Wacky scenario idea: little kid

[what]

i was thinking today what it would be like to be a little kid( like age 5-9 )in the cataclysm, So i came up with this scenario idea.

description of the scenario: whats happening? mom and dad just ate our neighbor and his dog, this has to be a nightmare!

Scenario flags:
in town

Starting professions:

rascal: (dodging 1) ( unarmed combat 1 ) you were constantly getting into trouble, pushing other kids and getting into places you weren’t supposed to be in.

tech savvy tot: ( computers 1 ) ( electronics 1 ) you spent hours interacting with cool robot gadgets and toys and occasionally fixing them.

plain child: there is literally nothing special about you.

internet meme: ( speaking 1 ) ( bartering 1 ) your parents made you an internet meme by posting a video onto the internet of you drinking a whole can of tomato sauce while sobbing uncontrollably.

Restrictions:

since your a little kid, your going to be pretty weak. your strength cant go higher than 6.
you will be forced to have these traits: fast metabolism, lightheaded, truth teller, fast learner, fleet footed, and high adrenaline.

[Kadian]

The mod “Classes and Scenarios Mod” by Noctifier already has an Elementary Student (Age 6 to 13) which seems pretty well balanced - and it fits with your idea of little kids being in the cataclysm. It does not give an traits, mutations or skills though, it just gives some variations on the clothing (juice instead of water, a pbj sandwich, …)

Otherwise, some issues with your ideas:

• Rascal shouldn’t have unarmed combat skill. Yes, he might have fought…with other kids his age. the skills are, however, based on adults, and an adult with basic unarmed combat skill would be more efficient. His dodging could be 2 though, due to his small frame.
• I don’t see how being a Meme helps you with speaking or bartering. Just because you are ‘famous’ on the internet does not translate into being able to speak like an adult would or barter with other people more efficiently.
• Fast Metabolism isn’t necessary. The amount of food you need to eat is, again, based on late teen/adult ; fast metabolism would, however, increase the amount of necessary food, which doesn’t quite makes sense. A trait which would make more sense is quick healer, since the body is still young enough to heal damage faster.
• fast learner should be connected to certain professions. I don’t see a ‘rascal’ or bully being a fast learner. If anything, it would be more likely for them to have slow learner.
• Stuff like flimsy would be a good choice - a kid, while being able to heal faster, wouldn’t be able to take as much punishment as an adult.
• Light Bones is also a possibility due to kids having more and weaker bones than adults.
• The mutation ‘little’ from the (newish) mouse category would be fitting. Although you would need to change the description, because it currently says you shrunk, which wouldn’t be the case for kids.

That’s of course just my opinion, but I feel like that stuff would make a lot of sense.

[nameless_survivor]

[Eastwardrope91]

Might be able to use the mouse mutation tree to make them tiny which adds a speed and dodge bonus and a malice to weight.

I mean have you ever seen a little kid run? They are like fucking race cars and seem to have the weirdest ability to get out of your hands/cart/car seat ect.

And for the strength… have you ever had a kid grab your hair or kick you between the legs by a 5 year old? They have the grip of a Olympic grabber person and the legs of a football player when it comes to kicking.

That and children are damn terrifying… if I had to fight a kid or fight a chicken walker I’d take the chicken walker.

[Sanehatter]

Any heallthy adult can outrun a child. They should have a speed penalty tbh.

[Eastwardrope91]

Have you ever had to chase a 7 year old? They seem to have the speed of god’s in their tiny legs. Seriously I’ve had to chase down my sisters and I outrun most of my peers (at the time in a bit better health now than then) this includes the track team but my sisters who 7 at the time were almost faster than me at 16.

Trust me little kids are Willy fast and oddly strong. My sisters are either amazingly strong or are the standard and as its my sisters on both sides of the family I’d say children are scary, strong and fast. Seriously I would not mess with them even today.

[Sanehatter]

their tiny legs

Pretty much that. Stride lenght is a really fundamental part of running, and a kid will always be outrun by an adult at full speed, assuming the later can run properly.

[Eastwardrope91]

Well I guess either all the people at my school are slow and my sisters are stupidly fast or my sisters are freaks of nature when they were younger. Oddly enough they got slower as they got older

[TheZoneWizard]

Do we even have NPC kids? If not(I as I never seen one) shouldn’t we?

I doubt all children would die, just because most have. Ignoring movie tropes. Kids can hide rather well.

[socom55]

you sould only be able to use bikes in the scenario and not able to use cars or make it harder to drive

• List item

[Cendar]

made me think of Turbo Kid

[socom55]

well there should be a go Kart kind of transport that spawns in this scenario that can be used

[Melen]

I could see a small bonus to bartering - The average person (not some psychopath) might give a few extra scraps to a little kid or take a slightly uneven trade, just because.

[Kadian]

That would be on average for all kids then, and I would agree to that - even in a Survival situation, I’d give a kid an extra sandwich or something else that he might like, as long as I can spare it.

I was, however, specifically speaking about the Connection between being an Internet Meme and getting more out of trades, which is nonsensical. After all, what made the following connection:
“I have a funny video of me on the internet, everyone is watching it!” to “I can speak well good and do the tradey thing better!”

[Sanehatter]

I like this idea. They could get a speaking bonus too.

[Melen]

Good point. I suppose I just took rascal and generically lumped together all kids.

Yeah a meme someone else (your parents, siblings, whoever) made of you should have nothing to do wirh any ability of yours. You did nothing but look dumb or cute or whatever for the camera.

[Kadian]

Exactly.

now, for skills in general: I could see having people 1 more in bartering (They are just kids, cut’em some slack and give them a little extra), speaking (You’re a kid…yeah, maybe i SHOULD keep you safe…) and dodging (small frame and all).

Now, for potential professions…first off, the following skills shouldn’t be raised ever, even in professions ; With helpful explanations why I consider them to be unusable for initial professions:

• Driving (Simply doesn’t make sense for a kid to be a good driver)
• Bartering (Besides the innate bonus of being a child of course. They wouldn’t have learned to barter with people at that point.)
• Speaking (Similar to bartering. a kid wouldn’t be able to speak as eloquently as an adult)
• Archery (A small child and a bow? Unlikely. Especially if you consider a max strength of 6…)
• marksmanship & Gun-skills in general (You’d hopefully agree that, even in america, kids of the age of 6-10 shouldn’t get their hands on guns and train with them to be proficient with them.)

Now, with that out of the way, what do we have for options…

• The ‘Nerd’ - Computers and Electronics increase, or a book about that stuff.
• The ‘Bully’ - Not necessary a profession increase, but maybe some more items he took from other kids. Maybe some kind of pocketknife too. Otherwise, loot: Candies, Softdrinks, foodstuff, maybe a bit of other stuff too.
• The ‘Rascal’ - I consider a ‘rascal’ to be more of a child who pranks people. Hiding stuff, prepping a chair for a prank, that kinda thing. Surprisingly, this could translate in an increase in ‘trapping’ if nothing else.
• The ‘Fat Kid’ - Could have more food, and some skill in cooking. I know I loved to help my mum to cook and especially bake when I was a small kid, and it seems fitting.
• The ‘Prep-Kid’ - We already have several Prepper/Survivalist Professions, for example the “Survivalist Jr.”. The Prep Kid would fit into the same family, although with less actual skills and more survival books, because there was less time to teach him.
• The ‘Tinkerer’ - Basically a variation of the nerd who loves to build stuff. Fabrication and Electronics might work here.
• The ‘Athletic kid’ - I could see them having swimming, 1 more dodging OR maybe something like Karate or Taekwando. While somewhat rare with small children, there are some who are actively in clubs for those.

That’s all I got for now. I could imagine some sort of ‘nice kid’ with some first aid skill, not sure if that would work out though. Other than that…I think i covered most viable skills actually. The Names are obviously not final, it’s just to give you a quick idea what I had in mind.

[Melen]

That sounds like a decent spread of kid ‘professions’ but I wonder if instead of Prep Kid, maybe you have Cub Scout.
The scout might have 1 cooking from roasting hot dogs & marshmallows or foil packs.
Maybe 1 survival from being shown to avoid poison ivy or that certain berries are edible.
Finally, 1 fabrication from all the craft projects & how to put up a tent.

Otherwise I think you have a solid list overall… Just the Prepper, Prepper Jr and then mini-prepper just seems a little redundant to me personally.

[TheZoneWizard]

I would have to disagree with the archery and firearm proficiency.

Kids are uncommon to have these skills. But many do. The average firing range in the states will most certainly have children around once in a while and in New England region is no exception.

A few examples of gear may entail:

Amazon.com : Crossbow 50 lb. Mini Pistol Hand Held Gun Archery Hunting Cross Bow w/5 Arrows : Sports & Outdoors

or perhaps this for teens-adults (folding bow):

Amazon.com : SAS Tactical Survival Bow (55# at 28" draw, Right) : Sports & Outdoors

and Children’s Bow. The draw and size of a bow meant for a child/teen is lower than for an adult. But still fully capable of being lethal. I think close combat is often thought of as something non-relevant and easily dismissed. But these weapons are potentially lethal.

Many firearms are also capable of being handled very well in fact by young people. Derringer size pistols for example. Hell I grew up firing standard size rifles and crossbows. A .22, 9x19, 12g rifles various family and friends let me shoot. Plus Teen bow for my personal use/ownership(though I was like 9yo lol) and a similar pistol crossbow.

[Kadian]

Well then, count me horrified.
Might be because I’m german, but I could not imagine a 6-10 year old being allowed to shoot all kinds of guns. Or go to a shooting range, with lethal weapons. I mean, at this age most kids aren’t really…grown up enough to understand that they can do some real nasty damage with that stuff. Hell, they could even think they’re allowed to take a gun to any odd place because they fired it before.
Guess that means we could add another profession, one which has some experience on the firing range.

Also, since Bows already need strength to be drawn, this shouldn’t be much of an issue with kids and archery, as long as we 1 or more bows for children. I’m not sure what the minimum for the self bow is, since I…basically never use it, but I’d assume that would be a good starting point for ‘small’ bows.
Guns on the other hand…Even if kids can handle smaller calibers very well, we’d have to figure out a way to increase recoil and decrease accuracy for bigger firearms. Or can someone show me that a small child can accurately shoot an AK47, G41, a Remington or most other kinds of bigger sized rifles without being utterly overwhelmed with the recoil of big ammunition and/or automatic fire? At this point I >hope< not.
In any case, there might need to be a minimum strength added to some of the guns? And while you’re under this minimum you get double recoil and decreased accuracy with it or something like this.
…Oh god, I just imagined a 6 year old in your typical raider outfit and with a damn M2 Browning or a PGM Hecate II.