"Family" game?

[Tsyr]

I think that traditionally, family freindly games where those that do not involve any sort of combat.


Games that had combat like Risk, Stratego or Battleship have always been marketed towards a smaller segment (i.e. boys) and not towards families.

Slightly OT, but at the highschool I attended, we had lunchtime RISK games... about 10 people participated... about 2-3 days of lunchtime per game, 1-2 games a week, all year.

The reigning champion for most of my last two years there was a girl.

 

[Cedric]

I would say it depends on a lot on your group. I've played with groups made of people in their late 20's and early 30's that almost never included aspects such as disembowlment or the more graphic issues possible in D&D.

It really just depends on how you choose to play the game. There is no reason you can't enjoy the game as a family style game if you so choose.

Hero's, Villains, Larger then life.

Cedric

 

[alsih2o]

almost never included aspects such as disembowlment or the more graphic issues possible in D&D.

what do you do with all those edged weapons?

 

[Dinkeldog]

what do you do with all those edged weapons?

You hit for 6 points of damage. And when you've hit enough and done a lot of damage, the monster falls unconscious. (Then, uh, you steal its stuff...but that's okay because it stole all of its stuff.)

 

[alsih2o]

And when you've hit enough and done a lot of damage,

what kind of damage? what causes it to fall unconcious? (bloodloss?)

this reminds me of the old story of the country girl who didn't consider what she was doing sex because she didn't enjoy it

 

[Tewligan]

As a child, I was absolutely petrified of the mouthless character in the Twilight Zone movie. I can't imagine what I would have thought of a Mind Flayer or Githyanki or Flesh Golem at that age.

Well, no wonder - I STILL think that mouthless girl was creepy as all get-out. The thing that got me when I was little was the Bumble from the stop-motion Rudolph the Reindeer Christmas special. Man, that thing was horrible, with its crazy rolling eyes...

 

[Phowett]

Depends of the family. I began playing D&D when I was around 8 or 9, without any problems. So it really depends on the way the families are.

Heh. A mind flayer or chaos beast wouldn't frighten me a bit when I was a kid, but those mouthless Twighlight Zone guys did.

 

[SemperJase]

I doubt one would play Monopoly with most 5 year olds (please, I know somewhere out this is an exceptionally smart 5 year, there are exceptions). Still that does not take away that it is a family game.

As for disembowling, I would keep the descriptions more to the old movies. Swords would flash around and people would get killed, but there was no gore. Thinking back to my younger days there was no loss of adventure.

What makes it a "family" game would be the themes of Good vs. Evil with PCs playing only 'good guys'. Maybe oversimplistic to some, but those games encourage ideals that are beneficial to society - defending the weak, self-sacrifice (possibly dieing for the cause), and common good.

 

[SemperJase]

I just thought of another interesting fact for those who say that WotC needs vile content to be competitive in the market.

The best selling computer game of all time was a game that had no violent, mature, vile content.

Myst. And the puzzles certainly were not of the variety to appeal to a young audience (too difficult). Surely the demographic buying that game was older.

 

[alsih2o]

" As for disembowling, I would keep the descriptions more to the old movies. Swords would flash around and people would get killed, but there was no gore. "


so, do you not play with vorpal weapons? in their very description gore is entailed.....