Possibly the simplest way to get your child interested in Dungeons and Dragons
Compared to some earlier editions, Fifth Edition lowered the Dungeons & Dragons barrier to entry tremendously and made the game far more accessible to newer players. But Wizards of the Coast and writers, Jim Zub, Stacy King, and Andrew Wheeler asked: Can we make it even easier to get into D&D?
“Warriors & Weapons, A Young Adventurer’s Guide” is the first in a series of child-oriented D&D books designed to give kids the flavor of D&D and spark their interest in the fantasy milieu without bogging down the experience with numbers, stats, and tables. Think of it as a sort of “Player’s Handbook” Lite that’s concerned with the martially focused player character classes – barbarian, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger, and rogue – and equipment such as weapons, armor, and adventuring gear/packs. It also gives an overview of 12 fantasy races.
The book is laid out in an extremely accessible and kid-friendly way. Each class gets an illustrated two-page spread with a description of the class, a breakout of their usual equipment and attributes, and another breakout of class-specific content – primal paths for barbarians, martial archetypes for fighters, etc.
RACES AND CLASSES
Races are explained in the first section, with each of the 12 – human, elf, dwarf, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, halfling, dragonborn, kenku, tabaxi, tielfling, and tortle – getting a two-page presentation that spells out their size, appearance, history, and any special attributes such as darkvision.
In a Jeff Foxworthy-esque turn, each class and race page asks a series of questions designed to help kids decide which character type might best fit them. “Do you like the idea of charging into battle? Are you up front and ready for action? You might make a good fighter!” It’s a simple way to walk children through the expected actions of any particular class and serves both to help them decide if that class might be right for them and explain how that class is traditionally played.
After each class description is another two-pager, but this one profiles a “legendary” character of the class that preceded it. Included some details about the character, a brief surface-level biography and a few other facts or accessories to help kids roleplay the character.
EQUIPMENT
The equipment section is simple but informative, even for someone who’s been playing D&D for a while. I had no idea so many different things were classified as polearms. It explains the different types of swords, ranged weapons, and “special” weapons such as nets or chains. It’s a great primer for what can be an overwhelming amount of information about tools of warfare that young newcomers to the genre might know nothing about.
Armor is similarly handled, with light, medium, heavy, and shield categories. One of the shield pages even managed to teach me some things about the proper names and functions of shield components.
As for gear, tools and basic survival equipment are all touched on and some packs – burglar’s, dungeoneer’s, explorer’s, vampire hunter’s – get one page descriptions with illustrations of all the items included.
MOVING ON
“Warriors & Weapons” closes with the thought that reading about adventure is fun and a great way to get your imagination rolling, but the real fun is making your own characters and adventures. That’s followed by some prompts to help the reader flesh out a basic story and characters.
Before reading “Warriors & Weapons,” I had imagined it was an elementary-level Player’s Handbook. It was and, at the same time, it wasn’t. There are no stats or numbers whatsoever in this book and no guidance on how to use them if there were.
I can imagine a child reading this, deciding that they want to play a ranger with a shortbow and padded armor and then sketching out a story for that character’s adventure, absent the sometimes-intimidating burden of damage ranges, challenge ratings, and difficulty classes. Once done, they then could dive into the PHB and figure out how to put it all together with the stats and numbers that might have intimidated then before they got so excited about it.
This is a fantastic little book that will rope younger would-be D&D players into a world of adventure and, hopefully, leave them antsy to play the game for real. I have to note, too, that you should be raising your child on a healthy diet of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Raymond E. Feist, Ursula LeGuin, and a ton of other fantasy writers to keep their appetite whet for adventure.
Of the other books in this series, “Monsters & Creatures” is available now, “Wizards & Spells” is expected later this year, and “Dungeons & Tombs” is coming early 2020. I purchased mine from Alpha Comics & Games in Richmond, Va. It’s $12.99, published by Ten Speed Press and officially licensed by Wizards of the Coast.
