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Message: <blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 2409146" data-attributes="member: 10201">Depends on what you mean by "younger". IME, middleschoolers and highschoolers will have the best first-time play experience with something fairly complex, but with a bit of hand-holding. Because, once they get past that first session or two, they're gonna want the complexity. [And this isn't just me talking: there's some research in psychology showing that kids of this age, especially males, are particularly drawn to "mastery", and the greater the complexity of the task, the greater the sense of accomplishment when it's mastered. ]But for gradeschoolers, yes, maybe simpler would be better. Certainly, just throwing a set of D&D3.5E books at them, or FREd, isn't likely to be the right choice for most <10-yr-olds. However, the other market for rules-lite, IME, is for older beginners. IME--which includes introducing dozens, if not hundreds, of complete newbies to RPGs--the middle- and highschoolers do best with something crunchy for them to sink their teeth into and to provide guidance, but the adult beginners do best with something rules-lite, to give maximal freedom. Also, IME most adults with jobs and kids and the whole nine yards simply aren't going to get over the hurdle of learning a complex game (RPG or otherwise) if they haven't already been bitten by the bug. If they don't already know they love RPGs (probably from playing them), the effort required to learn them can be a significant obstacle. Which makes perfect sense: if you've only got 5hrs/wk to devote to a new hobby, you'll want to minimize the effort and maximize the return, at least until you're sure you love it.</blockquote>

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