Looking for advice from parents: Gaming with baby

[fredramsey]

Since you mentioned that, I have to mention my alternate

Marry a gamer. Don't have kids

(Just kibitzing!)

Simple: marry a non-gamer.

Just be ready to watch the baby when your S.O. goes out for their "night with friends."

 

[mostholy2]

After having my first baby in December, I ended up trying out pbp D&D and have really enjoyed it. I convinced a couple of old gaming friends of mine to join up and I am now DMing them through my first pbp game. Of course, this is all after wife and kid go to bed. Very enjoyable. No dice, minimal paper. Lots of fun. (of course, if your wife is a fellow gamer, you'll probably have to share posting time with her or have 2 computers for the house).

Congratulations, a child is, by far, a much more intensive and involved RPG than any game you could play.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

We (my wife) also buys the pillow D20s (the little dog-toy sized plush dice) for the babies, and we let them play with them. Have to start those gamers out early.

But they need to roll hit points & damage, too! You need this:

 

[The Sigil]

Slightly OT, but I remember when my wife was expecting our first. I was GMing a Saturday game session, the players were 3rd or 4th level and were tomb-crawling and had just been set upon by a pair of mummies (this was about two or three months after 3e came out).

In round 2 of combat, the phone rang. It was my wife, at work. "Honey, I need you to come get me now, I haven't felt the baby move for over a day." The look on my face told my players something was seriously wrong when I said, "we'll leave off right here, I have to go RIGHT NOW, I will see you all next week if all is well." That's right, I dropped everything, in the middle of a combat round, and walked directly to the car. They cleaned up, and noted the iniatitive counts and marked where we were in the order for the next session (I had good players).

Of course, while I was on my way to pick her up, the baby started kicking and all was well... my wife had gotten some "scary stories" about stillborn babies at work and freaked when she realized the baby hadn't kicked her for a while. "The baby" is now 4.5 and doing quite well, thank you.

The funny part of this is that one of the veteran players looked up the Mummy in his brand-new MM that week, and called one of the other guys.
"Hey, um, have you seen the mummy entry?"
"No."
"You might want to open up your Monster Manual..."
"Okay... what?"
"Look at the mummy rot ability."
"#)(&*@%#*!!!"

They told me about this at the next session (one of my rules was PHBs at the table, but after the session, you can look at other reference books, so I wasn't mad). A moment I would not have been able to appreciate had my baby not interrupted me.

As others have said, newborns are easy. It's the 2-year-olds you have to watch out for. Especially the fiery ones. Like my daughter. *rolls eyes*

--The Sigil

 

[Harmon]

more suggestions please

The wife and I are expecting our first in Feb/Mar, so this is a good time for us to start thinking about it.

I know that a kid will change our gaming lives and might well end it, so any kind of suggestions beyond the ones displayed here would really help.

 

[Ampolitor]

2 year olds are evil

A baby isn't the problem. In a crib, sleeping in a carrier, or hanging out in the porta-crib are all easy compared to the dice swallowing, paper tearing, mini-sling power of a 2 year old.

Man I feel your pain, my wifes first experience into role-playing was when my son grabbed one of those huge Grey Dragon Dice I had gotten for free somewhere out of my bag and decided to bounce it off her forehead. Ohh and they like to try and tear the nice pictures out of the books. The old Books are also targets for crayons since he wants to color them up a bit/ Needless to say everything has been moved to the top shelf. Next is a laser encoded padlock to keep him out.
(oh and miniatures are also used as bendable actions figures to him)

 

[Ampolitor]

Routine!

get the kid in a routine as quick as possible in there own area, if you are visiting bring a small DVD player and lots of Baby Einstein DVD's, its like crack for babies. Before you know it you'll be watching it with your kid, blank stare,head tilted to the side with a little drool rolling out too!
Newborns are not that bad, but seriously get a routine and STICK to it. My family knew that if they didnt follow it and my son woke up in the middle of the night, Id kill them. I'd also call them in the middle of the night to share the news.
Doctore will tell you all the textbook things to do, so you dont sue them. As soon as you feel comfortable put a little rice cereal in the babies milk and they will sleep all night, it keeps them full. MY kid sleet every night, I even had to go wake him up sometimes.
Like I said babies are not really hard, routine routine routine, if it goes to sleep at a certain time, game or no game you take a break and put the child to sleep, or he or she will make you pay for it!!!

 

[TheGM]

But they need to roll hit points & damage, too! You need this:

Heheh. Yeah, conveniently my wife owns one of those (I bought it for her), but the kids all get D20s.

I think it's a subltle slap at me over 3.5 - she really hates that a natural 20 is not a crit, but I won't houserule it .

 

[TheGM]

The wife and I are expecting our first in Feb/Mar, so this is a good time for us to start thinking about it.

I know that a kid will change our gaming lives and might well end it, so any kind of suggestions beyond the ones displayed here would really help.

At this point there are online games for just about any system... I'd start hunting some out and get acquainted. Check out here at ENWorld, Kenzer and Co has some for D20 and HM, I run some for HM... I know for a fact there are others, they're just not coming to mind right now. Anyone?

I'm not saying you can't play tabletop, just that it's more difficult.

Another option is to start talking with your group about playing at your house. Then you've got all you need for the baby, and there's much less hassle.

Congrats!
Don.

 

[Micah]

The wife and I are expecting our first in Feb/Mar, so this is a good time for us to start thinking about it.

I know that a kid will change our gaming lives and might well end it, so any kind of suggestions beyond the ones displayed here would really help.

Make sure you have a vehicle with plenty of trunk room. Because now instead of just having to pack character sheets, a dozen rule books, dice, miniature cases, and snacks you'll also add-in:

pack n' play (portable crib/containment device)

jhonny jump-up or exersaucer (after they can sit up on their own - yeah it only keeps them occupied for 10-20 minutes - but that's another 10 - 20 minutes you can play)

one huge diaper bag filled with everything you think you might need (this includes the bulb syringe they give you at the hospital, baby tylenol drops, rattles, extra changes of clothes, and of course diapers and wipes - hehe it's a first child thing that you fall prey to. With my third child we threw the diapers and wipes in with the dice box and skipped the bag altogether.)

bottles, pacifiers, jars of formula, boxes of rice (the suggesstion above about putting the rice in their formula - once the dr. OK's it - is a great one. When you start, do it for the bottle before bedtime rather than the daytime meals. The added bulk will keep baby sleepy and his/her tummy full longer - hopefully helping him sleep longer, but also making bedtime easier.)

comfort item (some kids latch onto a blanket of stuffed animal and woe to you if you don't remember it.)

cheerieos (when they are old enough, cause pringles, cheetoes and guacamole are usually not good first foods. Besides they'll chase those things around the tray of the exersaucer or high chair for another ten minutes of game time.)

car seat (when they are young you get an occasional lucky night where they go to sleep in the car on the way over. It's quite comical to watch the ritual of trying to get car seat out of the car carefully enough to not disturb the sleeping baby, finding a quiet room, covering the seat with a blanket to keep out the light, and hoping the baby will sleep through the first big combat.)


Anyways I guess the one thing I remember even more than all the stuff you pack around is sleep deprivation. If you play every week you may want to take a one or two month hiatus to get adjusted. (Most good DM's can work it in if you give them the heads up) It's no fun to go to a session so beat that you kill your PC off due to just not being able to think because you are so tired.

If you play once a month, and both of you game: Splurge on a sitter or impose on a close relative, because you want to find a balance and keep your sanity. Having a newborn puts your whole life in a juggle cycle for a while. You do eventually adjust and things calm down, routines get established, and the baby starts sleeping at night and for more than two hours at a crack, but it will seem like forever when you are living through it.