Generational cycles in RPGs?

[Aeric]

It's possible--and I'm sure it'll happen in some cases--but it would surprise me if it's the norm. For all the talk of kids rebelling, I've found (IME, which is admittedly limited and anecdotal) that children of parents who like sci-fi/fantasy/similar genre material tend to like it themselves. It's just a matter of when and how they're exposed to it, I think.

I agree. My dad read
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to me when I was a little boy. He bought me the D&D Basic Set after I saw the kids in E.T. playing it and wanted to try it myself. The first game I ever ran, at age 12, was for my parents, aunt, uncle, two cousins, and grandma(!).

Not too long ago, I played in a group whose players ranged in age from early teens to mid fifties. The youngest members of the group were the daughter of the woman whose apartment we played at and her friend, and she had another friend who also wanted to join but only ever watched us play.

 

[James Heard]

I'm really not sure if my daughter has actually played her Buffy RPG game that I bought her last Christmas or not. She's made a bunch of characters though, and she's 12 - still lots of time. I've been thinking about getting her some sort of anime roleplaying game for next Christmas, unless she presses me for something else ahead of time. Anyways, I'm not sure she'll turn out to be a gamer in any case just because the computer RPGs are just so much easier to get into. When I started gaming computer RPGs involved Space Invaders and a really deranged sugar high.

 

[Turanil]

I'm in my mid thirties, my son who is in second grade plays a homebrew D20 lite with couple other dads their kids and myself. The first D&D session I ever played (which I DM'd) was with my mom and dad. My Uncle and Grandfather played for a while as well. My Father is a regular in my weekly D&D group and has been for sometime now. Maybe D&D is a generational thing, if folks try to make it so.

Grandfather, father, and kid around the same table to play D&D? Great!! My own experience sadly, is when a grandfather, father, and kid are around the same table, it's eventually to ask the kid if he does well at school...

 

[Awakened]

I guess I'd qualify as a kid, as I'm 16 and have been playing since I was 10, but was not introduced into the game at all.
Instead, I read a description of it in a kid's almanac and got curious about it, and asked for it for christmas. I think if you want to really see the amount of gamers get bigger, it may be just as important to properly introduce the game to a new generation as it is to teach the game to your children, because something you find out about on your own always seems to stick with you more than if you were taught about it. It looks like Wizards is thinking this way as well with releasing a new intro set.

 

[moticon]

Taught my kids to play

I never would commit to an activity that would pull me away from the family for 4-5 hours/week, but I couldn't wait for my kids to be old enough to play so we could make it a family activity.

About the time my son was old enough to play I taught him the basics. He invited over 4 friends who have played together as a group for several years, with me as the DM. Most of his friends took it home, taught their siblings and started groups of their own in addition to the original setting.

A couple of years later my daughter, after seeing me spend almost every saturday afternoon for 2-3 years with the boy and his friends for 4 hours expressed an interest in getting her own group together, which I was very happy to do.

She now has a group of 7 playing regularly, which is good for me (Dad) because the boy and his friends are going to college and taking DnD with them.

Only 2 more years and my daughter will go to college. I'll miss it when she's gone.

Moticon

 

[Incenjucar]

The problem is that, in comparison to the rest of the species, nerds, geeks, the literate, and the intelligent have a hard time reproducing.

1) Most of the species is uncomfortable with D&D, intelligence, and creative hobbies that aren't part of the 'official' national culture (mostly sporting events, drinking, and loud music), thus making it hard to find potential mates.

2) While the numbers are becoming much better, there is likely still a gap between the genders, so you don't have fifty gamer grrls for fifty gamer bois.

3) There's still a fairly noticable group of outright shut ins who take the game too far, and are socially lacking, particularly the ones who've fought for sexist games and such all these years.

4) The amount of time D&D requires tends to conflict with massive-money, high-demand jobs, not to mention time for getting out and meeting potential mates.

5) Intelligent and educated people tend to have problems reproducing, period. For one, they know about birth control, they can predict that children may be more trouble than their worth, etc. Heck, native Europeans are dying out because they've been educated enough on the subject at hand.

 

[ElvishBard]

Family Tradition

My dad and all his uncles played, and my mom's brother played, so naturally my younger brother and I play too. It's kind of funny though, because my mom's other brother considers D&D to be evil, which makes talking about it with my relatives rather unpleasant.

 

[Richards]

My sons are 18 and 19 (almost 20), and we've been playing D&D together for just over a decade.

Johnathan