killjoy32 wrote:BB: mystic wood.

my kids think its a great game and we all play it, its cool and very easy to play.

Al

Yes, Very fun game....

bbarsh wrote:Every once and awhile we touch on this subject. What games to you play with your kids?

My wife and nine-year-old daughter play Steve Jackson Games' Munchkin and various CheapAss games.  The double-entendres in Munchkin are over the nine-year-old's head, and the wackiness of the CheapAss games are a change of pace.

Curious: How is D&D seen by kids in high school these days?  Is it still considered geeky, or has it moved into the mainstream?  Is it even on their radar?

My own kids are in elementary school and I've never heard any of their friends or classmates even mention the game.  Their age group is obsessed with Star Wars and its various PC/console games (especially the Lego Star Wars games).

Keith

my fingers are crossed --  here's hoping!

Hard for me to say.  I have a 4 year old (just turned four last Tuesday) and an 18 month old.  I still play D&D (3rd edition, Midnight from FFG), and at some point I would like to gently guide my boys into playing some form of D&D.  I began playing when I was 10 (August, 1980), so I figure that's a pretty good estimate; of course, I had just finished reading LotR when I saw the EO Basic Set at the bookstore, so maybe the conditions have to be "just right".  The guys see my collection in the library every day (I have some things "displayed") so when they ask, that's when we'll start, be it 8, 9 or 10.  If they don't want to play by age 11, then they get to play Barbie's with their mom .

Do you play MTGO, Monk? I seem to recall seeing you there.

Keith the Thief wrote:Curious: How is D&D seen by kids in high school these days?  Is it still considered geeky, or has it moved into the mainstream?  Is it even on their radar?

My own kids are in elementary school and I've never heard any of their friends or classmates even mention the game.  Their age group is obsessed with Star Wars and its various PC/console games (especially the Lego Star Wars games).

Keith

Well, according to my 14-year-old, it's pretty geeky, and not in a good way. It's kinda sad, because he and his best friend really ejoyed playing it a couple of years ago and have said they want to play again, but we just haven't. We played 3e, and they liked the visual aspect of using minis and whatnot for combat, which is something I like about it as well. I think it appeals to the video game generation more than first edition did.

My kids are 6 and 4 now, and my wife is from another whole different cultural realm entirely (Japan).  But, the kids definitely have some kind of game playing gene in them.

It's hard to find these days, but there was a game called The Sorceror's Cave which had geomorphic cave patterns that you could link together, and then you'd have various treasures and monsters in random assorted areas.  Each player would have a character with stats, but much more simplified than AD&D or other RPGs.  It was kind of a bridge between board games and RPGs.

I think it would be possible to make a simplified RPG for kids around 6-8 years old (and probably someone has done so).  Have the stats, characters, monsters and settings start out with the familiar (an elementary school, a mall, stats tied to concrete adjectives that kids could then use to draw/visualize their characters, etc).  Maybe even just using 1 die for events, stats and other rolls?

Maybe I can find time this summer to come out of the real world, get offline, and do more gaming with the kids...  but my 4 year old son still finds it hard to "lose" at any game-- I can't imagine what would happen if a character of his died?!

silver_beetle wrote:Well, according to my 14-year-old, it's pretty geeky, and not in a good way.

It is too bad, though not surprising.  Back my college years (82-86), we definitely did not talk about the fact that we played for the simple reason that we wanted to have a social life.  And the two were mutually exclusive.

I distinctly remember mentioning it to my girlfriend (now wife) after we'd been dating for about 2 months or so.

And she looked at me kind of sideways and said, "I wouldn't have guessed that."

I allowed that it was just a game that we guys played, kinda like a weekly poker game thing ... which it was (and we also played poker), but even with the girl I eventually married, I mentioned the game only when necesary and with caution.

I'd hoped that the game had gained some social acceptance ... after all, Star Wars was very geeky when I was in high school/college, and it is accepted now, at least in elementary school ... but it sounds like D&D is still nerdy.

Oh, well ... such is life.

Keith