Start Teaching ‘em Young

At what point do you start teaching your kids how to game? It’s a question that I found myself pondering while reading a blog post by NewbieDM. In the post he discussed how he was teaching his four year old how to game.  She had been watching her father play for some time and wanted to play to.  So the ever thoughtful father and game master he whipped up a simple game to give her the rpg experience.

The system is simple; you choose a role, sword, magic, bow and arrow, and attack thusly by rolling opposed d12s.  Whoever rolls higher won and hurts the enemy.  Two hurts and you’re knocked out. Roll some dice, hurt some bad guys, and get some treasure.  It was quintessential dungeon delving. The rules are simple, the game is straight forward but it’s deeper then Candy Land.

What I marvel at with this game is simple rules Newbie crafts to confine the make believe the children are partaking in.  As adults we need rules, we’re hard wired to have them.  Games were the most fun when you were a child when you didn’t have rules bogging down the fun of the game.  Remember the game of hot lava? Where the ground was this molten hot lava that you couldn’t step in or you’d be burned?  The game itself was an excuse to climb all over things and engage in physical play, but had to be one of the funniest games ever.  Unless of course you were coming in late, then you likely didn’t have a way to get to the safe zone.  With no way to the island of safety how did you play with the other kids?  The brilliance of this game is that Newbie takes a rule based game, like D&D, and distills it down into something young kids can play.  Essentially he is building a bridge over the lava to engage the kids in a game of make believe.

The simplicity of the game is part of the attraction to me, much like how Savage Worlds attracts me as a game designer.  It’s a simple method to tell the story and share in the action.  This is why it surprised me slightly when people were suggesting that Newbie make it more complicated by adding in a skills system. Why complicate the matter further by making more rules to remember and further bog down play? While I do agree with the logic and thought behind it I say keep it simple, when they want something more from the game they will let you know.

So what did Newbie miss? Would you put something else in the game? Or remove something?

  • http://twitter.com/JoeGun JoeGun

    My three year old saw us playing some Savage Worlds and asked to play “dice” as he refers to it. I happily agreed sat him on my lap and gave him a char. But like Newbie I just asked him what he wanted to do, and then I worked out what he had to roll from the char sheet….so to my son, it was very simple, however he loved it! So right now we play ever couple days, just as an excuse to roll some dice. We got him his own set. He already is adding up the dice, and knows when and when not to roll his “wild die” which is great to hear your son say “You forgot your wild die daddy”….brings a tear to my eye. So as far as anything missing, no way, as long as the kids are having fun and you are having fun with them, who cares what/how difficult the rule system is…enjoy it!

  • jonathanjacobs

    Tyson – you might be interested in a post over at TCM about Feary Tales RPG. It's actually designed for playing with kids – and my son (age 5, about to be 6) and I have been playing a few weeks now and he loves it. It's a bit like Mouse Gaurd 'lite' that can be played for younger kids. The key is to remember that kids love the story first, and don't generally “get into” the number crunching until they are a bit older.

    Here's the link to the post I'm refering to:
    http://www.thecoremechanic.com/2009/12/faerys-tale-rpg-you-can-play-with-your.html

    personally.. IMHO D&D is a bit too dark for a 5/6 year old to play; too much emphasis on fighting and not enough on just story development and problem solving. Two things that Faery Tales handles very well Nonetheless, I'll probably introduce my son to D&D later on if he takes to RPGs at all (so far so good).

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  • kmpervm

    My god daughter grew up watching the adults play D&D as her father was our DM. In a fuzzy purple pencil case I gave her super sized purple dice for her third birthday. She recognized them immediately, screaming out in glee “DICE! Quick, paper, pencil!!!!” She then proceeded to sit at her father's feet drawing pictures of monsters and bunnies; she would roll two dice one of them always a D20 and look at her father who would calculate the number for her, (a true gamer, her first roll resulted in the D20 landing under the couch) the number he gave her determined weather she drew more monsters or more bunnies, the battle was determined when the page was full depending on who took up the page.

    Laurel K. Hamilton's husband posted once on her blog, that Laurels daughter had taken a great interested in his playing War Hammer (I believe). When asked if she could play he placed a learning level stipulation on her (this was a few years ago, I don't remember if it was a mastering a math level or being able to read the rule book, but something like that) , but promised to ultimately teach her the game. That evening he couldn't help but take personal pride that with no guidance from him the battle of the care bars vs. the barbie dolls had taken over her bedroom.

    Children already work in fantasy terms, the more rules we place upon them the more growing up they'll do. When it comes to fantasy, let them be children.

  • kmpervm

    My god daughter grew up watching the adults play D&D as her father was our DM. In a fuzzy purple pencil case I gave her super sized purple dice for her third birthday. She recognized them immediately, screaming out in glee “DICE! Quick, paper, pencil!!!!” She then proceeded to sit at her father's feet drawing pictures of monsters and bunnies; she would roll two dice one of them always a D20 and look at her father who would calculate the number for her, (a true gamer, her first roll resulted in the D20 landing under the couch) the number he gave her determined weather she drew more monsters or more bunnies, the battle was determined when the page was full depending on who took up the page.

    Laurel K. Hamilton's husband posted once on her blog, that Laurels daughter had taken a great interested in his playing War Hammer (I believe). When asked if she could play he placed a learning level stipulation on her (this was a few years ago, I don't remember if it was a mastering a math level or being able to read the rule book, but something like that) , but promised to ultimately teach her the game. That evening he couldn't help but take personal pride that with no guidance from him the battle of the care bars vs. the barbie dolls had taken over her bedroom.

    Children already work in fantasy terms, the more rules we place upon them the more growing up they'll do. When it comes to fantasy, let them be children.