Instead of the usual bed-time story with Alice, our four year old daughter, I decided to run a “Adventure-Story” (at least that’s how I phrased it to her). At first she wasn’t bothered, but when I told her she could play a “rabbit”, she lit up!
It’s the first time I’ve tried roleplaying with Alice. She enjoys stories but as long as they came from books (especially with pictures). But to see her react to the story was brilliant! I didn’t use dice, just played by ear and told her a story where the rabbit’s carrots were taken and Alice the Rabbit had to find out where they went. But it was all the little touches she brought to it that made it.
When the “King and Queen” rabbit asked her to go outside of the burrow to see what had happen to the carrots, Alice hopped out of the bed and hopped around her room grabbing anything that might look like a carrot and threw them onto the bed (where the other rabbits were).
When she sneaked into the Farmer’s house and into the kitchen where the Farmer was a sleep, I asked her what she wanted to do next, she whispered to me “I can’t talk Daddy, the Farmer might wake up!”
It was full of those little moments where she brought her own touches to it! I was surprised it went so well. The only thing is, it’s not a replacement for a bedtime story. She was so awake afterwards, I had to read her a normal story as well to get her to calm down! 