Player not listening!

[S'mon]

I have a player who doesn't listen to me, or respect my authority as DM. We start playing, usually with the 3e D&D Starter Set, and 5-10 minutes into the game he takes over and starts DMing the game himself! Yesterday after 5 minutes in an empty alchemist's laboratory he declared that multiple dragons appeared, that the party killed them, that then a horde of skeletons attacked, that the dragons then resurrected, turned Good and helped Regdar, Lidda & co defeat the undead! I felt completely superfluous.

His name is Bill, he's my son and he'll be 4 on 3rd June. What advice can you give me to get him to Respect my Authority as DM?

 

[IronWolf]

Ha! Reading the first paragraph I was like "Wow! respect your authority" what a power trip. Then I saw the player was adding critters and I was like "oh - I see what you mean" and then the final line that it was your son! Awesome!

Fun times! I play with my pups - age 7 and 4. The 7 year old pup has been playing for about a year and he does great. Decent grasp on the rules, great attention span. The 4 year old pup has the shorter attention span, but on the flip side comes up with some really neat ways of solving problems!

 

[Kzach]

I throw dice to discipline my players. I keep a set of steel d4's for the particularly troublesome ones.

 

[Scott DeWar]

I am usually the one having the dice thrown at me, but those have barbed spikes on them.

 

[Hussar]

I have a player who doesn't listen to me, or respect my authority as DM. We start playing, usually with the 3e D&D Starter Set, and 5-10 minutes into the game he takes over and starts DMing the game himself! Yesterday after 5 minutes in an empty alchemist's laboratory he declared that multiple dragons appeared, the party killed them, then a horde of skeletons attacked, the dragons then resurrected, turned Good and helped Regdar, Lidda & co defeat the undead! I felt completely superfluous.

His name is Bill, he's my son and he'll be 4 on 3rd June. What advice can you give me to get him to Respect my Authority as DM?

Heh, give it a couple of years and the DM part will just drop right off that last sentence.

J/K Fantastic for bringing in the next generation.

 

[nedjer]

What advice can you give me to get him to Respect my Authority as DM?

Like you need advice on this There ain't much more respect a kid can give than inviting you to dive into her/ his imaginary world without adult constraints or boundaries. It's pretty much 'Dad's cool, he gets it. Party!'

 

[jaerdaph]

His name is Bill, he's my son and he'll be 4 on 3rd June. What advice can you give me to get him to Respect my Authority as DM?

I think it is great you are introducing your children to RPGs!

My experience: Four is about the age when learning to take turns and to wait your turn starts to happen. I recommend playing some board games with him like Candyland or Chutes/Snakes and Ladders to experience the social process of playing a game with others if you aren't doing this already.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Card games are good for that, too. Screw Chutes & Ladders- by 4, I was utterly evil at Gin Rummy!

OK, I may have been a bit precocious, but card games by their very structure enforce turn taking very strictly.

BTW, congrats on raising a Dire Rugrat!

 

[Mark CMG]

Let him be the DM, show him how a player acts, then ask him when it is your turn.

 

[pawsplay]

My six your old has a lot of the academic skills needed for roleplaying, but I've been waiting for him to learn how to:

- take turns
- lose gracefully
- acknowledge that there are topics on which I am more expert than he is

Memory and Candyland are definitely coming along.