Aging and Gaming

[pukunui]

True for me with physical books, but if I'm using an electronic device I won't sleep.

I can still fall asleep reading a D&D book on my iPad! Did that just the other day while reading through the magic items section of the new 2024 5e DMG.

 

[SteveC]

I had to laugh at your posting because I've been thinking about age issues and gaming as well. At Gamehole Con I saw a company making dice that are intentionally easier to read. I picked up a couple of sets and ... they were right. I have a ton of beautiful dice, but if I have to move closer to actually read the dice, that's not useful.

 

[R_J_K75]

I had to laugh at your posting because I've been thinking about age issues and gaming as well. At Gamehole Con I saw a company making dice that are intentionally easier to read. I picked up a couple of sets and ... they were right. I have a ton of beautiful dice, but if I have to move closer to actually read the dice, that's not useful.

I had a friend I used to play with and he had a lot of trouble reading the smaller chessex dice. I bought him a larger set of these. They were really easy to read, a larger size without being too large.

Koplow's 22mm scale "Jumbo" dice are great for game players that like to feel some weight in their hands, or perhaps have a hard time seeing the small numbers. The set comes in a handy storage tube and includes d4, d6, d8, d10, d10(%), d12, and d20.

Koplow Games Dice

 

[Thomas Shey]

I had to laugh at your posting because I've been thinking about age issues and gaming as well. At Gamehole Con I saw a company making dice that are intentionally easier to read. I picked up a couple of sets and ... they were right. I have a ton of beautiful dice, but if I have to move closer to actually read the dice, that's not useful.

I started noticing this some years ago with highly decorated dice, where unless the lighting was really good, some of them could be unreadable in use. I'm not sure the size had a big impact.

 

[SteveC]

I started noticing this some years ago with highly decorated dice, where unless the lighting was really good, some of them could be unreadable in use. I'm not sure the size had a big impact.

These were both larger numbers, and higher contrast fonts. I have them packed up so I don't remember the company off hand but I convinced several of my friends with thick glasses to try them and they all gave the thumbs up. I think the contrast of the numbers to that of the die is the biggest issue, though.

 

[Jd Smith1]

While I'm not that old (early 50s), I'm at the age where I now need reading glasses and my brain increasingly rebels at me trying to cram more TTRPG rules and lore into it. "Dag nab it, you still expect me to keep up with constantly changing law and technology and then come home and try to understand and compare the 4 or 5 different rule variants for channeling and casting in Warhammer Fantasy AND troubleshoot VTT modules! Why don't you get a proper hobby for someone your age. Walking. Fishing. Something like that!" "Shut up brain! Just be happy I dropped trying to run MAGE: The Ascension!"

I'm too lazy to look up the science on this; I swear I read an article on it sometime, somewhere; but I find that my recognition is better than it was in my youth, but my recall has gone to hell in a hand basket. Decades of experience being a geek and a bookworm are great for understanding new things I read and making connections, but boy do does it take a lot more time to create the grooves in the gray matter to be able to bring something to mind when I need it.

When I was young, I would read over rules a day or two before a game and run it and would run games in multiple systems. Today that feels like self elder abuse.

This is really the only major thing affecting my gaming that is 100% age related. I'm curious whether this will improve or get worse. Get worse, because I'll get older. But then once the kids are out of the house, and especially when I eventually retire, perhaps having less stress and less demands on my brain will improve things in this area.

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

I'm older than you.

I find that my retention is fine, I need readers, but for me, the big change is my patience for new systems and settings has declined sharply. I look at a new scenario, and if it doesn't have a concise summary of the plot up front, I won't bother. Sloppy maps? Trash can. Same older D&D-esque combat system? Can't be bothered.

 

[GrimCo]

As a youngster in this thread ( i'm only 37) but i see some of the problems slowly creeping in. Also, i'm youngest in my regular group, rest of the guys are in their early to mid 40s. We joke around that if you combine 5 of us, you can't put together one fully healthy person. When i did my medical for army some 15 years ago, eyesight was 20/20. Now, it's -1.5 on both eyes. Everyone in the group wears glasses or contacts.

One thing we all miss is enough time to play. We all have preschool and elementary school aged kids, plus demanding jobs, plus other obligations, which eats away free time. Since time is limited, anything new and complex to learn is out of picture. We ether stick to systems we already know (WoD & D&D) or play simple new stuff (Knave, Cairn, Mork Borg). Even if i would like to run something more complex, i found that i don't have concentration for reading and learning it, cause lot's of brain bandwidth is in use for reading and learning work related stuff. When it comes to dices, i switched to high contrast ones with big clear numbers few years ago. Simple, white dice, black numbers, easy to read from across the table. Not prettiest ones in collection, but most usable ones.

But it's not only ttrpgs. It's video games also. If game doesn't capture me in firs 15-20 minutes of play, i'm out. I just can't force myself to grind it out to fun part. And sure as hell i don't have patience to "git good" in game.

 

[delericho]

I started noticing this some years ago with highly decorated dice, where unless the lighting was really good, some of them could be unreadable in use. I'm not sure the size had a big impact.

Back in the day I had a player who had some nearly illegible dice. For him that was most definitely a feature, not a bug.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

I just want to take a moment to thank everyone in this thread who shared their personal experiences and challenges with anonymous strangers online. Things like this don't get talked about enough. Many of us go through it alone and unaware how others might deal with, and often struggle against the realities that the activities they loved their whole lives are becoming increasingly harder to enjoy. Reading stories and perspectives from others can help someone feel supported and less isolated, especially during a time when both those commodities are becoming rare and precious.

I have been struggling with the fact that I was losing touch with this hobby for years now. I just turned 54, and I can honestly say that I had fought against the prospect that my best gaming days are behind me now. Currently, I am no longer invested or interested in any RPGs other than what products I already own. It is no longer worth the effort to keep up with new ideas, new ways to play the same games, or new approaches to the same formulas that have worked well enough for years. I am tired, and I want to spend my time having fun instead of arguing and debating about things that are not.

I've also stopped buying everything because I didn't really need everything. There was a time when more meant better, and complete was an achievement. I looked at my shelves and boxes full of books that were never brought to the table, many never even opened. Was all of this even necessary to have fun at the table? Why did I always fear that I would be left out if I fell behind the current trends? Was I forced to feel relevant only by staying with what is current and most popular?

You see, getting older doesn't just slow you down, strain your eyes, or make you weak. It also gives you wisdom, experience, and perspective. You have memories and nostalgia of what games have meant to you, how they shaped your life. You learn to appreciate that was once good can still be good. And someone that sells you the promise of something better, doesn't always understand what "good" really means to someone else.

And maybe we all get to a point where eventually we decide that it was good enough. Then we go back to that point where things felt just right for us. Or we leave it all behind with the memories untarnished and unchallenged by the vague promise for a better version.

Life has been good so far. I know it was better for me with gaming. It still is. But now I choose different games. Easier games. Familiar games. Board games. Pinball games. Games I play in my head. And games I remember playing, or would have liked to play... I can still replay those, too.

 

[MGibster]

If you keep aging you'll start losing people. One of my players got a brain tumor, moved out of state to spend his last days with family, and is currently waiting for a spot in a hospice facility. Another player was morbidly obese pre-COVID, gained weight during the pandemic, and by the way he breathes and moves I'm afraid he's heading for a stroke or heart attack by the time he's 50. Not me though. I'm immortal.