Gamers: 11-15 years (parents, terachers, friends read too)

[norne]

I'm a middle school teacher, and for a while I have been considering starting a gaming club at school. I'd like to get a sense of the 11-14 year old gamer community (if there is such a thing) before I stick my neck out.

If you're between the ages of 11 and 15 (or recently were) and play (or would like to play) D&D:

1) When did you start?
2) What sorts of adventures/plots/style of play do enjoy?
3) Do your parents have any problem with your playing D&D?
4) Do you have a sense how many of your peers are interested in RPGs? Do you have a hard time finding people to play with?
5) Anything else you'd like to ad about your experiences as a young gamer?

If you're an adult (parent, teacher, mentor) who knows a young gamer or potential gamer:

1) How young is too young for D&D?
2) What sort of adventures/plots/style of play do you think are appropriate for young gamers?
3) What do you think is the best way to help a youngster who is interested in gaming get into the hobby?
4) If you can answer any of the "kid" questions above either from your own perspective as a young gamer or from the perspective of the child or children you know, please do.

Thanks your input. I'd really like to share this hobby that has brought me a lot of pleasure with interested students, but I want to make sure I can do it in such a way that it is "their thing", not mine.

Thanks again,
Norne

 

[Buttercup]

1) How young is too young for D&D?

I think it depends on the child, but 10 or 11 is probably the minimum age in most cases.

2) What sort of adventures/plots/style of play do you think are appropriate for young gamers?

I think this is the toughest question, especially if you are not the parent. You will definitely want to avoid moral ambiguity. Have them kill giant spiders, or skeletons that are menacing the town, or dire rats. I'd stay away from humanoids as enemies. Kids that young probably won't be able to handle complicated plots, either. Make the adventures straightforward, and don't be afraid to railroad them a tad, until you know them all fairly well. Finally, I'd probably either create the characters myself, or give them lots of direction. You *do not* want some kid playing an evil PC who beats up on the rest.

3) What do you think is the best way to help a youngster who is interested in gaming get into the hobby?

Give them validation and a place to play. Also, help them with the rules. I think you will ultimately want to extract yourself from the process as much as possible, and just take on an advisor's role.

4) If you can answer any of the "kid" questions above either from your own perspective as a young gamer or from the perspective of the child or children you know, please do.

I didn't game as a child, so I can't help you here.

Thanks your input. I'd really like to share this hobby that has brought me a lot of pleasure with interested students, but I want to make sure I can do it in such a way that it is "their thing", not mine.

IMO you should have your justifications ready before you start this club. There aren't very many people opposed to D&D these days, but a few do still exist. D&D improves math and writing skills. It helps kids exercise their imaginations, while using a structured framework. It teaches sharing and cooperative problem solving. But you know all this. It's just that you should have all these reasons polished up and perhaps printed up to give to any worrywarts.

 

[Wombat]

Due to a mother and father who play, I have been recruited to come up with a "beginner" rpg for a 7 and 9 year old pair. The elder, a boy, has been playing violent Nintendo-style games for 2 years already; the girl has more of a taste for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer claymation...

But they know mom & dad play, so they want to play, too.

This is going to be an interesting exercise if nothing else.

 

[WanderingMonster]

1) I think middle school age is the perfect age for D&D. Many kids show interest & ability to handle the rules earlier, but by 11 nearly every kid should be able to do this.

2) I think task intensive, and episodic adventures would be best. Skew heavy to the rewards and kewl-ness facrtor. Not quite Monty Haul, in fact the basic XP and rewards system in the DMG should be fine. I think kids at this age are looking less for a rewarding role-playing experience than indulging in a fantasy where they have power to influence the world (albeit an imaginary one). Of course, I could be wrong.

3) If they're interested, then the problem is largely financial and social. 11-15 years don't often have the income to buy this stuff themselves. Mom and Dad must make the purchase (even indirectly). Which brings us the social aspect. Mom and Dad might not "get" D&D. They need to have assurances that they're not doing anything bad for their kids. Parents night (seriously!) might go a long way towards easing their minds, and giving them a reference to talk with their kid about their new hobby. Once they realize that you are providing a safe place for their kids to go for 3-hours a week, and that you might even be stimulaing their curiousity for learning, they'll bite.

What about providing take home mimeographed (does anyone mimeograph anymore?? I can still smell the fresh wet paper...mmmmm) para-educational materials? "2d6 or 1d12? What's the difference?" "Suggested Fantasy Reading List" "Myths Behind the Monsters"

See? You've got math, lit, and social studies all right there!

 

[squirrel]

If you're between the ages of 11 and 15 (or recently were) and play (or would like to play) D&D:

1) When did you start?
2) What sorts of adventures/plots/style of play do enjoy?
3) Do your parents have any problem with your playing D&D?
4) Do you have a sense how many of your peers are interested in RPGs? Do you have a hard time finding people to play with?
5) Anything else you'd like to ad about your experiences as a young gamer?

Well, I don't know how recent you want but I'm 4 years out of the age category you wanted.

1) about 10
2) Cliche type plots are good, they hold that whole new aspect and excitement. Make sure the plots are black/white when it comes to doing good and bad for awhile until you get the feel of how the kids play. What Buttercup said are good examples, it gives a heroic feel to the game.
3) My dad got me into playing, so they didn't have a problem with it.
4) There was maybe 3 other kids that played (that I knew of) around my age. For the second question, it was hard to find other people to play with because a lot of the kids believed it was only for geeks and nerds
5) With this club, I would have it deal with boardgames and have places for the kids to play with the various CCG's. It might spark the interest of the other kids seeing how D&D works. I wish there was a club like the one you are putting together when I was going to middle/high school

[BIf you're an adult (parent, teacher, mentor) who knows a young gamer or potential gamer:

1) How young is too young for D&D?
2) What sort of adventures/plots/style of play do you think are appropriate for young gamers?
3) What do you think is the best way to help a youngster who is interested in gaming get into the hobby?
4) If you can answer any of the "kid" questions above either from your own perspective as a young gamer or from the perspective of the child or children you know, please do.[/B]

Well I think I can add a little here too.

1) I would limit to 10 or 11. It helps if the kid can read and understand the basic concepts, and do the basic math for the game, since it gives a since of accomplishment and makes it more of "their" game since they won't be relying on others to do it for them.
2) Buttercup hit what I was going to say.
3) Hard question, because I think it various from kid to kid. Maybe by letting them see a little gaming in action, letting them look through the books, and being able to answer any questions they have The way I got in, was by looking through all the books and bugging my dad to let me in on the game after watching it for so long.

Edit: I was thinking over the appropriate adventures question, and I think the more straight foward ones should be used more often around the younger age range, because between the ages 10-15 there are noticable changes in maturity level. It'll most likely depend on the group of kids you get and how they will react to moral decisions.

 

[krichaiushii]

Should I ever get my teaching degree, I'd like to think that I could also run a gaming club.

In regards to parental/school admin concerns, consider having the following available:

http://www.rpg.net/edu/

Should religious reasons be cited as to why it shouldn't be in schools, consider:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/2964/welcome.html

Overall, RPGs encourage teamwork, math, reading, social, and general problem-solving skills, and resource management. You can also teach cause and effect for actions. Ideally, it fosters an enjoyment of history, if only to better improve the game. This in turn can get the school library to order things for school use, as history is always worthwhile!

The comments about making it a more general gaming club that offers CCGs, Boardgames, and RPGs might work better in selling it to the administration. If everyone who attends chooses RPGs over other games, then so be it.

Depending on how the game club is recieved and available funding, either the school system (not likely) or yourself will have to initially spring for a few games and/or books - most likely a few PHBs and dice.

Perhaps you can convince your FLGS owner to donate some games/dice/PHBs to the club - he may enjoy the tax break and potential future loyal customers. Failing free stuff, perhaps a deal where members of your club get a discount (maybe 10%) off stuff purchased from his store.

Just some random thoughts.

 

[Moe Ronalds]

I'm a middle school teacher, and for a while I have been considering starting a gaming club at school. I'd like to get a sense of the 11-14 year old gamer community (if there is such a thing) before I stick my neck out.

If you're between the ages of 11 and 15 (or recently were) and play (or would like to play) D&D:

1) When did you start?
2) What sorts of adventures/plots/style of play do enjoy?
3) Do your parents have any problem with your playing D&D?
4) Do you have a sense how many of your peers are interested in RPGs? Do you have a hard time finding people to play with?
5) Anything else you'd like to ad about your experiences as a young gamer?

1) I started when I was 10 (14 now). Several of the other members in my group started when they were 13 or 14, with another starting when he was about 8.
2) We mostly play dungeon-crawls, though we're sure to include plenty of roleplaying and traps and whatnot. We tailor our adventures to be 1/3rd combat, 1/3rd roleplaying, 1/3rd puzzles/traps/mystery.

One of our campaigns focusses more or less on choices, corruption, and moral ambiguity while trying to still remain heroic. This has gone surprisingly well as many in our group are still new to the game.


3) My dad simply thinks it's boring and uncreative, but my dad's also terribly pretentious.
4) I've learned of three other local gaming groups of kids our age or slightly younger. Apart from that, we've found several people (at one time, if everyone were to show up who said they would, we'd have a 20-person gaming group) who have also shown interest.
5) As far as I've noticed, the biggest difference is that everytime my group has gone to a con, we've always been the youngest ones there. Another less savory aspect is the fact that we still all live with our parents, which makes it very difficult to get anything done over the summer (due to vacations and meaningless meddling. Granted, this is a one-sided view, so feel free to take it with anything from a grain to an entire dessert of salt.)

Hope this helped, any.


I should mention that our group (myself included) is a bunch of stuck-up know-it-alls. You're a teacher so obviously you'd be prepared for this to be the case, but it still bares mentioning. Especially since these would be gamers and gamers tend to be smart/creative/different.

 

[Tidus4444]

Don't baby them. I'd say being able to understand the system and knowing what D&D is really about is the deciding factor, not age. So for the first few adventures have them face Black and White choices, but then start to go into moral ambiguity 5-6 sessions in. You'd be surprised what kids can handle, especially the older ones on your list (13-15). I'm 14 and I'm playing in a politcal intrigue mystery with lots o grey areas and I love it. 'Course I could just be a minority.

 

[Hejdun]

Technically, I'm 16, but I can still help out.

1) When did you start?

Late 7th grade, so about age 13.

2) What sorts of adventures/plots/style of play do enjoy?

Our style of play gravitated towards combat. Even though all of us were gifted students, role playing just didn't appeal to us very much.

3) Do your parents have any problem with your playing D&D?

Nope, but then again, my parents are remarkably open-minded about stuff like that.

4) Do you have a sense how many of your peers are interested in RPGs? Do you have a hard time finding people to play with?

I have only seen one of my peers outside of my group that games. I would say that very few, probably not more than 3-4% of people that age role play.

5) Anything else you'd like to ad about your experiences as a young gamer?

Keep an eye out for cheating. It seems to be a chronic problem among younger players.

I mine as well throw in my two cents on these issues as well.

How young is too young for D&D?

Depends on the person. Some people could play at age 8, while some probably wouldn't have the maturity until well out of college. I'd say a vast majority of people at my high school aren't mature enough to seriously role-play. But then again, I'm cynical.

 

[ergeheilalt]

1) When did you start?
2) What sorts of adventures/plots/style of play do enjoy?
3) Do your parents have any problem with your playing D&D?
4) Do you have a sense how many of your peers are interested in RPGs? Do you have a hard time finding people to play with?
5) Anything else you'd like to ad about your experiences as a young gamer?

I'm eighteen, but started early so I'll give the first ones a shot:

1a) I was about 11 or 12, started over the summer between 6th and 7th grade.

2a) The adventures my friend and I ran were mostly maps drawn on graph paper with monsters scattered around the dungeon with no rhyme or reason. And traps, lots of sneaky traps. They all started as basic "We need your help dealing with (insert monster or magic item to be recovered)." They were fun, but could have used some more plot and actual role-playing.

3a)My dad really didn't care one way or the other; although he was the one who threw the Fantasy and Sci-Fi books into my room and said I should read them. My mother, on the other hand, was mortified. She wasn't concerned about me spiritually, mentally, or maturity wise; rather, she was leery of the social repercussions gaming might leave on me. She had some kookie (that is kookie with backwards k's - I mean these people were weird and still are a bit scary) friends who played RPGs (D&D at first but then something called "Elf Quest". She was afraid I'd become a recluse and obsessive with in-game situations. After she sat in on a game and kind of got the feel for what exactly went on, she changed her mind and eventually was able to cope .

4a) My peers were influenced a lot by the media hype from the 80's. In middle school I was afraid of being branded an "uber nerd" - however, this could have stemmed from coming from outside the district and being insecure about my ranking in the social hierarchy that is Middle School. I had a very hard time finding anyone really interested in D&D - Pokemon or Magic, sure. D&D was hard to place; being that while I was in middle school D&D was old and burgeoning on a new edition. A few people I knew at my school played CRPGs and read Tolkien, Eddings, Brooks - staples of the school library fantasy selection. I'd say about 8 or so out of 180 people in my class year.

5a) I had very little success in Middle School with D&D; however, high school exposed me to the spectrum of gaming. There were three groups on campus that did RPG things. I was the D&D guy; there was a guy who did homebrew systems; and another who did stuff with Magic and Role-playing (he was outside my social circle so there was little conversation that passed between us). I'm not sure if a group will be that successful with Middle Schoolers. At that point in time I was too interested in "fitting in", but high school had tons of people who were out-crowders and found weird hobbies to be fun and way to defy the “beautiful people” as one of my friends put it.

I had a close friend who I shared my secret gaming hobby with and when his mother found out she had a cow of sorts. She asked that I did not refer to anything from “that game”. I definitely think the parent night is a good idea. A small slide show presentation would be great – it pacified my peers from launching rotten fruit at my senior project on the “Literary Influences on Role-playing Games”. Involving academics with the group was very enticing – many of my history and English projects were on fantasy and myth. Statistics and Probability was breeze after gaming for 4 years and is a definite plus.

Something you might need to consider is the faculty. I had an eighth grade math teacher who made jokes about “pale D&D gamers in the summer time”. Some of the staff may still bear malice for gamers and although my teacher didn’t mean anything by his comments (just playing on a social preception), there might be some who view your ambitions with scorn or distaste.

Funny enough, the afore mentioned teacher, did expose me to a lot of fantasy literature that year. I call that year my fantasy-binge year. I read something like 57 books over the course of the school year – all fantasy/sci fi books. I went from a crappy reader in seventh grade to college level in eighth grade. I would heartily endorse a recommended or suggested reading list.

Best of luck to you – great idea,

Erge
*edit: spelling and grammer