My 6-year old wants to play! Help :)

[Wicht]

I am currently playing with both my five and six year old sons. In fact you can read about it in my story hour - they have been playing the characters Kall and Jozz for about 6 sessions.

I started off about two years ago using the Pokemon Jr. Adventure game to introduce the concept of roleplaying.

About six months ago I started working them through scenarios from the adventure box. They made it to the third scenario and then kept repeatedly dying. They did not have great problems with the wizards presented in the adventure box. They did well enough with the adventure box however that I decided to let them make their own characters.

We homeschool and so the making of characters became a bit of a math review/lesson as I had them roll the four dice and add up three of them themselves. Then when they had their six numbers I asked them what race they wanted, letting them look at the pictures and then went descriptevly through the basic classes asking them which they wanted (for ease of 1st time play I did not allow any spellcasting classes for their first character). That done, I then picked two abilities and asked them which was most important. Caleb wanted a Barbarian and so I started out by asking which was more important, strength or health/toughness and then putting the higher score in the one he picked.

They really like the miniatures - and rolling the dice. In fact I painted new miniatures for their characters for a christmas present and each has already bought their own dice.

At their age, one has to be more patient in explaining what is going on. But they role-play well. Strategy at times is what they need help with the most as they lack the real life experience to think out certain consequences, but they are learning and both look forward to playing, constantly pestering about when the next game for them will be.

 

[robaustin]

My Little Brother (I'm in the Big Brother program) has a keen interest in D&D. I've slowly been able to foster it. Got him the D&D box set and we played that which gave him the basic rules. It helped him learn the basic character sheet stuff, etc....

I also let him have the Character generatorCd to play withmaking characters. He's 11, and man the kid can really Min-Max. From playing lots of video games he is used to all the stats and such that they give in the RPG's. He has picked things up pretty quick. He plays with my group (plays an NPC for now) when we play a saturdays during the day. He made a half-orc barbarian who was kickass!

For younger kids, I would say to use the adventure game. Get started with using maps and the counters. Kids are very visual, and I find that the maps can help a lot.

Encourage it, play it when you can. Enjoy it.

--*Rob

 

[Sniktch]

Let him play! I was 6 when I got my first D&D books for Christmas (I'd been begging for them for months. I didn't know what D&D was or understand that it was a game, but I knew those books had lots of cool pictures of dragons and unicorns and such!)

I started with the old red Basic box, but we quickly converted the campaign to 1st edition advanced rules. I don't ever recall having any difficulty understanding the concepts of the game or separating fantasy from reality. In fact, I remember being one of the wiser characters in the group (while all the grown ups were trying to chop up everything they ran into, I often came up with unique and non-combative ways to solve the problems we came up against). I played an elf fighter/mage and kept the character until that particular campaign ended eight years later.

I'd like to think that the game helped me to grow in many ways. I learned problem solving techniques, I learned how to cooperate with a group of people to work toward a common goal, and I became thoroughly addicted to reading and still plow through at least one or two novels a week. I look forward to the opportunity to share this gift with my son when he starts to express interest (he's 2 1/2).

 

[HellHound]

Chrystine started playing with us when she was 6 (and look how that turned out? Her first limited edition print run of a book by her and her sister was released at GenCon this year, they came up to accept the ENnie since parts of their book also made it into our ENnie award winning product, and the full release run of their d20 Monster book is due out this week).

I recommend the sorcerer class. Easy to use, lots of fun tricks, and doesn't require massive planning.

Her other character is a Rhoode Rogue (Rhoodes are a frog-like small race from FFG's Mythic Races).

 

[Moleculo]

THere is an archived thread called "Little Changes with Big Flavor" or soemthing to that effect taht talks about small changes that could make a game kid oriented, yet still very fun. Oh here i've found it:
little changes with big flavor

 

[alsih2o]

5) Ideas to de-emphasize combat.

peer reinforcement, in this case the n.p.c.'s are his peers, and they should mention how bravely he handled the situation when walking away, or how right he as when he does choose to fight.

dad as n.p.c. reinforcing his moral decisions (and lending guidance when neccessary) will probably go a long way towards setting down very clearly the morality of violence in real and fantasy situations for a young one.

as for the rules, throw them out. play with the rules, not within them. i think the important part for kids this age is exposure to the genre and life lessons, not calculating d.c.'s and jump distances

good luck

 

[megamania]

My 7 year daughter is curious about the game but ballet overshines it still. My 4 year son however wants to play dragons badly. I am working on his math skills now but occationally having him be my official die roller. As far as introducing him to the game beyond that, I'm letting him make the decision. As much as I want him to inherit my world (no businesses here- an entire world!) I want it to be his decision.

From there, it'll be dungeon crawls with basic creatures. He'll properly enjoying taking on skeletons and orcs for a year or two.

 

[kenjib]

I play with an 8 year old daughter of a friend from time to time. I also let her pick her race and class by looking at the pictures in the book. She is playing a druid. She has a little trouble remembering her spells, but she's more focused on the story anyway so it doesn't really matter.

To start the game we sat down with a blank piece of paper and worked together on creating a map of the surroundings and a story for her character. The great ideas she had really surprised me. We've got a fey forest filled with lots of interesting locales -- abandoned castles, mines, an enchanted lake an encroaching darkness, and other good stuff. She was found at the cave entrance of a dragon by her father, who is now dead, and whose golden castle (with secret tunnels and treasure) is now abandoned.

She's the only player, so when we play I giver her great leeway in driving the story. She often decides where the plot will go or what results will happen from a certain event. We play in a very loose joint-storytelling kind of fashion. I think this is very good for encouraging her imagination and she has more fun with that freedom as opposed to the times when I am more direct in propelling the story myself.

Don't be afraid to be goofy. I play a really goofy dwarf sidekick NPC and ham up the cheesy slapstick humor in a rather excessive fashion. She loves it.

Don't be afraid of cliches either. A six year old is still full of wonder and excitement. Cliches are new and vibrant. There is a good reason why these things are cliches -- they work very well. Take advantage of this before your kid grows up and becomes a bit more cynical. Fairy tale stuff like princesses, unicorns, dragons, knights, fey goblins that lurk in the darkness, trolls who ask riddles and guard bridges, and the like are all fair game.

Grimm's Fairy Tales, Arabian Nights, and the like are goods sources of inspiration.

EDIT 1: Finally, I think personally that collaborative story telling and the use of imagination are better for children than combat and dungeon crawling. If you agree, try to think in terms of how stories for children are written and how various conflicts are resolved in clever ways. ymmv of course...

EDIT 2: Also, when combat does occur, I often have it revolve around a specific goal and death is not usually one of them. For example, the goblins throw a net over the unicorn and are trying to escape on the back of evil wolves. Her druid and companions are trying to rescue the unicorn. Some goblins may die, but that is incidental to the goal, not the goal itself.

 

[Emiricol]

Thanks for the advice, folks, and the links. Yes, playing is his idea! When I told him I'd consider running a game with him, he put on his knight halloween costume and ran around the house for hours being Sir Arthur (being very fond of the arthur legends) and slaying some funky kind of dragon he made up. A slime dragon, I think it was

Karate is his idea too. We signed him up for a 3-session trial, and he loved it. Good for him too. I think I can get things started, at least, now

Further advice very welcome!

Best

-Emiricol

 

[Voneth]

I have had to put my 10-year old son off. He has social development problems and he worried the psyche intern about "His facination with death, life and witches. The subject also claims he has no friends but says he likes spending his time with his Dad watching the SCIFI Channel."

I swear, the TV is off most of the day!

So I decided that his imagination lets him do enough escapism for now, so we'll hold off for now.