I'm just curious want to to know what age group meaning how young can someone be and still understand the concept of pathfinder well enough to play the game?
I know most games say 10+ would this be ideal or should I get older players.
It depends on the person. Some people will never want to play games like this, no matter the age, or want to but can't *get into* the mechanics and play-style of a table-top RPG.
I would agree with the 10+ generally, but it depends on what sort of game you want to run, too.
Middle school age would be right. just curious seen a video on youtube about a after school roleplaying club that i might like to try in my community.
heh any age where you've got plently of time to kill :)
I've played with kids as young as 7 at the now-defunct FLGS. This was kind of a special case -- the place was actually a maternity and baby-clothes store (run by a certified midwife), but she and her husband were also gamers. They would run games for the younger kids, and since the owner had delivered several of these children, the parents trusted them and it was certainly more fun for everyone than after-school daycare.
Now, this was a simplified game. Everyone was a dwarf, and they were exploring a lost dwarven city which had recently been rediscovered. The kids all played non-spellcasting classes (or at least, no spells at 1st level), and were accompanied by an NPC cleric. Older players would help out by taking a more complex class (bard, wizard, etc.) and playing support. Complex/adult themes were generally avoided, though later on there was an aboleth involved, and one of the kids learned the hard way that Paladins Don't Do That Or Else.
Starting simple like that, with a GM who's patient and knows how to teach without taking over, I think that anyone who understands basic arithmetic can probably pick up the core rules. Of course, that's just mechanics... content is another story entirely. If they'd need parental permission to see it in a movie, the same is true of the game. Don't throw a succubus at a 12-year-old! But there's plenty of material to work with that should be acceptable for any audience.
I've run several small adventures for my six year old. He has a good attention span for a six year old and likes math - so the dice rolling and adding modifiers is enjoyable to him. He has a decent grasp of the basic rules we don't get much into special attacks, AoOs and such just yet. He ran a human cleric in our most recent delve. He had a great time.
I'd say 15+, so that our chilren's backs aren't deformed by the sheer weight of the books ;)
I'd say 15+, so that our chilren's backs aren't deformed by the sheer weight of the books ;)
Sack that - every good GM needs a young kid as a book caddie - make em earn their coin! ;) Plus those deformed backs make them perfect goblin stand ins for atmospheric play!
I started playing at 11. The classmates that introduced me to it had already been playing for over a year.
Children under 10 may not have the patience for D&D. But the kids at my church started playing the yuh-gi-oh at about 8, so who knows.
I'd say 10+ is best. But, depending on the child, kids as young as 6 or 7 might get some enjoyment (more once they get older and understand the game better.)
As far as content goes, I don't think there's anything in the Core Rulebook or Bestiary that is unsuitable for 10 year olds. Although, I think that when most of us were 10 we did plenty our parents would have thought "unsuitable" and we turned out just fine. Well, most of us did, anyway. :P
10+ is a fine age :) I've also played with kids as young as 8. I worked in a youth club while I studied (and full time before that), so all in all I've been playing with kids these ages for about 10 years. I also used the gaming situation for use in pedagogical work, especially with a group of four kids over a bit more than a year. And as far as I could tell, it really worked :)
What I did the most was LARP with the kids though - larping is big in Denmark :) A few years back about 15% of all boys in the whole country had larped during the summer months (and I think it was 8% of the girls). And I don't think you can find a youth club today where there isn't LARP - and this also menas that there's alot of pen and paper going on in the youth clubs. LARPing is still big, but the trend has died down a bit again.
Of course the game I played with them wasn't Pathfinder. I started out with 2nd Edition AD&D, but moved on to my own homebrewed system, as the 2nd Edition rules were way too buggy. ...also it was all in english and seeing as I'm from Denmark, that made it even more difficult for them. But I the mechanics and concepts were pretty much the same (ok, my system is more "rules light").
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Did my first DnDing when I was 9 or 10, no problems although I didn't fully understand - and I was DM. Basically it was an amalgam of just playing pretend and using the actual rules. Also it was AD&D, which didn't make understanding it any easier.
Target age group I'd say is 16+, not for content reasons (although I wouldn't want to explain the ogre bestiary to most ten year old kids). Basically, developed conflict resolution skills are important, and beyond that it kind of just requires thinking the genre is cool. Not that conflict resolution skills are completely dependent on age, but the stereotyped "middle schooler" mentality doesn't mesh well with RPing in what I've seen.
Drillboss
I was introduced when I was about 15, I think before that it's just a different take on the whole thing. You can make an adventure that is fun for 15 and above, but it is hard to make an adventure that is fun for 8 and everyone above.
But it's okay if you have players, all of the same age category, then there is no age limit.
enjoy
In the Man Day Adventures We're Not In Arkansas Anymore! campaign, the players range in age from 13 to nearly 43. We skew more toward the higher end.
I've run 3.5 for a group of three kids ages 9-11 without problem.
Mark L. Chance | Spes Magna Games
Most people I know started in the 10-13 age range, so middle school. Game styles vary, but by that point you can easily find players who can grasp the rules and can pay attention enough for the game. You can find some children younger, since maturity levels vary greatly from child to child. Paizo, from what I understand, is trying to keep the core book line PG and their APs PG13. A couple things have slipped through, so you probably want to read through to make sure you are aware of what is in the books if you are dealing with young children. For instance, there is a sacred prostitution trait in the APG.
Edit: by this point, many people area also starting to read the stapples of the genre too. Its not uncommon for 5th graders to read the Hobbit, have read through all of Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia, or be starting on other fantasy novels.
As soon as my kids are old enough to roll dice, count to at least 30, can add two values, understands the concept of turns, and has a decent attention span, we'll be playing a very scaled down version of pathfinder (e.g. No feats, no skills, pre-gen fighters only, etc). I'm hoping by the time he is 4. Once he catches on, I'll slowly start adding additional rules/features. I already have his first couple of battles ready and the oldest is only 16 months old! And the second one is still on the way. :)
It's a bit complex for me.
I've generally maintained that D&D/PF is best for 12 and up, as it deals with pretty mature themes, is very violent and includes some questionable situational ethics (kill bad guys and take their stuff). That said, we are pretty conservative parents, and also are far more restrictive about what our kids watch on TV, do on the Internet, play in videogames than most. Lots of people I know have no problem with their 6 year old playing M-rated games on the Playstation.
I'm also a hypocrite, in that I let one of my daughters start playing when she was 10, because I thought she could handle it. It's a judgment call each parent needs to make for their own child.
A couple of other factors to be considered. Will the parent(s) be playing as well? Is it a mixed group of kids and adult, just kids or just adults? I think you can maybe go a bit younger if you are playing with your kids, since you are there to ensure themes aren't too mature, and to discuss things with them like why in a fantasy game it is OK to break into someone's dwelling, beat them to death and take their stuff, but that is generally frowned on in real life. There are also some adult gaming groups I've known that would neither welcome nor be appropriate for kids, given the adult themes they enjoyed exploring, the crude language they used, and the amount of alcohol they consumed.
My own personal experience is that I started playing back in the Stone Age when I was 13. I probably would have started younger if any of us had even heard of D&D before then. One of my friends had two younger sisters (11 and 9) who played. I remember them being immature and annoying, but I probably wasn't a lot better myself. We probably would have benefited from a bit of parental supervision, but nobody's parents were at all interested in playing, nor would we have wanted them to.
Later on, my girls started playing when they were 11 and 10, repsectively, but only in games I ran. They are currently the only kids in our group, and they do pretty well. Everybody else has been understanding in helping them play, and controlling their language and so forth when we play, at least until I shoe them off to bed. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine insisted that his six-year old son play, and I have to say I found him too young and not really enjoyable to play with.