Designing an RPG with Kids: Tracking Points

We’ve done quite a few iterations on this part of the game, which is such an integral part of keeping track of how you, and your character, are doing.

Point totals and allocations are so great, because they give players a sense of accomplishment, show them that resources are finite, and plus there’s math involved as you add, subtract, and divide.

Here is the points tracking sheet that we have so far. You’ll notice that it’s got a nice big area for writing down what you’ve done and how many points you either earned or spent. Then, you figure your totals and allocate your points across a number of character attributes – as well as a “bank” where you can store points you don’t want to allocate or you want to spend on yourself for say, video game time. We do this on a daily basis, and points that are spent on yourself (like, TV or video game time) have to be earned the same day. Points spent on your character, though, can be earned whenever.

This format came from watching my kids write their points down on their own piece of paper. I had this really clever (not) form that I had created but it didn’t come close to what they were actually doing. This also allows some “scribble space” for when they need to add a series of numbers or something.

You also pull your numbers down from one day to the next, which gives you a nice picture of how you are doing from day to day. The kids seem to really like this feature.

Next, we will be creating the “catalog” of items that can be acquired with points, and a way to “give” them to your character. Again, we’re keeping this simple and I’m letting the kids drive the format.