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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5764266" data-attributes="member: 54877">It should vary somewhat, by purpose.&nbsp; I'd say most of the range needs to be 8th to 12th grade reading level.&nbsp; The original D&amp;D was written for college and older.&nbsp; Bright, younger students managed with it just fine, however.&nbsp; You don't want to deliberately exclude younger kids, but you do want them to aspire to greater understanding.&nbsp; (And as C.S. Lewis pointed out long ago, we really shouldn't condescend to kids when we write to them.)&nbsp;Keep in mind that &quot;8th grade&quot; level is already pretty basic, because that is an average.&nbsp; Any reasonably bright 6th grader is going to be able to at least make do with some 8th grade text.&nbsp; If you start writing technical materials (i.e. game rules) any more basic than that, you have to dumb it down.&nbsp; &nbsp;If they want to put a short section of introductory advice at the 8th grade level, fine.&nbsp; In that section, say, &quot;Do this.&nbsp; Then do this other thing.&nbsp; Try to ham it up a bit.&nbsp; Give XP.&nbsp; Repeat.&quot;&nbsp; (Several pages, and more detailed, but you get the idea.)&nbsp; But the bulk of the advice should be written to a functionally grown person, with appropriate nuance.&nbsp; If a bright 15 year-old doesn't believe that Dick and Jane might like slightly different things, telling him in newspaper speak that they do is not going to help, anyway.&nbsp; If he does believe it, he needs more advice than what he gets now.&nbsp;&nbsp;Yes, that was pretty much my reaction to some of the text in the 4E DMG, too.&nbsp; One of these days, when I have some time on my hand, and am feeling sufficiently snarky, I think I will write a marriage advice essay that mimics the style of the 4E DMG advice.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue&nbsp; &nbsp; :p"&nbsp; data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5764266, member: 54877"] It should vary somewhat, by purpose. I'd say most of the range needs to be 8th to 12th grade reading level. The original D&D was written for college and older. Bright, younger students managed with it just fine, however. You don't want to deliberately exclude younger kids, but you do want them to aspire to greater understanding. (And as C.S. Lewis pointed out long ago, we really shouldn't condescend to kids when we write to them.) Keep in mind that "8th grade" level is already pretty basic, because that is an average. Any reasonably bright 6th grader is going to be able to at least make do with some 8th grade text. If you start writing technical materials (i.e. game rules) any more basic than that, you have to dumb it down. If they want to put a short section of introductory advice at the 8th grade level, fine. In that section, say, "Do this. Then do this other thing. Try to ham it up a bit. Give XP. Repeat." (Several pages, and more detailed, but you get the idea.) But the bulk of the advice should be written to a functionally grown person, with appropriate nuance. If a bright 15 year-old doesn't believe that Dick and Jane might like slightly different things, telling him in newspaper speak that they do is not going to help, anyway. If he does believe it, he needs more advice than what he gets now. Yes, that was pretty much my reaction to some of the text in the 4E DMG, too. One of these days, when I have some time on my hand, and am feeling sufficiently snarky, I think I will write a marriage advice essay that mimics the style of the 4E DMG advice. :p [/QUOTE]

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