I will say that the WotC produced D&D Encounters we have been running for 5 weeks has been great at bringing in new players, yes, even very young ones. We have several that come week after week with their parents.
The ageism in the wider DND and RPG community is rife and if new players are ever going to feel welcomed then you have to address that.
I've always been the youngest in most groups I've joined and I've left either because the older players were arrogant, condescending or dismissive. They try to control how you play the game because "they know best" with their "experience" and any OOC chatter is dismissed because "you're just a kid"./QUOTE]
I've never encountered anything like that, and have gamed with quite a few people who were much older than I. It sounds to me like you just have a bunch of rotten grognards in your area.
They try to control how you play the game because "they know best" with their "experience" and any OOC chatter is dismissed because "you're just a kid".
I've experienced this too, but it seems not nearly as extremely as this. I've noticed more often that older players refuse to play with younger players, though after giving me a shot I've won them over. Young doesn't necessarily mean annoying.The ageism in the wider DND and RPG community is rife and if new players are ever going to feel welcomed then you have to address that.
I've always been the youngest in most groups I've joined and I've left either because the older players were arrogant, condescending or dismissive. They try to control how you play the game because "they know best" with their "experience" and any OOC chatter is dismissed because "you're just a kid".
This is a very important point, I think, and one that probably needs to be made more. Also, a new player's excitement can be contagious if you let it be.This brings me to your point about players who try to control the actions of more inexperienced players -- many times we "old hands" at the table forget that we didn't start being super-players ourselves.I've in fact often learned that some of the best players at a table are the new players -- because they come to the game without a lot of the jaded attitudes, they don't know what you "can't do" -- and therefore are some of the most innovative and excited players at the table.
Mention your ideas, and maybe WotC (or, maybe more likely, a 3rd party) will pick up the idea.Yeah. But RPG companies aren't 'orientated' towards this at present. It's very clear, from a design perspective, that most tabletop RPG companies are simply unaware of key elements of curriculum design, child development, shared learning and active learning.
There's also a serious image problem and few of the limited number of academics working in such areas will touch tabletop RPGs.
Yeah. But RPG companies aren't 'orientated' towards this at present. It's very clear, from a design perspective, that most tabletop RPG companies are simply unaware of key elements of curriculum design, child development, shared learning and active learning.
There's also a serious image problem and few of the limited number of academics working in such areas will touch tabletop RPGs.