Too young to play D&D 4e

[buddhafrog]

I grew up in the early 80's playing original D&D and AD&D pretty heavily -- probably aroung late elementary school through middle school.

I am now 38, and am highly considering DM'ing the new 4e with my son and his friend, 3rd grade and 5th grade. I'm wondering if this is just a little too young. Of course some aspects will be too difficult, but the challenge will aslo be educational. I would highly house-rule to my taste but also to make it slightly easier.

Do you think it will be too difficult for an advanced 3rd grader?
Do you think it is too violent/adult for an advance 3rd grader?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

[Garmorn]

I had my daughter wait until she was about 12 to start. There are lots of things about a game that most of us just don't think about. Lots of it just require a more mature brain to track.

On the other hand we started story telling (i.e. non system type role playing earlier.) What if's or how did you find the lost unicorn? It is the whole rules warped around combat that causes the problems, not the playing. Try something simple. If she likes Pokemon (is that even popular still?) use it for a basis of conflict resolution.

To clarify, I think any normal RPG has to concentrate on combat and gets over involved for a ~6 year old, but the noncombat parts are great.

 

[Storminator]

My son did fine with 4e at 9 (4th grade), but like Garmorn we had been doing rules-free RPGs for years.

I did notice that about an hour per session was plenty.

PS

 

[Runestar]

I am not sure if it is a guy thing, but when I first picked up dnd (2ed, ~14 years old), we were primarily interested with combat, and less so with the roleplaying aspect (in that we simply assumed that we were in the right and by extension, anyone who got in our way were evil in some way). Rationalisations were fairly superficial. Initial campaigns were often little more than multiple combats strung together with paper thin plots.

I don't think 4e will be too violent. I am not trying to start any edition wars, but I do feel that the way 4e is designed and package seems to make it more attractive to young children.

You might want to consider picking up a copy of dungeon delve and running a few simple scenarios to let your child get a better grasp of the rules first. At that age, I am not sure if their cognitive development is deep enough to have a meaningful roleplaying experience anyways.

 

[kolikeos]

I regularly DM for a bunch of 8-9 year-olds. It's not the real thing but they have lots of fun rolling the dice and threatening NPCs. It's very rules lite, we theoreticly use the rules as they are but only the really smart kids that own the player's handbook and actually read it understand more then "throw d20, if you get higher than 10 you succeed".

Of course, I have 8 kids in a group and get paid minimum wage to DM for them. If there are only 2 players and they are your son and his friend, I bet you can have a much more successfull game.

 

[delericho]

Do you think it will be too difficult for an advanced 3rd grader?

Maybe a bit. A simpler version of the game may be more suited. Still, there's quite a lot you can take "behind the curtain", which would allow them to manage. They should have no problem with the actual "role-playing" part of the game.

Do you think it is too violent/adult for an advance 3rd grader?

That really depends on you. Keep the violence on a par with that in the old Transformers, He-Man or GI Joe (or even "Dungeons & Dragons") cartoons (in which nobody ever got killed, or even particularly hurt), and you should do fine.

 

[Chainsaw]

My friends and I started playing 2E in 6th grade, but it was a self-taught experience. We probably could have started earlier if someone more experienced had been there to DM or show us what to do though.

My brother was 4 years younger and usually played with us, but he wasn't a very "savvy" player until probably 5th grade+.

 

[roguerouge]

I taught third edition to a class of 12 4th to 6th graders, which included three students with ADD. Many of the class had already been playing long enough to have system mastery.

 

[buddhafrog]

Thanks for your thoughts everyone (and apology for all the spelling mistakes in my original msg -- would you believe I'm an English teacher?)

I'm feeling more confident about this now. I should also add that my 3rd grader is obsessively familiar with the (extended) LOTR movies, and thus, the general storylines/characters in D&D. He's also played several long games of Star Wars miniatures and so has an introduction of sorts to RPG's.

I was considering running a Dungeon Delve adventure first for practice. I was then probably going to run a pre-made adventure module because I think the structured storyline might be a little tighter/easier to follow. I would adjust it down in terms of violence, difficulty, and demons/ghosts/deathcults/etc. I would probably also add more non-combat challenges. I should say that I've NEVER used an andventure module as a player or DM, so it'll be new to me.

If I go with an adventure moduel, is there one that you think might be best suited for children?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I am not aware of any adventure modules particularly suited for children. At least not for D&D 4. There definitely is for The Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge). But that won't help you much, I suppose.

What is your primary concern? Excessive murder and mayhem? You can feel free to describe someone being reduced to 0 hit points as being knocked out, fleeing or giving up.

If it's about the "complexity" of the story - twists, turns, deception, betrayal, mystery. I think H1: Keep on the Shadowfell and similar adventures will not be too difficult in that area.