A Comparison of Two Groups

[Kyle]

So I'm starting up a D&D group for my "littles" again- it's the original four I had (two of my own kids) plus two more friends. So it will be six players between the ages of 11 and 12. Last year, this group played through the first half of the Shattered Star adventure path. My older group (of six teenagers) were playing Starfinder and the first adventure path for that.

Then the flood happened and we lost all our characters and most of our stuff. I still have the Starfinder book, but not the adventure path. Ironically, I lost all my Pathfinder stuff, but had all my adventure paths.

So when i replaced my Pathfinder stuff, I started up the group with six (now seven) players between the ages of 15 and 23. I decided to run them through the Shattered Star adventure path. (I've decided to run the "littles" now known by all the moms as the Brat Pack, through the Carrion Crown adventure path.)

What's interesting is that, somewhat counterintuitively, in the six months the littles worked through that adventure path, they were hyper-efficient and laser focused on moving the story along and achieving their goals- with almost no railroading. I tried to entice them to spend an hour shopping in the muffin shop- BUT NO- they had to explore the Crow.

The teenagers, however, are now nine months into the same adventure and aren't even halfway through what the littles got through. No shit- this last session, we spent 45 minutes at a carnival row so that the gnome bard could win an oversized bear for his boyfriend that he met at the tavern. (Coincidentally, I had handwritten a teary "Dear John" letter to the bard from his boyfriend before the session, so when he returned with the bear, the boyfriend was gone and he had to read the note. It was very sad.)

[Zen]

[Kyle]

[Zen]