Gaming and Youths (What's Not Appropriate?)

[Committed Hero]

I'm not familiar enough with Cyberpunk Red to comment on it. Would you be comfortable playing it with your principal or their parents in the room? If so, it's probably fine. If not, not.

Edit: if the kids are playing it on their own, that's another issue. Then, assuming the material is legal for them to possess, it really is a family matter.

This stresses an important factor: are you running it for your kids, or friends of the family, or students, or the general public? The less you know about the families of the kids who are playing, the likelier it is that something will get lost in the telling and parents will get alarmed. The standard in bold is probably the best advice you can receive. Also, inviting the parents to watch is pretty solid evidence that you are comfortable with the subject matter.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

An adult running a game for teens is very different from a teen running a game for teens.

 

[VashVet]

When I was 15 I didn't want to hang out with people who were the same age as my parents.

The only time I had an adult DM as a kid was a convention for a game we signed up for. We didn’t have game stores with a lot of space for people to play, and even if that were the case, playing with an adult? No thanks. We were content to figure out the game on our own.

 

[MGibster]

Yeah, TBH my adult campaign is pretty PG. Someone might throw in a raunchy joke or something, but sex is at most alluded to, and the violence is not usually that graphic, unless a player has a particular beef with an opponent. My own character prides herself on having never killed anyone who wasn't already dead.

That kind of sounds like how most of my games go. For something like D&D, I might describe graphic violence, but it's in such an over-the-top manner that it's hard to take it seriously. In horror games, violence is treated in a more serious manner including the impact is has on both PCs and NPCs.

 

[Umbran]

The common refrain was Cyberpunk studied dark themes like corporate greed, abuse of power, corruption, anti-authoritarianism, and of course there's the violence.

There's dark themes aplenty including abuse of power, corruption, sexual abuse, anti-authoritarianism., and of course the violence.

1) I question use of "anti-authoritarianism" as a "dark theme". Authoritarianism itself is the thing that is dark.

2) "Teen" is a wide range of intellectual and emotional development. What is okay for a 19-year old and a 13-year-old are not the same.

Am I out of touch?

A little?

You are comparing two genres - cyberpunk and teen dystopia - but aren't looking deeply enough at the genres to grasp the differences. Specifically, you are looking at what themes are present, but not at how themes are presented. The details of presentation matter.

First and foremost, teen dystopias are written for teen readers, with teen protagonists. Language use is aimed at younger readers. So foul language, for example, is kept to a minimum, or abstracted into neo-language cognates.

In teen-dystopias, broadly, the dystopia is thematically a stand in for the pressures of society, and adult characters are stand-ins for parents. Teen-dystopias generally end with the teens WINNING, busting the dystopia the young folks overcome the pressures of society, with only a few thanks to a couple of adults for support, maybe.

Meanwhile, in cyberpunk, the protagonists are generally taking on sysiphean tasks and winning pyrrhic victories, and make little real change on the society around them.

Also, teen dystopias are usually threadbare in plausibility, based on one oversimplified concept. Meanwhile. Cyberpunk typically uses an all-too-plausible corporate money-is-power world.

And so on. There are many more differences that lead to the overall point- you can be hard or soft with these themes.

 

[MGibster]

1) I question use of "anti-authoritarianism" as a "dark theme". Authoritarianism itself is the thing that is dark.

I'm with you on that one. Maybe they meant anti-authority?

2) "Teen" is a wide range of intellectual and emotional development. What is okay for a 19-year old and a 13-year-old are not the same.

It sure is. There's a big difference between a 13 year old and a 16 year old. Of course an 18 year old is an adult, and I'm hard pressed to think it's necessary to protect them from inappropriate content. They're old enough to make those decisions for themselves. Even a 17 year old can get into a movie that's rated R.

First and foremost, teen dystopias are written for teen readers, with teen protagonists. Language use is aimed at younger readers. So foul language, for example, is kept to a minimum, or abstracted into neo-language cognates.

I think the only teen dystopia I've read in the 21st century was The Hunger Games triology. I've also read Cyberpunk Red and of course various books from Cyberpunk 2020. I cannot think of anything in Cyberpunk that wouldn't be appropriate for most teenagers.

Meanwhile, in cyberpunk, the protagonists are generally taking on sysiphean tasks and winning pyrrhic victories, and make little real change on the society around them.

Also, teen dystopias are usually threadbare in plausibility, based on one oversimplified concept. Meanwhile. Cyberpunk typically uses an all-too-plausible corporate money-is-power world.

None of that makes Cyberpunk (the game) inappropriate for teens.

 

[Fenris-77]

An adult running a game for teens is very different from a teen running a game for teens.

My very first 'real' campaign was when a group of 20-somethings took a chance on 15 year-old me and a buddy. It was a brilliant campaign that also made me a life-long friend in the person of the GM.

 

[Willie the Duck]

None of that makes Cyberpunk (the game) inappropriate for teens.

But they are still different, is--I think--the point being conveyed.

Generally speaking, I think everyone is going to agree that there isn't anything specific to Cyberpunk: Red that is wildly inappropriate for teens (maybe teens-over-a-certain-age). Thus the conversation is going to naturally diverge into sub-topics like was the comparison to teen-dystopian fiction apt, or what generalizable positions do we have about roleplaying mature themes with minors present (and in what context).

 

[Umbran]

None of that makes Cyberpunk (the game) inappropriate for teens.

I cannot speak to the specific cyberpunk game, only to the genre in general.

For example, broadly, the cyberpunk genre views both sex and drug use as casual, which probably isn't appropriate for, say, a 13 year old player.

In the Hunger Games trilogy, if I recall correctly, the protagonist (Katniss Everdeen) personally directly kills like 9 people, and they are described with only discrete amounts of blood. In the entire first book, 22 people die in the games, many out of sight.

In a game, a street samurai with a submachine gun can mow down that many goons in a single combat or game session, easy.

 

[Fenris-77]

I think specifying 13 when people said 'teens' is tilting the field a little. I mean I agree completely, but I don't think the 13-year-old example makes for a convincing argument contra. Just my two cents.