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Gaming With Kids: Anime 5e Session 1

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 While the Monday night Wilderlands group did not meet this week because it was the 4th of July, I did manage to get some gaming in during the weekend with my daughter and niece. They are both 10 and do have some experience with RPGs. My niece has played with us a few time in the past. My daughter and I have played a lot of RPGs together and she has even GM'd the entire Pathfinder 2e Starter Set. She has played D&D 5e, so she was already familiar with the general concepts used in Anime 5e.

Anime 5e is an adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons 5e to a generic anime system. It appears to be connected to the old Big Eyes Small Mouth game in some way. Honestly, we picked this up because the cover caught my daughter's eye, so I don't have much background information on the game itself.

Prior to the first session of the game, we did a character creation session. Anime 5e uses a strange hybrid of D&D-style character creation and GURPS-style point buy. I have to admit that I am not totally sold on this, but the girls seemed to love it because they had more opportunities to customize their characters. I also had some issues with the organization of the book. For example, it was very hard to find the list of skills because it is hidden in the Attributes section under "Skill Proficiency". While that makes some sense, the book never refers you to that page when a class gets a skill proficiency and the index will not direct you there at all. There were other, similar, issues with the organization.

I am not a huge anime fan myself. While I enjoy classics like Gundam (original), Robotech, and Record of Lodoss War, the genre lost me as it shifted its focus in the late '90s to slapping German words on to nonsense. Because I do not have a lot of experience with anime, I decided to use one of the adventures available on Drivethru RPG, Shades of Grey. The girls wanted a futuristic setting, so I had to throw together a framing device.

Characters:

Kai Asakai is a half dragon ninja.

Vrail is a grey shadow warrior.

The characters are members of Space Patrol tasked with helping the people who live on the many planets of the Sophont Empire. They have been sent to the planet Gaia by their commander to help a small communities of greys living there. Gaia is a Luddite world, which means that the people living on the planet do not allow technology beyond a certain point. On Gaia, this technology level is frozen at a vague (RPG standard) medieval level. Because of this, they cannot land their ship on the surface and will have to be teleported down by a space wizard living on a space station in orbit.

They spend some time interacting with Shayla, the space wizard, but decide to head down when she whips out a backgammon set and says, "When I was your age..."

Once on the surface, they found themselves in a lightly wooded area outside the village. The village seemed to be covered in a dome of blue light. As they approached the village, they could see that it consisted of older style wooden houses. Vrail thought that these might be the kind of houses greys traditional used in their history, but admitted that he did not pay much attention during that class.

Kai reached out to touch the blue light and got shocked. Vrail informed her that all of her hair was standing on end and that he could see her skeleton when she touched the light. Kai decided to back up and threw some silver pieces at the dome, which bounced off. She yelled out, "Is anybody home?"

A few minutes later, an elderly grey with pale skin covered in purple splotches hobbled out from one of the huts with the assistance of a cane. He introduced himself as Xallian and explained that everyone in the town was very sick from Trallax fungus poisoning. He told them that he sent three greys to a nearby town to get the antidote, but they hadn't returned. Then, this morning, a goblin approached the dome and presented him with a note:

For All Grey to Hear.

I am Haud Srallac and I command a large and ferocious goblin band. I appreciate you inviting me into your village several moons ago when I was a traveller in need of food and shelter. Now I will return the favour.

I have in my possession three Grey from your village and the many bottles of medicine that they carry. They tell me that everyone in your village is ill and dying. That’s a shame, and I want to help. Let me return your friends and the medicine so you will feel better. All I ask in thanks is a small token of appreciation: the pretty red gem that’s inside your leader’s hut. Without it, I’m afraid your Grey may get lost on their way back to your village and the medicine will be gone forever.

My goblin scout will wait for you under the lone willow tree near your village. Don’t die. Give me the gem and you won’t.

 

Xallian said that he sent the psychic signal for help after getting the letter. He told them that the gem was very important to his people because it held their history, but it was not as important as their lives. They discussed for a bit, but couldn't come up with another way to help and asked him for the gem. Xallian looked a bit disappointed as he handed it over and they set off to find the goblin.

They found the goblin sleeping under the tree. Vrail let out a shriek to wake him up. The goblin sat up briefly, told them to be quiet, and went back to sleep. Kai kicked him and thrust the gem at him, only to have him fall back asleep again. Kai woke him up again and explained that they need an antidote for poison and need to go to his boss, Haud Srallac.

He misunderstood them and got excited, "Srallac is poisoned? Soon I will be the leader of all goblins!"

They explained that it wasn't Srallac who was poisoned, bit the grey villagers. The goblin looked disappointed, but agreed to lead them to Srallac.

"But first, a nap."


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