Starting your kids out in the many worlds of Dungeons & Dragons is, frankly, a bit like asking them to take a sip from an open hydrant. The number of kids I’ve seen dip their toes into TTRPGs and then run for the hills when they see dozens of resources available, including countless races, class options, and don’t even get me started on magical items, monsters, or supernatural beings. I’ve tried many strategies, but a newer one I’d like to share is the Young Adventurer’s Guide series. I’ll use examples from the two books I have full access to, but I’ll also tell you why I think the others in the series are worth your time (and probably money).
Where to Start?
If you’re looking to give your kid the classic Dungeons & Dragons experience, you may want them to evaluate the many worlds, magics, feats, races, classes, and all the other details to choose their perfect character, background, and abilities. I’d encourage you to take a step back, and ask your kid what kind of story they want to tell. If you’re not sure how to get the ball rolling, these books can keep everyone moving along. Characters & Quests is a great place to start for creating characters without knowledge of the world, and other books in the series like Places & Portals can help you bring the world to life with resources that are meant specifically for the kid to own and use (rather than your hundreds of dollars of campaign books), and are written at a more approachable reading level to introduce the iconic features of TTRPGs to your kid.
Characters & Quests
The first resource is titled Characters & Quests (Dungeons & Dragons): A Young Adventurer’s Workbook for Creating a Hero and Telling Their Tale. This is a mouthful, so we’ll talk about it as just Characters and Quests. This hardback book has some really compelling tools to get your kid thinking about their character, including decision trees to help choose a class, and comparisons of different races. One should note that some atypical races such as the Harengon and Tortle races show up, and not all Player’s Handbook races are included. Kids are not limited to the choices in the workbook, it’s just a place for inspiration.
A critical thing to understand is that this book doesn’t stop at character creation. Kids can record their adventure details for their character, including allies, party members, important events, villains, magic items, and more. And if the kid prefers, there’s tools to help them design a completely imaginary campaign for their character, where they can tell the full story of their character in the book.
Another important detail to know is that it is, in fact, a workbook. As you can see in the image above, most spreads have at least one side which is meant to be written or drawn on. This means your kid can put in the work, and revisit their character, story, or world at any time. At $15.99 MSRP (cheaper on Amazon at the time of this post), it’s a minor investment, but it could really dial your kid’s creativity into focus to help them more tangibly imagine the character they’re going to play.
Places & Portals
Another way to get started, particularly if your kid doesn’t want help creating their character, is with Places & Portals (Dungeons & Dragons): A Young Adventurer’s Guide, which I’ll just call Places and Portals for brevity. This resource outlines several of the most popular game settings including the Forgotten Realms, the Mirror Worlds (the Shadowfell and the Feywild), and the Spelljammer setting. This gives your kids some fodder for inspiration without handing them, for example, the 64-page Astral Adventurer’s Guide which can and will overwhelm noobies with the depth of detail and worldbuilding included. Instead, your kid will 12 illustrated pages which cover everything from Spelljammer ships to Astral Elves.
This resource is not a workbook, but a standard hardback reference book. Along with the other books in the series, it has illustrations, descriptions, and a multi-pronged approach for drawing kids in the understand the worlds of D&D better. Another way to use Places and Portals is to hand it to your player, and tell them, “This is what your character knows about this part of the world.” If your kid finds themselves in the Underdark, you don’t have to explain every detail of that spooky place, but your kid can read about it and understand the general threats any adventurer would have learned in their travels. Things like the hook horror and the duergar race of dwarves would be whispered about far beyond the reaches of the Underdark itself, and letting your kid read about the hazards they may face can help you communicate to them whether or not they are in the right place at the right time.
Other Young Adventurer’s Guide Books
Giving a kid one of the Young Adventurer’s Guide books can really help them start to wrap their head around the scope, flavor, and detail included in Dungeons & Dragons, especially if their reading level is not at a level that prepares them for reading the more technical players’ manuals. There are a number of other books detailing things like monsters, magic, dungeons, and even equipment. This can save you (and your kid) a few headaches as you try to navigate from a 0-level player to a 20th-level goliath Drake Warden Hunter. All of the books are hardback, and they are conveniently listed as a series on Amazon, making it effortless to find the right book for your kid.
TL;DR
The Young Adventurer’s Guide books, along with the Characters & Quests workbook shed light on the world of Dungeons & Dragons at an approachable reading level, and an affordable price point. The books are all hardback, but many are available on Kindle if that’s what your kid prefers. (Note, I do not suggest Characters & Quests as an e-resource, if it later becomes available, because it is a workbook, and meant to be written and drawn in.) If you’re looking to introduce new settings, creatures, classes, and/or races to your kid for a game you’re interested in playing together, these books can be a great launching point. Finally, if you find yourself asking “How do I introduce my kids to D&D without handing them hundreds of dollars of reference books?”, then you have found your answer here. Let these more reasonably-priced hardback books act as a bridge to help your kid get up to speed without spilling chocolate milk on your alternate-art, first edition, holofoil copy of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.
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