How are you going to introduce your kids to gaming, if at all?

[Altalazar]

I don't have kids (yet) though my wife keeps bugging me. I keep reminding her I need to finish law school first (I also work full time) - otherwise we'd be rather quickly arrested for child neglect. But on to the topic of the thread...

How will you (or have you?) introduced gaming to your offspring? Have you gamed with your kids? Have you bought them gaming books of their own? How old are they (the kids, not the books)? How old is probably a good age to introduce them? Would you be disappointed if they didn't have any interest?

I thought of this after my old gaming buddy visited last weekened. His family was a pioneer of sorts. Growing up, his whole family would play games - mostly board games, but it was very cut-throat competitive. They didn't let anyone win, that was for sure. As a result, they are all excellent at strategy and such. They even did RPGs, though I'm not sure how much their parents participated in that. One thing his mother did do for him (he often played theif characters that would claim they were "cooks") was to write up and notarize a note that said "Daniel" (character and player name) "is not a theif" - which he would then trot out whenever, in game, someone accused his character of being a theif - "No I'm not, here's a note from my mom!" He was a fantastic role-player and good at strategy as well - always fun to game with him.

My first thought on this was that my kids, at the very least, would be exposed to gaming by seeing me game - and perhaps get an interest from that, so I could teach it to them. Obviously, I wouldn't require that they game, but I certainly would be glad if they did - I think it is good to develop imagination that way and it sure beats going out and getting into trouble.

Any thoughts from anyone with kids? Or planning on having any?

 

[Rel]

Little Bunny Foo-Foo: The Bopping

I'm partly kidding but I've actually visualized a simple set of rules for such a game in my idle moments. I figure that my daughter will be exposed to gaming as she grows up (both my wife and I game) and she'll gravitate to it or not. If she shows interest, I'll be sure to tailor a game to her tastes to make sure she gets hooked.

 

[MEG Hal]

My kids did it to themsleves, they are 4 (girl)and 3 (boy) and love the art on my walls, I have a lot of animation cells, but also a lot of fantasy art, Lockwood, Sczcudlo (Birthright covers), as well as our own books art, so my daughter talks about dragons, castles, princes etc...she loves the Barbie Rapunzel, Swan Lake movies and as well as Warner Bros Camelot animated movie. She told me about a pair of swords the other day The swords of Gran Grabe and if you have both they make fire, she stated, my jaw dropped and want to stat this long sword/short sword cobo out soon.

I asked her how she learned about swords and she just told me that Sir Friday used them to protect the prince...she is her daddy's girl *sniff*. My son is at the age where whatever we talk about he agrees, so he is into all of that as well, she will be a great RP'er when she gets older, I just got some of the "choose your own adventure" books off of ebay for us to read together, I thought that would be a blast.


Hope that brings a bit of insight...

 

[Richards]

I started my two boys out, at ages 10 and 8 or thereabouts, on the old Hero Quest boardgame. It got the basics down (wizards are good at magic but not so great in hand-to-hand combat, it pays to keep the party together instead of exploring off on your own, etc.), and then after a year or so I started them up on a simple AD&D (2nd Edition) game. They were amazed that their characters could do anything they wanted, not just the basic six actions of Hero Quest. We've been gaming ever since; they're now 19 and 17.

Johnathan

 

[Theron]

Last year, I bought my niece and nephew (both early teens) the D&D Adventure game and ran a couple of scenarios for them when they were down visiting.

Right now, our own little guy (who's ten days shy of four), is still a bit too young for anything other than rudimentary Candy Land. However, we picked up some sample Creepyfreaks clix at Origins as well as some big foam d6s. Since then, he's also accumulated a decent number of Mommy's duplicate HeroClix (while they theoretically belong to both of us, she's the Clix fanatic at Casa de Bretz). He rolls the dice and moves them around by some arcane methodology of his own devising.

In another year or so, I'll probably pull out the copy of the Pokemon Adventure Game I bought before he was born and try that out on him.

 

[Gnarlo]

Unfortunately, I didn't meet my wife until my (then soon to be newly aquired-) son was already 11, so I didn't get a chance to shape him into my image. By that time, he was a mega sports nut and had little interest in fantasy or sci fi or anything of that sort. Only boy I've ever known that didn't even have any interest in computer / video games.

To quote Hank Hill about Bobby: "6am and already that boy ain't right"

My two youngest brothers I started out when they were 9 or 10 with the Dungeon board game an the Basic Set, and having grown up on a steady diet from me of sci fi, cartoons, and video games, they took to it just fine.

 

[Epametheus]

Gah.

Speaking as a kid who grew up on gaming:

Just leave your books lying around where the kids can get at them. They'll look through the things for the neat pictures, and eventually they'll be curious about what it actually means. Exposing them to actual game sessions or a game directly related to it (in my case, Final Fantasy, Hero Quest, and Pool of Radiance were key games) will also help.

Being geeks is in their blood; they'll pick up on it without too much urging

 

[Dirigible]

My first will be called Peehaitchbee, my second will be called Deeemgee...

Actually, their names will be Beholder, Otyugh and Elminster. I'll just read to them, every night, from the Big Book o' Storyhours (hey, someone should make that...), so that their lil' heads will be filled with sweet dreams of Eadric and Nolin, of Shein and Velendo and Dranko.

They'll only be allowed to watch the D&D cartoon, and when their old enough to withstand the horror, the movie.

*looks out window* Oh, excuse me, I think that's to government here to chemically castrate me.

 

[pogre]

You know, I struggle with this issue personally. I know my kids will be heavily involved in sports. Having a coach for a dad, they go to a lot of events and love to run around and pretend they are playing. Given that both of their parents are teachers, academics will be emphasized.

However, in view of how hard core gamers are treated at the high school and jr. high I do not know about getting the kids involved in gaming. I guess it will probably happen, if they are interested in Dad's weird books and miniatures I won't keep them from gaming.

Maybe they can help destigmatize the gaming thing in schools - I know in my high school it was not such an ostracizing activity. Then again, the main D&D group was the football team. Maybe that's why we were 2-7

 

[Nine Hands]

Almost all of my kids game. My oldest two sons (17 and 12) both play D&D, Warhammer, Made Knight, cards, etc. My youngest son (6) likes for me to run the Pokemon Adventure game and he really enjoys it. My daughter (3) is not ready for gaming but she LOVES rolling dice and yelling the number she rolls. Its educational AND cute.