We Are All Mad Here
Children play the roles of urchins, siblings, daughters, sons, waifs, servants, royal family members, child brides, and more.
When using child NPCs, consider making them useful to the characters. Most PCs will not want to harm, fight, or kill a child, so give them other opportunities to interact beyond combat.
Motive: Seeking safety, comfort, money, or food; play; bringing joy
Environment: With their families, or lost in the world trying to find their way. Sometimes in the employ or care of someone who has found them, stolen them, or otherwise become their guardians, caretakers, or keepers.
Health: 3
Damage Inflicted: Minor wound (1 point)
Movement: Short
Modifications: Run, hide, sneak, and escape as level 2; knowledge of the nearby area, people, and activities as level 3
Combat: Most children fight only in response to being provoked, threatened, or attacked. They typically use makeshift weapons, such as their fists, a stick, or a toy.
Interaction: Children are often smarter, more creative, and more wily than they're given credit for. They may have a lot of knowledge about nearby people, places, and activities that can help the PCs, particularly if there's an exchange of food, money, or other goodies involved.
Use: Someone or something is stealing children from the village, and the mayor is offering to pay a large sum to anyone who tracks down the creature and rescues the children. One of the PCs catches a waif stealing from their pack in the night; the child says they've been lost in the woods for days.
Loot: Children typically have very little on their person, although they may have a special memento of their family or a close friend.
GM Intrusion:s: The child shouts, laughs, or talks too loudly, accidentally drawing the attention of a nearby guard toward a character. Someone mistakenly thinks a character has stolen the child, and attacks them.