Gaming with kids
Here are some things I've learned from (RPG) gaming with kids (and their parents) over the last few weeks. Some of this is obvious and some is stuff I'd forgotten about. We're doing D&D 4e, the Essentials books in particular. The Essentials books help streamline the game quite a bit; somebody says "I want to be Gandalf" and we get a fair amount of the way to done. eta: I mean that the Essentials books streamline character creation, and to some extent they help the kids get around decision paralysis problems.
* Rolling the dice is, in and of itself, fun. Picking up that d20 means you're in the spotlight and you've made a decision and you're going to have some effect on the gameworld, dangit. For a few seconds, at least, the entire game is all about you.
* A great result is awesome! We tend to be a little jaded as adults, but my younger son will emit a triumphant YES on a 20, or when he takes out a badguy.
* Dying sucks a lot. Dying is scary. Some kids have higher thresholds for risk than others. One boy who has played with us for just one session so far had to be coaxed into doing anything other than watching, and was very reluctant to move his character anywhere near danger.
* Keeping the routine straight isn't easy. We are old and we've sublimated this stuff. Roll d20 to hit, add modifiers, remember bonus effects, hope the GM has forgotten penalty effects, grab damage dice, note side effects, etc. By the end of one boy's second session, I would tell him to roll to hit and he knew he had to roll a d20, but I still had to lead him to add his to-hit bonus, and then to roll damage and so on. They're all smart kids but it really is a lot to keep straight.
* Rolling the dice is, in and of itself, fun. Picking up that d20 means you're in the spotlight and you've made a decision and you're going to have some effect on the gameworld, dangit. For a few seconds, at least, the entire game is all about you.
* A great result is awesome! We tend to be a little jaded as adults, but my younger son will emit a triumphant YES on a 20, or when he takes out a badguy.
* Dying sucks a lot. Dying is scary. Some kids have higher thresholds for risk than others. One boy who has played with us for just one session so far had to be coaxed into doing anything other than watching, and was very reluctant to move his character anywhere near danger.
* Keeping the routine straight isn't easy. We are old and we've sublimated this stuff. Roll d20 to hit, add modifiers, remember bonus effects, hope the GM has forgotten penalty effects, grab damage dice, note side effects, etc. By the end of one boy's second session, I would tell him to roll to hit and he knew he had to roll a d20, but I still had to lead him to add his to-hit bonus, and then to roll damage and so on. They're all smart kids but it really is a lot to keep straight.