Hi all,
Just picked up the base game today as an option to play on gaming night when our DM is too stressed from work to play that night.
But as I read the rules of the game, I realized my 9 year old would probably love to play this with me. It seems simple enough to understand and quick enough moving that he wouldn't get bored. Then I looked at the recommended age on the box and saw 13+.
My question is does anyone know why that is the recomended age? Is it complexity, subject matter, something else?
I remember parts of the RotRL AP dealing with mature subject matters when I played (although that may have been that's DMs take on this AP) but it looks like most of that kind of "fluff" has been stripped out of the card game, and we stopped playing the AP about 1/3 of the way in, so I don't know if it gets way more mature later...
I think he can handle the complexity of the game, so if that's the only reason, then I'll move forward with playing with him. However if it's the subject matter that gets over his head, then I'll probably have to look very closely before I introduce him to the game.
Any one who can enlighten me here?
I'm sure if he's playing with you it will be fine... but I think of age recommendations like this:
Would a small group of 9 year olds be able to sit down and play this? Probably not, too complex. Would a group of 13 year olds be better off? Maybe a bit. How about a group of 16-18 year olds? Ok, I might want to remove SHOPKEEPER'S DAUGHTER from the deck, if for nothing other than the card's protection. :)
Subject matter/flavor doesn't have to be brought up if you don't want it: Turns often are, flip the card, read it, do the check, acquire or defeat it... move on.
But, considering the amount of gaffes, overanalyzing, and misinterpreting "us old farts" have already done... maybe a young mind will pick it up and run with it better!
Have fun with it, and if you care to, let us know how your first few adventures go!
Motrax
Imagine the entire group of people being under 13 and trying to figure out the rules that the adults come here to hammer out ;)
We bring my 11 almost 12 year old boy through but we are 'blessed?' in the sense that he has aspergers and to say that he is a stickler for rules is an understatement. So his mind is like a steal trap when it comes to the letter of the rule.
But i am in my 30's and so is my lady and we have the patience to walk him through it. If we brought him in with my regular group they would quickly be frustrated with his questions about and demanding we stick to the exact rules.
Jake gets the game and could probably lead a group of his friends at it at almost 12 years old, but at 9 or 10? probably not. He could follow along with us at 9 or 10 but you have to think of the recommended age being for an entire group, a group of 9 year olds would probably have a hard time with all of the rules without parental supervision, not to mention attention span.
Also, recommended is just that, nothing stops you from bringing your kid along for the adventure :D
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Thanks guys, that is what I suspected was the case... As I'm not hearing any content warnings, I plan on offering to play the game with my kids.
As for complexity... I had no concerns with that. Honestly I think we may not be giving our kids enough credit. Thinking back at 10 I was slogging through the Gygaxian text of AD&D trying to figure out the game. Ya we got some things very wrong, but we had a blast doing it..... I suspect a group of 10 year olds playing this game may do the same.
Thanks again.
There's a combination of cards that's adult themed:
Shop-keeper's daughter (barrier) followed by Large Chest (barrier).
I promise you it will make any 13 year old boy (and probably most older than that) snicker a fair amount.
Yeah, while parts of the actual Adventure Path are a bit mature, the murder scenes in the Skinsaw Murders and the Ogre-kin in the Hook Mountain Massacre come to mind, the card game largely glosses over those bits.
Unless you intentionally introduce them back in yourself there isn't much in the card game that I would consider inappropriate. Provided you think they can understand enough of the mechanics it should be ok.
It might entirely be due to Mammy's card art...
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I don't think its the cards at all. Its more legal. If you market to under 12 you have to put a bunch of different legal crap into the game. even for books based games like Pathfinder where you don't have choke hazards, you have to do different legal stuff. If you just say 12/13+ you can avoid most of that crap.
I play w/ my wife and 2 oldest children (10 & 8) and they LOVE the game. As long as you are there to help work through the rules etc., I think you will be fine.
Have a blast!
-Andrew
I have also played with kids and had a blast. But I think none of us on the team wanted to be restricted by what we saw as a barrier to complexity and creative freedom that making it, say, 10+ would have suggested. So my advice is to play it with your kids if you think they can handle it, and wait a bit if you think they can't.
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My 7 year old has asked me to play multiple times. So tonight I told him he could stay up late and I'm going to set up Brigandoom! to play with him. I'm sure he won't get most of it, but I'm sure he'll also have fun playing with his dad.
Since I plan on keeping this game forever, I'm also looking forward to the day when he is a bit older and we can play together as equals on a team.
Chief Technical Officer
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Our games are complex enough that children really aren't our target audience, and putting that "13+" label on the box allows us to avoid dealing with certain additional factors that would come in to play if we were specifically marketing our products to children.
As far as mature content, you won't find too much that you wouldn't also find in a lot of young adult fantasy novels.