Opinions sought: Much younger players?

[smootrk]

Fortunately, if my advice proves horribly wrong the worse case scenario has less of an impact on Jeff's life.

I think this statement shows the most wisdom. I would be happy to be incorrect with a cautious attitude, rather than incorrect while throwing caution to the wind.

 

[Gentlegamer]

And go to war.

18 year old women are not required to register for the draft in the United States.

 

[Steel_Wind]

That can only be truly known after it is too late to impact things. If it turns out it was perfectly reasonable to let them play, huzzah. If it turns out it was not, Canadian Robert has a house guest. On the plus side, you've got that really cool gaming set up with the projection unit and all for Jeff to share.

Problem is, I'm all down on D20 right now. Jeff would have to play a Frankensteined House Ruled D20 meets Rolemaster 2e.

Depending on his gaming orientation, it might be that prison is preferable.

Leaving all of the legal possibilities aside, I am curious about the ramifications with Jeff's girlfrend who seemed none too happy with his D&D playing, let alone his latest possible addition to his gaming group. Now, maybe Jeff feels risking the relationship is no big deal, and perhaps Jeff is a cool guy (I met him and think so) who has potential girlfriends lined up around the block (I never asked about this part), but there are a few things on this score that need addressing before a decision is made, too.

Well that's a different matter to be sure, but I'm guessing that Jeff (who I have never met) is a grown up normal guy who is able to do what he thinks is best (and weasel his way out of it afterwards, if need be).

But I'm very much gratified to learn that Jeff's such a hunk that he has potential girlfriends lined up around the corner; moreover, the girl next door throwing herself at him too after buying Cityscape and pretending to be interested in D&D is pretty cool too.

Jeff's life appears to be Cool Fu. Maybe he can can kill two birds with one stone: record those gaming sessions and install a "Jeff Cam" so all kinds of geeks can live vicariously through him.

 

[Mark]

18 year old women are not required to register for the draft in the United States.

Yup. But they are of legal age to go to war.

 

[Mark]

Problem is, I'm all down on D20 right now. Jeff would have to play a Frankensteined House Ruled D20 meets Rolemaster 2e.

Depending on his gaming orientation, it might be that prison is preferable.

I will not answer for him but suspect the former would be preferable though it might depend on what game they play in C-Block.

Well that's a different matter to be sure, but I'm guessing that Jeff (who I have never met) is a grown up normal guy who is able to do what he thinks is best (and weasel his way out of it afterwards, if need be).

But I'm very much gratified to learn that Jeff's such a hunk that he has potential girlfriends lined up around the corner; moreover, the girl next door throwing herself at him too after buying Cityscape and pretending to be interested in D&D is pretty cool too.

Jeff's life appears to be Cool Fu. Maybe he can can kill two birds with one stone: record those gaming sessions and install a "Jeff Cam" so all kinds of geeks can live vicariously through him.

You, sir, are a cad.

 

[shilsen]

Are you saying that as a DM you kept a kid in your game during the school year even though as his teacher you knew he was failing in your class? I am sure I must be misunderstanding what you posted.

No, you understand what I'm saying, except this was college (he was 18, I believe) and not school. The student was borderline and I pointed out to him often enough in class and during our interaction as teacher-student what he needed to do in order to improve his work. He didn't. That didn't affect our interaction as DM-player.

 

[Arkhandus]

I don't see any problem gaming with younger folks at the same table. And it's a good thing to spread interest in the hobby by getting young folks involved.

I've been playing D&D and D20 Modern for months now with at least one young teenager around (I think he's 14 or so). His father plays Magic: The Gathering too so they're often around the gamestore anyway, playing Magic. His parents don't have any problem with him playing D&D (he owns several D&D books too). Recently one of his friends has joined the game too, around the same age. I just focus the game more on adventuring and combat with them around; they seem to get bored when we're RPing any story-related parts.

The rest of the group (myself and the others, that is) are 20-somethings and 30-somethings. Once in a while we also game with a 50-something guy who's been playing and DMing since OD&D or 1E AD&D (can't remember which it was he said), but he hasn't been around the gamestore as much lately. We run our games at one of the tables in the FLGS.

 

[Mark]

No, you understand what I'm saying, except this was college (he was 18, I believe) and not school. The student was borderline and I pointed out to him often enough in class and during our interaction as teacher-student what he needed to do in order to improve his work. He didn't. That didn't affect our interaction as DM-player.

I think I would have had a hard time keeping him in the game given the other side of the relationship. It may not have been hurting him, but clearly it was not helping, and even if I thought of him not as a student while gaming, I would have found it hard to not think of him as a friend who could do better with a wake up call and less time gaming.

 

[shilsen]

I think I would have had a hard time keeping him in the game given the other side of the relationship. It may not have been hurting him, but clearly it was not helping, and even if I thought of him not as a student while gaming, I would have found it hard to not think of him as a friend who could do better with a wake up call and less time gaming.

If he wasn't gaming, he'd have been doing something else. I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't have been using that time to work on his papers. Which, interestingly enough, did get a little better on the grammar/mechanics front over the course of the semester, though I'm not sure how much - if any - the reading associated with gaming had to do with that. I should mention that it's not as if his college work was a subject we never touched on during gaming time, and while we weren't normally discussing it when his dwarf was going toe-to-toe with a giant, he did use time for OOC talk (usually before and after the game) to discuss his work and get some useful feedback. Evidently not useful enough, of course

 

[HellHound]

I'm running a game with the following player group:

GM - 36
Player 1 - 37
Player 2 - 16
Player 3 - 16
Player 4 - 12