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

[JoeBlank]

I play sporatically with the BlankBoys, ages 11, 9 and 7. We started about 4 years ago with the miniatures game and then the intro set for 3.0, and I've gone through a few rules variations looking for their sweet spot. We have settled on Castles & Crusades with a couple of house rules (healing surges so no one has to play a cleric, and some "at will" cantrips for the wizard). We also played the Temple of Elemental Evil video game. Since it was turned based, I could ask each player what they wanted their character to do on their initiative.

A few years ago I asked Gygax for suggestions in one of his Q&A threads. The answer is in my sig.

 

[Jack7]

Does anybody have any recommendations on what version of D&D or it's imitators, or even other types of games, I might use to start them off DMing/GMing and world building? (As opposed to playing, which they already do).

Of course I'm gonna take them out to a game store and see which games strike their fancy. But I'm also interested in the opinions of others of what is a good game or games to start them off running and designing and creating their own games, adventures, scenarios, campaigns, and worlds.

If your kid were DMing and world creating then what would be a good game for them to start with?
I'll consider all comers.

 

[Raven Crowking]

My 19-year-old son and my 10-year-old daughter play; my 3-year-old daughter is too young, but is interested. I handle it by running games for the older two.

For a starter-GMing game, you can't go wrong with Labyrinth Lord. IMHO. YMMV.


RC

 

[crash_beedo]

Does anybody have any recommendations on what version of D&D or it's imitators, or even other types of games, I might use to start them off DMing/GMing and world building? (As opposed to playing, which they already do).

The 1980 basic rules (Moldvay edition) and Labyrinth Lord would be my recommendation for starting a new GM. My own son (8) spends a lot of time looking through the 4E Monster Manuals and their glossy pictures, but he's not interested in 4E (the character sheets are a bit much..>)

I do run a kids game in addition to a 4E adult game; the kids game has my son (8), two friends (both 9) and their dads. We run it 2 hours before regular game night so only one night a week is getting knocked out by RPGs (dictates of She Who Must Be Obeyed). The kids game is Moldvay B/X.

Incidentally, my son and I started playing the old Dungeon board game quite a bit earlier - easily something to do with a 5-6 year old - and he'd been sneaking up to peek in on the adult games for years.

 

[Garmorn]

Does anybody have any recommendations on what version of D&D or it's imitators, or even other types of games, I might use to start them off DMing/GMing and world building? (As opposed to playing, which they already do).

Of course I'm gonna take them out to a game store and see which games strike their fancy. But I'm also interested in the opinions of others of what is a good game or games to start them off running and designing and creating their own games, adventures, scenarios, campaigns, and worlds.

If your kid were DMing and world creating then what would be a good game for them to start with?
I'll consider all comers.

For kids I would say either an older style (1/2e type) or 4e. Both are easier to learn and play then 3.x. World creation is simpler with both. While 4e is has a tighter requirement it has far better tools in the DDI that make it simple. The old style is far more forgiving and easier to modify to fit as needed. Something like GRUPS is differently not good. To much number crunching at the start for kids (teenagers might like it, it varies.).

 

[tvknight415]

My daughter likes taking the minis, turning them all around and checking them out with a fine tooth comb, and then insists on putting them someplace other than where Dad had them. She also thinks it's funny to pat the palm of her hand down on spear tips or anything else pointy. And she happily takes any D&D book she can get her hands on and sits on the couch and reads it for at least five minutes before moving on to something else.

Of course, she's not quite two yet......

 

[grodog]

Does anybody have any recommendations on what version of D&D or it's imitators, or even other types of games, I might use to start them off DMing/GMing and world building? (As opposed to playing, which they already do).

We've got a "juniors" group that will begin exploring Joe Bloch's "Castle of the Mad Archmage" soon, and we're running Swords & Wizardry for the game.

My son Ethan is almost 6, and he loves to paint minis and would like to play too (we'll be joining the "juniors" group sometime later in the spring/early summer, after my work and conventions schedule slows down a bit). Henry is nearly 2, and he likes playing with dice (he has his own large d6s, but I haven't picked up the full set of over-large polyhedrals yet).

I think when I get around to DMing them together, we'll likely play some stripped-down form of AD&D/OSRIC (since that's my preferred system), but I may give OD&D/S&W a whirl too.

Incidentally, my son and I started playing the old Dungeon board game quite a bit earlier - easily something to do with a 5-6 year old - and he'd been sneaking up to peek in on the adult games for years.

We play Dungeon pretty regularly, and Ethan proudly trots out his monster nomenclature from there with some regularity -- "Dad, Smaug's worse than fighting Green Slime in Dungeon!"

 

[CharlesRyan]

My 6-year-old daughter loves fantasy and storytelling. She's aware of the "grownup" games her parents play with their friends, and vaguely aware of the format and nature of those games.

She can read, do basic math, and keep her attention focused long enough to play Kids of Carcassonne for two hours. Her story and movie comprehension are highly developed. All these skills are almost honed enough to play a "real" RPG. Because she's made the leap into them so quickly, I've pretty much decided to skip the stage of making up a "kids" RPG and go straight into the real thing (albeit stripped down), probably within the next year. I'm confident she will dig it.

My son is 4 and has a very vivid imagination. The limiting factor for him will be attention span, but I think that will be quickly overcome when he parses what RPGs offer. That's probably 3 years away, though.

Once he's on board, we'll have a family of four gamers--enough to keep a campaign going without relying on the whims of others' schedules! (Not actually a complaint about my current groups--we all know how it is.) With any luck, we'll have a window of five or six years before the kids' social lives begin to interfere.

It's strange to me--I cut my teeth in an era when RPGs were distinctly counter-cultural. My parents didn't mind, and even vaguely understood, but would never in a million years have played with us. I don't know what it's going to be like, sharing an activity like this across familial generations. But I'm looking forward to giving it a shot!

 

[Kat_Dawg33]

We play 4th edition as a family when we can, which isn't as often as my children like. My 15 year old daughter is the oldest and she has a great time playing her Eladrin Wizard. My oldest son, 14, is a gamer most like me (he likes fantasy based strategy games). He plays a Dragonborn fighter. My 12 year old son doesn't really play any other games that don't say "video", but he does like to play his Elf Ranger. My 10 year old doesn't have the patience/attention span to play much, but he does stay near while we play and will poke his head in to roll the dice from time to time. He loves the minis though!!! The 14 and 12 year olds have sat in during my once a week game when we've been short. We're all friends in the group and very casual, so we help the boys along. My wife plays too!!!

We've been playing for a little over a year now. I run an NPC (that my 10 year old can run with my help during his brief visits), and since the rest of the family isn't exactly experienced as games, I use the NPC to voice ideas, but only when they are frustrated, stuck, or lost.

 

[buddhafrog]

I started playing with my eight year old a couple months ago (and some 12 year old friends).

I really didn't know what to play, what might be too dark, confusing, etc. I ended up going straight for 4e b/c D&D was basically the only rpg that I knew -- and I wanted to play D&D. I was hoping that by learning the most widely played game, they might be able to find more gamers they could eventually play with if they chose.

We definitely house rule quite a bit, and I found myself giving them advice (albeit less and less) about strategy and knowledge of the fantasy/medieval world, but really, I'm quite surprised how quickly they picked it up.

My only advice is don't try too hard to dumb-it-down for them. They probably will have a little better grasp on it than you might expect -- and the parts that they don't get probably won't bother them much as it might bother you. They'll be too busy having fun with the aspects they do understand. We just leveled up the 2nd level, and boy, did they knew how to get every advantage from that level-up!