Check out Critical Core; it's a DnD-based box set specifically for onboarding neurodiverse children. It includes a facilitator guide that provides strategies for smoother gameplay, simplified rules and character sheets, and three campaigns with encounters marked for tone, difficulty, and skill areas addressed, as well as advice for making scenes longer, shorter, easier, or more challenging. It works really well for adapting on the fly like you have to with kids. Their materials recently became available on Roll20 as well.
I know only half the kids have autism but honestly a lot of the strategies outlined in the Critical Core set are solid advice for any GM/player.
6 is a big group even for adults.
If it's possible to split into two groups of three, I highly recommend it.
If you can't do that, you might try giving the kids something to do when it is not their turn. Maybe they can write down what they want to do next. Maybe they can draw pictures of what is happening. Maybe you can enlist them into doing some of the math. Something to do with their hands to help them keep their attention.
Maybe you need to ask everyone what they want to do this turn. And then have all the monsters go at once and try to explain each child's action as it happens... Then have all the children once again tell you what they want to do next.
I may not be explaining it well but it seems quite manageable. It's like you are telling each round as a story and explaining how each of their actions happened.
It's definitely the hardest part to adapt for younger players. One thing I've found that works well is to pool all the enemy hp together and split it into segments of equal size. Run combat like the rest of the game:
* Tell it like a story (describe, ask, resolve, repeat).
* Don't use initiative, just follow the scene's excitement by deciding whose actions happen next.
* Request more attack rolls or spells (fewer skill checks). Use 1dX for anything that isn't an attack, to approximate the improvised damage.
* Use any amount of tokens, but try to pace the enemy actions to match the player count and difficulty.
* When a segment of the health bar is empty, remove some tokens from the combat to represent progress.
Playing this way will feel more cinematic. It's less tactical, but it's rhythm is a lot more familiar to newer players. It also helps when you're playing with younger crowds that don't have as much focus or rigour for complex boardgames. But my favourite thing about it is that stunts and drama are 'free'. You aren't constrained by boardgame-like rules, so you can narrate much more exciting changes to the battlefield.
Losing is just running away. If your party members lose their hp and "run away" healing spells are reflavored as spells to convince them to come back. Hp just represents.... Bravery points?
Enemy kids don't die or get knocked out... They run out of bravery points and run away.
While what you say is completely reasonable and even actual RAW - that has nothing to do with OPs problem of too long waiting times during combat rounds?
I try to be a responsible reddit member but I jump the gun sometimes! No point in beating around the bush when I screw up. (I really hate that I did that, it's the second time I have. Gotta learn to chill and take my time)
Awesome attitude. Earlier today I gave a personal opinion that would have sounded okay as a general response to a post, but I accidentally wrote it as an answer to a specific person, and in response to their thing it sounded awful.
I admitted the mistake but deleted the post because I felt terrible.
Hey, I’m not trying to be the language police here, but just a note since you’re working with autistic kids. You should try to avoid the expression “normal children” to refer to the non-autistic kids.
DMing for a group of kids that age group plus trying to accommodate for everyone’s needs is difficult, but it sounds like you’re doing a pretty good job and approaching it with care. Good luck at the next session.
(I expect this will get downvoted, but so be it.)
Sorry i re-read that and it was error what I meant to say was they were all doing normal kid things like being over excited, becuase it’s a normal thing thing for kids to excited to the point they all forget to focus. I was not trying to seperate the kids by normal and different. It was just a quick type mess up. But thanks for pointing it out
If you know any teachers who specialize in dealing with ASD children (or I suppose anyone that specializes in dealing with them), I would ask them for advice. Or maybe the parents if they have any techniques to deal with it?
Check out Critical Core; it's a DnD-based box set specifically for onboarding neurodiverse children. It includes a facilitator guide that provides strategies for smoother gameplay, simplified rules and character sheets, and three campaigns with encounters marked for tone, difficulty, and skill areas addressed, as well as advice for making scenes longer, shorter, easier, or more challenging. It works really well for adapting on the fly like you have to with kids. Their materials recently became available on Roll20 as well. I know only half the kids have autism but honestly a lot of the strategies outlined in the Critical Core set are solid advice for any GM/player.
6 is a big group even for adults. If it's possible to split into two groups of three, I highly recommend it. If you can't do that, you might try giving the kids something to do when it is not their turn. Maybe they can write down what they want to do next. Maybe they can draw pictures of what is happening. Maybe you can enlist them into doing some of the math. Something to do with their hands to help them keep their attention.
Maybe you need to ask everyone what they want to do this turn. And then have all the monsters go at once and try to explain each child's action as it happens... Then have all the children once again tell you what they want to do next. I may not be explaining it well but it seems quite manageable. It's like you are telling each round as a story and explaining how each of their actions happened.
It's definitely the hardest part to adapt for younger players. One thing I've found that works well is to pool all the enemy hp together and split it into segments of equal size. Run combat like the rest of the game: * Tell it like a story (describe, ask, resolve, repeat). * Don't use initiative, just follow the scene's excitement by deciding whose actions happen next. * Request more attack rolls or spells (fewer skill checks). Use 1dX for anything that isn't an attack, to approximate the improvised damage. * Use any amount of tokens, but try to pace the enemy actions to match the player count and difficulty. * When a segment of the health bar is empty, remove some tokens from the combat to represent progress. Playing this way will feel more cinematic. It's less tactical, but it's rhythm is a lot more familiar to newer players. It also helps when you're playing with younger crowds that don't have as much focus or rigour for complex boardgames. But my favourite thing about it is that stunts and drama are 'free'. You aren't constrained by boardgame-like rules, so you can narrate much more exciting changes to the battlefield.
Losing is just running away. If your party members lose their hp and "run away" healing spells are reflavored as spells to convince them to come back. Hp just represents.... Bravery points? Enemy kids don't die or get knocked out... They run out of bravery points and run away.
While what you say is completely reasonable and even actual RAW - that has nothing to do with OPs problem of too long waiting times during combat rounds?
I'm guilty of reading only half of the post and getting excited. I apologize to everyone.
I love how formal this apology was
I try to be a responsible reddit member but I jump the gun sometimes! No point in beating around the bush when I screw up. (I really hate that I did that, it's the second time I have. Gotta learn to chill and take my time)
Awesome attitude. Earlier today I gave a personal opinion that would have sounded okay as a general response to a post, but I accidentally wrote it as an answer to a specific person, and in response to their thing it sounded awful. I admitted the mistake but deleted the post because I felt terrible.
Hey, I’m not trying to be the language police here, but just a note since you’re working with autistic kids. You should try to avoid the expression “normal children” to refer to the non-autistic kids. DMing for a group of kids that age group plus trying to accommodate for everyone’s needs is difficult, but it sounds like you’re doing a pretty good job and approaching it with care. Good luck at the next session. (I expect this will get downvoted, but so be it.)
Sorry i re-read that and it was error what I meant to say was they were all doing normal kid things like being over excited, becuase it’s a normal thing thing for kids to excited to the point they all forget to focus. I was not trying to seperate the kids by normal and different. It was just a quick type mess up. But thanks for pointing it out
If you know any teachers who specialize in dealing with ASD children (or I suppose anyone that specializes in dealing with them), I would ask them for advice. Or maybe the parents if they have any techniques to deal with it?