Lil’ LARPers

A speculative opportunity analysis and early stage concept exploration leveraging the newfound popularity of Dungeons and Dragons, the Hasbro supply chain, and pretend play toys.

Note: This portfolio entry is meant to showcase my workflow and thought process as I identified an opportunity area and created a product concept based on my own passion for the toy industry and the world of tabletop gaming. Although the research and actual product design are my own content, I do not own or claim to own the rights to any of the properties identified in this project.

A New Opportunity

Like many other unsuspecting home-bound hobbies, Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop role playing games (TTRPGs) saw a dramatic rise in interest and participation during the pandemic[1]. Through streaming and podcasting, this imagination-heavy hobby shed most of its undesirable associations and spread into the common consciousness. Passionate people love to share their hobbies with their children - and the links of pretend play with increased creativity are well documented.

Hasbro - a toy industry leader that controls Wizards of the Coast, the maker of Dungeons and Dragons - is in a unique position to forge relationships between parents who are rediscovering imaginative play with their children. Lil’ LARPers is a speculative product line designed to help adult consumers of RPG culture connect and engage with children who participate in pretend play.

Parents who Play TTRPGs

Within the toy industry, the challenge of selling products is that the primary user (a child) does not usually have the purchasing power to buy the toy, instead relying on the secondary user (a parent or guardian) to buy it for them. Because of that, successful toys are those that appeal to both the child and the parent, demonstrate potential for long term play to the parent, and do not directly annoy the parent during operation [2].

In development of this concept line, I interviewed self-identified “nerdy” parents to learn more about the play habits of their children, what they look for in a toy, and how they seek to either engage their children while playing RPGs or prevent them from disrupting the gaming session. Examples of some questions I asked:

  • How have you tried to encourage your child's interactions with your hobbies?

  • What is your child's favorite part of these hobbies?

  • How do you manage your kids’ involvement or behavior around games that aren’t for them?

  • What’s a memorable story of a time that these strategies succeeded? What was the end result?

  • “They’re interested. When we’re [me and my adult friends] are playing, the kids hover, ask questions, and my youngest climbs all over me while I’m trying to DM [dungeon master]. They want to be a part of what daddy is doing.”

    — Father of 3 children between 3 and 11 years old

  • “He’s my buddy. It’s a little selfish, but I want him to like the same things I do. I have dreams of the two of us going to Comic Con together and sharing these hobbies for the rest of our lives.”

    — Father of a 6 year old boy

  • “They [RPGs] help our kids become better at the things their struggling with. [Our son], for instance, is on the [autistic] spectrum and is also dyslexic. He’s learning social interactions and math when he rolls the dice.”

    — Mother of 3 children between 3 and 11 years old

Pretend Play and Early Childhood Development

Pretend and role play are common in children from ages 19 months to 8 years old, as they develop memory skills and symbolic connections. These play patterns tend to decrease in popularity as children age out of elementary schools, where sports/outdoor play and educational play replace those tendencies naturally[3]. The exact goals, methods and complexities of pretend play fluctuate depending on age, background, and personality. This product line focuses on children between the ages of 4 and 6 years old, whose pretend play has elevated to Advanced Symbolic and Socio-Dramatic Play[4].

When interviewing the parents, several themes they use to encourage symbolic play emerged:

  • “Just like when you’re a DM [dungeon master], it’s hard to make up adventures.” The parents of kids interviewed talked about how challenging they find it to come up with a concept for pretend play. In many families, either the older sibling or a parent steps up and creates an “adventure”. Whether it’s slaying dragons and choosing who is the party and who is a dragon or starting a restaurant and defining who is a cook and who’s a customer, kids seem to play best when there’s an established jumping off point.

  • “They do get a bit fussy if there are too many rules. In the My Little Pony RPG, it was just blocks and blocks of text that all the action was hinged on, and then one roll. She [my oldest daughter] failed the roll, and didn’t stop crying for 2 hours. We haven’t played it since.” When the play is too restrictive, children can either disengage and become bored OR become over invested and sensitive. When kids drive the action, they are able to regulate their own feelings.

  • Kids - especially younger kids - want to check in with adults while they’re playing. “They come up to me while I’m doing dishes - ‘Mommy, me and [older sister] just saved the princess and brought her back home. [Older sister] wants to go back and save the prince, but I want to go to the parade!’ - and then I’m suddenly both the prince’s tower and the King of the Parade.” They’re looking for validation of their adventures, and encouragement on what to do next.

Key Design Goals

Keep it Low Tech

Part of the point of running RPGs as an adult is to connect to friends and colleagues with minimal electronics interference. Parents want kids to lean on their own creativity - to make up their own sound effects, imagine their own environment, and experiment with rules and outcomes.

Keep it Abstract

When kids engage in symbolic play past the toddler stage, they rely on non-representational props to form as bases for a projection of their creativity. Ultra specific toys - like replica cosplay weapons and detailed scale models - may appeal to their parents, but the cardboard box they come in will be just as valuable to the kids.

Keep it Collaborative

Just like adults, kids rely on others to brainstorm their ideas. Successful toys and games encourage kids to play with parents, siblings, or friends on the playground - which means the play needs to have a low barrier to entry and a high appeal factor.

Lil’ LARPers appeals to kids’ imaginations and adults’ collection habits.

Kid-Sized LARP Props

The core feature of Lil’ LARPers is the Adventurer’s Belt system. Each system can be worn as a belt, a bandolier-style sash, or combined via the proprietary connection point to form a belt/sash combo for maximum carrying capacity.

All components of Lil’ LARPers are designed to attach to the Adventurer’s Belt, so kids can carry their swords, healing potions, and spell slingers to the site of their next great adventure.

Adventure Prompts

Wizards of the Coast has dedicated artists working on Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, who will illustrate collectable adventure cards. A card will be included as an adventure prompt within each Lil’ LARPers boxed set, but packages of randomized cards will also be available for purchase.

On the back of each card, there’s an adventure prompt with a small rules set, suggested locations, and a party goal. If the card is based off of a published adventure, the card also includes the source book and page number this full adventure can be found in.

Packaging to Playset

Lil’ LARPers kits will be sold in partially cut-out standard cardboard packages. Printed on the inside of the packaging will be cut and fold lines to help the kids and their responsible adults to cut up the packaging and turn it into the relevant props for the suggested adventures included in the kit!

References

  1. Whitten, S. (2021, March 13). Dungeons and Dragons had its biggest year despite the coronavirus. CNBC Entertainment. Retrieved February 18, 2022, from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/13/dungeons-dragons-had-its-biggest-year-despite-the-coronavirus.html.

  2. The Family Room Strategic Consulting Group. (2013, July). Toy and Game Family Decision Making Study. Retrieved February 18, 2022, from https://www.toyassociation.org/App_Themes/tia/pdfs/resources/reports/FamilyDecisionMaking-WhitePaper.pdf

  3. Division of Human Factors. (M. N. Richards, D. L. Putnick, J. T. D. Suwalsky, M. H. Bornstein, K. H. Phillips, & J. Hurley, Eds.), Age Determination Guidelines: Relating Consumer Product Characteristics to the Skills, Play Behaviors, and Interests of Children (January 2020). Consumer Product Safety Commission.

  4. Markham Stouffville Hospital. (n.d.). Developmental Milestones of Symbolic or Pretend Play. Markham, ON; Child Development Programs.