House Rules for Parent DMs

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

I've been playing and DMing D&D for years, and I have a
couple of sons who are quite interested in playing. My
boys are 9 and 7, and have seen the LOTR movies.

I have been thinking about running a fun little campaign
for them. I'm thinking very basic stuff - kill the
orcs, solve some riddles, get some treasure. Just
start with fighters or barbarians... you know, something
easy.

I figure I would gloss over a lot of the more complicated
rules, and try to keep things very straight forward. No
shades of grey morality stuff... Bad guys are bad, good
guys are good.

For anyone who has done this, what worked well, and what
didn't? Did you have to set limits on how much time they
spent with the game?

What positive benefits did playing have on your child?

 

[willie]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

"decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1115691384.919294.75030@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>
> I've been playing and DMing D&D for years, and I have a
> couple of sons who are quite interested in playing. My
> boys are 9 and 7, and have seen the LOTR movies.

I just got mine involved, 10 and 7.

> I have been thinking about running a fun little campaign
> for them. I'm thinking very basic stuff - kill the
> orcs, solve some riddles, get some treasure. Just
> start with fighters or barbarians... you know, something
> easy.
>
> I figure I would gloss over a lot of the more complicated
> rules, and try to keep things very straight forward. No
> shades of grey morality stuff... Bad guys are bad, good
> guys are good.

I am starting them out as recruits in the King's standing army.
It gives me a chance to introduce the rules and concepts as
military training. Different fighting concepts such as grappling,
total defense, tripping, flanking and such is much easier to
explain if you run them through an example. Every time they
are running "weapon drills" the NPC they face uses the new
trick on them. It seems to stick with them if they have fallen
to the trick.

> For anyone who has done this, what worked well, and what
> didn't? Did you have to set limits on how much time they
> spent with the game?

They start out as either a Fighter or a Rogue. I am forcing them
to be human, but that is more for my storyline than anything else.
Time limits have been about 2 hours a session. It will grow when
they actually go on missions (adventures). The military/army theme
means I can actually have them perform seemingly unrelated missions
and they don't have to hold to any continuity. Their first big mission
will be a scout only mission. The two of them will be tasked to go
out and scout an Orc warband. They are to report numbers and
equipment. In truth, it is a unit from the King's army out on patrol.
But the characters don't know it! hehee

> What positive benefits did playing have on your child?
My youngest found it easier to read if he wasn't reading
from a book. Hehe little did he know, the words he read
from the "Players Handbook" were more difficult to read
than the ones from his "Little Bear" book. He got a real
good grasp of numbers from the game too. My oldest gets
an out for all the "junk running through his head" and gets
a chance to play-act. He's a real ham, but gets too scared
to act. But in game, he plays role.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Shawn Roske wrote:
> Willie wrote:
> > "decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net> wrote in message
> > news:1115691384.919294.75030@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> >>I've been playing and DMing D&D for years, and I have a
> >>couple of sons who are quite interested in playing. My
> >>boys are 9 and 7, and have seen the LOTR movies.
> >>I have been thinking about running a fun little campaign
> >>for them. Just
> >>start with fighters or barbarians... you know, something
> >>easy.
> >
> > I am starting them out as recruits in the King's standing army.
> > It gives me a chance to introduce the rules and concepts as
> > military training. Different fighting concepts such as grappling,
> > total defense, tripping, flanking and such is much easier to
> > explain if you run them through an example. Every time they
> > are running "weapon drills" the NPC they face uses the new
> > trick on them.

Shawn, that's brilliant! Consider it nabbed for future use.
Extra bonus, they can get XP for their training, so they could be
2nd/3rd level when they do go out - increases their likelihood of
survival quite a bit, and they can learn a bit about leveling up.

Being somewhat new to 3.0/3.5 myself and only getting to play once a
month or less, I'd been adding new foes with special fortes each
session, to introduce myself and players to special attacks (last time,
it was some undead - don't recall the name offhand- that had does a
grapple attack, before that, the elite goblin guard was equipped with
halberds and did trip attacks, etc)

> >>For anyone who has done this, what worked well, and what
> >>didn't? Did you have to set limits on how much time they
> >>spent with the game?
> >
> > They start out as either a Fighter or a Rogue.
> > Time limits have been about 2 hours a session.

Sounds good; though Paladin, Barbarian, and Ranger aren't horribly
complex concepts many kids. 2 hours is about right. One mission I set
for a two player group that had no clerics was to escort two low level
clerics who were setting up a church in a small town. You can do a lot
with this basic adventure; introduce NPCs, recurring villians, etc. and
between two clerics, you have adequate healing.

> There is a caution. In general, gaming culture is not very healthy.
> There is a large amount of negativity, very poor self-images and
> self-esteem, and bad social habits rampant in gaming culture. We
would
> not want to pass on these worst to our kids, only the best. We want
> them to be ten times our better.

Yes! And spend lots of time doing other father/son activities, provide
them with caveats as to becoming too attached to a character, too
immersed in a game, how poorly some gamers behave, etc.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Willie wrote:
> "decalod85" <decalod85@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:1115691384.919294.75030@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>
>>I've been playing and DMing D&D for years, and I have a
>>couple of sons who are quite interested in playing. My
>>boys are 9 and 7, and have seen the LOTR movies.
>
>
> I just got mine involved, 10 and 7.
>
>
>>I have been thinking about running a fun little campaign
>>for them. I'm thinking very basic stuff - kill the
>>orcs, solve some riddles, get some treasure. Just
>>start with fighters or barbarians... you know, something
>>easy.
>>
>>I figure I would gloss over a lot of the more complicated
>>rules, and try to keep things very straight forward. No
>>shades of grey morality stuff... Bad guys are bad, good
>>guys are good.
>
>
> I am starting them out as recruits in the King's standing army.
> It gives me a chance to introduce the rules and concepts as
> military training. Different fighting concepts such as grappling,
> total defense, tripping, flanking and such is much easier to
> explain if you run them through an example. Every time they
> are running "weapon drills" the NPC they face uses the new
> trick on them. It seems to stick with them if they have fallen
> to the trick.
>
>
>>For anyone who has done this, what worked well, and what
>>didn't? Did you have to set limits on how much time they
>>spent with the game?
>
>
> They start out as either a Fighter or a Rogue. I am forcing them
> to be human, but that is more for my storyline than anything else.
> Time limits have been about 2 hours a session. It will grow when
> they actually go on missions (adventures). The military/army theme
> means I can actually have them perform seemingly unrelated missions
> and they don't have to hold to any continuity. Their first big mission
> will be a scout only mission. The two of them will be tasked to go
> out and scout an Orc warband. They are to report numbers and
> equipment. In truth, it is a unit from the King's army out on patrol.
> But the characters don't know it! hehee
>
>
>>What positive benefits did playing have on your child?
>
> My youngest found it easier to read if he wasn't reading
> from a book. Hehe little did he know, the words he read
> from the "Players Handbook" were more difficult to read
> than the ones from his "Little Bear" book. He got a real
> good grasp of numbers from the game too. My oldest gets
> an out for all the "junk running through his head" and gets
> a chance to play-act. He's a real ham, but gets too scared
> to act. But in game, he plays role.
>
>

I think it is great both of you are playing with your kids. RPGs have
the potential for tremendous positive impact on children. I think
especially for boys, since we men need technical means to get at all
aspects of ourself, like rituals, rites of passage, and so on. Women
have these things more naturally-- not to take the conversion away from
parenting. There is a difference between the sexes, leave it at that.

So, there is a potential to explore any theme imaginable, any questions
the kids might have about themselves and the universe. More, think
about how they'll be able to remember gaming with their dads and all the
cool adventures and challenges overcome, the structures of RPGs allow
for intense and safe discovery of many things.

There is a caution. In general, gaming culture is not very healthy.
There is a large amount of negativity, very poor self-images and
self-esteem, and bad social habits rampant in gaming culture. We would
not want to pass on these worst to our kids, only the best. We want
them to be ten times our better.

I look forward to gaming with my son in a year or two, he's 7 and I
think too young for most of the violent themes. He's still a disney
kind of guy at this point, talking animals and happy things. He's
curious about the complexities of life, but I would not introduce him to
orcs until he's ready.

I sat in with some kids at a friend's house, and some of the older boys
rented Underworld. Youngest of the group was 8, and though he's quite a
mature 8 year old, he had trouble understanding who were the good guys
and who were the bad guys. He didn't seem harmed by the violence of the
movie, he's experienced worse in his video games to be sure. He
understood that there does not exist vampires and werewolves. Though he
did ask me a couple times about the possbility. I reassured him that
concretely there are no such creatures. (Although my ex-wife has proved
to me that vampires do exist.)

Jean Piaget's levels of cognitive growth seem applicable here. As
children, we interpret and experience the world very concretely. We
need adults around to help us understand what is going on, to pre-digest
the things we don't and feed it to us in palatable ways. Even horrible
things like war and poverty can be explained to children in ways they
can understand. Even a movie like Underworld can be consumed by young
folk if helped to get to the central themes of betrayal and how truth
can be twisted by bigotry and hate (what Underworld was all about).

RPGs have this potential, but without adult guidance of some kind the
kids are left to explore on their own. Its fine for them to play, but
if adults are available to help. We are obliged to do so are we not?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Shawn Roske wrote:
<snip>
> There is a caution. In general, gaming culture is not very healthy.
> There is a large amount of negativity, very poor self-images and
> self-esteem, and bad social habits rampant in gaming culture. We would
> not want to pass on these worst to our kids, only the best. We want
> them to be ten times our better.

Wow, we have very different experiences. Granted, I've met gamers with
no social skills, no self-esteem, etc, but not any more frequently than
I've met non-gamers with the same afflictions. With one exception (a
group we didn't stay with long) all of our gamers are people from whom
our son could learn many things. They're an awesome bunch.

The only universal gamer trait I've ever noticed is creativity.

> I look forward to gaming with my son in a year or two, he's 7 and I
> think too young for most of the violent themes. He's still a disney
> kind of guy at this point, talking animals and happy things. He's
> curious about the complexities of life, but I would not introduce him to
> orcs until he's ready.
<snip>

Who says that the game has to be combat-oriented? Why not run a game of
political intrigue, or a mystery "whodunit" type of campaign? Some
interesting non-violent campaign ideas off the top of my head are:

A "Romeo and Juliet" type of scenario, where the PC(s) is/are the
friends and confidants of both parties, sneaking back and forth between
two kingdoms delivering secret messages to the seperated lovers.

A detective story: Someone stole a dwarven Book of Grudges. The dwarves
assume it was the humans in the next settlement who were upset about the
dwarves moving their trade route farther from the settlement (which
isn't good for the humans' economy). The humans are clueless, and don't
even know what a dwarven Book of Grudges is. In order to avert a war,
the PC(s) must figure out who really stole the book and prove it. (It
was probably either a young theif trying to prove himself to the
thieves' guild he wished to join, or a Dwarf with a grudge against the
humans who wished to frame them for the theft.)

A classic quest: The flora and fauna of <insert forest here> are
suffering from a devastating magical disease. The disease also effects
the druids of the forest, leaving them unable to seak out a cure
themselves. The PC(s) must seek out the cure (or figure out what it is
and then find it) and return before the druids and their forest are dead.

Some political intrigue: The PCs are hired on as messengers or guards to
an envoy from <insert home nation here> to <insert some exotic foriegn
culture here>. Unfortunately, when the party presents itself before the
foreign court, the host nation sees some facet of the PCs, perhaps a
mode of dress differing from the rest of the delegation or something
like that, and assumes that one or all of the PCs is/are the leadership
of the diplomatic envoy, refusing to speak to anyone else. The PCs must
now navigate perilous political terrain and manage to secure a trade
agreement with <exotic culture> without offending anyone, offering too
many concessions by their home nation, or inadvertantly starting a war.
Oh, and did I mention that a member of the PCs' party will be doling
out bad advice in the hope of seeing the PCs fail? Either the
malefactor doesn't want the trade agreement to go through because he/she
is xenophobic, or has financial interest in keeping it from happening,
or he/she feels slighted by the PCs elevated role in this endeavor.

Susan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

decalod85 wrote:
<snip>
>
> For anyone who has done this, what worked well, and what
> didn't? Did you have to set limits on how much time they
> spent with the game?

My son is a little young to play D&D (he's 2) but he does like to roll
dice for Mommy and Daddy, and we're working on identifying the numbers.

That said, I've run several RPGs for all-kid groups, and one far adults
with one small child in the mix.

For integrating a small (in this case 4yo) child into a grown-up D&D
game, an idea a friend of mine had worked extremely well: let the kid
play someone's familiar. This gives the kid a speaking character with a
well-defined role in the party, but with less game mechanics to worry
about.

For running an all-kid game, I really like Willie's idea for using
militia training to introduce combat mechanics, I'll have to try that.
I can also tell you that linking plot lines to stories kids are
familiar with is a great way to keep them interested. For example when
running a White Wolf Mage (sanitized) campaign for some kids I babysat
in college, I had a self-proclaimed Goblin King (former technocracy who
did some creature experimentation and got a big ego) steal one of the
PC's ward (baby brother) and had them run through a magical maze to get
him back. Then we watched the movie Labrynth, and they got a real kick
out of seeing some of the characters they'd encountered come to life.

> What positive benefits did playing have on your child?

Tabletop RPGs, when done right, encourage:

....reading
....math skills
....language skills
....taking turns
....recognizing cause and effect relationships
....social skills
....goal-setting
....acting
....creativity
....critical thinking (problem solving)
....and a little psychology.

Also, it provides an easy, safe venue to talk about all sorts of things.

Have fun!

Susan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Shawn Roske wrote:
> (Although my ex-wife has proved to me that vampires do exist.)

.... or at least really big two legged leeches?

MadKaugh

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

illecebra wrote:
> Shawn Roske wrote:
> <snip>
>
>>There is a caution. In general, gaming culture is not very healthy.
>>There is a large amount of negativity, very poor self-images and
>>self-esteem, and bad social habits rampant in gaming culture. We would
>>not want to pass on these worst to our kids, only the best. We want
>>them to be ten times our better.
>
>
> Wow, we have very different experiences. Granted, I've met gamers with
> no social skills, no self-esteem, etc, but not any more frequently than
> I've met non-gamers with the same afflictions. With one exception (a
> group we didn't stay with long) all of our gamers are people from whom
> our son could learn many things. They're an awesome bunch.


I agree that there are admirable gamers in the world. Perhaps my
experience is one that: the lights in the darkness are that much
brighter for the darkness is deep.


> The only universal gamer trait I've ever noticed is creativity.

Agreed.

>>I look forward to gaming with my son in a year or two, he's 7 and I
>>think too young for most of the violent themes. He's still a disney
>>kind of guy at this point, talking animals and happy things. He's
>>curious about the complexities of life, but I would not introduce him to
>>orcs until he's ready.
>
> <snip>
>
> Who says that the game has to be combat-oriented? Why not run a game of
> political intrigue, or a mystery "whodunit" type of campaign? Some
> interesting non-violent campaign ideas off the top of my head are:

Below are some great ideas. I am glad you contributed to this thead.
Your use of RPGs with children is precisely how I see its most positive
applications.




>
> A "Romeo and Juliet" type of scenario, where the PC(s) is/are the
> friends and confidants of both parties, sneaking back and forth between
> two kingdoms delivering secret messages to the seperated lovers.
>
> A detective story: Someone stole a dwarven Book of Grudges. The dwarves
> assume it was the humans in the next settlement who were upset about the
> dwarves moving their trade route farther from the settlement (which
> isn't good for the humans' economy). The humans are clueless, and don't
> even know what a dwarven Book of Grudges is. In order to avert a war,
> the PC(s) must figure out who really stole the book and prove it. (It
> was probably either a young theif trying to prove himself to the
> thieves' guild he wished to join, or a Dwarf with a grudge against the
> humans who wished to frame them for the theft.)
>
> A classic quest: The flora and fauna of <insert forest here> are
> suffering from a devastating magical disease. The disease also effects
> the druids of the forest, leaving them unable to seak out a cure
> themselves. The PC(s) must seek out the cure (or figure out what it is
> and then find it) and return before the druids and their forest are dead.
>
> Some political intrigue: The PCs are hired on as messengers or guards to
> an envoy from <insert home nation here> to <insert some exotic foriegn
> culture here>. Unfortunately, when the party presents itself before the
> foreign court, the host nation sees some facet of the PCs, perhaps a
> mode of dress differing from the rest of the delegation or something
> like that, and assumes that one or all of the PCs is/are the leadership
> of the diplomatic envoy, refusing to speak to anyone else. The PCs must
> now navigate perilous political terrain and manage to secure a trade
> agreement with <exotic culture> without offending anyone, offering too
> many concessions by their home nation, or inadvertantly starting a war.
> Oh, and did I mention that a member of the PCs' party will be doling
> out bad advice in the hope of seeing the PCs fail? Either the
> malefactor doesn't want the trade agreement to go through because he/she
> is xenophobic, or has financial interest in keeping it from happening,
> or he/she feels slighted by the PCs elevated role in this endeavor.
>
> Susan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Shawn Roske wrote:
<snip>
> Below are some great ideas. I am glad you contributed to this thead.
> Your use of RPGs with children is precisely how I see its most positive
> applications.
<snip>

Thanks, Shawn

Susan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

illecebra <vyyrproenROT13@yahoo.com> wrote:
>My son is a little young to play D&D (he's 2) but he does like to roll
>dice for Mommy and Daddy, and we're working on identifying the numbers.

Completely off the subject, but when I was about 2 or 3, my parents were
playing mah-jongg, and I was just fresh from learning to read some Chinese
characters (especially ones on mah-jongg tiles).

"Daddy! You have two /center/s," I announced in Chinese.

My dad's opponents were appreciative of the tip...


Donald

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Shawn Roske wrote:
>
> There is a caution. In general, gaming culture is not very healthy.
> There is a large amount of negativity, very poor self-images and
> self-esteem, and bad social habits rampant in gaming culture. We
would
> not want to pass on these worst to our kids, only the best. We want
> them to be ten times our better.

I tend to attribute a lot of those sorts of problems to
obsessiveness over one thing, and the complete disregard
for the rest of life.

Gaming culture (in America at least) is just a microcosm
of our society as a whole. You can find plenty of obsessed
baseball fans if you look. People don't understand that the
whole "if some is good, more is better" philosphy is a road
to ruin...

My kids are very well rounded, with multiple sports, music,
school, friends. They go with me to the gun club, and with
their mother to charity walk-a-thons and church.

I'm not worried about them becoming obsessed with D&D, I'm
worried about finding time in their schedule to play a game.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

In article <Zamge.30066$B82.776757@news20.bellglobal.com>,
Shawn Roske <shawn_roske@sympatico.ca> wrote:

> There is a caution. In general, gaming culture is not very healthy.
> There is a large amount of negativity, very poor self-images and
> self-esteem, and bad social habits rampant in gaming culture. We would
> not want to pass on these worst to our kids, only the best. We want
> them to be ten times our better.

I can't speak about the Canadian roleplaying scene, but while there are
some sad specimens in the Aussie scene by and large most of the gamers
I've met have been decent people. I suspect any activity that has
minimal entry requirements is going to attract some of the people you
are thinking of. Stick to golf if you only want to meet "successful"
people.

> I look forward to gaming with my son in a year or two, he's 7 and I
> think too young for most of the violent themes. He's still a disney
> kind of guy at this point, talking animals and happy things. He's
> curious about the complexities of life, but I would not introduce him to
> orcs until he's ready.

Kids vary. I enjoyed having The Lord of the Rings read to me when I was
around five or six, and I was reading things like The Moon of Gomrath
and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I was seven or eight. As
best I can recall, anyway. At that age a mortal sword fight with a wolf
or a goblin seemed pretty damn cool to me. As long as the good guy won.


I think it was G.K. Chesterton who said that the importance of fairy
tales was not that it introduced children to the monster under the bed,
because children all instinctively fear the monster under the bed
without being told stories. Fairy tales are for introducing the idea
that the monster under the bed can be killed.

> Jean Piaget's levels of cognitive growth seem applicable here. As
> children, we interpret and experience the world very concretely. We
> need adults around to help us understand what is going on, to pre-digest
> the things we don't and feed it to us in palatable ways. Even horrible
> things like war and poverty can be explained to children in ways they
> can understand. Even a movie like Underworld can be consumed by young
> folk if helped to get to the central themes of betrayal and how truth
> can be twisted by bigotry and hate (what Underworld was all about).

Piaget aside, I'm not convinced it's actually bad for kids to find out
about things like death, war, poverty, injustice and so on and get upset
about it. Being upset isn't the end of the world.

> RPGs have this potential, but without adult guidance of some kind the
> kids are left to explore on their own. Its fine for them to play, but
> if adults are available to help. We are obliged to do so are we not?

You might find that when you aren't there to Disneyfy the game, they're
hitting ogres in the groin with a +5 greatsword and taking their stuff.

That's what I was doing around that age. Using stuffed toys as
miniatures.

Kevin Lowe,
Tasmania.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

On Wed, 11 May 2005 07:40:05 -0400, Shawn Roske wrote:

> I look forward to gaming with my son in a year or two, he's 7 and I
> think too young for most of the violent themes. He's still a disney
> kind of guy at this point, talking animals and happy things. He's
> curious about the complexities of life, but I would not introduce him to
> orcs until he's ready.

If you have a Disney kid who likes talking animals: Run a game based on
Rescue Rangers, Gummy Bears or Tale Spin. No serious violence, you get
knocked out, shot down, or captured.

--
Phoenix

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Rick Pikul wrote:
> On Wed, 11 May 2005 07:40:05 -0400, Shawn Roske wrote:
>
>
>>I look forward to gaming with my son in a year or two, he's 7 and I
>>think too young for most of the violent themes. He's still a disney
>>kind of guy at this point, talking animals and happy things. He's
>>curious about the complexities of life, but I would not introduce him to
>>orcs until he's ready.
>
>
> If you have a Disney kid who likes talking animals: Run a game based on
> Rescue Rangers, Gummy Bears or Tale Spin. No serious violence, you get
> knocked out, shot down, or captured.
>

Cool! You know, Gummy Bears had the best theme song ever. Bouncing
here and there and everywhere...high adventure that's beyond compare...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Shawn Roske <shawn_roske@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>Rick Pikul wrote:
>> On Wed, 11 May 2005 07:40:05 -0400, Shawn Roske wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I look forward to gaming with my son in a year or two, he's 7 and I
>>>think too young for most of the violent themes. He's still a disney
>>>kind of guy at this point, talking animals and happy things. He's
>>>curious about the complexities of life, but I would not introduce him to
>>>orcs until he's ready.
>>
>>
>> If you have a Disney kid who likes talking animals: Run a game based on
>> Rescue Rangers, Gummy Bears or Tale Spin. No serious violence, you get
>> knocked out, shot down, or captured.
>>

>Cool! You know, Gummy Bears had the best theme song ever. Bouncing
>here and there and everywhere...high adventure that's beyond compare...

I've always wanted some Gummy-berry juice. And the episode
where they meet some ancient gummy-bears who dress in plate
(but can still bounce!) and weild these weird staff/pipe
weapons kicked ass.

~P.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Rick Pikul wrote:
>
> If you have a Disney kid who likes talking animals: Run a game
based on
> Rescue Rangers, Gummy Bears or Tale Spin. No serious violence, you
get
> knocked out, shot down, or captured.

I always liked TaleSpin. The sky pirates and their planes seemed
like they were stolen directly from Crimson Skies (or the other way
round).

I often steal plots or adventure ideas from cartoons for my *adult*
game.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

I was actually thinking there might be a market out there for something
like a DnD-Lite, specifically geared towards kids or people who really
don't want to get all tangled up in AoO's, Grappling Rules, and all the
other complicated things.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Like, specifically ban miniatures and battlemats, and all rules that
would go along with them. Require the kids to imagine the scenes in
their heads. Then eliminate/replace rules that are overly complicated
for beginners. This could actually be a worthwhile project. I'd be
willing to spend time on this if anyone else was also interested.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

webhed wrote:
> Like, specifically ban miniatures and battlemats, and all rules that
> would go along with them. Require the kids to imagine the scenes in
> their heads.

Why? The minis are often the kids' favorite part of the game.
--
Bradd W. Szonye
http://www.szonye.com/bradd

 

[Jordan]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

On Fri, 13 May 2005 20:29:29 GMT, "Bradd W. Szonye"
<bradd+news@szonye.com> wrote:

>webhed wrote:
>> Like, specifically ban miniatures and battlemats, and all rules that
>> would go along with them. Require the kids to imagine the scenes in
>> their heads.
>
>Why? The minis are often the kids' favorite part of the game.

Kids' favourite part of the game?

My group's favourite part of the game is the minis...and we're not
what you could call "kids"...okay, exaggeration, but minis do add a
lot to the game. Even beyond that, they help develop spacial sense and
lets the players focus more on the game than on trying to picture the
situation.

Jordan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

webhed wrote:
> Like, specifically ban miniatures and battlemats, and all rules that
> would go along with them. Require the kids to imagine the scenes in
> their heads. Then eliminate/replace rules that are overly complicated
> for beginners. This could actually be a worthwhile project. I'd be
> willing to spend time on this if anyone else was also interested.

My boys have been playing board games since they were
old enough to roll dice, so I think that it will be
the most intuitive part of the game for them. If I
tell them they can move 6 squares and attack, or move
12 squares, they can handle that pretty easy.

 

[Spinner]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

>>My son is a little young to play D&D (he's 2) but he does like to roll
>>dice for Mommy and Daddy, and we're working on identifying the numbers.
>
> Completely off the subject, but when I was about 2 or 3, my parents were
> playing mah-jongg, and I was just fresh from learning to read some Chinese
> characters (especially ones on mah-jongg tiles).
>
> "Daddy! You have two /center/s," I announced in Chinese.
>
> My dad's opponents were appreciative of the tip...
>
Good one! We used to always give away card games, talking about all the
"valentines", etc. Once playing euchre with the Jokers as the highest
cards, my brother said, "Daddy, can I see that clown?" People at the table
laughed and my dad sheepishly passed him a card. "No not that one, the
other one!" my brother said.

I actually learned maj-jongg from a friend's family who were Dutch. We
built this big square wall with the tiles and there were all these complex
rules about scoring points, etc. Didn't quite get it all, but I'd like to
try it again...

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[Spinner]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

>> Like, specifically ban miniatures and battlemats, and all rules that
>> would go along with them. Require the kids to imagine the scenes in
>> their heads.
>
> Why? The minis are often the kids' favorite part of the game.
> --
That's the only part of the game my 5 yr old plays right now (although he's
constantly asking for more and I'm putting him off). Oh, that and drawing
maps -- we drew this cool one with volcanoes and a beach and dinosaur
tracks, etc. You know, the kind you'd really like to sit down and draw for
your actual game but you never do?

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