How are you going to introduce your kids to gaming, if at all?

[StupidSmurf]

Got 4 kids here.... 18yr old daughter, 16yr old son, 12yr old son, 10yr old daughter

My oldest daughter started at age 9, so we made age 9 the cut-off year. Younger than that, we decided not to risk it, so as to give the kids a large amount of time to ascertain the difference between reality and fantasy.

My daughter started out watching everyone in my group play (and I used the "seen but not heard" rule...breaking it meant she had to leave). She "picked up" the concepts through osmosis, then, when she turned 9, she joined in on the next occasion that we started up a 1st level group.

Interestingly enough, my youngest has little interest in this stuff...she's way too into Bratz and Avril Lavigne, and Cheetah Girls. OK, that's cool. If and when she's ready, she'll join in.

As a parent, I think it's my job not only to teach them how to play, but teach them how to play responsibly. You have a project due for school? Finish it first. You got a scouting event to go to? Go to it.

Now, some kids mature at different rates. You can have a very mature 8 year old, and a very immature 11 yr old. So a lot of this boils down to a case by case basis.

But, by throwing my kids into the big game, they've learned responsible social interaction, concepts like teamwork, selflessness, co-operation... Their vocabulary has boomed, to the point that their teachers wonder how the heck they know all these words. And, their imaginations get a nice workout.

And I haven't even touched upon the "family values" aspect of doing something with your kids that everyone mutually enjoys!

 

[Mark Hope]

I had always intended to introduce my kids to the hobby but my eldest (who is now 7) pretty much got himself into gaming when he was 5. He was aware of the fantasy genre from our bookshelves, movies and the whole gamut of fairy tales that kids grow up with. Around the same time, he also got this very simple kiddy computer game on a cd that came free with a box of cereal - sort of an underwater variant of space-invaders where you have to catch trash being thrown into the sea before it reaches the ocean floor.

Anyway, the pc game helped him get to grips with basic computer skills (mouse pointing and clicking and stuff) but it also introduced him to the idea of difficulty levels. As he progressed through the game, it would increase the difficulty level and get harder. He would say stuff like "I'm on level three in the game now! Cool!!" And then he sorta made the connection himself and introduced levels into his own games of make-believe with his toy knights and dragons. One day he was telling me about his latest game and said "That knight is really strong - he's level three - but the other one is only level two..."

I was stunned. All my gaming took place out of the house at that time and I had never really spoken of game terms around him, so to see him make that creative leap on his own was a truly wonderful moment. I got all misty-eyed for a minute and then said "Would you like it if you and me played a game with wizards and knights and stuff together? A game with levels?" "Yeah!!" he said enthusiastically. "Then let me tell you of Dungeons & Dragons..." I replied...

I bought him the D&D basic game that was out at the time (a yellow box, iirc) and a bunch of plastic miniatures and we played through some of the starter scenarios in that. He also used to play his own games, pitting the minis against each other (and against most of his other toys as well) on blank battlemats, mapsheets from Dungeon magazine and on sprawling creations of his own. He's not too bothered about the system all the time, but boy does he have a blast. He recently pitted his Mordenkainen miniature against the entire Monster Manual, page-by-page, after I explained that Mordy was 29th level. Mordenkainen gave them all a whuppin', naturally. We'll leave game balance for another day, eh?

In addition to his own games, I also run games for him and his sister, who has just turned 4. She is along for the ride more than anything else, but it's clear that it's going to be something that they both enjoy as part of childhood. We'll see if they keep playing into fogeyhood like their Dad, I guess

In our family games, my boy plays a ranger (nearly 3rd level now) called Aragorn. I told him he could choose any name he wanted. He said "I want to call him Aragorn because I want it to be him. From the movie." His sister plays a gold dragon (1st level, using the rules from Dragon magazine) who is called Pink Strawberries and who is apparently "the biggest dragon of the whole world!" I NPC a cowardly dwarven wizard called Gort, who exists mainly as comic-relief and to allow me to goof around on a whim. They started out with the Palace of the Silver Princess, but decided that it was "really boring" and headed into the wilds in search of adventure. They're neck-deep in the Caves of Chaos right now - we have another game tomorrow - but have been eyeing my new Wilderlands maps with hungry enthusiasm. Something tells me that I'll be hearing requests for another change of location before long...

 

[Keith Robinson]

I don't have kids (yet) though my wife keeps bugging me.

I didn't want kids, but my wife kept bugging me too Now I have a 17 month old son and he is the greatest thing that ever happened in my life. I actually can't remember what life was like without him. It kinda made sense of everything. Each to their own, though.

How will you (or have you?) introduced gaming to your offspring?

My group starts at 7 PM (weekly) and my son's bedroom is right above where we game. He is supposed to go to bed at 7, but he can hear us and demands to be brought down so he can sit at the table and stare at everyone. He likes to play with the dice and see what is going on. I'd like to think his interest will be piqued that way. If he has no interest, fine. But otherwise, I'd like to think he'll get get interested and start asking some questions.

It'd be kind of cool playing D&D with my son

 

[Odhanan]

Thanks to Altalazar for starting this thread.

I am engaged and do not have children, but I must say there isn't a week during which I would not think of my future children and the way I could introduce RPGs to them.

How will you (or have you?) introduced gaming to your offspring?

I guess I will wait a bit and introduce D&D to them (maybe OD&D) when they will be around 8/11 years old. I've been introduced to D&D when I was 11. I remember it like yesterday, and I hope my children will too, so I don't want to rush anything.

Have you gamed with your kids? Have you bought them gaming books of their own? How old are they (the kids, not the books)?

I have no children of my own yet, so obviously I didn't play with my own. But I did play with children. The only thing I noticed is its easier after 7. Prior to seven years old, children are still registering information from the "real world" which is for them like a dream. Past seven, when medium-term memory kicks in, they start to get curious about the world AND make the difference between real and unreal, even if it doesn't look like they do (for instance they will play a video game and rave about the blood and the violence but cry as soon as someone in RL gets hurt = parents! don't worry! this means they make the difference).

How old is probably a good age to introduce them?

I'd say around 10.

Would you be disappointed if they didn't have any interest?

I try to not think about it.

Seriously, I want to be a dad. And I want my children to enjoy D&D and RPGs as I do. But what if they aren't interested at all? I will love them just as much. I guess, from a geek's point of view, it would be like being a judge and having your kid not wanting to be lawyer. You've got to accept your kid isn't yourself. It's disappointing at first, but really encouraging next, because your kid isn't "you" and isn't likely to repeat your exact same mistakes in life. I want my kid(s) to be healthy and happy with their life. If they share passions with me, Great! If not, I'll cope with it and rave at their happiness instead.

 

[genshou]

I thought I'd resurrect this thread to celebrate - now that I have a kid of my own and this is no longer quite so theoretical to me. She's six weeks old and adorable. My wife wants three more. That's enough to game...

Any other thoughts on introducing gaming to your kids? I wonder if it won't just be my kids, but their friends as well. I can only imagine what else will compete for their attention when they are old enough to be interested in gaming. Hopefully, video games won't have taken over.

I don't really have much to say other than that I will definitely give my future children the opportunity to play. But give me some time on that, I'm only 20 and my girlfriend and I presently live 7 1/2 hours away by road

That, and congratulations!

 

[Mark Hope]

Just wanted to add that we had a blast over the weekend. My 4-year old daughter's first roll of the day was a natural 20, which set a great omen for the rest of the session. We kept it pretty simple (rescue the cleric from the orcs). My 7-year old experienced negative hit points for the first time. His sister, aghast, exclaimed "I fly away to find a doctor and tell them what has happened!" - but then seemed thrilled with the idea that she could use her potion of healing to revive him and sat there beaming with pride as I described her brother's ranger regaining consciousness. As soon as the cleric had been rescued, she invited him back to her home to meet the rest of her dragon family and have tea and "sweet dragon corn". Her brother was most bemused by this sudden outburst of roleplaying and her apparent lack of interest in the treasure. They are now making plans to head to the City State of the Invincible Overlord ("Are there any baddies there? Yeah? Cool - let's go!"), but also seem keen in exploring the Shy Tower from Return to the Keep on the Borderlands. Which should be a challenge to keep kid-friendly, as the place is basically a giant killer mimic...

 

[Psion]

I started playing with my daughter when she was 7 (she's now 9). She had been playing Diablo 2 and used it as a model for what a "rogue" is (even though the D2 rogue is more a ranger, BID.) I also showed her that BESM d20 has a monster trainer class and she made a few characters, but we never got a chance to play.

She got the Pokemon Adventure Game a week or two ago, and now she wants to go back and play BESM d20 and tacking on the pokemon cards. I'm tempted, but am thinking of trying to broaden her horizons a little, by making a "monster planet" in DragonStar as a backdrop and not making the monsters exactly pokemon.

As a side note, whenever people complain how complicated 3e is, I love bringing up my daugher's 3e experience as an example. When we made her character, I used the blue rose method and made her max out her skills, but she quickly learned how the game was really supposed to work and demanded to allocate her skills the way they were supposed to be.

 

[Rel]

Well this thread was a nice little blast from the past! Congratulations, Altalazar!

Skimming over some of the old responses to this thread, I was struck by the arguments that some made about not introducing kids to roleplaying because they should "get a better sense of reality first". Being around little kids all the time now, this strikes me as funny. Kids play "pretend" all the time whether we codify it into a gaming system or not. It's just what they do.

As for me and mine, some of you may have already read the Story Hour linked in my .sig for the adventures of my daughter, Samantha the Red. She loves it when we do these and although I don't update the story often enough, we do "adventures" for her on a pretty regular basis. Since my wife and I are both gamers, I'm sure that our daughter will continue to be exposed to the concept as she grows up. And I have no doubt that she'll want to participate at some point, on some level. Whether she sticks with it or not will be entirely up to her.

 

[Tarangil]

Funny you mention that on a thread. Yesterday I more or less introduced my 5 year old to it because he was always bugging me when I introduced my 8 year old to it.

It had to be simplified though, it was more to learn numbers as much as it was gaming. I made him roll 4d6 for a character, made him count the dots on the dice. For character development I had him pick a picture of one of the races in the PHB and defaulted him as a fighter. I made him choose where he wanted his best number, "Do you want to your character to be Strong, Qick, or Tough?" He then was allowed to pick 3 weapons out of the PHB, and I gave him a chain shirt.

For the Game we used lego as a figurine on the board. Again it was very simple, he could only go one way because the other direction was blocked by a big pit. He went through a orc dungeon, had to fight a couple beasties and release prisoners. He figured out that the potion he got was a potion of jumping (grasshopper lable) and he used that to get over the pit.

Most of the game was helping with math, but by the end he was able to accomplish simple addition...maybe I'm on to something.

 

[Templeton580]

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