Young Gamers

[Treebore]

IT is the kid and not necessarily the age. Plus it is also the maturity and ability of the "adults" at the table. Treat them like any other player, give them a shot, try to work out the problems, and if it works it works. If not, no real difference from when "older/adult" players don't work out.

 

[viscounteric]

Last monday I taugtht my godkids, ages 10 and 6 how to play D&D. The oldest had been bugging me to learn just before I moved away, and since I was in town on business, I thought I'd surprise him...

So two young boys and their dad rolled up characters after dinner... (forgot the 6 year old was, in fact 6 years old ... and a little behind in school. After some extra basic math homework [adding 3d6], I think I'm going to heaven )

Figured I'd just run the castle out of the Mentzer boxed set. Of course that's the one book I forgot, but hey, I've read it only a couple of million times!

Upon reaching the 'very very tall wall' surrounding the castle, the 6year old delcares "I'm gonna run up and jump over the wall..." (Somebody still watches Dragonball Z... ). Despite the little guy's botched attempts at things as Eric the Cleric, he seemed to have fun. The 10 year old's 'hobbit'
tried to play hero multiple times, valiantly distracting the kobold guards while the elf (dad) moved in to cast sleep.

The castle turns out to be two rooms with Bargle inside the 2nd one... Magic Missle takes out the elf. The 'hobbit' (10yr old) heroically goes toe-to-toe with the magic-user. The cleric? He does what all brave adventurers do... slowly tip-toe backwards out of the room, and high-tail it back to town.

Despite the deadly outcome everyone had a blast (the last time the dad played was August 1996.. at my house). I gave the 10 yr old the new D&D Basic set, and life is beautiful.

My only advice is just a repeat of prior poster's: Keep it simple, with the action quick and heavy, and give the kid some choices you'd expect your players to normally do. When he starts picking up on stuff like that, show no mercy. Ten years from now, when his regaling his first adventure with some friends, he'll thank you.

 

[Zephyrus]

He gets mad because I won't let them play evil characters, but I'm the dad, so he has to suck it up and get on with it... lol.

This is one point that worries me the most. Younger players seem to have this attraction like moths to the flame with playing evil characters and it can be frustrating at times. I've been mostly fortunate to play with players that dont go crazy wanting to be evil and usually chaotic neutral at worst.

Recently I played in a couple of games with some younger kids (a friend was DMing, so I finally got to play but it was a gaming store that had alot of kids go their. many between 12 and 14). Almost right off the bat we start having immaturity issues and characters barly restraining themselves from backstabbing each other with several bordering on being evil. the GM had set it up to be Non-Evil characters only because we dont like inter-party fighting and such. After 2 sessions I quite and I Think the game fell appart cause after the 3rd session my friend said he had threaten to stop DMing because of how immature they were being.

Yeah I know their young but their are problems their already without playing D&D to add to them. I'm not one of those people that harp on D&D as bad. But its kids like these that let things get out of hand and give fuel for the vocal anti-d&d groups. I wasent gonna be a party to it which was why I quit. Hopefully without someone to DM for them they'll find some other way to ammuse themselves.

Younger kids can be fun but its tricky I Think. they need to be smart enough to understand how to play and mature enough to not to use it as an excuse to be disrespectful and irresonsible. I Think gaming parents teaching gaming kids is alright though cause its an enviroment that will hopefully provide the nessisary checks and balences to make these gaming kids a joy to play with. On the other hand the youths I had to endure from what I hear, several were from homes where they had to 'hide' the fact they were playing from their parents, who would prolly have refused to let them play if they knew. I dont think youths like these should play any RPG's (D&D or otherwise) as it only fuels their seemingly disrespect for others, expecially authority figures like their parents.

At least with Kids with Gamer parents, as I mentioned before, the parents can help guide the kids into being more responsible in their play. If I have kids I'll prolly be mindful their introduction into gaming. feeding them a little at a time perhaps to insure they can handle it. Besides also, kids that age have enough games where they can play make believe that they dont need table top RPG's to have fun and be creative.

I hope I dont get alot of flak for all i've said, but bad young gamers can realy suck the fun out of playing.

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

I have the opportunity to include a young person (9 yr old boy) in my gaming group and I have natural reservations. He's a very bright, interested, engaging kid with very little annoying features and is not the son of any of the players.

The first step is making sure that the rest of your gaming group is interested in having this kid play with them. If anyone isn't too hot on the idea, you should probably shelve it.

The second step is, once you've decided you'd like to have him join you, to invite his parents along for a session. At 9 years old, he probably shouldn't be going over to someone else's house to do anything that his parents don't know about and understand. Have his folks come over and watch you play something fun and not especially controversial, so they know what their son will be getting involved in.

And above all else, let his parents make the final call as to whether he'll be allowed to join the group. It's their job.


...personally, if I were the father of a 9-year-old, I think I'd be really twitchy about the idea of sending him off to game with people ten to twenty years older than him (or more) unless I knew all the people involved personally and absolutely believed that it would be a safe and fun environment for him.

--
and as a player, i'm not sure i'd want to take on the responsibility of providing that environment
ryan

 

[Terwox]

Your first said you thought he had some very annoying habits...
I'd be prone to say no just based on that.
However, those habits might bother you less as time goes on.
Who knows?
But yeah... I've DM'd for my younger cousins.. they're very enthusiastic, it's quite fun.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

One of the people in my group has a daughter, 12, who games with us. She's a great gamer, when she speaks up.

My oldest daughter, 9, is interested in playing. She's a rules wizard, but on the actual role-playing side, she's only so-so. Gotta work with her on that.

My youngest daughter, 2 1/2, *loves* dragons (she wanted to be one for Halloween. We got her a winged unicorn costume, but she *insisted* it's a dragon) and flipping through my Monster Manual. She'll ask me "what's that" and I'll tell her. It's really funny trying to hear a 2 year old try to pronounce "doppleganger."

 

[reanjr]

pedophilia-phobia, to coin a term

May I suggest pedophiliphobia. It rolls off the tongue better.

 

[Bronath]

I've just started to teach my 9 year old brother how to play D&D and I've been constantly amazed on how well he's grasped the concepts. A child's mind at that age is an incredible thing, limited only by the breadth of their massive imaginations. So far he's been nothing but a pleasure to game with; however I've had to make a few changes in my style. Obviously I've toned down the mature content I used to have in my game (no Book of Vile Darkness stuff here). Further I've endeavored to keep moral ambiguity at a low point: good and evil are painted with broad strokes in this game. I've found that no matter how intelligent or mature the child may seem, such subjects are still a bit beyond them.

 

[Silver Moon]

I've run a few games with my kids (ages 6, 9 and 11). I've told my oldest that next year I will run a group for her and some of her friends. One of the players in my gaming group runs a game regularly for his 13 year old daughter and her friends.

However, I don't think a youngster at the table would work with our regular gaming group. We sometimes touch upon adult themes and some of the players will occassionaly use profanity or make some off-color remarks and I'm glad they are comfortable doing so. I think we'd feel a bit constrained having a young one at the table on a regular basis. (One player even objects when I clean up the language for the ENWorld Story Hour.)

 

[Wycen]

Uh, I meant to post that in another thread, but to be on topic for this one. We have a couple with a preteen son. He started playing occasionally around 9 or 10. At first he was a pain, but not unmanagable. He's older and still more interested in treasure and killing stuff, but not so much of an attention hog.