Can I be a girl with a big sword?

[GSHamster]

I'm going to buck the trend. This is going to turn out badly. The daughter will grow up and start hanging out on the char op boards, learning how to min-max and use the giant sword to the best effect.

A D&D session, years from now:

Father: The dragon wakes up, and looks at you mournfully...
Daughter: I attack it with my giant sword, using Attack X, comboing with Spell Y, Feat A, and magic item Z. I deal *rolls some dice* eleventy-billion damage.
Father: ... Why couldn't you have picked the princess option?!?

 

[Janx]

I'm going to buck the trend. This is going to turn out badly. The daughter will grow up and start hanging out on the char op boards, learning how to min-max and use the giant sword to the best effect.

A D&D session, years from now:

Father: The dragon wakes up, and looks at you mournfully...
Daughter: I attack it with my giant sword, using Attack X, comboing with Spell Y, Feat A, and magic item Z. I deal *rolls some dice* eleventy-billion damage.
Father: ... Why couldn't you have picked the princess option?!?

well, at least his son wasn't asking the question. I don't think any parent is ready for kids who want to play cross-gender characters.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

well, at least his son wasn't asking the question. I don't think any parent is ready for kids who want to play cross-gender characters.

Y'know, I'd be totally fine if one of my kids wanted to play a cross-gender character. A significant fraction (maybe a third?) of my PCs are cross-gender. I don't know why it would bug me if my kid wanted to do the same.

But on the original topic of the thread: rock on! What an awesome experience. I hope your kids enjoy playing as much as mine does.

 

[Janx]

Y'know, I'd be totally fine if one of my kids wanted to play a cross-gender character. A significant fraction (maybe a third?) of my PCs are cross-gender. I don't know why it would bug me if my kid wanted to do the same.

Well, I was joking, as many parents are likely not prepared for the possibility that their kid may have gender identification issues (possibly gay, possibly wrong gender, etc.).

Not being prepared, being surprised is not a judgement on the kid, or the parents. It's a learning experience for both parties, and it's OK for a parent to not know what to do. It's not like there's an instruction manual that kids ship with that covers all the anomalies that could come up.

 

[Grogg of the North]

I thought it was interesting because most people (gamers in particular) would stereotype a girl -especially one of her age (5)- as wanting to be a fairie princess or cast spells or something like that.

Only once in my gaming experience have I ever played with a "Unicorn riding elven princess". And she kicked everything's butt.

 

[Lynda Lawless]

Now that's a girl after my own heart!!!

Girls with big swords rule and monsters drool!!!

 

[Mircoles]

[/URL] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]

An illustration from the 2e dmg.

 

[justinhalliday]

My four-year old daughter has been nagging me for ages to play D&D (referred to as 'nerd games' in our house), so when my Pathfinder Beginner Box arrived in the mail, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to run a game for her.

So I made up a super-simple game using the flipmap, a few of the pawns from the Pathfinder box and a couple of dice.

You can check out the rules at my blog:

Heroes Against Darkness: D&D for Kids (Rules Included)!

 

[Ningauble]

Fun story. Hope you and your daughter have a great time.

I've tried with my kids (7 & 9) with varying degrees of success. I thought they would love the Pathfinder beginning box, but I found a homebrew adventure with lots of simple riddles, puzzles, and codes was a bigger hit.

They also both really like playing Neverwinter Nights 2 with me. My son almost knows all the wizard spells! He walks around the house saying "Fortono Fordigumar" or whatever the incantation is for magic missile, and my daughter calls me "Kalach-cha".

 

[Argyle King]

I'll probably start with something simple. I just have not decided what to use yet. The concept of class is something she seems to have a little trouble with. She understands that different "jobs" (as she puts it) do different things, but she has a lot of questions about why certain "jobs" can't learn to do certain things.

I have a few classless games I play, so I thought about using those. With her description of what she wants to do, I should be able to come up with a character easy enough. Right now my idea is to run the game somewhat 'old school' in that I'll keep track of most of the heavy math and numbers, and let her just say what she wants to do and roll dice. As she gets older and/or gets the hang of more things, I'll gradually hand more of running the character over to her.

Everything is still early in the process though. I don't feel any need to rush into anything yet. I'm just glad both of my kids seem to have a healthy imagination. At the risk of sounding old or crotchety, I think it's something often found lacking in some of the other younger people I interact with. I'm also happy because rpgs serve as a way for me to sneak a few math and reading lessons in while keeping it fun.

For my own benefit, I think their interest has refreshed my own. The excitement they have when looking at pictures in a book or when looking at my dice sparks something in me. The way they look at stories and problems has also benefited me by reminding me that a story doesn't always need to be complex to be interesting. That knowledge as well as the challenge of having to prepare for a completely different target audience than what I'm accustomed to is something I believe will enhance my abilities as a DM even when I'm running a game for an older audience.