On-ramp to Tabletop RPGs

After a talk with a friend the other day I realized that I've always wanted to get into tabletop RPGs.  D&D has been the front-runner in my mind and I've played a few sessions here or there with friends but I've never actually had a persistent RPG campaign... and that seems like where all the fun is.

On a whim I bought the D&D starter set without actually having a group in mind.  But then I starting thinking about it and I realized that my kids my like to use their imaginations in an RPG setting.  At 3 and 5 they both have great imaginations and communications skills.

"That's it!"  I thought, "I'll DM for my kids!"

I got the starter set and immediately realized that there were too many numbers, stats, and violence to play D&D with kids their age.... so I started googling and found this gem.  It's a starting place and basic rules for non-violent D&D for kids.  It's super simplified and it gave me a good jumping off point.

I took that author's rules and simplified them even more.  Basically my kids were just using their imaginations and rolling D20s whenever it made sense.

And they loved it!  It was a huge success and the next day they asked to play again.

After running a couple adventures for them I see more places to simplify the rules even further.  I think I might even write up a basic ruleset and create my own characters sheets for them in this new rule system.

I'm really excited to see where this goes.