Cracking open the Beginner Box for a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old

[Charlie Brooks]

So my son saw me printing out some stuff for a session of Pathfinder and wanted in on it. Prior to the adult game, I broke out the Beginner Box and let my kids have at it. We didn't use character sheets and greatly simplified the rules (basically, everybody did 1d8 damage, and a 10 or higher on 1d20 was enough to succeed at just about anything most of the time).

I knew the Beginner Box was a great product, but I didn't really expect that it would be able to hold the attention of a 2- and 4-year-old for more than an hour. My son played a good zombie, and my daughter played a princess (grabbing the elf wizard figure because it looked the most princess-y). We ran through the entire first adventure, and my son even got creative and decided to make friends with some of the monsters instead of fighting them.

This blog entry goes into a bit more detail on the session. Has anybody else tried the Beginner Box with very young children? If so, how did it go?

[Castux]

Pretty cool story! I'm getting ready to GM my first game, and even though the players are adults, I've no idea how receptive they will be to the sheer amount of rules (even in the beginner box). I'm preparing to handwave a hole lot of rules in order to make the the game smoother.

If it worked for 2 and 4 years old, I'm quite optimistic :)

[DM Smiles]

Amazing

[Misroi]

I'm always impressed when I hear of a child (usually no more than 6) deciding to talk to monsters and try to resolve the conflict with words. There are gamers ten times your son's age who haven't even considered that option.

[Kara Kramer-Rapp]

We have yet to receive the beginners box as it is backordered, but have enjoyed some of the free downloads to go along with the Core Rules Book. We played with my two boys age 10 (ADHD) and 14 (Autism) and they both really enjoyed it. It kept their attention, and encouraged communication and social skills. I will defiantly be playing this more with them!

I will be "hiring" a GM to come visit my cub scout den this summer as part of our new adventure on games. I can't wait to see their reaction at the longer meeting where they play instead of doing projects.

[C.Scott Franklin]

Awesome to hear. My two boys (13 and 9 now) started playing at 11 and 7. They both LOVE it. My 13 year old is trying his hand at GM now. Pathfinder is one of the only things I have found that will keep my 9 year old engaged and playing for hours. We all played for about 5 hours last weekend and he never lost interest. He also loves reading the bestiaries. From a parents perspective it is very cool when they come to you begging to play Pathfinder (or start asking to play in the middle of the week for the weekend ahead)rather than wanting to play video games all the time.

[GM 1990]

C.Scott Franklin wrote:

Awesome to hear. My two boys (13 and 9 now) started playing at 11 and 7. They both LOVE it. My 13 year old is trying his hand at GM now. Pathfinder is one of the only things I have found that will keep my 9 year old engaged and playing for hours. We all played for about 5 hours last weekend and he never lost interest. He also loves reading the bestiaries. From a parents perspective it is very cool when they come to you begging to play Pathfinder (or start asking to play in the middle of the week for the weekend ahead)rather than wanting to play video games all the time.

Similar to our house. I run a game for 12, 10, 8, and wife; my 12 year old runs one that I get to play in. We alternate weeks, and "if" we can squeeze in an early supper, we'll do about 90min session on a Wed or Thursday evening, and then a long session on Sunday.

Just ran the 2d one-shot for my niece and nephews over Easter weekend, and it reminded me of college days. We started Friday night almost as soon as I unloaded the van, were told to "shut it down" around 10:30pm, woke up and started before breakfast, burned most of Saturday other than dying eggs and a quick snowball fight outside, and finally had to just "story-tell" how it ended over breakfast Sunday morning.

My 6 and 4 year old are chomping at the bit to do more than just toss the random d20 for orcs or my wolf companion.

[darth_borehd]

Check out Playground Adventures for adventures geared specifically for young children.

[Dagdamar]

I am so glad to have read this thread I picked up the boxed set today and I am looking forward to playing with my 7 year old son. So far we have played Battletech boxed set and he loved it so this will be fun as I have heard nothing but good things about the boxed set.

[Theliah Strongarm]

I've been running an adventure for my younger brother and sister, and whenever I mention Pathfinder, they run to my room and fight over who gets to be the "Spell-girl". (Aka Cleric.)

[CannibalKitten]

This makes me incredibly excited for my son to get a few years older, he's barely a year but I'm sure with me and his mothers interest in high fantasy and me prodding him, gently, I can even get her to join in! Great story the fact that they are so young gives me hope that I won't have to wait as long as i was thinking to start! With my adult Sunday night game every week I'm sure he will be interested.