On 22 Jun 2001, at 8:44, LLWatts@aol.com wrote:
> The last face-to-face group I was in played PG-13 bordering on R, so no way I
> would bring him into that even if I was still speaking to that group. If I were
> going to teach my nephew RPGing, I'd arrange a group specifically for that
> purpose. I suspect he'd be happiest with rolling his own dice, but the point
> about keeping the rules off to one side (made in an earlier post) is good --
> probably an approach of "OK Sean, what do you want to do?" {listening to
> description, figuring appropriate die roll} "All right, do you want to roll to
> see if you succeeded?"
Everyone in my regular troupe is 25+, and some of the side banter and off-scene
comments can get pretty R, let alone what happens on-scene. When someone
brings children we suddenly have to turn on the internal censor. Most parents
do this automatically, (and non-parents with close nieces and nephews).
Children APE what they hear. Even something something mildly amusing like
_Shadow Warrior_'s comments (Who wants some Wang?) can be inappropriate if the
audience is wrong, and 1st or second grade is the wrong place for those
comments - especially in those places where a good old-fashioned game of kiss
tag is considered sexual harrasment.
However, if we are planning the game with the idea of including children, I
typically do something like Star Trek, Swars or something currently in vogue,
like DBZ or use BESM to do Gundam. A very gentle breaking into the concepts of
roleplay and the use of the randomizers.
I have done this with a group of 3rd graders a while back, we used ADND1 and
streamlined combat (no weapon vs. armor modifiers, no weapon speeds, etc). We
really toned down combat, left plenty of puzzles and NPC interaction. The big
baddie was a small Red, and the characters *almost* defeated it, but it won the
battle, sent their little butts home and told them to try again when they were
more experienced, and ate all their rations (and a couple of horses for good
measure). For the most part, keeping it rules-light wasn't a problem, children
are used to playing "make believe" without needing boundaries to keep them on
path.
Of course they didn't have to face my wolves...
--
-Coyt Watters
"The internet, billions of electrons with nothing better to do."
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