Are you interested in kid friendly products?

[Baron Opal]

Yes, definately. The tales of Odysseus of House Gryffindor are legendary around the baronial estate. My 6 y.o. son loves playing D&D and proudly proclaims himself a gamer to all.

 

[kensanata]

My best friend's kids are 6 and 8 and seem to be ready for roleplaying games. I just don't know where to start and would like to buy adventures that are playtested with the appropriate age bracket.

I don't mind the system, as long as it is also playtested with the appropriate age bracket.

Playtesting needs to stand in for my lack of experience.

 

[Pinotage]

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.

Very well said! I'll also second Fairy's Tale from Firefly Games as a really good choice, as well as one of my all time favourite RPGs from EN Publishing - Tiny Terrors. The latter is fantastic, and you get a chance to play all sorts of toys from within your child's bedroom, from a lego car to a doll. Brilliant! The only shortcoming of these products is the total lack of published adventures for them, although I do believe that there are one or two for each. And freebies to boot.

But the above somes up my feelings. Kids adventures just need to be structured differently to appeal to them more than for adults, but you can largely use the same system to accomplish this. Some of my online PbP friends and gamers just ran one game for their kids and used Bret Boyd's (Tricky Owlbear Publishing or Ronin Arts) 11th Hour. No combat, and an interesting backstory, although admittedly not that exciting.

So, yes, interested in kid friendly adventures.

Pinotage

 

[Voadam]

I've gotten my nephew both of WotC's practical guides to monster books and he likes them. For when my son is older some old Basic Set equivalent guides would be great. I'll probably get Zorceror of Zo and similar things when the time comes.

 

[Festivus]

I have two boys ages 2 and 4. Likely we will wait on any games that require die rolling and math until the kids are a bit older, but I would still be interested in reading and saving them. Once the younger is about 4 we will introduce some imaginitive play with them both.

 

[bento]

The other side of gaming with kids is my trepidation with using any D20 system. I'd really have to minimize or simplify much of what's there as so much of it is steeped in RPG gamer assumptions. I've downloaded other folk's attempts at "kiddie-fying" D20, but I'm unsatisfied with the results. KEP (mentioned earlier) comes close but it entirely avoids magic rules.

Character sheets are another bugaboo - there's entirely too much information to spark a kid's imagination. They might as well be looking at a racing form. The closest to a simplified sheet is one that Goodman Games made, which was based on the old 1st Ed character sheet that I'd be most likely to use.

Rule sets like FUDGE/ FATE come closer to me as being "kid friendly", as you only use criteria that are important to your game or your players. From what I recall reading it, Faery Tale seems to have taken a chapter or two out of the FATE rules.

I really like FATE's character development rules, which seem organic and allow the players to develop a well-rounded backstory and character abilities that match their experience. If you haven't read the FATE rules before, character generation is a collaborative effort between all the players and the GM. This seems much more like how kids play than D&D's rolling a character up. The only problem I have with FATE is the lack of structure that I helps me put together and run a game. A GM is left on their own to develop NPC stats - you can't just copy stuff from a Monster Manual or PHB.

I could see a hybrid betweek KEP and FATE, where ability stats (S/D/C/I/W/Cha) are kept, but skills, feats, equipment and other character-specific items are developed through group collaboration. I'd probably keep the FUDGE resolution engine, but I also like having ability scores on hand to help decide issues like bluff or strength checks.

Any thoughts?

 

[pogre]

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

 

[JoeBlank]

I am game for some kid-friendly products. I game sometimes with my sons, ages 9, 7 and 5.

My idea of kid-friendly does not really minimize violence. Kids play video games where they kill monsters and bad guys. I have no problem with violence in my games. I do minimize, or remove altogether, references to religion such as evil cults and such. I think my older kids would be okay with it at this point, but would just prefer not to explore that aspect of gaming with them yet.

I look for adventures that are a little more than dungeon crawls, with some decison making and plot, but on their level. I want them to have the thrill of victory, and be able to figure things out.

 

[pawsplay]

No, I view RPGs in this form as an adult activity, and if and when I introduce my children to them it will be in a similar fashion as R-rated films or serious literature, with great care and a willingness to let children discover the world as it is. As for the rules, there is only so far you can simplify the rules before it actually makes the game harder to play.

 

[Rhuvein]

Yes, definitely interested in seeing products for kids, particularly the 7or 8 to 12 group ~ before they get sucked into the computer/console gaming world.