Let’s Play D&D With ‘Home Alone’s Kevin McCallister
If Christmas feels like too much to deal with, maybe you’d prefer to stay home alone and play D&D with Kevin McCallister.
I’ve seen variations of the Home Alone schtick used in D&D settings a couple of times. And it’s always great. It’s so funny and silly while being instantly recognizable yet perfect for a fun action-adventure-comedy game. Just give it some fantasy flavor and you’re golden. But what if a player wants to really play into this scenario and be the cause of the booby-trapped house/cave/whathaveyou? Well, good news, Dungeons and Dragons is also perfect for that little monster. So this week we’ll be playing D&D with…
Kevin McCallister
There are a lot of things about Kevin that would work well in D&D and a few that wouldn’t. For example, like most players you’ll find at most tables, he’s an absolute little chaos gremlin. But he’s also an eight-year-old. While it’s a lot of fun to see a little kid outwit a couple of befuddled adults for two hours in a movie, in a game with an ongoing plot there are going to be some implications as to why a child is part of your party. You know there’s a tragic backstory there that the DM is going to jump on.
So I decided to age up our D&D version of Kevin and make him a halfling. He’s still small, light on his feet, and clever. But now you don’t have to pretend to be eight.
Right off the bat, Kevin is an Arcane Trickster Rogue. It’s one of those times when the class is perfect for the character with very few notes. But he’s also good at making things and jury-rigging stuff together for maximum burglar destruction. Kevin needed at least a few levels of Artificer, but none of the subclasses quite fit him. Maverick may be right but it’s not quite official. Instead, he has two levels of Artificer, not enough to earn a specialization, but enough to get in trouble. Or out of trouble. One of those.
For spells, I mostly gave Kevin things that matched up with the movie in some way. Prestidigitation was an obvious choice, but he’s also very good at making things very hot (the doorknob) or very cold (the icy stairs), so I was sure to include a few of those. Cause Fear because he… does, and Pyrotechnics because while I don’t remember if he does shoot fireworks at the bandits, it’s something he would do.
Kevin’s a bit light on weapons and we see him with a BB Gun, so perhaps giving him a firearm of some kind would be fitting. But for my purposes today it felt a bit too lethal. Not that a paint can on a rope wouldn’t be. Y’know what? Give D&D Kevin a firearm. Good luck, bandits!
How would you make Kevin McCallister for D&D? Which Home Alone movie do you prefer? Were you ever left at home by accident as a kid? Let us know in the comments!
Happy adventuring!
