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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 5626500" data-attributes="member: 3448">My experience is with a younger player (I've been running some games for my older son, who is just short of 5, and in some cases for a friend of his who is roughly the same age), so it may not be fully applicable to 8-year-olds, but here are my thoughts:1.  RPGs can be complex and confusing.  Especially if a child is playing with older and more experienced players, they may be in a position where they don't really understand things and can't have the fun that the older players are having.  One possible solution to this is to run games just for their age.  Try running a game just for the two 8-year-olds.  It should reduce the pressure, give them time to figure things out, etc.2.  Don't be afraid of easy puzzles and the like.  I've used puzzles for my son that would be utterly lame in a game with adults, but for him, the benefit of getting to figure things out was awesome.  Easy fights can also be fun--we might look at a fight and say, "that was lame, I knew I was going to win the whole time."  A young (and inexperienced) player may say, "that was awesome!  I beat up all those zombies!"  Again, this may be difficult in a mixed game--you risk boring or frustrating the teen (and the adult, but I assume your fiancee is more likely to be able to enjoy watching the younger kids handle something on their own).  But letting the kids win, and win big, on their own, can be very satisfying for them.3.  Follow their lead.  My son will often give me the premise for our adventures.  At the beginning of one of our recent games, my son said something like, "Deforch's friend Freezie the Dragon wants to go visit some of his other friends on the top of a mountain, but he knows that it might be dangerous and there might be monsters on the mountain, so he asks Deforch to come with him."  (Deforch is his PC.)  At that point, I improvised an adventure to fit the description.  If they're excited about something, or want to do something, you can make your game fit their wants, which will make it more fun.  To some extent, this works for all players, but it's especially valuable with young players--they're unlikely to get as much out of a consistent, well-developed world or an overarching villainous plot that plays out over months (although recurring antagonists can work well), so even if their ideas aren't so consistent with what you were thinking or planning, incorporating them anyway may work well.4.  Kids should be gaming because they want to play.  You can make an eight-year-old play a game that they don't want to play, but it's unlikely to be fun for anyone.  But at the same time, they're likely to find it fun to actually play if they want to.  So perhaps you should try making it desirable for them to want to ask to play, rather than "D&D time, everyone!"  My son knew that his mom and I liked playing D&D, and that it had cool props (like minis).  So he was excited by the idea of playing and would say things like "can I play D&D when I'm older?" before he could play.  Now that we are playing, he will ask to play:  "can we play D&D today?"  On occasions when I've tried to start a game and he hasn't been into it, the game hasn't been as much fun for either of us.  So I might try creating an environment where they see other people having fun, but aren't required to participate.  If they then want to, great!Good luck, and have fun!</blockquote>

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