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Hero Kids - Fantasy RPG

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Unleash your kids' imagination with Hero Kids, the ENnie award-winning fantasy RPG for kids aged from 4 to 10.  This game offers a fast and fun introduction to RPGs, perfect for younger kids who are just getting interested in role-playing games.

"Hero Kids is great, we were off and playing within a few minutes of reading the rules!"

"Was woken up at 6am this morning by my son, saying he wanted to play Hero Kids right now!  There's no such thing as going back to sleep in a 7yo's universe!"

NOTE: The print option includes the core rules, heroes, and monsters.  Select the Print + PDF option (no extra cost) to also get the introductory adventure and printable heroes and monsters.

HERO KIDS PDF BUNDLE: The best way to buy the Hero Kids PDFs is the Hero Kids - Complete Fantasy PDF Bundle, which offers 75% off Hero Kids PDF products.

HERO KIDS PRINT + PDF BUNDLE: The best way to buy Hero Kids in print is the Hero Kids - Complete Fantasy Print + PDF Bundle, which includes all of the Hero Kids PDFs plus these print books (all for 75% off):

  • Hero Kids Core Rules (Print)
  • Hero Kids Monster Compendium (Print)
  • Hero Kids Adventure Compendium (Print)
  • Hero Kids Brecken Vale Gazetteer (Print)

Hero Kids Cover

  • Develop your kids' imagination and skills
  • Simple mechanics using only six-sided dice
  • Beautiful presentation, with fully illustrated heroes, monsters, and maps
  • 10 heroes, including boys and girls
  • Challenge kids with combat and exploration
  • Playtime from 30-60 minutes
  • Includes a full adventure: Basement O Rats
  • More adventures available now

Hero Kids has a simple combat and adventuring system which avoids the complex maths of full-blown systems.  Hero Kids' opposed dice pool system also keeps the players involved in the game even when it's not their turn.  

Hero Kids - Line-Up

The combat and adventuring mechanics in Hero Kids are based on six-sided dice, so you don't need to find any unusual dice to play!

The core game comes in a 53-page PDF and includes all of the rules and play instructions, as well as 10 heroes for the kids to play, plus a set of 16 basic monsters (and all of the separate adventures come with additional monsters). The game includes male and female heroes, including Warriors, Hunters, and Warlocks as well as unique heroes like the Rogue, Brute, Healer, and Knight.  All of the heroes and monsters also come with printable stand-up minis to use in combat encounters.

Hero Kids - Hero CardHero Kids - Hero Card

Additionally, this basic game pack also includes the 20-page introductory adventure 'Basement O Rats', which comes with an extra monster and five illustrated printable encounter maps.  Can the kids rescue their friend Roger from the unusually large rats that have overrun the tavern basement?

Hero Kids has undergone and extensive development and playtesting to ensure the game is as simple, addictive, and engaging as possible.  But don't believe me, listen to the actual players:

"The game was great, we were off and playing within a few minutes of reading the rules!"

"Was woken up at 6am this morning by my son, saying he wanted to play Hero Kids right now!  There's no such thing as going back to sleep in a 7yo's universe!"

"The game was simple enough for my precocious three-year-old to enjoy, and my five year old to not be distracted from. With the included adventure we all had a lot of fun, including me."

"The art in the book is great: the character portraits are great and very evocative, bringing forth things kids interested in this will probably be familiar with anyway. There's a character who resembles Rapunzel from Disney's Tangled, another who reminds me of Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender."

"The game mechanics are easy to understand and fast enough to keep young players interested and do not get in the way of the story that is unfolding."

"The only real complaint I have is that there aren't full-page coloring pages available for each of the character portraits, something my kids (and myself!) would really enjoy."

"The design is clever, well thought out, and guaranteed to make you jealous that you didn't come up with it first."

"Providing stand-ups for each character helped a lot as well - it saved me from having to dig through my existing figures to find ones that resembled the children, and it reused the wonderful art."

"A great 'starter' rpg for kids, and even better gaming experience for parents to play with their kids. The core rpg experience has been boiled down to its bare essentials here. It only takes about 15-20 minutes to read the entire rulebook and have a good enough grasp on the rules to play your first session. Games will typically take under 30 minutes to play, which short for a typical rpg session, but absolutely perfect when playing with kids."

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Reviews (109)
Discussions (103)
Customer avatar
CK C February 19, 2024 8:10 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Considering getting a POD copy as a gift for a parent I know who's looking for fun activities for kids. Thing is, he's never played a TTRPG before. Does the book take people gently along and teach them how to run it, or does it assume the parent already plays RPGs?
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Richard B February 29, 2024 2:57 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Yes; the core book is very accessible and lays things out clearly. One of the great things about HK is that the basic mechanics (move up to 4 spaces, roll standard dice to fight/do things) are very simple and have a low barrier to entry. The available quests also take the pressure off of a newbie having to learn a whole system quickly or come up with ideas from scratch.
Customer avatar
Anton Stengade L June 15, 2023 11:12 am UTC
PURCHASER
I dont understand this part: Select the Print + PDF option (no extra cost) to also get the introductory adventure and printable heroes and monsters.
I've just purchased the fantasy bundle and cant find the introductory adventure anywhere
Can someone help?
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Customer avatar
Justin H June 15, 2023 11:17 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Hey! If you want just the PDF, select the PDF option for the purchase. If you want to get the print book, the best way to get that is through the Complete PDF Bundle which includes 50% discounts for the Hero Kids print books.

The note you've mentioned is just telling people not to just select the Print option here, as you won't get the PDFs that include the various other PDF parts of the game (the Intro Adventure, etc).

If you've purchased the Fantasy Bundle, then you'll have the Hero Kids intro adventure (Basement O Rats) in your library.
Customer avatar
Michael B February 28, 2023 6:21 pm UTC
PURCHASER
How easy is this game for 4 year olds to learn? My oldest is 3.5 and I'd love to get it for his brithday, but it's hard for me to imagine a TTRPG that someone of that age could really understand.
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Customer avatar
Justin H March 01, 2023 10:37 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Michael, I originally wrote Hero Kids for my oldest when she was just over 4 years old. With kids this age, you can focus on the mini-figures, maps, and more straightforward adventures like Basement O' Rats. Justin
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Customer avatar
Chris E April 08, 2023 5:49 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I just played with my 4 year old, along with her older brother (9) and sister (8). She really only understood the dice rolling but was happy when she was the one who dealt the final blow to the boss monster.
Customer avatar
Jan Michael C January 16, 2023 8:41 am UTC
PURCHASER
great product for beginners like me.

I need help on these
- is there a map of the town where we can see where the Inn and other buildings are located? Just in case the kids wants to wonder around the village and visit other house and buildings
- also, do the other village from the map have names like the one near the bay and the tower on the upper left? are these future adventures?
- the "Knight of the Invincible Sun" has same stats vs a knight that a kid can use. How to make it a little more powerful? Its just hard to imagine a kid knight and a Knight of the Invincible Sun is equally strong

thanks
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H January 16, 2023 11:50 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Jan,

The Brecken Vale Gazetteer has all the information you're looking for about Rivenshore and the other locations on the main map. This product is included in the Complete PDF Bundle.

For the Knights, if you want to make them more powerful, you can either give them another health box or an extra attack die.
Customer avatar
Francisco B January 06, 2023 3:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Is there any place to find the cover (in color) of hero kids and the Brecken Vale Gazetteer without titles, icons, etc.? I'd like to print them for the front and back of my binder holding all of the printouts.
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Customer avatar
Justin H January 07, 2023 7:35 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Francisco, email me at justinhalliday@gmail.com with the list of images you'd like, and I'll send you the links.
Customer avatar
Jeffrey S November 30, 2022 9:11 pm UTC
PURCHASER
The blog post from June 2022 mentions that the adventures will be adjusted to new difficulty tiers. Has that officially happened? The difficulty on the covers don't match the blog post. For example, the blog states that "Escape from the Ghost Pirates" will be hard difficulty, but the download still calls it normal. "Darkness Neath Rivenshore" should be easy difficulty, but the download still refers to it as hard.
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Customer avatar
Justin H December 03, 2022 8:21 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Hey Jeffrey, I've updated all of the adventures (except for Escape from the Ghost Pirates and Reign of the Dragon as these are off the main campaign flow). Check them out now, and let me know if I missed anything!
Customer avatar
Seth B June 29, 2022 11:16 am UTC
PURCHASER
Is this still available in print?
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Customer avatar
Justin H June 29, 2022 11:23 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Hey Seth, I've just updating the print version of Hero Kids, so I have to take the print option down temporarily while I wait for the proof to be shipped to me.
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Customer avatar
Adrian L July 14, 2022 2:33 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi! When will the print version be available?
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Customer avatar
Justin H July 14, 2022 4:08 am UTC
PUBLISHER
The print version should be available again before the end of July (hopefully sooner). Just waiting for the updated proofs to be printed and to arrive.
Customer avatar
Scott S January 21, 2022 1:38 am UTC
PURCHASER
Got my young niece playing and she loved it! Great system to introduce kids to pen & paper rpg's.
The adventures build on the previous ones, introducing more complex situations.
Not only is this an amazing system for kids but also for introducing adults to rpg's.
The mechanics are very basic but cover most bases and this makes running the game and improvising super simple.

I can't recommend this enough. Especially at such a low price point!
Customer avatar
Fran D December 26, 2021 4:39 pm UTC
PURCHASER
My son (5yo) loves this game! If it were up to him, we'd play all of the adventures back to back. Will recommend this to my fellow nerd parent friends!
Customer avatar
Marlana W November 24, 2021 1:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi! What ages is this best geared for (Elementary kids, middle schoolers, high schoolers?) Thank you!
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Customer avatar
Justin H November 24, 2021 9:30 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Marlana, Hero Kids is for kids aged 4-10, which maps to elementary school. Middle and high-schoolers are generally able to handle D&D and similar games.
Customer avatar
aecio F November 18, 2021 3:43 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hello!
Great product!

I'm starting a table with my daughter.
She's 5 years old and a Super Mario RPG fan and I'll try emulate the game.

Then, I have a question.
I want the characters to have three pieces of equipment: a weapon, an armor and a trinket (arm band, collar, tiara, ring, etc).
Plus two potions.

What changes should I make to enemies to balance the system?

Thank you in advance.
We love your game.
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H November 19, 2021 12:21 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
That's a tricky one; I haven't tried so much equipment. One thing to try is just to give each enemy 1 extra health, rather than adding more enemies.
Customer avatar
Jordan S September 29, 2021 7:01 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Heya, So I bought the large package, and I was hoping you could let me know what package I should print out first to achieve the following: I would like to print out and laminate the Maps so I can use them
The rest I am confident I got from Core, and Hero Cards packages, but in terms of Maps, so i can easily lay them out, id love some advice. Also, what adventure is recommended to start?
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H September 29, 2021 11:26 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hey Jordan, the order of the adventures is listed here, which will help you select which maps to print and laminate first:
https://herokidsrpg.blogspot.com/p/hero-kids-adventures.html

For printing the maps, print them at 'actual size' or even a little bit larger if your printer can handle printing right to the edge. This will give you a bit of extra space in each printed square.
Customer avatar
NCT F August 09, 2021 1:44 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I tried to print Basement O Rats maps, but the output is an entirely black page! Any ideas on how to fix that?

System: MacBook Pro / Catalina (10.15.7)
File: Hero_Kids_-_Fantasy_Adventure_-_Basement_O_Rats_-_Printer_Friendly.pdf
Printer: Brother J4120 DW
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H August 09, 2021 11:53 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
This happens when you use the Mac's preview function for printing. Preview doesn't handle transparent layers properly. Use Adobe Reader instead and it will work properly.
Customer avatar
Jay M July 29, 2021 7:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Are there spells for the magic classes? I didn't see any in the book.
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H August 09, 2021 11:54 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Jay, each individual heroes has a couple of powers they use, and for the 'magic' characters these are spells. There are also a bunch of spells in the Hero Advancement Cards expansion:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/272529/Hero-Kids--Fantasy-Expansion--Hero-Advancement-Cards
Customer avatar
Prido W June 10, 2021 7:57 am UTC
PURCHASER
Is there any editable/fillable PDF file for the hero cards so I can change the information to our own language? thank you for great system
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H June 10, 2021 10:12 am UTC
PUBLISHER
There are blank Hero Cards in the PDFs, but not a fillable form due to the way the hero abilities work.
Reply
Customer avatar
Prido W June 14, 2021 3:37 am UTC
PURCHASER
I am aware of this but what I meant was hero cards with picture but editable on the ability part (right side)
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H June 14, 2021 7:36 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Not really. Your best bet is the either extract the image from the PDF and editing in something like Photoshop, or download the source PSDs using the Creator's Guild program to make your own custom hero cards.
Customer avatar
Eric D April 27, 2021 4:30 am UTC
PURCHASER
I am looking forward to playing this with my kids. I am working on making high definition versions of the maps to use. Here is a link to the first part of the Basement O Rats map if anyone is interested in using it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ff1YLAVjjAfm73DYn8GkHADiKZ2xMzO1/view?usp=sharing
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H April 27, 2021 4:55 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Looks amazing!
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Product Information
Adamantine seller
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Pages
73
File Size:
72.96 MB
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These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

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File Last Updated:
July 07, 2023
This title was added to our catalog on October 30, 2012.