There’s two things you must understand about my kid. 1. He loves D&D. 2. He’s obsessed with cats.
Since he’s at an age where he can play a proper campaign but doesn’t have friends his own age who also play, I decided to homebrew a game just for him and I timed it to begin a few months before his 8th birthday. He’s doing a great job and we’re having a lot of fun with it, but I could tell he’s been lonely.
I decided to make the first boss really intimidating by having everyone in a nearby town panicking about this scary monster in the woods. At first my son wanted nothing to do with it, but gradually he realized people might get hurt if he didn’t at least go and find out what the creature was.
It was a giant, oversized kitten.
I gambled this, because there was a possibility he might try to fight it, but I needn’t have worried. He immediately tried to befriend it. Nat 20.
I told him the kitten would become his companion if he could identify its true form and its true name. I showed him a bunch of pictures of kittens, and he picked his favorite. Success! That’s its true form.
He made a giant list of names and I maybe leaned some of the rolls so that the more regrettable options failed. He got a great roll on a very cool name. Success again! The kitten has become his companion.
They've been going on adventures together for a few weeks, and my son is blissfully happy about it.
All of this led up to his birthday. I just surprised him with a kitten that looks as close as I could find to the “true form” picture he chose, already with a collar and a name tag matching that of his D&D companion.
Based on the look on his face, this might be the closest thing to magic I have ever accomplished.
