Since my daughter was five yeas old (she's six, now), I've been using a set of very simplified rules to make adventures with her. I made them up taking things from the game Faery's Tale (someone in this forums named it) and TOR itself. They are so simple, that I think I can even post them here.
A LITTLE RING [TOR for Kids]
“...a little ring, the least of rings, that once he stole. It is but a trifle that Sauron fancies, and an earnest of your good will.”
* Things you need: 1 six-sided die, pencil and rubber, character sheets, one or more kids, one adult, colour pencils and lots of patience
How to play
The mechanics are very simple. In fact, there are only two mechanics.
1) Tests: When the player wants to do something special, he has to do a test. A test means: Roll the 6-sided die and add the attribute most fitted for the task (see below for Attributes). If the total result is 6 or higher, you succeed. (for younger players, you can lower the required result to 5).
If the adult wants to add some granularity, simple tasks may require a 5 to succeed, while hard ones might require a 7.
There's no autosucceed or fumble, but a 6 is in fact always a succeed, even for Hard Tests, as the minimum Attribute is 1.
2) Use of Magic/Hope: Every character has a number of Magic/Hope points at the start of every adventure (see below). You can spend them to increase the total result of any Test to reach the number needed for succeed.
Example: Erika wants to push a log that has a rabbit trapped. She has a Body Attribute of 2. She rolls the die and gets a 2. Using the fingers of her left hand, she adds both numbers and deduces that she reached only 4. Needing 2 more points to reach 6 and succeed, she decides to erase 2 points from her Magic score and manages to free the freightened rabbit.
Attributes and Character Creation
Every character has 4 scores: The main 3 are Body, Heart and Mind (you can call it Wits if you like), and then there's Magic (or you can call it Hope) that is equal to double the Heart score.
First, choose a Background. A Background consists of 6 points distributed among the 3 main Attributes (Body, Heart, Mind), with a minimum of 1 on each.
Here you'll find 4 initial backgrounds, suited for different kind of games (depending on your kids likings):
The Strong: Body 3, Heart 2, Mind 1 - Suited for Hobbit Bounders, Dwarves, Sprites, Wookies,...
The Wise: Body 1, Heart 2, Mind 3 - Suited for Hobbits that work at The Shire's Post Office (they must know to read, at least!), Elves, Gnomes, Alliance Diplomats,...
The True-hearted: Body 1, Heart 3, Mind 2 - Suited for Hobbits that like to talk to strangers (even strange grey wizards), Hobbits in general, Faeries, Jedi Apprentices,...
The Balanced: Body 2, Heart 2, Mind 2 - Suited for Bucklanders, Humans, Fauns, Smugglers,...
After that, the kid can distribute 3 free points among those three main Attributes. There's no minimum and no maximum, althoug putting all 3 points on top of an Attribute that already begins at 3 should only be allowed if the adult LM is going to use the rule of "Hard Tasks need a 7 to succeed".
Once you are finished distributing the free points, count your Heart Attribute twice and write it down in the Magic/Hope box. This are both you points for increasing your rolls, as your Vital Energy (Hit Points). Once a character reaches 0 points, he falls unconsciouss and must rest.
And now, you can begin your adventures!
Optional rule: Each background can have 1 or 2 special Traits/Powers/Abilities, depending on the setting.
For example, Faeries can Fly and have Faery's Dust, Gnomes have Lore and Animal Friend, Sprites have Fighter and Lightning Speed, Fauns have Music and Enchantment. This abilities can be used as Traits are used in TOR: they allow for autosucceed in Test where they can be applied. Don't worry about balance, it's good enough that a kid remembers to use his Traits once in a while, and therefore roleplays his character.
FAQ: How do you handle Combat?
In fact, I don't. I don't have special rules that make Combat more interesting that other options. If someone wants to attack an NPC, the player just rolls his Body against a difficulty (easy against turtles, normal against pigs, hard agains cats). Next they have to roll Mind/Wits to avoid being hurt. If they fail, they lose 1 point of Magic/Hope against easy opponents, 2 against normal ones and 3 against hard ones.
If they've succeeded in their attack and are still alive, they've won the battle.
If they haven't succeeded in their attack, but are still alive, we make a second round.
Wether they have succeeded in their attack or not, if they reach 0 Magic/Hope points, they fall unconsciouss.
Also, I add a picture in b/w of the type of character to the sheet, so that the kid can colour it to his liking.
There's also a box where they can draw the things they encounter during the adventure: from an apple, to a key, to bell,... whatever they want to carry with them.
Finally, I must say that the adventures I play with my daughter (and yestarday a friend of hers joined, too) are based on a Faery's world (faeries, gnomes, sprites,...) and they all are based on classical stories: Red Riding Hood, The Sleeping Beauty,... The characters are in the middle of this faery tales and hinder the murdering attemps of the Wolf, help the Prince find the Princess, guide the Hunter through the wood, etc.
Here's an image of the Character Sheet. It's in spanish, but you'll get the idea:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/5u9uss2sm ... sonaje.jpg
