40 year old man wants to join my game

[Qualidar]

As a 37 year old, I wouldn't mind that age difference for a game, but for a group I might be a bit put off. It wouldn't be an issue if thee was a good spread of ages that included that range (or hell, whatever range), but to have everyone in one age group with one lone older person: seems like it would be uncomfortable.

 

[Piratecat]

I must be the odd man out then, because I think there is nothing abnormal about a group of late-teen kids not wanting to play D&D with some 40-something year old no matter what he was like.

I don't think there's any surprise about that. I'm just saying that just because teenagers don't want to game with an adult, it doesn't make the 40-year old guy inherently odd.

True, but it should be noted that you made the 8 year old cry.

*whistles casually* Well, I - hey! Look behind you, a three headed monkey!

 

[Hypersmurf]

... it doesn't make the 40-year old guy inherently odd.

Methinks the 40-year-old guy doth protest too much!

-Hyp.

 

[pawsplay]

A lot of us who started in the 80s gamed with people two or three times our age... I was a tender eight, turning nine when I started on D&D, and before the year was over, I was gaming with the college guy down the street. maybe this guy doesn't think it strange because he started under similar circumstances, and the idea of teenagers thinking him too old just never occured to him.

maybe he really likes Justin Timerlake and Green Day and figures he might click with a younger crowd... i've hung out with a few people like that.

 

[Jdvn1]

Do I think it's weird?

Yeah, a bit.

Am I grateful people game with people outside of their age group?

Yes, very much so. I was taken in for a while by a group of gamers in their 30s and 40s (with the oldest getting up there in the 40s, unless I'm misremembering). And I'm in my 20s. I know they were cautious about accepting me in at first, but we ended up having a really fun time in my estimation.

 

[Rabelais]

Well... we're all a bit odd.. after all we enjoy pretending to be elves, and murdering creatures for their money.

If he's a nice enough guy, give him a chance... if he's not, then drop the black die in the box.

For the Record, I turn 40 in December. Our current group is 26ish (Drowbane) to 39 (me) It seems to work out ok.

 

[Mark]

40 year old man wants to join my game

Well, if you want to let a youngster like that into you game then-


Huh?


Oh. Yeah. Um, that's like old and stuff.


45 last Wednesday.

I started with OD&D in 1974

Join the club.

 

[Nyaricus]

Okay, firstly my apologies for those (most who replied, it would seem ) who were offended by my post.

In reading the responses to this thread, I realise there was a bit of a disconnect with reality. While I was previously was fully aware the lions' share of ENW's userbase is 30-40, I've personally only gamed with peers of my age group +/- 5 years. My gaming started not with an initiation from an older, more experienced player but by a donated book of a friends' neighbour. It was a bunch of kids in 1999 getting into a world of myth and legend in the dying throes of AD&D. I've never, ever gamed with people more then 5ish years my senior - so (again) my apologies.

Nor would I be adverse to welcoming in an older player into my game (I did meet up with the fellow with full intentions of checking out how he was, and gamers have been harder to find lately), but he completely rubbed me the wrong way (wouldn't look me in the eye, was sketchy and jittery, and just seemed a bit "cuckoo"), which that (along with the "14 year old girl thread" which I found to be a cute, ironical parallel of my situation) prompted me to post this thread in the first place.

So, from where I'm standing, there was no "semi-mythical initiation" into D&D by an older peer, and no older group to associate with. Growing up in the sub-urbs is likely more then a factor in this, where it was basically a bunch of similarily-aged kids, a 20 year gap, and then adults.

People, I'm not an ageist bigot by any means. I'm gamed with hetero-, homo- and bi-sexual people, girls and guys, asians, blacks, metis and whites and christians, pagans, wiccans and moslems, but obviously lacking is a large age variation - perhaps I'm biased to age, but not a bigot. I live with my 77 year old grandmother, FWIW.

Again, I would say it was simply how weird this guy was more then the age that bothered me (and I maybe let the two separate issues bleed a bit in my OP), but I couldn't understand why so many 30-40 year olds were answering my adds, and of course *facepalm* it's because the age range is older! That seemingly simple fact eluded the gaming circle I'm in, and my ignorance is of course evident in my OP. Again, my most sincere of apologies.

cheers,
--N

 

[Wraith Form]

Well. In that case, I'm not so chuffed.

I'd bet my next paycheck, if you saw me on the street, you'd 1) never realize I'm a D&Der, 2) never guess I'm 37 (I've been told 25 - 30 by most people), and 3) have no hesitation to invite me to game.

I'm just awesome like that, for an old geezer, and that's how I roll. Biotch.

 

[Nyaricus]

Well. In that case, I'm not so chuffed.

I'd bet my next paycheck, if you saw me on the street, you'd 1) never realize I'm a D&Der, 2) never guess I'm 37 (I've been told 25 - 30 by most people), and 3) have no hesitation to invite me to game.

I'm just awesome like that, for an old geezer, and that's how I roll. Biotch.

Heh, I'm much the same, but on the other side of the coin; hell, here's a pic of me today in my new Burzum t-shirt

[sblock=in here]

[/sblock]
You'd never guess I gamed (I'm a metalhead), I usually get tagged at 22-27 (I'm 19, as stated) and while I've never been invited to game, I've started up plenty of random convos with people reading D&D literature, geeky t-shirts and the like.

I guess... I'm just awesome like that? Maybe

cheers,
--N

EDIT: off to bed. Uni in the morning all too soon