D&D for children

[kenmarable]

Why not just play make believe with the kids and roll dice so they think they're playing their parents' game? Who should really care about rules and other things when kids want to just beat up monsters or pretend to be princesses, knights, etc.

Then when they get older and want to get out of the make believe phase and just play, then you'd just introduce them to D&D or other rpg.

Because as Hobo said, adults often underestimate children. When I try to look past that and see if my kids can handle more complex things, they have always surprised me by being able to. Sure, even as grown-ups we could just play make-believe, but having the game mechanics adds another level of mastery and fun to it.

Plus, it's also a much more entertaining way to practice basic addition skills than the lame repetitive homework sheets they get from school. (When my kids starting bringing those sheets of 60 rote math equations home, I wanted to yell at their teachers "Didn't Dr. Suess teach you anything?! Boring 'Dick and Jane' sucks for math, too!") By rolling dice, adding different numbers from their character sheet and seeing if it is greater or lesser than some other number I tell them has improved their math skills more than any of that lame homework.

 

[Lord Ipplepop]

I have an 8 y/o, & a 12 y/o that I recently started on Swords and Wizardry (ODD AC, not 3.o ed), and they are able to completely understand the concepts, much more easily than the other, more complicated versions.

I am not giving them the PK scenarios, rather, I am allowing them to do more role playing than dice rolling. They get to play pretend, and I get to teach them how to play.. and they still learn teamwork, taking turns, logical thinking, cause and effect, and everything else that I use (A)D&D for with the kids.

It is not the game system, rather how you use them that determines the "kid worthiness" of a system.