shadowmask
First Post
Welcome to this week's Family Gamers article. We're on time and ready to roll. Let's break out the dice and see if we crit. 
The progression a child makes through the variety of games most of us have in our homes is quite enlightening. Many wildlife and child development experts agree: Play teaches crucial skills to the young. I can hear through the screen, "Wait! There's a difference between wildlife and children?!" Yes, and no. It's more a style and substance issue than a function issue. Wildlife use teeth and claws, stealth and charge throughout life. Children graduate from those strategies into social manipulation, bribery, cheating and sweet reason in about four to six years, if you're lucky.
We start with simple games with pretty pictures. Games like Memory or Candy Land, for instance. The manufacturers promise these games will provide developmental opportunities for your children such as memory enhancement, patience and frustration tolerance (aka "taking turns"). What you get is protestations the pieces miraculously moved on their own or the other player is taking too long while repeated shrieks of "MINE! MINE!" bounce off your walls and calcify your spine. This is if your little darlings don't simply devolve into teeth and claws and pounce on each other.
Eventually, your budding strategist will band together with others of his kind and take on games like Monopoly, Risk, Sorry! and Uno. Taking turns skills have matured and those spinal surgeries to reform your disks have been successful...Just in time to learn the fine art of refereeing the trash talk flying back and forth across the table. Make no mistake, this is a fine art similar to trapeze and high wire acts. Respond too soon, and your hyper-vigilant young'un is likely to whine about you embarrassing him in front of his friends; this will continue until he is 40 years old and has kids of his own. Respond too late, and you will find yourself in the middle of a brawl. Watch those teeth, feet and fists. If you're lucky, you'll avoid the ER bills and you'll find the ability to laugh about this later...much later.
Eventually, if you are lucky, your now experienced gamer will hear of these things called RPGs. It may be via video games. It may come via friends. If your budding storyteller is lucky, it will come from you. In any case, the evolution your young person is about to embark upon follows a typical course.
Step 1: "Rules?! What rules?!"
Also known as "winging it," this is an important first step. It allows the Creative Muse to speak to the GM-in-training, and rules simply get in the way. This is a time of developing a voice and story; rules gag the voice and force the story. Minutiae is such a hassle. Who knew you had to roll a die to determine if a grapple was successful? "I'm the GM, and I say the monster pins your character because he's 15 feet tall while you're 5 1/2 feet tall. Don't like it, ask Mom!" On the other hand, you may get lucky and skip this step, moving on directly to Step 2.
Step 2: "Oh! Those rules."
One of the kids finally brings an actual rulebook because you threatened to barbecue the next idiot asking your opinion on something you know next to nothing about and have no reference for. Remember, they are currently playing without an agreed-upon rules set. The GM, the one called "It" (after the game Tag! You're It!), sits with the book leaving the others to languish in agonizing boredom. You chase them out of your house because you can't feed the ravening pack of teens. Over the next several hours, your child suddenly becomes an expert, graduating instantly to Step 3.
Step 3: "RAW means I interpret the rules as I see fit based on what's written!"
Few on this Earth are as certain as a teenager with a rulebook. This is no different for the teenaged developing RPGer. This step is reminiscent of Step 1 with a dash of Monopoly thrown in for good measure. Once again, you are left refereeing a situation after it gets dicey but before it turns ugly.
Step 4: "There's the story!"
Finally, the glimmers of GM-hood appear. Not only is there combat; the episodes are linked, however loosely, around a theme. A story is born! In the beginning, you'll find yourself biting holes in your tongue in an effort to not quash the halting flight of fancy the teen GM has prepared, no matter how railroad-y it gets. Slowly, the teen matures into a co-sponsor of story telling and begins allowing the players a choice in whether to follow the troll into an ice cave with no means of creating fire nearby and the arcane caster's resources completely depleted by the last fight. Rejoice, for you have made it to the last step of teen GM development.
Step 5: "Now we're rolling!"
As your teen's confidence grows through successful GMing episodes, the table will again resemble the free-flowing idea-fest exhibited in Step 1. The dice will roll, players will groan, quests shall be completed and many memories will be made.
To sum up, games serve two purposes. First, they teach children important social skills, gradually becoming more difficult as the child gets older and the games more complex. Second, they teach parents and other interested adults how to manage pain, frustration and the benefits of modern medicine. This second point occurs regardless of age or complexity. As your child ages, his development will never cease to amaze you, for good and ill.
In the end, you will have the wonderful opportunity to guide your child's creativity. Take the time to live in their world, even if only for a little while. You'll find if you share their world with them, they will share your world with you. It's yours to enjoy. I suggest you keep some antibiotic ointments and bandaids nearby and your doctor's phone number on speed dial; this trip will never be boring.
*Disclaimer: All games mentioned are property of the copyright owners. /end legal mumbo-jumbo
The progression a child makes through the variety of games most of us have in our homes is quite enlightening. Many wildlife and child development experts agree: Play teaches crucial skills to the young. I can hear through the screen, "Wait! There's a difference between wildlife and children?!" Yes, and no. It's more a style and substance issue than a function issue. Wildlife use teeth and claws, stealth and charge throughout life. Children graduate from those strategies into social manipulation, bribery, cheating and sweet reason in about four to six years, if you're lucky.
We start with simple games with pretty pictures. Games like Memory or Candy Land, for instance. The manufacturers promise these games will provide developmental opportunities for your children such as memory enhancement, patience and frustration tolerance (aka "taking turns"). What you get is protestations the pieces miraculously moved on their own or the other player is taking too long while repeated shrieks of "MINE! MINE!" bounce off your walls and calcify your spine. This is if your little darlings don't simply devolve into teeth and claws and pounce on each other.
Eventually, your budding strategist will band together with others of his kind and take on games like Monopoly, Risk, Sorry! and Uno. Taking turns skills have matured and those spinal surgeries to reform your disks have been successful...Just in time to learn the fine art of refereeing the trash talk flying back and forth across the table. Make no mistake, this is a fine art similar to trapeze and high wire acts. Respond too soon, and your hyper-vigilant young'un is likely to whine about you embarrassing him in front of his friends; this will continue until he is 40 years old and has kids of his own. Respond too late, and you will find yourself in the middle of a brawl. Watch those teeth, feet and fists. If you're lucky, you'll avoid the ER bills and you'll find the ability to laugh about this later...much later.
Eventually, if you are lucky, your now experienced gamer will hear of these things called RPGs. It may be via video games. It may come via friends. If your budding storyteller is lucky, it will come from you. In any case, the evolution your young person is about to embark upon follows a typical course.
Step 1: "Rules?! What rules?!"
Also known as "winging it," this is an important first step. It allows the Creative Muse to speak to the GM-in-training, and rules simply get in the way. This is a time of developing a voice and story; rules gag the voice and force the story. Minutiae is such a hassle. Who knew you had to roll a die to determine if a grapple was successful? "I'm the GM, and I say the monster pins your character because he's 15 feet tall while you're 5 1/2 feet tall. Don't like it, ask Mom!" On the other hand, you may get lucky and skip this step, moving on directly to Step 2.
Step 2: "Oh! Those rules."
One of the kids finally brings an actual rulebook because you threatened to barbecue the next idiot asking your opinion on something you know next to nothing about and have no reference for. Remember, they are currently playing without an agreed-upon rules set. The GM, the one called "It" (after the game Tag! You're It!), sits with the book leaving the others to languish in agonizing boredom. You chase them out of your house because you can't feed the ravening pack of teens. Over the next several hours, your child suddenly becomes an expert, graduating instantly to Step 3.
Step 3: "RAW means I interpret the rules as I see fit based on what's written!"
Few on this Earth are as certain as a teenager with a rulebook. This is no different for the teenaged developing RPGer. This step is reminiscent of Step 1 with a dash of Monopoly thrown in for good measure. Once again, you are left refereeing a situation after it gets dicey but before it turns ugly.
Step 4: "There's the story!"
Finally, the glimmers of GM-hood appear. Not only is there combat; the episodes are linked, however loosely, around a theme. A story is born! In the beginning, you'll find yourself biting holes in your tongue in an effort to not quash the halting flight of fancy the teen GM has prepared, no matter how railroad-y it gets. Slowly, the teen matures into a co-sponsor of story telling and begins allowing the players a choice in whether to follow the troll into an ice cave with no means of creating fire nearby and the arcane caster's resources completely depleted by the last fight. Rejoice, for you have made it to the last step of teen GM development.
Step 5: "Now we're rolling!"
As your teen's confidence grows through successful GMing episodes, the table will again resemble the free-flowing idea-fest exhibited in Step 1. The dice will roll, players will groan, quests shall be completed and many memories will be made.
To sum up, games serve two purposes. First, they teach children important social skills, gradually becoming more difficult as the child gets older and the games more complex. Second, they teach parents and other interested adults how to manage pain, frustration and the benefits of modern medicine. This second point occurs regardless of age or complexity. As your child ages, his development will never cease to amaze you, for good and ill.
In the end, you will have the wonderful opportunity to guide your child's creativity. Take the time to live in their world, even if only for a little while. You'll find if you share their world with them, they will share your world with you. It's yours to enjoy. I suggest you keep some antibiotic ointments and bandaids nearby and your doctor's phone number on speed dial; this trip will never be boring.
*Disclaimer: All games mentioned are property of the copyright owners. /end legal mumbo-jumbo
