Are you interested in kid friendly products?

[Darkwolf71]

In my experience children younger than 9 or 10 have too short of attention spans to be playing RPGs. I would suggest RPG flavored boardgames.

Something lke Talisman or Dungeon! which I used to play with my nephews when they were very young.

Once they are 10 or so, well we have the 10 year old daughter of one of our layers who has joined us in some of our games over the last year and she is a great member of the group. She still needs a little coaching, but is really very good at playing her rouge and sorcerer (she plays in 2 of our 4 current campaigns). We have 0 problems bringing young gamers into the fold.

 

[bento]

I am not interested in kids' RPG products. I am interested in good RPG products that are relatively low in violence and higher math, focus on creativity, and require no previous knowledge of fantasy standards.

Ditto. I think there's plenty of room in fantasy gaming for adventures that rely less on kicking in the door and killing the orcs, and more on opening children to the worlds of possibilities that RPGs create. I'd like to see more adventure games that provide mystery, exploration, swaping roles, looking for lost treasure, etc., the stuff that great adventure books are based on.

I'm in the same camp as DarkWolf71 - under 10 and you lose them with a game that lasts more than a half hour. Boardgames are good because they can focus on where they are and where they are headed to. There are tactile items they can move and pick up. Any RPG-like gaming I do with my 7 year old son is based around DDMs. He likes to get out an interesting map, pick his team and try to accomplish something like getting the treasure first or crossing the map. We each have one d20 die each and track HP with play money nickles and dimes.

I picked up Faery Tale thinking my older daughter (9) would like it, but she's too much of a tomboy to like the setting. Besides, she's too busy playing Pokemon Diamond or Animal Crossing on her DS to care about PnP RPGs at this time.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Ditto. I think there's plenty of room in fantasy gaming for adventures that rely less on kicking in the door and killing the orcs, and more on opening children to the worlds of possibilities that RPGs create. I'd like to see more adventure games that provide mystery, exploration, swaping roles, looking for lost treasure, etc., the stuff that great adventure books are based on.

Thinking about the explosion of fantasy novels for younger readers that has occurred since Harry Potter came out. It seems the time may be perfect to try and tap into some of that interest.

In a few years I will surely be getting my son into D&D. We'll have to see how much of an interest my daughter shows. She is probably old enough now, but hasn't expressed much interest so far.

 

[delericho]

Depends. I have no interest whatsoever in a kiddified D&D, and I suspect neither would kids.

However, I'm absolutely certain one could take the fantasy elements from the likes of Aladdin, Shrek, Harry Potter, Pokemon, and the like, and create a truly excellent setting. Add to that a well-done simplified game engine, and you could have a real gem.

 

[Dr Awkward]

Very, VERY interested. I maintain a section of my webpage devoted to playing RPGs with kids - TheYoung Person's Adventure League - and run special RPGs-for-kids events at Origins (hopefully) every year.

 

[S'mon]

I had thought Goodman Games' "classic styled" adventures would be a place to start, but they appear to take a very dark slant on classic.

Agree 100% - Haley Stroh's work in particular is more 'Hellraiser' than 'KotB' if you ask me. Not really a 'classic' feel at all, it's all 'corruption' this 'corruption' that. Pretty good adventures though, but not really PG unless you de-emphasise the yucky stuff.

 

[S'mon]

I would definitely be interested in child-friendly products in a few years when my son is, say, ca 5-6 years old. Something I can run for him & his mother (who likes hack'n'slash). It could be fairly dark - the Narnia series isn't exactly light-hearted, and His Dark Materials is positively nasty in places.

 

[S'mon]

Here's a thread I started on rpg.net:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=371254

Faery's Tale looks like a cool game, but I may just start with Moldvay or Mentzer Basic D&D, or even my regular C&C game. My son is only 7 months currently, I might try something (very) simple when he's as young as 3 or so - I once ran a miniatures battle game with my then 3 year old cousin, he loved it when he wiped out my army.

 

[+5 Keyboard!]

Ditto. I think there's plenty of room in fantasy gaming for adventures that rely less on kicking in the door and killing the orcs, and more on opening children to the worlds of possibilities that RPGs create. I'd like to see more adventure games that provide mystery, exploration, swapping roles, looking for lost treasure, etc., the stuff that great adventure books are based on.

I'm in the same camp as DarkWolf71 - under 10 and you lose them with a game that lasts more than a half hour. Boardgames are good because they can focus on where they are and where they are headed to. There are tactile items they can move and pick up. Any RPG-like gaming I do with my 7 year old son is based around DDMs. He likes to get out an interesting map, pick his team and try to accomplish something like getting the treasure first or crossing the map. We each have one d20 die each and track HP with play money nickles and dimes.

I picked up Faery Tale thinking my older daughter (9) would like it, but she's too much of a tomboy to like the setting. Besides, she's too busy playing Pokemon Diamond or Animal Crossing on her DS to care about PnP RPGs at this time.

This is great stuff, Bento. And I should point out that "kid friendly" means exactly what you described: games that are less on the violence and more on the fantasy and exploration side of RPGs. I've bolded the parts of your post that are really great suggestions of things to consider when designing games that children would like. This may not be something that would be included in such a game (or series of games), since adults need to enjoy playing it too, but having these ideas provided in sidebars for parents is probably a good idea.

 

[S'mon]

In my experience children younger than 9 or 10 have too short of attention spans to be playing RPGs. I would suggest RPG flavored boardgames.

Naw - you just need some figures, dice and other things to focus on.