A few years ago (2010 I believe) Wizards of the Coast released a download on their site for teachers, librarians and parents interested in using games (and in particular roleplaying games) as a teaching aid. They touted the math skills, the social interaction and problem solving skills and a whole slew of things that sounded wonderful towards inventative ways to teach kids. What we got was Monster Slayers, a quick skeleton of a game with an attached adventure all building off of the Monster Slayer kids book that Wizard’s produced the year before (but rarely found in the wild).
The best way to describe Monster Slayers is to say +Justin Halliday did it better. It is a parsed down 4e game with widgets for health that can be marked off, special abilties and cute pictures. What’s missing is a sense of wonder and adventure (which Halliday’s Hero Kids has in spades). Still it was an interesting direction that WotC tried to go into and honestly I wish it would have been a success because with some minor improvements, a more robust monster catalog, and some out of combat focus this thing could have been great for the community.
Today, WotC released Monster Slayers onto all of Onebookshelf as a free download. Go check it out since it costs nothing, steal from it what you will for your Hero Kids game and enjoy the really cute art (Seriously, the art is lovely in its simple nature!)
Monster Slayers on RPGnow.
Now lets hope they put that damn book up so I can finally read/read it too my kids! Seriously, who the hell publishes a book that can never be found?!
