I started playing TTRPGs with my little one when he was just 5, using "Amazing Tales". It is an extremely simple system (you choose 4 skills; each is represented by a specific die; skill checks are made by rolling the corresponding die, with 3 and above meaning success, below meaning success with a complication). I can't recommend it enough -- we both loved it, starting with the story suggestions in the book (doing both sci-fi and pirate scenarios) and then moving on to a simplified version of "The Wild Beyond The Witchlight" because of the fairy-tale setting.
It's not complex, of course, but he's never asked for more (yet). I wonder if what you describe as your kid wanting "an inventory and hydra battles and so on" is an age thing, a personality thing (crunch vs story preferences), or just the fact that my son has never played a video game, does not know what DnD is and thus has no pre-conceived notion of what a TTRGP is supposed to be like. I guess I'll know in a few years, if he continues to bother playing strange games with his nerdy dad. (I always wanted to find out if it's actually possible to play one of the many, many RPGs centred around teen protagonists with actual teens, or if it's just a thing old people do to feel young again...)
I started playing TTRPGs with my little one when he was just 5, using "Amazing Tales". It is an extremely simple system (you choose 4 skills; each is represented by a specific die; skill checks are made by rolling the corresponding die, with 3 and above meaning success, below meaning success with a complication). I can't recommend it enough -- we both loved it, starting with the story suggestions in the book (doing both sci-fi and pirate scenarios) and then moving on to a simplified version of "The Wild Beyond The Witchlight" because of the fairy-tale setting.
It's not complex, of course, but he's never asked for more (yet). I wonder if what you describe as your kid wanting "an inventory and hydra battles and so on" is an age thing, a personality thing (crunch vs story preferences), or just the fact that my son has never played a video game, does not know what DnD is and thus has no pre-conceived notion of what a TTRGP is supposed to be like. I guess I'll know in a few years, if he continues to bother playing strange games with his nerdy dad. (I always wanted to find out if it's actually possible to play one of the many, many RPGs centred around teen protagonists with actual teens, or if it's just a thing old people do to feel young again...)