe I've ever played one with a children-only set of protagonists. As many of us become parents, there's certainly a bit of a trigger in playing a game with children in danger. There's not many games specifically meant for child PCs. From memory I can think of Monsters and Other Childish Things, Little Fears, and Innocents (for New World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness). I suspect a Gumshoe game would work rather well for such a game. Most such tales tend to be limited in duration, though Stranger Things looks like it will eventually span several years. It presents an interesting challenge - the monster you defeated as children has returned. Can you defeat it now, no longer able to believe in magic as you once had?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jules Verne Translations That Don't Stink

Image
Shortly after I graduated from college R. Talsorian published their fantasy steampunk RPG,  Castle Falkenstein. Having missed out on Space: 1889  when it first came out this was my first steampunk RPG, though I had been exposed to the genre by Gibson and Sterling's novel The Difference Engine (a novel which, though I though I found the setting compelling, I did not particularly care for - must reread some day). Jules Verne was one of the authors in the inspirational reading section of Castle Falkenstein.  Heck, the game also made him into France's scientific advisor, having him responsible for their massive Verne Cannons  which formed a sort of nuclear deterrent.  With that in mind, one Sunday afternoon I was at a Barnes & Noble bookstore my new girlfriend (now my wife of nearly 16 years!).  On a whim I decided to pick up a Jules Verne novel. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . That night I started reading it, never having read any of his works before but having vagu
Keep reading

Stepping Away and a New Beginning

Image
After maintaining this blog for nearly seven years (an eternity in internet time), I've decided to step away from it. When I first began I wasn't 100% certain what it would be about. For a while I thought it would be a blog related to OSR type RPGs but I found my own tastes not firmly rooted there. Looking at the history of the blog, I see a lot of Call of Cthulhu which is hardly surprising. However, some lack of consistency definitely made it tough for me find a defined niche and over the past few months I've been giving some thought to starting a new, more narrowly focused blog. The imminent end of Google+ played a part in these thoughts, with much of my traffic coming from that site. I write because I enjoy writing, but I do enjoy growing an audience. My plan to start a narrowly-focused blog took a turn when I had the opportunity to join the  Rolling Boxcars  blog. Talking with the contributors (one of whom I game with on Discord already) and going through thei
Keep reading

RPG Review: Fate Accelerated

Image
Fate is a difficult system for me to grok. I like it conceptually, but I have a difficult time when it comes to running it.  Fate is what's considered a narrative game. Instead of modeling a simulation of the reality of the RPG setting, it is designed at supporting a story. I've seen arguments as to whether or not this makes it a "real" RPG. I think the whole debate is a bit silly, dealing with issues of "bad wrong fun". Truthfully the challenges I have with it are largely a function of me being a grizzled gaming grognard, gaming since the early 1980's. To paraphrase Yoda, I must unlearn what I have learned. I've a hunch that I'd actually have an easier time grokking Fate were I to know less.  Overview With that prelude behind us, let's take a look at the Fate Accelerated game. It is a variant of the Fate Core game. Fate Core looks a lot like what one would expect from an RPG book - pretty thick, lots of skills, stunts, etc. F
Keep reading

Using the Force in D6 Star Wars

Image
Defending yourself with just 1D in Sense is not easy, as Luke discovers when training with a remote. My previous post discussed the proto-D6 System as found in the Ghostbusters RPG. For those unfamiliar with the D6 System and the way it does the Force (or for a brief review) the essentials are: You roll a bunch of six sided dice against a target number, typically ranging from 5-ish (easy) to 20 or even higher. Your rating is listed as something like 2D+2 which means roll 2d6+2. By default, most normal/non-heroic people have 2D in most stats.  Starting heroes will might have their best skill be at 5D or a touch higher. You can take as many actions as you want in a round. However, taking two actions in a round reduces all dice codes by 1D, taking three reduces all by 2D, etc. Starting with Force skills will lower a characters starting attributes. Unlike most skills they start off at 1D. There are three Force skills - control, sense, and alter. Control lets you control t
Keep reading

Developing Boston for 1920s Call of Cthulhu

Image
While Chaosium has produced sourcebooks for many locations in Lovecraft Country (Kingsport, Arkham, and Innsmouth) as well as non-fictional cities of the 1920s (such as New York City and New Orleans), the nearby city of Boston, while being featured in many adventures, has never received its own full sourcebook. The most common era for my Call of Cthulhu  games has been in the 1920s - some campaigns have been in New York City while others have been in Lovecraft country. For those in Lovecraft Country, many adventures have been in nearby Boston. Over the years I've slowly been building up some expertise in the area and I thought it might be of interest to others gaming in the same setting - whether with Mythos horrors or a purely mundane game. First, let us investigate those official sources. While Boston has found its way into many adventures, I can think of two sources where it has been given a fair amount of detail. First, The Unspeakable Oath  double issue 16/17 has a ref
Keep reading