The Award-Winning "Dreams in the Lich House"

Thanks Brian!  I've been nominated for a Recruitment Award for my efforts running kids D&D for our neighborhood kiddos.  We've had 7 kids in our kid's game (now being DM'ed by a neighboring dad), 3 more kids on the way, and a splinter group of older kids that are building their own Pokemon-based RPG.  A few of the 9 year olds are in our weekly adult game.

Gaming with kids is awesome.  One thing I noticed running kids through classic modules, it's a chance to reconnect with those amazing places you visited yourself when you were a kid.  The Keep on the Borderlands or The Lost City might be old-hat to your adult gamers, but it will be awesome to the kids; I'm a big believer in the shared experience of modules.  In this case, you can trade war stories across generations.

There are a few selfish reasons for starting the kids young, too.  Recruiting players may be hard - so make your own with the neighborhood moms, dads and kids.  Recruiting is DM job security!  Plus - I've noticed that if some of the adult gamers are bringing the kids to the game, it's a little bit easier getting time away from the spouse - gaming is a family activity instead of a "Dad" activity.

You'll hear some funny stuff at the table, too, and the kids will try some pretty entertaining things.  For a while, ours all went to the Looney Tunes school of tactics.

Here's an older post on things you might hear yourself saying when dungeon mastering for 9 year olds.