I have two boys, one age 5 and the other 15 years old. Both of them have grown up in a house where games are played a lot. Since my older one was a little guy, I have had some form of regular “gaming thing” almost every week. My little one has always been around it, and it’s him I want to focus on here — or, I should say, kids his age.
My experiments on creating a D&D 4e game he could participate on was really driven by him. He was at EndGame’s last Anniversary party where some short two hour 4e demos were being run by members of the RPGA and he was allowed to sit in on one. For a 5 year old to sit patiently for two hours and play just about anything blew me away. After that, I knew I had something to work with.
So, why 4e? The discrete “encounters” in the game make for a very comfortably timed session for someone young. I know I could do the same things with any number of different systems out there, and skin it with a fantasy theme… but why? The grid and painted plastic figures I can easily acquire for D&D make my own personal barrier to entry in terms of set-up time almost non-existent. He also really gets the idea of a board-game, which is what combat in 4e looks like to someone so little. Having defined squares, and a defined way to move gives him a chance to really visualize what is happening in the game not only through the story we tell, but through looking at the table.
So why not just play Heroscape or something, you may ask…? Well, keep readin’.
Subscribe to RSS
