Scales & Tales by Kevin Sherry

Every great adventurer has to start somewhere.

Scales & Tales by Kevin Sherry is a playful introduction to tabletop role-playing games created especially for kids, families, and first-time adventurers.

Part rulebook, part activity book, and part adventure, it strips away complicated mechanics and gets straight to the good stuff: imagining heroes, meeting silly creatures, solving puzzles, drawing, playing games, and heading out on an epic quest together.

Clear instructions and Kevin Sherry's wonderfully cheerful illustrations make it easy for grown-ups and kids to discover RPGs side by side—even if nobody at the table has ever played one before.

Your First Adventure Starts Here

Role-playing games can look awfully complicated from the outside.

Scales & Tales makes the first step easy.

Simple rules and clear explanations introduce young players to the basics of role-playing without burying them under game mechanics. Instead, kids learn by creating, imagining, making choices, and playing together.

No RPG experience required.

Just bring your imagination.

Meet Heroes, Monsters & Very Silly Creatures

The book introduces different heroes and creatures before sending players into an approachable adventure filled with playful encounters.

Along the way, you'll find:

Heroes to discover

Silly creatures & monsters

An easy introductory adventure

Drawing games

Puzzles & activities

Imagination starters

Epic quests

It's structured enough to help everyone understand what to do next while leaving plenty of room for young players to contribute their own ideas.

Which, as any experienced Game Master can tell you, they absolutely will.

A Rulebook + Adventure + Activity Book

One of our favorite things about Scales & Tales is that it doesn't require kids to sit through a lengthy explanation of how RPGs work before they're allowed to have fun.

The rules, activities, games, and adventure work together to teach through play.

That makes it a particularly inviting choice for a family game night, a young player's first tabletop adventure, or a grown-up RPG fan hoping to share the hobby without immediately presenting someone with several hundred pages of rules.

There will be time for that later.

Why We Love It

It's genuinely made for young beginners. The simpler rules aren't an afterthought—they're part of the point.

Kids get to make things. Drawing, puzzles, imagination, and storytelling make the experience active from the beginning.

Parents don't need to be veteran Game Masters. Clear instructions help first-time grown-ups learn alongside their kids.

It understands what makes RPGs fun. Before the rules and character sheets and carefully organized dice collections, there's somebody saying, “Okay, imagine you're a hero…”

That's where it starts.

Book Details

Title: Scales & Tales
Author & Illustrator: Kevin Sherry
Type: Introductory tabletop role-playing game & activity book
Designed for: Kids, families & first-time RPG players
Experience needed: None
Includes: Simple RPG rules, heroes, creatures, introductory adventure, drawing games, puzzles & activities
Play focus: Imagination, storytelling & collaborative play
Format: Rulebook, instruction guide & activity book in one

About Kevin Sherry

Kevin Sherry is an author and illustrator known for creating funny, energetic books for young readers filled with memorable characters and wonderfully playful artwork. In Scales & Tales, he brings that same sense of humor and imagination to tabletop role-playing, creating an inviting first step into RPGs for kids and the grown-ups adventuring alongside them.

Gather your party. Small adventurers welcome.