Young Player Characters and Skills

[dieselpunk]

I'm interested in creating an adventure where the PCs are pre-teens or teens inspired by the Kids on Bikes RPG and shows like Stranger Things, ET, Goonies, Red Dawn, etc. where the protagonists range from 11-19. Looking for strategies for character creation. Realizing that BGB is generally assuming adult PCs.

CoC7 has some recommended adjustments to characteristics based on age, but I was wondering more about skills. The "realistic" approach would be that kids aren't going to be great in the academic skills since none of them are going to be in a professional tier (i.e., skills >51%). Physical skills might be pretty high since a lot of pro athletes are already really good as teens. For fun's sake, it would be nice if every skill weren't capped at 50% (the amateur tier). 

Or I just explain the skills in terms of a genre convention. Like science is really [high school] astronomy. So the kid astronomer with 80% isn't going to outperform a university researcher if they were head-to-head, but for the sake of the problems the PCs would encounter it's enough. 

[g33k]

Something that I think is under-utilized in many BRP games is the idea of "EASY" rolls, where the skill is doubled.

There are some physical elements where youth can be an advantage -- kids' low body-mass means they often climb amazingly well (though they cannot reach as far, to a new grip).  Strength-to-mass ratio is often better.

Youth are generally more-flexible; female gymnasts are often competitive at a young age (Nadia Comăneci took Olympic gold at age 14!)

But IMHO the genre isn't about physical excellence & apex skills.  It's that nobody really pays attention to the kids, or treats them as competent:  adults, adult concerns, the threats adults perceive, and address themselves to... these are part of the landscape of kid-centric adventures... they are, sometimes, "environmental hazards."

Kids excel in imagination, in sense-of-wonder; in the sheer lack of awareness that "this challenge is too hard..." so it isn't.

If you try to run kids as "less-strong & less-skilled adults" in "adult-style" adventures (combat &c), of course they'll just be... less.

And the adventure will be less satisfying.

Edited August 27, 2023 by g33k

[Jason D]

On 8/26/2023 at 10:01 PM, g33k said:

Something that I think is under-utilized in many BRP games is the idea of "EASY" rolls, where the skill is doubled.

If you try to run kids as "less-strong & less-skilled adults" in "adult-style" adventures (combat &c), of course they'll just be... less.

And the adventure will be less satisfying.

Repeated for emphasis. 

Notice how often the kids in those shows spend their time running away or being overlooked. Most of the time they're just going from place to place, hiding and seeing things, even getting caught and escaping.

When things get bad, it's the strength of their friendships and loyalty to one another that let them succeed more than any teachable skill. 

I suggest you keep their skills at the amateur tier, but let them go wild on personality traits and passions, especially loyalty, love, etc. 

To pull an example from another show in which undersized characters save the world against unimaginable evil, Samwise Gamgee doesn't carry Frodo into Mount Doom because of a STR vs SIZ resistance roll, or a successful Climb skill roll... he does it with his passion of Love (Mr. Frodo) 95%. 

[Nick Brooke]

There’s a licensed Call of Cthulhu scenario called “The Dare” which includes 7e rules for Call of Kid-thulhu, a light-weight rules variant for running investigative games with meddling kids as the protagonists. Check it out? Currently 25% off in the Cosmic Horror sale.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Nick Brooke

[dieselpunk]

A lot of interesting thoughts.

g33k: Are you suggesting that because no one pays attention to the kids they have more chances to get easy rolls?

One thing I'm not too clear on is the personality traits and passions angle. I looked up personality traits in BRP and it reads as a guide to role playing NPCs. How does this help PCs? I don't have the new BRP and neither BGB or CoC7 seems to have rules for passions. Internet comes up with a variety of different takes but basically it's roll it for a possible bonus. Anyone give me a quick summary of the "official" one Jason's talking about?

Edited August 30, 2023 by dieselpunk

[SDLeary]

The only people that are going to pay attention to kids are other kids... so if the opposition has children, there is the valid opposition. The opposition children will probably have the same issue trying to make the adults in their group take them seriously though.

The only others that will take kids seriously will be those that are on the receiving end of their antics... think Home Alone.

SDLeary