I know there are more than a few parents on this noard so I want you guy's opinions. My son just tunred 7 back in December and has started to really show an interest in D&D. He really loves to look through the monster manual. The inner geek father in me wants to start him on it ASAP, but I'm not sure that's wise. How yong have other people started their kids playing D&D? What are some tips or points if I do start him? If I do do it I was thinking of keeping it simple. Maybe an hour or so once a week and just running him solo through some simple stuff. It might also be a good opportunity to help him with his math skills and reading. Am I getting exciting too soon?
That's great! Like you said, get started with some simple stuff and get him excited to play. As mentioned, D&D can be a great learning tool. I don't think any age is "too young"--you just have to keep the game a little more rated G at that age, but I think you're right to get excited and get him into it.
My 3 year old already has his own set of dice, so I'm eagerly awaiting the day he can start playing.
What does D&D help with?
Math? Yes
Reading? For sure
Comprehension? Yep
Geography? Map-making--cool
Problem solving skills? Perfect
Organizational skills? Yes
Decision making? Yes
Deductive reasoning? Absolutely
I'm sure I'm missing some, but all in all, D&D is a great facilitator and motivator to pick up all sorts of skills at an early age.
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Oh yes! I can't wait showing my (yet unborn) child how to play D&D... I am sure this will be great!
A friend of mine started his son with a little sheet containing a fighter pic, some stats and a weapon.
He didn'T bother to show him how combat works, just told him to roll a d20 to check if he hit, and a d8 to check for damage.
Simplicity is the way to go, I am sure!
- Tom (sourrounded by tons of snow in Luxemburg and unabale to drive home...)
I am an uncle of 3 at the age of 18. One of my nephews, The oldest nephew, likes when I play D&D with my friends. He took an interest in it when he was becoming a fantasy nerd at his early age. I was looking at a book and now he wants me to play it with him. I believe if I do this, I will not have to play games that bore me to death and he might actually learn math better. It is also good to be with him and let him develop an imagination. I actually will teach him some D&D when he gets maybe a couple years older.
haha the legacy will continue
I would say 7 is about right to start him out. Of course, I wouldn't just drop him into a regular campaign with a bunch of 25 year olds. A small group of kids around his age would be my prefered method if introduction. You could be the coolest dad in the neighborhood! (or maybe have a prayer chain formed around your house by anti-gamer crusaders)
I have a bit of a skewed perspective, as I started at age 6!
That said, I would ease him into it, introducing the rules slowly.
My brother introduced his youngest (who was about 10 at the time) in a game that only included family members - his other two children, myself, and my husband.
You might want to start with a game that is more storytelling and less rules based - Changeling from Whitewolf (which uses the Vampire rules set) would fit the bill, and has the advantage that childlike wonder is a part of the game at the outset... though the setting is out of print, I'm sure you could find a reasonably priced copy on ebay.
Gamers breeding gamers is cool.
Age 7 is grade one, and for math, they're mostly doing adding and subtracting with small integers. Playing around with d20s and trying to hit or exceed DCs would be great math practice. Figuring out attack rolls, adding BAB to the d20, checking how high a skill needs to be to hit that DC would be fun. Introducing the concept of negative numbers will put the kid ahead of the school curve, but I wouldn't push it too hard.
Looking at the books is a great way to practice reading.
All of those difficult monster names are fun to sound out.
Also, you can teach a bit of real world history by pointing out what items, weapons, etc. were really used and which are just make-believe.
Role-playing and acting as a character in what-if and moral scenarios is great life skill stuff that's as useful for a 7 year old as anyone. Being able to put yourself in someone else's shoes is a skill I wish more people had.
I like Koldoon's idea in theory, as I like White Wolf's Changeling, though there's a fair amount of "innocence lost" and nostalgia for childhood simplcity and wonder in the game setting that an actual kid might not get. The second edition of Changeling is vastly superior to the first, IMHO.
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My brother (who also games) and his wife are expecting their first son, William Gabriel, in May. By that time I'll already have purchased a set of giant plush dice and (if they have it in a small enough size) a Church of Banjo (Orthodox) t-shirt. He'll probably also already have his own set of core-rule books.
I would say 8-10 is a good age. I wouldn't do any huge, overarching campaign plots, as in my experience, many kids don't have the attention span for something like this. Keep any adventures you have open-ended and easily concludable (reachable and clearly defined goals). Play to their strengths, but get them to work on any weak areas. All the skills F2K mentioned are great examples to try to work in, either consciously or unconsciously.
Having co-DM'ed an after-school group, trying to get five pre-teen boys to work together is a group is an interesting experience! (I'm a big proponent of using RPGs as a learning tool!)
I say as soon as there's an interest for it. I learned all by myself around the age of seven or eight, DMing a small group of friends (who were a year or two younger than me). I could only dream of having an adult on hand and actually showing me how things worked.
Ultradan
I was plaing D&D with my niece and nephews at 5 yrs old. You involve math skills, risk assessment, decision making, communication and basic social skills. You involve story telling and play aacting with the best roleplayers around. Little children are always roleplaying, just watch.
As far as running the game it takes a lot of coaching. I used a pre maid map and had them take turns placing doors, treasure, and monsters through out the map. They would choose a starting point and we would play. Once they understand attack roles and save throws and watch how excited everyone gets when a 20 pops up on a die role or gasps when a 1 rolls up.
I'd say 7-10 is developmentally about where they can handle a basic game of D&D, with some prompting from the DM and/or older, more experienced players. Those raised on video games may need a bit of re-education to grapple with complex role-playing situations that call for diplomacy, and you have to keep in mind that they might need coaching to learn battlefield tactics. (Talking with them after a combat about what they could have done differently is a good idea). Handling a party with widely differing age groups can be a bit challenging, as they tend to have different approaches to the game that are difficult to balance.
That said, it's sometimes really fun just to run a parent-child campaign, even if it involves one on one play. I've got a five-year old homebrew campaign I've been running with my son whenever he visits--we started when he was 10, he runs one or two characters and I run enough DMPCs to fill out the party. We do lots of roleplaying and have had some long hiatuses, so his main character is only 7th level, but we've both had a lot of fun with it, and it has been kind of a bonding experience--a sort of collective storytelling act. I have watched his creativity blossom as the campaign has developed, and I've had much enjoyment thinking out the storyline and campaign setting as the campaign develops.
Little children are always roleplaying, just watch.
No doubt. I have a 5 year-old daughter who is able to carry on a conversation with a stuffed animal.
She loves hanging around the game table, and little by little, she's become more involved. Last game, the druid's animal companion failed a save v. confusion and ended up attacking the druid. My daughter was there, so she rolled all the attacks and damage.
She watches us at the table and imitates what she sees. At first it was rolling dice. Then it was rolling dice and saying "missed... darn it!" Then she was rolling dice and reading the numbers off them. Then she was rolling dice and writing the numbers down on a piece of paper. (She still doesn't have a good grasp on adding, but I see her working up to it.) Then she was moving the miniatures around. Then she was choosing two miniatures to fight each other. Then she was rolling dice and moving minatures as well.
I figure sometime this year she'll want to sit down and play some D&D together. We already spend time "play acting," so she understands how to pretend to be someone else...a waitress, a police woman, "the Daddy" (she'll put on my BDU hat and tell me what to do, because she's the Daddy!), and all sorts of things. I think she'll really like playing D&D.
I know there are more than a few parents on this noard so I want you guy's opinions. My son just tunred 7 back in December and has started to really show an interest in D&D. He really loves to look through the monster manual. The inner geek father in me wants to start him on it ASAP, but I'm not sure that's wise. How yong have other people started their kids playing D&D? What are some tips or points if I do start him? If I do do it I was thinking of keeping it simple. Maybe an hour or so once a week and just running him solo through some simple stuff. It might also be a good opportunity to help him with his math skills and reading. Am I getting exciting too soon?
My son is 7 and my daughter is 6. I decided that this was the year to start teaching them how to play. After we have a few fun gaming sessions I want to incorperate learning tools into the game for them, things they might be struggling with in school or just learning. Like having to spell a word out loud to get past the magically locked door, writng out a spell to cast it and such. I started at seven and have been going strong since then. I say not only go for it, but I think we can use this as a tool to help our children perform in school. I hope they become more excited to learn because they will need that knowledge "in the game". And we'll slay a bunch of goblins along the way of course.
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Well as a parent, I used D&D as a teaching tool for my daughter whos is now 14. She started to show interest when she was about 6 or so. I modified the rules a little so that to find out if she hit the monster she had to spell out one of her spelling words for the week. We would write them down and roll a dice to see which one she had to spell. We also worked on the basic math with regular dice rolls. We also when she started to play the claranet made a Bard together and she would ply for her spells(great way to get her to practice)When she was older we looked at world history and led our armys to victory together. D&D as stated is great for improving imagination and decision making. She is now playing at the big table with the rest of our weekly group and enjoying it each week. In parting the best advise I would give is keep it short keep it fun for both of you and enjoy the major quality time that you will spend with your child playing D&D.
I think it matters on the maturity level, which will vary from child to child. The are two big things to look for, in my opinion. The first is attention span. When our niece and nephew started asking to play at 10 and 8 respectively, we gave it a shot but laid some ground rules. One of them was being able to stay focused on the game. The 8 year old decided on his own that he would rather be playing video games, which was cool.
The second thing to look for is how thick the grasp is on reality vs. fantasy. We thought things with my husband’s niece were going great… until she started telling my mother about the time her Uncle beat her down with a stick. (He was DMing… Kobold with clubs attacked her character). Problem was, she wasn’t using any words or phrases that would clue the listener in to it being a game, and she was talking like it actually had happened. After a few more incidents like this with various other adults (all of whom knew we were gamers, thank god, or CPS could have been paying us a visit!) we decided she wasn’t quite ready.
My daughter is 7 (second grade) and she excels at adding several numbers together and reading. I thought, that's all you really need to know to play. We've run small games where she can swap characters out to try new abilies, even mid-dungeon. I've run her and my nephews through a dungeon over Christmas allowing the cleric to have unlimited healing -- so the flow and excitement is maintained. I didn't want them bogged down with resource management.
Once I taught them about flanking and AoOs, they started to excel at combat. The D&D Box set is perfect. It has maps, figs, pretty character sheets and simple adventure. They had a blast and we spent too much time having fun.
Even with adult new players, we run an open advice table offering suggestions and advice. the monsters don't play to full capacity and only use very basic rules. Once everyone (kids or adults) get the hang of the mechanics, then you can explore tripping, aid another, bull rush, etc.
Earlier this year, my daughter wanted to DM me through a dungeon and did a great job until she got tired. She understood the consequences of my bungled pick locks, placed monsters and decided their reaction to my actions. It was great to see.
To introduce younger kids, I play with my regular group and allow my younger kids to play with minis on their own mat (on the floor). They play like normal kids but see adults doing the same. It reenforces their abilities to pretend and how to behave in social settings. (Heck, i've brought all my kids to full conventions without worry.)
D&D is great for team building, planning, tactics, reading, math and storytelling. I highly recommend it for kids of any age. It's a family game without dumbing down.
Well, I just bought my 3 year old her first set of dice; large ones, to give on her first birthday, she likes visiting the games but hasnt shown any interest so she is too young; I really dont expect anyone to understand that a story has a begining, middle and end with parts like character introduction; plot introduction; introduce the villian; the meeting and finale until they are at least 5 or 6 years old. Granted with very basic plots kinda like Powerpuff Girl episodes. hehe having her own set of dice might keep her out of mine, though
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My son and daughter are 7 and 6, respectively, and have shown a great interest in D&D -- I think it's great, since it encourages math and reading!
I bought the Basic Box Set for them Xmas 2004, which really plays like a toned down D&D/Miniatures game. They liked kicking down the doors best ... I didn't dumb down the game at all, and while rollng a character took 2 hours, it taught them the choices for making a character. However, we've only run a kids game once or twice.
Most recently, my 7 year old has developed the habit of coming behind me when I'm running a game with my friends on Thursdays, studying my DM's notes, and asking fairly perceptive questions like "why does Bruce get to play more than one character?" (Leadership), or "how do you decide on who gets what out of the treasure?". I'd say he's getting close to being able to play.
I know there are more than a few parents on this noard so I want you guy's opinions. My son just tunred 7 back in December and has started to really show an interest in D&D. He really loves to look through the monster manual. The inner geek father in me wants to start him on it ASAP, but I'm not sure that's wise. How yong have other people started their kids playing D&D? What are some tips or points if I do start him? If I do do it I was thinking of keeping it simple. Maybe an hour or so once a week and just running him solo through some simple stuff. It might also be a good opportunity to help him with his math skills and reading. Am I getting exciting too soon?
My Dad introduced me to Keep on The Borderland when I was 7 and that was about the time I beat Diablo and Heroes of Might/Magic but, then I wanted to DM for a change. It was awful but gave me a good grip on the rules. 2.0 rules... At 10 we started to play again so we went to a convention. Dad hadnt been in the overall "gaming world" since then, so he didnt know what 3.0 was. At round con (a con. he ran once) we found a nice friend of his. We had to miss the first session making characters (we thought it was all premade) and skimming the rules but we got the hang of it. 1 YEAR LATER. We had introduced my little bro to the game and I DMed the new 3.0 in a somewhat decent adventure! So, I spread it to school. These deprived children had never heard of it and would pass around the MM looking at the monsters. My recess game group became the most cool exclusive club ever but when the bad rep of D and D caught up with the school, only a few of us were left from the glory days. (I think its nonsense, Im a strong Christian and in honors). Now we have a happy little group 2 years later of an 8 year old 39 year old 13 year old and a bunch of 12 year olds playing 3.5, doin conventions, AoTW and that kinda stuff.
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Game on, Onrie.
My daughter is turning 3 this week and already shows a huge interest in my figures and dice and the Hirst Arts dungeons I have. She plays more with my figs and dungeon pieces than with any of her other toys. I wait anxiously for the day I can run a game for her. My son turns 1 in a month. There's 2 players. My DM has 2 kids of about the same age. It's gonna be magic when the 4 kids can play with me and my DM alternating the DM duties. Life is good.
FH
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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My Dad introduced me to Keep on The Borderland when I was 7 and that was about the time I beat Diablo and Heroes of Might/Magic but, then I wanted to DM for a change. It was awful but gave me a good grip on the rules. 2.0 rules... At 10 we started to play again so we went to a convention. Dad hadnt been in the overall "gaming world" since then, so he didnt know what 3.0 was. At round con (a con. he ran once) we found a nice friend of his. We had to miss the first session making characters (we thought it was all premade) and skimming the rules but we got the hang of it. 1 YEAR LATER. We had introduced my little bro to the game and I DMed the new 3.0 in a somewhat decent adventure! So, I spread it to school. These deprived children had never heard of it and would pass around the MM looking at the monsters. My recess game group became the most cool exclusive club ever but when the bad rep of D and D caught up with the school, only a few of us were left from the glory days. (I think its nonsense, Im a strong Christian and in honors). Now we have a happy little group 2 years later of an 8 year old 39 year old 13 year old and a bunch of 12 year olds playing 3.5, doin conventions, AoTW and that kinda stuff.
Doh! And here we had a big debate about whether or not the bad rep of D&D even still exists. Sigh. Oh well, glad to hear they didn't get you Onrie!
(Looks like you're not as paranoid as your CIA report says you are F2K...)
I have two kids (6 and 4).
I'd say 7 is really pushing it, 10 is better. Most of the parents here didn't have to learn 3/e; the complexity is significantly higher than past versions.
Strict adherence to all the rules is certainly not that big a deal, but I still think it's a lot for a young child.
Regards,
Jack
One thing to remember when doing a group with younger kids is to have a group with kids about the same age. The 12 year old is going to get really really frustrated with the 7 year old that just wants to keep every monster as a "pet"... and the 7 year old is not going to nessarily understand the concept that anyone, even the pretty looking lady, could be a bad guy.
My personal suggestion, making simplified versions of the game for kids is great, but until the children in question can sit down for 20 minutes at a time and read for themselves, the game is going to be very confusing.
Go for it! I know D&D helped my reading skills as I looked at the Suggested Reading chart and read every friggin book on it. It helped my vocabulary as I didn't know half of the terms in the books and at one point had my English teacher giving me bad grades because she didn't know the alternate definition of 'familiar'. I started playing at 9. I think if your son is showing an interest it would be a great thing to play with him.
Perhaps pick up the Basic game, or seriously restrict the choices so he doesn't get overwhelmed with things. Maybe give him a pregenerated character.
I am considering writing modules aimed a children, and some of the things I want to put in them are things they are learning in school. Granted I don't KNOW what kids learn in school these days, but I think it would be a great boon to parents, to the kids and to the school systems to have a learning tool that kids WANTED to use.
"DAD! Can we do my homework now? D&D Style?? Can we?? PLEASE!"
You might want to start with a game that is more storytelling and less rules based - Changeling from Whitewolf (which uses the Vampire rules set) would fit the bill, and has the advantage that childlike wonder is a part of the game at the outset... though the setting is out of print, I'm sure you could find a reasonably priced copy on ebay.
Love the game, but it is my firm belief that it is the darkest of the World of Darkness games.
Love the game, but it is my firm belief that it is the darkest of the World of Darkness games.
You might want to start with a game that is more storytelling and less rules based - Changeling from Whitewolf (which uses the Vampire rules set) would fit the bill, and has the advantage that childlike wonder is a part of the game at the outset... though the setting is out of print, I'm sure you could find a reasonably priced copy on ebay.
I sorta agree, but only if you really emphasis the loss aspect of the game. For my money Wraith is the darkest of the dark with everything (Vampire, Mage, Werewolf and Changeling) else running a close second. I would say that Changeling is the most whistful game in the World of Darkness line up.
As for when is too young: intro-uteral - it's really tough to roll the dice and almost as hard to read them.
GGG
As for when is too young: intro-uteral - it's really tough to roll the dice and almost as hard to read them.
GGG
Studies show that babies at birth recongize their mothers voice and often father's voice and turn toward it. Also science shows that before birth vision starts to form, so bright lights can be seen. So if one used a flashlight on the belly and moved it around to draw the map on her tummy and made sure to talk near her, and of course have the baby kick back in morse code... Still would have to have someone else roll the dice though.
Of course this would argue that it would have the be the late second or third trimester...
*grins*
Well thanks everyone for your comments. You all had some really helpful advice. I think now I'm going to approach him and try to really gauge what his interest level is.
Thanks again
My 3 year old already has his own set of dice, so I'm eagerly awaiting the day he can start playing.
My 3 year old also has a set of dice. They were being messed around with so much that I assigned a set to her. Now she knows she can play with her dice but she must not touch Dad's.
Now if only I can get my Wife and players to follow suit.
They are my dice, I don't want anyone else rolling MY DICE and they just don not get that.
Mind you they think I'm mad for microwaving a really bad rolling D20 one day.
I lined up all my other dice on the kitchen counter and made them watch, while giving them a quite unforgiving sermon about rolling low.
Needless to say I've not had any of the remaining dice roll nearly so bad after that.
I would consider the minimum requirement to get in play was ability to read, so typically that is around seven years.
I think it probably would be best to run the game on small group with one to three players and concentrate more on storytelling than actual numbercrunching and game mechanics (that phase can wait until, say, 10 years).
Love the game, but it is my firm belief that it is the darkest of the World of Darkness games.
You might want to start with a game that is more storytelling and less rules based - Changeling from Whitewolf (which uses the Vampire rules set) would fit the bill, and has the advantage that childlike wonder is a part of the game at the outset... though the setting is out of print, I'm sure you could find a reasonably priced copy on ebay.
I'd say Changeling is the most melancholic of the WoD games. If one chooses to play it as such. The best Vampire campaign I have been in featured a group of weirdo characters who all for some reason or another rather enjoyed being a vampire and the campaign was rather free of angst and monstrosity most people associate with Vampire...
Plus thing about Changeling is that it has younger characters than most other games...
I would stay away from Wraith or Call of Cthulhu though.