Are you interested in kid friendly products?

[Geoffrey]

I'm very interested in "kid friendly" products, but what I mean by that might be different than some.

By "kid" I mean age range 9-12.

By "friendly" I mean easy to understand, like the old basic versions of D&D from the late 70s and 80s.

I do NOT mean "light-hearted and childlike". I started playing at age 10 (and my friends at ages 9 and 12), and I would have HATED some cutesy, candy-coated version of the game. Our characters were typically neutral-selfish in alignment, and a favorite thing for our magic-users to do was summon Old Ones, devils, demons, and such. We killed everything that might have a copper piece. Lots of combat, demon-summoning, and crass materialism characterized our D&D play.

I don't think this is unusual for boys that age.

 

[+5 Keyboard!]

I think this poll could almost be replaced by "are you a parent?" Interested uncles excepted of course!

Yeah, I probably should have had an option "I'm a parent, but I'm not interested in RPG products for my kids", to better identify the target consumers. Still, there's quite a bit of interest from the polls so far, and I'm assuming that the great portion of the not interested voters are folks without kids, thus they really don't have any use for those products.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

I don't have kids myself, but I'd still advocate having "Kid-Friendly" RPG products. (Hell, I may even buy and read some of them myself; I'm always looking to glean ideas from any source available!!)

Granted, the RPG market is niche to begin with, but I think there's certainly room for this in the pond. And anything to get kids to read, and to fire up their imagination, is absolutely worth the investment, IMHO.

Antectdotally speaking, I'm the only one in my family who READS, let alone plays RPG'S!! But my niece and nephew (Twins), both approaching pre-teenagerhood, have been asking about book selctions, which please me to no end. (Of course, they're familiar with Harry Potter, but I turned them on to some other, less well-known titles, that they seemed to enjoy.) I think it's a small step to go from reading fantasy fiction to playing D+D.

Though I doubt I'd plop the PHB in their lap, honestly; knowing them both pretty well, I'd probably offer a pre-gen to start the game. THEN, if they express interest, we can go over the rules and make characters.

 

[S'mon]

I'm very interested in "kid friendly" products, but what I mean by that might be different than some.

By "kid" I mean age range 9-12.

By "friendly" I mean easy to understand, like the old basic versions of D&D from the late 70s and 80s.

I certainly do agree that there's a desperate need for something akin to the old Moldvay and Mentzer Basic D&D sets, something that is accessible to a bright 9-10 year old, does not patronise, and evokes why D&D is different from and in some ways better than any computer game. I think it needs to be targeted especially at potential Games Masters/Dungeon Masters; the joy of creation and the joy of running a group game, with the other players as the heroes in a world of your own making.

Also, all Postmodernism must be avoided! Currently I think the only things close are the Basic-copying Basic Fantasy RPG (my favourite) and Legends & Lairs.

 

[pawsplay]

Yeah, I probably should have had an option "I'm a parent, but I'm not interested in RPG products for my kids", to better identify the target consumers. Still, there's quite a bit of interest from the polls so far, and I'm assuming that the great portion of the not interested voters are folks without kids, thus they really don't have any use for those products.

Well, I do have kids.

 

[+5 Keyboard!]

Well, I do have kids.

OK. Thanks. Duly noted. I still hold to my previous assumption, though. Unless I'm resoundingly proven wrong, of course .

 

[rogueattorney]

My oldest just turned 5, and I've already played some Dungeon! with her. I figure she'll be ready to rpg in 2 or 3 years. (I was 8 when I started, but I think she's smarter than I was.)

I watch her shows and read her books, and already see campaign worlds based off of Aladdin, Dr. Seuss, or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

I don't know what rules I'd use, but it certainly won't be anything as rules intense as 3e. Call me prejudiced by my own childhood experiences, but I still think the single best way to learn rpgs is the old D&D Basic rules of the 80's. I haven't seen anything of its like since. (Aside from BFRPG and LL, which explicityly ape it.) C&C's "nostalgia" boxed set or its (yet to be released) Basic set might be another option.

What else is even out there? The main other possible candidates that come to mind are all out of print as well (Star Frontiers, MSHRPG, Everway, Ghostbusters). Tunnels & Trolls might work. Anything else light and simple enough for a 7 or 8 year old?

It's as if the rpg community as a whole has simply given up on trying to teach new gamers to play.

BTW, Chris Gonnerman (Solomoriah, who made BFRPG) and others did a B/X D&D module for his daughter that's in the vein of what alot of us are talking about in this thread. I've got a writing credit for it, which I didn't deserve because I only contributed a few ideas here and there and didn't do any of the actual work. But I'm going to pimp it anyway:
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=221234