Is there a Ravenloft 0-Level or no Level Prequel kids adventure somewhere out there? I was thinking of an adventure where the campaign begins by having the players make their characters but then we have "the heroes are kids" character sheets and we begin the first adventure in Ravenloft with those.
They have the adventure and then "forget" about it or it becomes a dream-like memory and then when the 1st level adventure begins its connected to their childhood one.
It would be more like a computer adventure game with little to no "violence" on the behalf of the characters.
Does anything exist?
0-Level or no Level Prequel kids adventure
0-Level or no Level Prequel kids adventure
Last edited by Isolde on Sat Mar 22, 2025 11:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: 0-Level or no Level Prequel kids adventure
They will have no class abilities of course. A future fighter might be the stronger or braver kid but that does not mean much, directly, against monsters. A future mage is an apprentice and cannot even do a cantrip, he might know a few things and have a low chance of using some items (5%) with a huge fumble wild magic (67%) chance. A future cleric might just be more interested in the spirit world and have pendant, a "holy" symbol his mother gave him. A future thief might just be a homeless sneaky kid that steals apples.
And so on.
And so on.
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Joël of the FoS
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Re: 0-Level or no Level Prequel kids adventure
I don't recall seeing such an adventure (the closest being possible the one with Maligno?), but you might want to get your hands on a used copy of Little Fears (the role playing game of childhood terrors). See https://www.funsizedgames.com/little-fears/
Little Fears is a horror RPG. The game has a unique premise: players take on the roles of children, between the ages of 6 and 12. The game is rules-light and quick to learn.
The world of Little Fears is a dark one, where childhood fears are real. Monsters lurk in closets, under beds, and in shadows, preying on children's innocence and imagination.
Since characters are children, combat is rarely a viable option; creativity, courage, and teamwork are key to survival.
The tone can vary from strange and eerie fairy tale horror to unsettling psychological terrors.
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I have that crazy idea of using it in my campaign someday. The PCs arrive in a town where children disappear.
*switch* The players are handed other character sheets. They have to play the children against the bogeymen à la Dark Tales & disturning legends.
They can’t talk to an adult (or their PCs) – the adults won’t listen, they are too busy, they do not believe the children, etc. The grown-ups won’t listen.
So they really have to play children against monsters!
Their goal is to last long enough, so the adults make their own inquiries against the children disappearing. Example, they have to last a week.
*switch* Time go back a week and the players, with their usual PC sheet, have to investigate the children’s disappearance
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Example of possible LF adventures:
The Sleepover Gone Wrong – A group of kids at a sleepover realizes that one of their friends has vanished into the closet. Can they bring them back before sunrise?
The Substitute Teacher – A creepy new teacher at school seems too perfect. Rumors say that students who stay after class never come back...
The Slide's Secret - If a kid goes down the slide alone at night, they never come out the other end. Instead, they find themselves in the Playground That Was, an eerie, abandoned version of the park where the swings creak on their own, the seesaws move without anyone on them, and the slide stretches into a tunnel leading to darkness.
Possible Resolutions that can work for children:
The kids can find and free the lost children by solving the Games of the Playground (e.g., a puzzle? a tag match against shadowy figures?).
Destroying the Slide?
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The tricky part is playing the adult PC after that, there should be a twist I haven’t got yet. Of course the PC can destroy the bogeyman, something the kids can't do.
Or it could be 50 % of players have their usual PC sheets, 50 % of players have kids sheet. They can't talk to each other (the grownup won't listen) for a week, then that frontier is removed. Could work too.
Little Fears is a horror RPG. The game has a unique premise: players take on the roles of children, between the ages of 6 and 12. The game is rules-light and quick to learn.
The world of Little Fears is a dark one, where childhood fears are real. Monsters lurk in closets, under beds, and in shadows, preying on children's innocence and imagination.
Since characters are children, combat is rarely a viable option; creativity, courage, and teamwork are key to survival.
The tone can vary from strange and eerie fairy tale horror to unsettling psychological terrors.
---
I have that crazy idea of using it in my campaign someday. The PCs arrive in a town where children disappear.
*switch* The players are handed other character sheets. They have to play the children against the bogeymen à la Dark Tales & disturning legends.
They can’t talk to an adult (or their PCs) – the adults won’t listen, they are too busy, they do not believe the children, etc. The grown-ups won’t listen.
So they really have to play children against monsters!
Their goal is to last long enough, so the adults make their own inquiries against the children disappearing. Example, they have to last a week.
*switch* Time go back a week and the players, with their usual PC sheet, have to investigate the children’s disappearance
---
Example of possible LF adventures:
The Sleepover Gone Wrong – A group of kids at a sleepover realizes that one of their friends has vanished into the closet. Can they bring them back before sunrise?
The Substitute Teacher – A creepy new teacher at school seems too perfect. Rumors say that students who stay after class never come back...
The Slide's Secret - If a kid goes down the slide alone at night, they never come out the other end. Instead, they find themselves in the Playground That Was, an eerie, abandoned version of the park where the swings creak on their own, the seesaws move without anyone on them, and the slide stretches into a tunnel leading to darkness.
Possible Resolutions that can work for children:
The kids can find and free the lost children by solving the Games of the Playground (e.g., a puzzle? a tag match against shadowy figures?).
Destroying the Slide?
---
The tricky part is playing the adult PC after that, there should be a twist I haven’t got yet. Of course the PC can destroy the bogeyman, something the kids can't do.
Or it could be 50 % of players have their usual PC sheets, 50 % of players have kids sheet. They can't talk to each other (the grownup won't listen) for a week, then that frontier is removed. Could work too.
"A full set of (game) rules is so massively complicated that the only time they were all bound together in a single volume, they underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole" (Adams)
Re: 0-Level or no Level Prequel kids adventure
It seems be a great way to create an initial immersion in the characters and the campaign.
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Teravala
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Re: 0-Level or no Level Prequel kids adventure
Dark tales and disturbing legends for 3.0 has info on boogeymen that would make wonderful antagonists for something like this. IIRC they can only be seen by children as well, which makes for some fun reactions from adults in their lives to their fear of the literal boogeymen.
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Teravala
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Re: 0-Level or no Level Prequel kids adventure
Here’s a link to one of them, though if you’re interested in the others mistipedia sadly is lacking on info for them. I’d suggest checking out a pdf of DTaDL, chapter 4: noises in the night.
https://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Mister_Fox
https://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Mister_Fox