Gaming with Kids

[Chris Miller]

I have a 12 year old and an 8 year old, both of whom have asked me to teach them to game. I've given up with the idea of teachign them D&D...too many rules. I'm considering Savage Worlds as a good alternatives.

Does anyone have any experience with this?  How did you approach it?

[MarkR]

Well to be honest Chris, any set of rules no matter how complicated or simple will be fine. As they have no experience with any rules set it would be kinda like learning a language in my mind. Which ever system you choose will be hardwired into their brain as THE system and other systems will be either easy or hard.

DND has a lot of rules true but all RPGs have a  fair bit of them and its really the preference you have as a teacher. I learned DnD but I love Bounty Head Bebop's I-20 system which has just as much crunch but IMHO is a very rules quick system. Savage worlds has a lot of good in it as well and would be an excellent choice to learn gaming in.

[roninkelt]

IME the gamemaster is more important than the rule system.  Teach the rules as they come up.  The only one that they need to know up front is the resolution mechanic (in d20 it is d20+modifiers vs DC,  Burning Wheel is Successes vs Obstacle, etc).  This puts a larger burden on the GM to keep track of all the modifiers and make it transparent to the kids, so I recommend some sort of dry erase board for the back of the gm screen to keep track. 

Most important is to make the game fun,  kids want to hack and slash,or be the hero, not have deep gritty roleplaying.  Think Aesop's Fables or Grimms Fairy Tales.  Also, cut out the irrelevant - if it doesn't move the story forward get rid of it.  Think speed and engagement.

[Kris Johnson]

I have a 12 year old and an 8 year old, both of whom have asked me to teach them to game. I've given up with the idea of teachign them D&D...too many rules. I'm considering Savage Worlds as a good alternatives.

Does anyone have any experience with this?  How did you approach it?

"This is a d20. See? It has 20 sides. Now, take it in your hand. Feel the weight. Feels good, doesn't it? Excellent. Now...roll for initiative."

[SamChupp]

I have a podcast called Dragonkin and a kids-rpg mailing list That might help you out. http://samchupp.com/kids-rpg.html and http://dragonkin.bearsgrove.com

Dragonkin is meant for kids to listen to.

My favorite kids' RPG *in theory* is The Princes (Princess) Kingdom, which is essentially Dogs in the Vineyard remade for kids. I haven't actually played with actual kids yet.

I think that D&D 4E would be excellent for kids, from what I've seen of it.

With my kids, we started with D&D 2nd edition, but that was losing them. Then when 3rd edition came out, a lot of things were much easier. But for the most part, I just handled all the difficult questions for them and interpreted what they wanted to do with the rules.

I'm excited hearing about this and I'd love to hear what happens

[Chris Miller]

Thanks, everyone.

I'm having my gaming group over tonight, and I expect the kids will want to see what is going on. That might be the best way to start.

I think I'm going to be using Savage Worlds to do something for them...nice and easy.

[The Bearded Goose]

Dude. Your kids are smarter than you. Seriously.

I experienced this a bit this weekend. I had the opportunity to pull out some games for my 12 year old son. Now, we're talking board games, but we're talking Descent, World of Warcraft (the board game), etc. Games that are pretty darn detail oriented when it comes to rules.

Now, I'd set up, pull out the rules, and read them out loud both for my benefit and for him. Normally, at a game night, I wouldn't do this. But I've found that when he hears the rules, he REMEMBERS them better than I do, after just once through. Holy crap! There were a couple times he'd recite a rule back to me that I didn't even remember reading, and I'd be floored.

So, yeah, don't worry about the rule set. Just find what works for YOU, and one you can remember, otherwise you'll feel like an idiot when your kids recite back to you things you said but forgot. And my opinion, if they wanna try D&D, do D&D 4e. It is so freakin' simple compared to passed editions.

And dude, you're older than me, so it's gotta be worse, right.

[Chris Miller]

And dude, you're older than me, so it's gotta be worse, right.

I'm SO smiting you when I get back.