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1 year ago ::
Mar 20, 2012 - 2:46PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Jul 22, 2008
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Dan Repperger from Fear the Boot shares comments made by Ryan Dancey on the topic of introducing kids to gaming. This is a really informative bit of commentary. www.feartheboot.com/ftb/index.php/archiv...
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1 year ago ::
Mar 20, 2012 - 2:58PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Oct 12, 2009
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"Death is a big scarey thing". That's so important, clearly. I like the way he approaches it, re: falling down or going unconcious. I think unless you're a child psychologist, it's too hard to tell a juniors reaction to death in a game.
Tangent; I showed Oliver "Finding Nemo", thinking it'd be perfect for a 2.5yo; except the scene with the sharks really scared him, to the point I had to turn it off. +1 Learning for Dad.
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1 year ago ::
Mar 20, 2012 - 6:12PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Jul 22, 2008
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Yeah, I agree.
I love that someone in the gaming industry is not only thinking about these issues but actually spending time doing serious observational work.
Ryan Dancey is a pretty smart guy. I have seen him talk on a number of different topics and even when I don't want to hear what he had to say I can trust he is speaking from a well informed position. Much to my amusement he usually ends up being right when I disagree with him, hehe.
My kids have been gaming with me for a while but this piece has me thinking about some of my approaches. I will be running a big game of D&D next week (to kick off their spring break) and I will be incorporating some ideas I found there.
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1 year ago ::
Mar 20, 2012 - 6:13PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Oct 12, 2009
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How are you going to handle death?
And, how are you going to handle death of monsters they 'kill'? That's a whole other topic right there.
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1 year ago ::
Mar 20, 2012 - 6:23PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Jul 22, 2008
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When it comes to PC death I have never allowed it to happen. Their characters are knocked unconscious. We have never dealt with a "TPK" situation but I have a prepared scenario in case it ever does. They will wake up, captured by the villains and they will tackle a skill challenge to free themselves and recover their gear.
As for monster death I don't think I have ever said they killed the monsters but I have said something like, "The monster goes down." However, I can't say for sure that is what I did because I never really thought about it. So I plan to throw different keywords at them and see how they react to each.
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1 year ago ::
Mar 20, 2012 - 6:50PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Oct 12, 2009
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How old are your kids again? If you could do some psycho-analysis on their reactions as vs. your keywords for us, that would be quite invaluable for future reference!
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1 year ago ::
Mar 21, 2012 - 12:06PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Apr 12, 2004
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Its an interesting subject to debate. Ive never been concerned about killing my son's (or his friends characters) and yet my daughter who is much younger I probably would think at least twice before doing it.
We have recently played a lot of Thrilling Tales for Savage Worlds where the heroes never really die. They might get hospitalised but they dont die. This works really well for a kids game as they just let rip and really go for it.
For those of you with kids please check out the D&D Parents Group.
http://community.wizards.com/dndparents
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1 year ago ::
Mar 22, 2012 - 7:26AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jul 22, 2008
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My son is 12 and he joins me in organized play from time to time. So in his case we are well beyond this being an issue. I think two of his characters have died during a module there and he handled himself quite well. My daughters are 8 and 10 and that is where my concerns/interest lie.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 13, 2012 - 5:23PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Jan 23, 2012
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Very cool article.
When I was young I pciked up a book of Troll stories from the Library, whose title I can not remember. The author who usually told these stories out loud said the young kids usually reacted quite well to the stories. The world a child live in is already scarier that we as adults can imagine. Things we take for granted, missing a bus perhaps, are very scary. Will they get home? Will their parents be angry? What if some one grabs the? Stories, even scary Grim Fairy Tale ones, allow them to process the fear.
Or so the author indicated.
For my part, my game with the kids is just as bloody as the game with my 40 year old friends. The bigger issue is the kids are often more violent and need to be reigned in a bit. My eldest son accepted the surrender of a kobold with a hand shake, and then use shocking touch.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 13, 2012 - 9:57PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Apr 12, 2004
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Lol i have found exactly the same. When i run the game for the kids its often far more violent and even 'sadistic' in intent than the games i play with my adult group. The irony is my wife doesnt want my son (14) playing with my adult group yet as she feels he is not ready for the adult game !!!!!
For those of you with kids please check out the D&D Parents Group.
http://community.wizards.com/dndparents
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