Sensei Tanner

This was my team. I'm happy to give you any files from the Defense of Whitewall LARP for kids, but I've run some birthday parties like this before and have some other ideas for you. 1) When you invite your whole class you get kids with very different levels of interest in role playing, so the activities must be familiar and just have gloranthan flavor. The kids that are interested will do all the gaming internally and the ones that aren't can still enjoy the game. 2) It needs to be pretty simple or you're taking care of 20 kids all day, some of whom aren't very in to it. The rules need to be very straightforward. If I tag your arm with my sword you can't use it till you see a healer instead of numbers of points and different damage on different weapons. I did a party similar to what you're talking about last year. What I came up with was that the kids were divided into teams and sent on a scavenger hunt. We did it outside so there was digging involved. So you set it up as a hero quest that the clan is going on to find magic and weapons to help them against a feuding clan. Keep it pretty simple but here's where you can put in the flavor in the way you create the clues and frame the contest. Mainly they're just looking for visible patterns that you've depicted on rune sheets or solving riddles (be careful with the riddles and teens. It's hard to challenge them and then you cross a line suddenly into unsolvable) but you can assign perks for flavor like -- the kids on their fourth clue find themselves at a station with a kolating and snacks, the kolating asks them which one among them is most insightful in solving clues and when they decide, that person is declared Lhankor or some other knowing or observing hero. You can also have them choose who is the best at keeping the group on task and together and give them an appropriate title and then they can have a special power that makes them better at helping the group. The one that keeps them together may get a pouch of drinks or snacks to distribute as needed or the ability to heal injured clansmen by feeding them. The one that's good at solving riddles could have a divining stick that will give them a clue if they break a piece off and give it to the Kolating. The bigger the piece, the bigger the clue. Then the last few stations of the quest are harder clues that involve more teamwork and creative thinking but hopefully the teams feel more coordinated and led now. At the last station we had boxes underground that each had a few padded swords, a few nerf blowguns, and a few cans of silly string (enough for each kid to have one), and a flag. The next section of the party was a big game of capture the flag with swords, darts, and magic, group tactics, etc. They really don't need much direction on this bit, just make the swords safe to get whacked by and limit the area and ways they can hide the flag. It helps if they had a clan starting area and need to keep it on the tula. We let them play two rounds and saw that while a few kids would keep going all day, others were worn out so then cake and food. At that point, having food that by ingredients or decoration matches the game really stands out to the kids even if they didn't know anything about it before. After that just let them play or send them home. You can have Khan of Khans inside for the tired kids and more rounds of capture the flag or just running around for active ones. The critical balance with kids is to give them just enough to fire up their imagination and then let them loose with it. Their best experiences are internal. If, as a side note, you want the kids to want to become gloranthophiles later, answer all their questions about rules or anything else with vague stories that suggest epic history that surrounds their actions and location. For instance "Where is the line for where we can place our flag?" "That Magnolia tree is where your great, great grandmother Yarna StoneVoice challenged the NightDemon, ManyDeaths, slayer of men and wrestled it to the ground breaking off one of its terrible legs, binding it with the Stone Oath that our people would be safe inside the boundary of the tree and the jagged rock which is all that remains of the demon's leg." It's more work, but they get very into it. You'll cherish moments like the 7 year old girl who modified her battle axe to better hold her scrunchies turning to someone on her team that had incurred a penalty by breaking a basic safety rule and saying "Ian, our ancestors will never forgive you for bringing shame on our clan this way. Shame." 1) Games with rules they already know so all you have to do is add flavor 2) Keep it simple and just frame the activity. Try to let the kids imagine and play on their own most of the time 3) Simple rules and bonuses, complicated and enigmatic explanations for the rules. Hope this is helpful. Feel free to contact me if you want designs or graphics or any advice. Tanner