What Do Your Kids Think of D&D, and How Do You Handle It?

[Jack7]

I admit that I rarely get to play D&D, or most other games for that matter, much anymore. Because of life.

Kids, family, teaching, writing, working on the house and lands, my squadron, church, cold cases, travel, business, my animals, you name it. It all keeps me pretty much engaged at high gear most of the time.

But my kids want me to set time aside and play more often.

So, stealing this basic idea from Weem, what is the opinion of your kids on game play?

Also, since my daughters are now old enough to play on their own, perhaps I should just take them out, buy them the old stuff I started out with (if I can find it), and say to them, "Here now, you've got your own stuff. Make up whatever you want, have your friends over, and go to town."

Of course, if you're not married and have no kids, then I reckon you can talk about your siblings, friends, and family as well. For that matter you can talk about games other than D&D too.

 

[S'mon]

My son yells "Monster!" and rips the Huge Carrion Crawler/Beholder Ultimate Tyrant/Hill Giant et all out of my fingers to play with. He also yells "Monster" when I open my Monster Manual, appropriately enough, but I don't let him get his hands on it.

He is only two and a half, though. If he's interested I expect I'll start gaming with him when he's 4-5, we can use the plastic figures, maybe 60mm scale, and some simple rules.

 

[Steel_Wind]

My daughters are old enough to dismiss it as "Dad you are such a geek". From time to time, I have dragged them into gaming shops when with me. My eldest daughter, now 20 yrs old, was mortified when I did this to her when she was 17.

My 17 year old daughter is not quite so embarassed to have a gamer for a father, but occasionally she just shakes her head in mock disgust.

My boys are much younger and are a different kettle of fish. My 11 yr old wants to play - and I let him. He thinks it totally rocks. I have toiled long and hard with my eldest son and I have been well rewarded. He's a gamer. Pure and simple. Every new book, every new die, every new mini - and every new boardgame- is a reason to ooh aah and get majorly excited. (He is also much better at twitch video games than I am too, which leads to much hilarity and parental abuse, but I digress.)

My four year old son thinks the minis are especially cool. Ordinarily, I would praise his developed taste in geeky toys and this would not be an issue, except for one problem. If left to his own devices, he will lose my miniatures and dice all over the house -- to vanish into the same tessaract space where the tops of ballpoint pens, single black socks and bic lighters go when they wink out of existence in this dimension.

Result: I need to work on the four year old's respect for gaming stuff; alternatively, I need to learn to put my gaming stuff away better

 

[Treebore]

My daughter and sons game with me once a week, and right now my daughter is GMing our Tuesday group of 6 people through an L5R game. My youngest is 14 this month, and has been gaming since he was 7, My next oldest is 16, and has been gaming also since he was about 7, (When I say gaming, I mean following the actual rules gaming, not some simplified rules set), my daughter is 18, started her third year in college this month (all my kids are home schooled) and has been gaming with me since she was 6, she played a wonderful pixie NPC for my group! Like I said, for the next month or two she will be running our Tuesday Group for the next month or two as well.

So how do they treat my RPG habit? As great family time!

 

[darjr]

My kids game with me. My daughter wants to play Faeries Tale mostly, and only one of my sons goes to RPGA and conventions with me. Often so will his friends and I'll show up at a con with a big group of crazy adolescents looking to kill something with dice.

 

[Pbartender]

My kids (10 & 11) think it's pretty cool. They're old enough to start asking about joining in.

My son wants a copy of the Mouse Guard RPG... His birthday's coming up pretty soon.

 

[buddhafrog]

I played daily for a few years - 20 years ago in middle school.

My son is nine, and after spending tons of money buying him D&D miniatures to play imaginary LOTR with, I thought, why don't I actually *play* D&D with him. I play with him and two 12 year old friends. They *LOVE* playing D&D. My case is slightly different b/c I live in Korea and they don't even know any negative stereotypes about gamers exist.

We play twice a week, 2 hrs each time. I find that I might be enjoying this as much as they are. I see in my son's eyes what I remember feeling playing 20 years ago. As a parent, it is great to spend time with my son, great to see his wonderful imagination, and great to see him learning (I add many written adventure notes about the PC's world history, town politics, business, etc, to increase the learning level).

Because they have nothing to compare my DM'ing with, I have an easy task I suppose. However, I've found that I'm enjoying creating their story and have done a reasonably good job creating a world/story that is completely new to their minds. Seeing those minds (and eyes) open and excited is a great payout. I've done many things with my son (coach, legos, playtime, etc), but I've found D&D is more personal than any other so far. We sit close, focus intently on each other for two hours in a row, and build off of each others' story/action. It's great! Go for it.

 

[noodle fish mice]

I don't have kids yet, but these stories about children delightedly playing D&D with their parents are warming my heart. I can only hope to be so lucky. Kudos to each of you.

 

[Ant]

My two girls (6 and 7) have been bugging me to play again since they last beat that naughty green dragon and took all the treasure!

Brings a tear to me eye, it does.

 

[Wik]

My daughters are old enough to dismiss it as "Dad you are such a geek". From time to time, I have dragged them into gaming shops when with me. My eldest daughter, now 20 yrs old, was mortified when I did this to her when she was 17.

My 17 year old daughter is not quite so embarassed to have a gamer for a father, but occasionally she just shakes her head in mock disgust.

Strangely, for some reason this is my favourite part in this thread. I guess I just like the idea that not all of your children are such huge gamer types... I have no idea why.