Review of The Tiny Teahouse, a TTRPG adventure
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Target audience for The Tiny Teahouse
The Tiny Teahouse is made specifically with the intent of being used by and for young players. There is one combat instance against the antagonist amongst a mostly exploration-based adventure that’s full of whimsy. There’s a guided section in the beginning that even shows how to adjust playstyle, mechanics, etc to fit different age ranges from little kids up to teens.
The adventure is also made to be enjoyed by all-ages (not just kids) – the story is something that I would play with my adult friends just as well as with my kid (6yo) and still have a great time (i.e. the story is accessible to kids but while also being fun for teens/adults).
The adventure is D&D compatible, which is normally recommended for ages 8+ due to reading and math required, however, The Kid’s Table also has a simplified mechanics and character system with a d20, d6, and simplified stats to help with players who are still building up their reading and math skills. If kids can read some words and do addition just past 20, they should be able to handle their character on their own or with just a bit of help from a facilitator or another player.
Setting for The Tiny Teahouse
The Tiny Teahouse takes place in a GIANT tea shop! Or… more like it seems giant (because you got shrunk)!
You’ll need to find the antidote, search for clues about what happened, and uncover a deceptive plot.
The mystery in question has great clues scattered throughout the story, so it’s possible to solve by a few methods without the answer being overly obvious (which is a hard balance to strike with TTRPG mysteries). It comes with tons of exploration options, a connection to a potentially bigger campaign plot that you can use as you wish, and social elements to play into the skills of the more charismatic players in the group.
Your character in The Tiny Teahouse
Your character in The Tiny Teahouse can be any character you made! Your character could be specific to this one shot, having only been made for this one game, or they could be from a long form campaign and are on a bit of a sidequest.
For our game, kiddo wanted to play as… Link! Which, if you have been following along, should not come as much of a surprise. We’ve been playing Wind Waker, and every one of kiddo’s characters since has been based on Link from the Legend of Zelda games. In this case, because the character creation was left open, we were able to drop Link right into the scenario, and it fit really well (having a side quest where Link gets shrunk seems like it could fit into one of the video game’s adventures too).
ALSO… the creators of The Tiny Teahouse have a character creator guide that helps new and young players with the character creation process. It has an excel sheet for inputting data right into the sheet and uses color and shape queues to help make it easier to read – you can check it out here if you’re looking for some help with making D&D character for the game.
Mechanics in The Tiny Teahouse
Because The Tiny Teahouse is an adventure versus a system and because it is D&D compatible, which… there’s tons of guides and other reviews breaking this down… I’m going to instead focus on a few of the well executed unique elements about the game instead.
First, there’s a section at the beginning that walks GM’s through how running a game with kids can be different from running with adults (and what you can do to adjust), how to adjust the game for different group sizes, and specific modifications to make for players in different age ranges. It takes a couple pages (so one full spread) to go through, and it’s a great condensed list of tips and tricks that can help make the game run smoothly for everyone. I appreciate that this is included since it’s pretty likely that this adventure could be a GM’s first game with their kid, and having a bit of advice or solidarity with that can be very helpful.
Second, everything in the module is theater of the mind (so no maps or art), but it isn’t needed to be able to understand the space since it is so well explained. And I like this A LOT. It gives opportunities for the players to get involved by asking questions and trying to imagine based on the description OR gets everyone drawing and coloring in pictures and maps to help illustrate the scene. The descriptions were ON POINT and gave a solid foundation for building each scene (from the tea cart to cabinets to the desk, and so much more).
Overall thoughts on The Tiny Teahouse
The Tiny Teahouse was a fun adventure and an engaging one shot that had lots of interesting nooks and crannies to discover. It was fanciful and full of magic but used familiar enough elements to make it relatable (i.e. it’s in a tea shop, but the size different spin changes everything about how you handle it). We had a good time checking this out, and it can be an easy intro quest to drop into an existing campaign or kick off a new one!
Find a copy of The Tiny Teahouse
You can find a copy of The Tiny Teahouse here on DTRPG!
Also, The Kid’s Table, creators of The Tiny Teahouse, runs a D&D for kids podcast, which I reviewed here!
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