I've been playing D&D a long time, too long to mention here, and it's truly one of my passions. As my kids have grown (I have 3, all boys) I've tried to introduce the game to them. While they enjoy the game in principle, and they like to read the books and talk about adventures, actually playing the game with them has been a somewhat elusive experience. I think this largely has to do with my oldest (13 yrs) being frustrated having to deal with the shenanigans of his younger brothers (both 9 yrs). The few times we've all sat down for a game the party has, shall we say, not been a well-oiled machine. 
So anyway, I've suggested several times to my oldest that he should see if any of his friends are interested, and he could invite them over and I'd DM a game for them. Well, this past weekend he finally invited two of his friends over for the evening. After looking over my library, I decided to break out the Keep on the Borderlands. While I lost my original copy somewhere in the past several decades, WotC made it freely available a while back, and I had a printout lying around. The Keep presents just the type of open-ended dungeon that should give the kids enough freedom to tackle things however they want, but is not so wide-open that they would become lost. They had a blast the first hour and a half creating characters, equipping them, and talking about how to play, and soon enough Deathwing the Halfling Rogue, Zeelor the Elven Ranger, Monsieur (...) the Dwarven Barbarian, and Sir Oolean the Human Cleric (NPC) were at the gates outside the Keep. The next hour or so were spent exploring the keep, insulting the guards, and finding lodging, and finally they were on their way to search for the Caves of Chaos.
The kids were obviously having a great time, and I was reminded yet again of why I love this game so much. It's a social game at it's core, and you can have a complete blast just rolling up characters and hanging out with friends. The game brings people together in ways that many other games (especially video games) do not.
For those who are not familiar with it, the Keep on the Borderlands has some areas that can be especially deadly. We were playing 3.5 edition because I'm most familiar with it, but I decided on a whim not to do any sort of conversion except where absolutely necessary. This probably made it even more deadly than it otherwise would be which, I reasoned, would be fine. After all, the idea was just to give them a taste of danger, and it's probably best to get them in the practice of rolling up new characters earlier rather than later. Upon reaching the Caves, the group headed directly to the back of the ravine, into the forgotten cave, the cave avoided by everything else in the area, cave G. Taking a right at the first fork, they came to a cave with a pool, an obviously very valuable goblet in the pool ... and 3 gray oozes! Well, needless to say they didn't vanquish the oozes. Instead, after losing two sets of armor, several arrows, and a short sword, Sir Oolean suggested it was time to flee and they high-tailed it out of the Caves, all the way back to the Keep.
And that's where we left it. They are just inside the walls of the Keep, two of them practically naked, and virtually penniless among them. And everyone had a blast. I have a feeling we'll be back before too long.
Just thought I'd share.
So anyway, I've suggested several times to my oldest that he should see if any of his friends are interested, and he could invite them over and I'd DM a game for them. Well, this past weekend he finally invited two of his friends over for the evening. After looking over my library, I decided to break out the Keep on the Borderlands. While I lost my original copy somewhere in the past several decades, WotC made it freely available a while back, and I had a printout lying around. The Keep presents just the type of open-ended dungeon that should give the kids enough freedom to tackle things however they want, but is not so wide-open that they would become lost. They had a blast the first hour and a half creating characters, equipping them, and talking about how to play, and soon enough Deathwing the Halfling Rogue, Zeelor the Elven Ranger, Monsieur (...) the Dwarven Barbarian, and Sir Oolean the Human Cleric (NPC) were at the gates outside the Keep. The next hour or so were spent exploring the keep, insulting the guards, and finding lodging, and finally they were on their way to search for the Caves of Chaos.
The kids were obviously having a great time, and I was reminded yet again of why I love this game so much. It's a social game at it's core, and you can have a complete blast just rolling up characters and hanging out with friends. The game brings people together in ways that many other games (especially video games) do not.
For those who are not familiar with it, the Keep on the Borderlands has some areas that can be especially deadly. We were playing 3.5 edition because I'm most familiar with it, but I decided on a whim not to do any sort of conversion except where absolutely necessary. This probably made it even more deadly than it otherwise would be which, I reasoned, would be fine. After all, the idea was just to give them a taste of danger, and it's probably best to get them in the practice of rolling up new characters earlier rather than later.
Upon reaching the Caves, the group headed directly to the back of the ravine, into the forgotten cave, the cave avoided by everything else in the area, cave G. Taking a right at the first fork, they came to a cave with a pool, an obviously very valuable goblet in the pool ... and 3 gray oozes! Well, needless to say they didn't vanquish the oozes. Instead, after losing two sets of armor, several arrows, and a short sword, Sir Oolean suggested it was time to flee and they high-tailed it out of the Caves, all the way back to the Keep. And that's where we left it. They are just inside the walls of the Keep, two of them practically naked, and virtually penniless among them. And everyone had a blast. I have a feeling we'll be back before too long.
Just thought I'd share.
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