Aging and Gaming

[MGibster]

I find this the opposite. Work and family responsibilities and schedules make keeping to regular schedule difficult. My solution has been to schedule one long game once a month and deciding on the next month's date at the end of each game. Sounds like a recipe for failure but it has worked for my group for a decade. There is no way any of us could commit to the same day of the week or month.

Most of the people in my group are in their mid 40s and up. They're all in established careers and their kids are either going to college or old enough to where they don't need attention all the time. It's why I've had a fairly stable gaming group for the last 13 years or so. It was tougher when most of my friends were in their 20s and 30s because they were working on their careers, having children, etc., etc.

On the other hand, the Internet has made it much easier to find new groups, especially if you play on line.
I've never worried much about age. That said my regular group are all in their mid-30s and above.

I don't mind having younger players when I run game day events, but I don't have a lot in common with people in their 20s and I don't really have a desire to hang around them. I'm sure they don't want to hang around with me either.

 

[Piperken]

I (ha) for one am grateful that the resurgence of zine publishing in this space has led to a renewed effort to make modules & books easier on the eyes to read. Good typography and less density in general really makes it easier to for me to comprehend what I'm reading!

For some who've mentioned more difficulties, I definitely recommend looking at independent publishers in the OSR/NSR area, as there's a strong push now to incorporate thoughtful graphic design into what appears on the page. Doing so makes it more legible for those who find they squint more these days.

 

[MNblockhead]

Mid-50s here, been playing since '83.
I've found it easier to read and absorb rules as the years have gone by. There are very few new mechanics out there so it's easy to classify them in my head: Ah, good 'ol percentile roll-under, dice-pool with rerolls vs static target numbers by dice, this one you add up dice, Roll + stat + skill vs target number, etc.
I still play complex boardgames (ASL, SFB, etc.) which I think helps keeping my "rules mind" sharp.
For RPG's I favour elegant designs these days that marry rules to setting in clever ways.
One odd thing I notices about myself which may be age-related: while I have a lot of RPGs in PDF I only feel like I "own" it when I get a print copy. I will happily read books on my iPad but won't run a game unless there is a dead-tree version on the table. Weird...

I suspect that not gaming for over 20 years before I got back into it plays a role. When 5e came out and I got back into running games, it took me a while to get comfortable with it before I started DMing. Another part of it may just be that I care more about understanding the rules and doing a "good job" running a game. When we were kids, we just played. I find that I have less patience for very crunchy games these days. I love running one shots of unusual indie games, but they tend to be very rules light (InSPECTREs, Paranoia, Alice is Missing, Dread, etc.). I noped out of Mage: The Ascension after two sessions. With 5e, my game has gotten crunchier as I've added third-party and homebrew rules to my games. But that's just adding an object here and there on a chassis I'm comfortable with. My current game is Warhammer Fantasy Role Play 4e, which is the crunchiest game I've run in 10+ years since I started running games again, but if it wasn't for the excellent game system for it in Foundry, I probably wouldn't have bothered.

As for physical items, for those systems and adventures I really love, I'll still buy the book, but prefer the convenience of digital tools and books, which account for most of my TTRPG purchases these days.

 

[MNblockhead]

<SNIP> The thing that frustrates me the most is when I am describing something to my players and I can't recall a word. "Suddenly, you see a....ah...erm...uh..." Makes me insane.

Yeah, recall has gone done. Not just in gaming. Not just physical age, but with wife, kids, and a new job, there is a LOT to keep track of. I think my brain just drew a line at TTRPG rules and character/place names. Thank goodness for searchable, cross-linkable, digital content!

 

[MNblockhead]

I noticed a lot of people claim their reflexes and ability to play fast video games went in their late 30s (!!!) but frankly that hasn't happened for me - if anything I'm faster, infinitely more patient, largely immune to "getting mad" in games, and more capable of projecting my mind a few seconds into the future now, at 46, than I was at 36, 26, or 16. Indeed, I went back and played a couple of games I thought were "hard" when I was a teenager during the pandemic, and I was shocked by how extremely easy they were.

Well, that ain't me. Perhaps the greatest entertainment for my kids is getting me to play a video game with them and watching me get to the point of throwing the controller at couch and rage quitting. I'll just sit over here, happily playing my CRPGs on story mode, letting my teenage son's insults roll off my like water on a duck.

 

[MNblockhead]

Late 40s here and definitely started to feel older physically and mentally in past several years. My memory has definitely changed with time. I used to soak up things like a sponge. Now it takes longer for me to absorb new things. Though I also found shifting my habits around social media to be helpful (when I read, I get away from my computer, turn off my phone and spend a dedicated period of time to the task----it makes a pretty big difference).

Other things that have helped: B vitamin supplements and D vitamin supplements, as well as a daily mens vitamin (I get my levels checked by my doctor); daily exercise (even if it is just 20 minutes, getting in some amount helps with the gray matter), and face to face conversations with friends

Yeah, I've relearned the magic of physical books. I've also gone back to taking notes in meetings on paper note pads. It seems to help. For reading, I find the paperwhite kindles are almost as good. But only for reading. Horrible to use for reference materials and rule books.

 

[Piperken]

Yeah, I've relearned the magic of physical books. I've also gone back to taking notes in meetings on paper note pads. It seems to help. For reading, I find the paperwhite kindles are almost as good. But only for reading. Horrible to use for reference materials and rule books.

There is something unique in the experience of handling a book, opening its cover to read, getting through to the last page, and closing the cover for the time being.

I've mentioned to others that people are beginning to rediscover the value in reading analog, much in the same way that vinyl is valued for recording aspects that digital does not have (and which has fueled a resurgence in vinyl sale and production).

 

[RenleyRenfield]

10 pt font sucks and game companies should be ashamed for using it. seriously.

I'll be honest, until later age, I never even thought about font in RPG books. Someone mentioned it, I went back and found a very large number of RPG books were 10pt, some were 9pt...

Now when I create games, I start in 11pt before it goes to editor and design team who have their way with it... you know. Just in the hope that they let it remain legible.

The other thing i do now is format pages with wider margins - just so regardless of font size, we don't get walls of text that fill a page edge to edge.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I've actually found that font size--at least within reason--is less of an issue than--creative--choices of font and background color. And this is even more true when reading in a digital form (the basic, as compared to easy-print version of Star Trek Adventures was essentially unreadable on my tablet).

 

[R_J_K75]

Anyway, just musing. Would be interested on how gaming has changed for the better or worse for others getting up in years.

I'll be 50 in about 6 months. In the last 5-6 years I have found it extremely hard to concentrate on reading RPG books and prep for sessions. I have a very hard time concentrating, I have to re-read things 2-3 times before it sinks in. Any spurts of inspiration and motivation for gaming that strikes me usually peters out quickly. I find it hard to keep a steady game together, people come and go except for a few mainstays, and I'm not particularly interested in making an effort to find new players. Scheduling is usually a PITA, and we only play once every few weeks, and sometimes take a few months break. Another thing is that we have been trying new games besides D&D but seem to move on before we give them a fair enough shot. We're supposed to start a D&D 2024 game this coming Monday to see if the revisions are enough to make the game worth playing 5E again. I haven't decided to quit the hobby yet, but it's hard to fight the urge and I'm leaning towards it more and more lately. I think I just don't enjoy it as much as I once did. The days of playing for 8-12 hours a few times a week and pick-up games are long gone.

I had great vision my whole life until 42 or so, and then my near eyesight got slowly worse and now I wear +1.0 reading glasses

Just an FYI. I'm not a doctor but I was told by an optometrist that the reading glasses you get at Pound Town can actually make your vision worse because prescription glasses usually have different magnifications per lens as where the "cheaters" are the same in both.

The reading glasses thing is a thing. It happened to me about a year ago (it comes on fast!)

This actually happened to me literally overnight. When I turned 40, I had a job doing mechanical design, so I spent a lot of time reading and starring at a computer screen. I was at work one day and could see fine and the next day I could barely see anything. This past July after 10 years I finally got a pair of glasses I can actually see with for both distance and reading. Like you said I had trouble reading character sheets, books, dice, etc., even with glasses to the point I had to buy bunch of lights for my bedroom, game area to see, they both look like an operating room now. I went so far as to install a fluorescent shop light in the room I play and work on my guitars.

Only thing I can tell is great gran kept busy. She occupied her body and mind, and had some good genes despite folks in the family hitting some health landmines. You stop being busy and you start going down hill it seems. Stay busy is my advice!

You are absolutely right. I'm on permanent disability and haven't worked since January of 2019. Between that and the COVID pandemic my brain has definitely atrophied to some extent. I don't like crowds and prefer to stay home more often than not. That and my tolerance for people has gotten pretty thin. I don't have many responsibilities except taking care of my mother here and there, or the occasional appointment; no wife or kids, I live alone so I don't have a set schedule. It really makes it hard to keep active, that and that I have some physical limitations and just generally have become somewhat antisocial. Don't get me wrong, I can still get around and do what I need on a day-to-day basis it's just that things are different from a few years back and may be time for a change. A good friend of mine who I've known since 1985 said to me about 10 years ago, "I think you need a mindless task to occupy some of your time, doesn't really matter what, but just something instead of sitting around doing nothing." I think he is right.