For those with Kids: What age did you introduce them to D&D?

[PatEllis15]

I have wondered the same thing... I love to game (all games), and would dearly love to see my kids enjoy it as well. That said, I have seen to many instances in life of Parents trying to force their kids to do things, only to see them walk in the complete opposite direction.

My oldest turns 5 in October, my youngest just turned one... I haven't started to work on him yet!

First off, We as a family REALLY encourge reading. Reading starts everything...

My wife and i observed that he had a ton of fun playing with his friends "cardborad cut out" castle.

So, we bought him the PlayMobil Castle for Christmas when he was 3 1/2. He loves it, and get him roleplaying by himself, making up stories about knight!

I got a bunch of LotR stuff for Christmas in 2002, and my son loved to look it over (some of the action figured, movie book, etc.) he liked it enough that when I got a LotR Chess set, he wanted to play more than me! So, now he's learning the fundamentals of chess... he knows how to set up. Knows that pawns are confusing (moving straight to captured by moving in a diagonal) that Bishops have an assigned color, and knights can jump. Of course he is still 4 1/2 so about 1/2 way in he usually changes the rules, or sides on me.

We also at this time started to read Harry Potter to him.


So now I have a son who is into playing games, loves knights and wizard!

So , last month, I'm down in hte basement getting some game stuff put together when he asks me what "that" is as he pointed to an unpainted lead figure... He knows that I play D&D, and that its something that he can learn when he learns to read... And I reply to him that its like his playmobil figures, but I use them to play D&D...

Of course the fig has tons of detail, and he just can't take his eyes off of it, and asks if I have any more... I don't, but yet, I do... I take down my old Warhammer box, and show him my Bretonian army.... to see the look on his face was priceless... I can't have him in the basement anymore unless I take the box out!

This past weekend, my gaming friend and his family come to visit. Their son is a couple of years older. He has watched his father play Mage Knight, and by the end of the weekend, they are playing "their versio of warhammer and mageknight" Rolling dice, and taking that many "steps" with their respective Playmobil "armies" If they meet, like in chess the other "dies".

And just like that, he's playing games....

I'm sure that once he can read he will want to learn D&D, and without any "forced" encouragement form me....

Taro Sarask

Pat E

 

[Garmorn]

It will be hard for me to wait for them to come to me.

Richards: Were your kids, at 8 years old, able to grasp the basics? A friend of mine has a child who is just about to turn 8, and I'm considering giving him a Player's Handbook, but I was curious if that would overwhelm him.

From my experience with my daughter and a friends daughter. Giving a 8 year old the PHB is a wrong move. It's large size and the volume of information could well over whelm him. I started out by letting my daughter have our old monster manual. Fun to read for a kid. Not a lot of rules stuff, and lots of interesting pictures. Another option is the introductory box set. (I forgot what the current one is called). Also give him some of the D&D novels to read.

 

[PatEllis15]

You could also track down some of the old TSR Choose your own adventure books....

The first 6 in that series were pretty good, but the went down from their...

They give the basic premise of what D&D is... an adventure, choices, combat, Fallout from those actions...


Pat E

 

[Zaukrie]

I'm not able to search for old threads, but this came up about 6-8 months ago, and it was a long thread.

My sons are 7 and 5 (6 in two weeks) and they aren't ready to play D&D. However, they roleplay with their millions of legos almost every day. They re-create Star Wars and other movies, and make their own new stories. Even though my oldest is a pretty good chess player, he isn't ready for the structure of D&D yet, nor does he particularly like "scary" parts in movies. He hates it when bad things happen to the good guys.

I guess what I'm saying is, your kids are probably already role playing, its judging when they are ready for a new type of role playing that is so very individual. I remember the earlier thread where one of the dads said his 4 or 5 year old had watched the mummy with him and that he sacrificed his D&D character like in the movie! My kids couldn't watch that movie and get sleep for weeks.

With kids, I try to let them do what they like, influence it yes, but leave it up to them to find their passions at their pace.

 

[kaiscomet]

I have an 8 yo, (will be 9 in October), and he has been begging to play since he was 6. I started a game for some friends, thier children, and my son and wife. My son is the youngest of the group, the other two kids are ten and twelve. They all do fine with all aspects of the game.
I also have a four year old who enjoys rolling the dice.
My impression is that the ability to play is largely related to the ability to read (not counting interest of course). Reading the character sheets requires about a late second/early 3rd grade level. If they are unable to do this, they will require too much assistance and the kid may regret that mommy and daddy have to help them play. Once thay can find things on their own I think the interest level really escalates.

 

[Southern Oracle]

I have four daughters, ages 11, 7, 5, and 1. The oldest has little interest in D&D, but she likes the idea of playing that she's older...she's read and made a character for the d20 Modern game. Unfortunately, none of her friends are interested, so she spends most of her time playing Yu-Gi-Oh and Hero Clix.

The 7-year-old has the mind of a DM. She borrows my Monster Manual all the time and draws the monsters, she has the complete Megablocks dragon collection, and she hovers around me all the time while I'm working on my weekly campaign. However, she hasn't yet asked if she can play, and I'm going to wait until she comes to me.

The 5-year-old is a kender who steals my dice at every opportunity. She loves rolling them but has no interest in the game itself. Thanks to her, I no longer have a complete set of any of the dice I own.

The 1-year-old tries to tear my books to pieces if I leave them out; it's a good incentive to clean up after myself.

 

[kenjib]

I think OD&D or Lejendary Adventures might be better for younger players. d20 is too clunky, with too many fiddly bits and modifiers. A more rules-lite system will allow you to take a more collaborative story-telling approach, which comes naturally to young children - before they get all of their creativity sucked out of them.

 

[Richards]

Richards: Were your kids, at 8 years old, able to grasp the basics? A friend of mine has a child who is just about to turn 8, and I'm considering giving him a Player's Handbook, but I was curious if that would overwhelm him.

Actually, I started them off pretty slowly. My 10-year-old wanted to play a fighter, which was good because that's really the easiest PC to pick up from scratch. My 8-year-old had his heart set on being a wizard, though. I helped them make up their characters (showing them their options and letting them choose - they really had the most fun at this stage buying their starting equipment), and for my youngest son's spells, I picked out a small selection of "good" starting spells and let him choose from those, then wrote up the pertinent information on a set of index cards. (All he really needed was the spell's name, level, and what it did; I didn't worry overmuch at first about the exact ranges, types of spell components, etc.)

I'm getting kind of verbose here, so let me cut to the chase: yes, at 8 and 10 they were able to grasp the basics, because I started them on a "simpler" version of AD&D. We didn't worry about encumbrance or any of the complex stuff until much later.

Actually, I think a couple years of Hero Quest really helped. Even though Hero Quest was a rather simple "fight the monsters and find the loot" boardgame, they learned quite a bit from it that carried over to AD&D:

1. If you split up and go off in different directions, the monsters are going to get you and you won't have anyone to help you.

2. Sometimes it pays to save your spells for when you really need them.

3. Letting the person who can use the magic treasure to the best advantage ends up helping out the party overall.

After we had played AD&D for a couple of years, we retired the "simple campaign" and started up a new one using most of the official rules (although we still pretty much fudged encumbrance - easy to do when you've got a portable hole or Heward's handy haversack). We played that way for another couple of years, and when they started waxing reminiscent about their old characters from the original campaign, I converted them over to the "full rules" and added them to their stable of PCs. (Each kid ended up running a stable of about 5 PCs; they'd get to pick 2 PCs to run for each adventure so they'd have the standard "party of four.")

Johnathan

 

[DaveMage]

Thanks all for sharing your experiences.

I think I'll hold off on giving out that player's handbook. I'll have to check out Hero Quest - I have heard of it, but never seen it.

 

[Iced Tea]

My son is 3 and daughter is 6. They are aware of the game, but don't play it, nor have I tried to entice them into it. My son, since he was 2, loves to look at the monster manual and look at the pictures of the monsters. My daughter likes to roll the dice, and knows that there is a game we play after their bedtime when the guys come over.

Last night she sat next to me as I thumbed through the new PHB.

"Who's that guy?"
"Hmm? His name is Gimble."
"What's he doing?"
"Well, honey, he's a bard."
"What's a bard?"
"A bard is someone who sings, tell stories and plays music."
"Ohh. So that's why he has all those instruments."

The amusing part was when she asked about the Dwarven/Human skull comparison pictures.

I'm a proud pappa, basically.

I hope you didnt let your son look at the new 3.5e monster manual

But i sorta want my own little mini-me to play my cohort or something but that was a long way off since im as old as some of these people's kids who they introduced into the game (17). when i was introduced to the game i was around 8 and all it was to me was being a munchkin, and now.....any way a funny story to change the topic. when i first started with AD&D my brother rolled two 3's and a 4 in a row (total) and started to cry. it is always a fond memory to look back to.