D&D General Do you play D&D (or other RPGs) with your family?

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

My current group includes myself as the DM, two of my cousins as the most regular players, and one of my cousin's friends as a semi-regular player. So, yes, I do play with my family (albeit, typically just my extended family, though I have played with my siblings before).

 

[Malmuria]

I've played No Thank You Evil with my nephew since he was about 6. Recently we switched to dnd, 5e through the essentials kit. I was trying to avoid dnd because I didn't want a game focused on violence. But I think that ship has sailed with him...

btw, I got him the Young Adventurer's guides and they are excellent. Probably the best, most evocative writing of any 5e product I've seen. The art is in the 5e style, but with a simpler presentation that makes it so much more striking and actually less cartoonish.

 

[Richards]

Oh, I forgot: we also play with my granddaughter when she comes to visit. Since we only get to see her once or maybe twice a year, we add in a PC of an appropriate level and come up with a way to have her available at a moment's notice (but not necessarily a constant presence), or else have her play the group's NPC healer, depending on the campaign. She just likes being able to play with us when there's an opportunity.

Johnathan

 

[TarionzCousin]

Two of my girlfriend's kids had played a few sessions each. I am running a campaign for her and all three kids, currently.

It has been many years (20+) since I ran a campaign for relative newcomers. It's an interesting experience. I've had to rethink many of my presumptions.

Mostly, it was a surprise that they all enjoy combat so much. But, they are an avid boardgaming family and enjoy tactics/strategy.

 

[Jmarso]

Heh. I was worried that my family group wasn't going to enjoy the combat aspects of the game as much as I do, and after their initial adventure (Sunless Citadel), they expressed a desire to 'go to a city.' So I spent a few weeks homebrewing up a huge urban adventure in Hardby (Greyhawk) with a 'whodunnit' as the centerpiece, and tons of mini-adventures, encounters, hooks, etc. They played through the first two sessions of that and had to roleplay quite a bit, and all of the dice rolling, when applicable, was going to skill checks. Near the end of the second session they finally found themselves squaring off against a room full of bad guys. One of them was like: "Finally! A good fight!" And the rest were all: "Yeah!" Roll for initiative, baby!

 

[wedgeski]

My wife is in every group I DM. We are patiently awaiting the all-too-slow growth of nieces, nephews, and friend-sprogs before showing them the game.

 

[Stormonu]

My kids are all single digits, so although we do play D&D they're a little young to really grasp what's going on. We've tried Hero Kids, too, and they loved it but it's a little too simple.

I've been looking at (and collecting) some different games, looking for the right one. I kind of lean toward anthropomorphic animals. E.g. Mausritter, Humblewood, Root, etc.

Any recommendations from anybody?

I like light-hearted RPGs, and I have found both Magical Kittens Save the Day and Tales of Equestria to be a lot of fun, especially the latter - if MLP isn't your thing, the system itself is usable for other games with minimal tweaking.

 

[Puddles]

My campaign is with my 3 siblings.

It's been a great way for us to stay in touch over the last year. With lockdown ending my youngest brother has gone back to study in the States and my other brother already lives in New Zealand (we're from the UK), so soon we're going to have to see if there's a good timeframe for 3 different timezones... fingers crossed!

 

[Voadam]

My younger brother and I got into gaming when we were 7 and 8 and played together regularly with the same group of childhood friends up until our 20s when distance relegated our games to friend get together weekends and bachelor parties. We then got back into it with email gaming for a long time then our gaming paths mostly diverged into local face to face groups. We had occasional get together games where either I crashed his local group or one of us would run a game for my son, his kids, and the other of us. Then during the pandemic I joined his online Fantasy Grounds group and we have had a weekly online game since then.

Early in the 80s I had a plan to run my parents and two or three of my siblings through Keep on the Borderlands, they all made characters but the game never happened.

I ran games for my son when he was a little kid and a teenager but he did not really get deeply into gaming, he would happily play but it was not something he sought out after hitting teenage years so it was limited to games I would run for him and his cousins (on both sides of the family) or for him and a friend of his who was interested in trying out D&D or a game run by my brother for him, me, and my brother's kids.

 

[Voranzovin]

I DM a game for my daughter (she’s almost twelve), my wife, my wife’s boyfriend, and a friend who is essentially family.

My daughter is playing an awakened housecat Wizard. She does all the (rogueless) parties scouting, under the (frequently correct) assumption that if she’s spotted, enemies will shrug and say “it’s a cat.” This is absurdly overpowered, but I don’t care.

 

[jayoungr]

No, but I run games for a group that includes a coworker and her two children. And another of my groups includes a brother and sister who have been playing together since they were kids. --Oh yeah, and there's another group that started when the pandemic did, where the DM's wife and daughter are both players.