My 7 year old and Palladium books.

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My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Greyaxe »

Last night my son of 7 years of age asked me a rather veiled question…. Who gets your books? (I have been gaming with him for the past 4 months and he has become quite addicted to Rifts. He plays a dragon hatchling named Death.) It was amusing to me because he just stopped just short t of saying …. When you die?

He later asked if he can have a gaming session with his friends, with me as the GM.
Do any of you role play with your kids and their friends? What experiences or advice do you have?
Sureshot wrote:Listen you young whippersnappers in my day we had to walk for 15 no 30 miles to the nearest game barefoot both ways. We had real books not PDFS and we carried them on carts we pulled ourselves that we built by hand. We had Thaco and we were happy. If we needed dice we carved ours out of wood. Petrified wood just because we could.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Braden Campbell »

Keep the plot line simple, and the non-action scenes short. Also, plan on this NOT being a typical 10-hour marathon. ;)
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by The Galactus Kid »

Hendrik here on the forums has a TON of good advice for running with kids. This is something that I'm eagerly anticipating when my kids get older.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Pepsi Jedi »

Our son plays in our family game now. Loves it.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Greyaxe »

J.L. Duncan wrote:At only 7 years old, you should for certain acquire the other kids-parents permission. In fact as you're an adult I would stretch this to any kid younger than 10.

Maybe needs to be said, perhaps not, but it's just my recommendation as a parent myself.

Yes I did get in touch with the parents who know me very well. I even invited them to watch the game to see for themselves what it is all about.
Sureshot wrote:Listen you young whippersnappers in my day we had to walk for 15 no 30 miles to the nearest game barefoot both ways. We had real books not PDFS and we carried them on carts we pulled ourselves that we built by hand. We had Thaco and we were happy. If we needed dice we carved ours out of wood. Petrified wood just because we could.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Greyaxe »

Braden Campbell wrote:Keep the plot line simple, and the non-action scenes short. Also, plan on this NOT being a typical 10-hour marathon. ;)

Good advice. Thank you.
We settled on Heroes/TMNT for a starter game.
Last edited by Greyaxe on Wed Apr 23, 2014 6:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sureshot wrote:Listen you young whippersnappers in my day we had to walk for 15 no 30 miles to the nearest game barefoot both ways. We had real books not PDFS and we carried them on carts we pulled ourselves that we built by hand. We had Thaco and we were happy. If we needed dice we carved ours out of wood. Petrified wood just because we could.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Dunia »

Greyaxe wrote:Last night my son of 7 years of age asked me a rather veiled question…. Who gets your books? (I have been gaming with him for the past 4 months and he has become quite addicted to Rifts. He plays a dragon hatchling named Death.) It was amusing to me because he just stopped just short t of saying …. When you die?

He later asked if he can have a gaming session with his friends, with me as the GM.
Do any of you role play with your kids and their friends? What experiences or advice do you have?



I play with my almost 7-year old niece and her two friends (my own daughter is in the age where she likes to taste on the books and only can say mommy (with some imagination from my side).

We played MERP (Middle Earth Roleplaying) and the background were like this:
One wanted to play a wizard, 2 wanted to play warriors (qoute "So we can protect Nessa [the wizard] while she turns the baddies to frogs, snails or other creepy things".

The setting was really simple. They were 8-12 year old children living with their parents on a farm by the coast, and one day when their parents are in the big city, selling stuff at the market they find a treasure map as well as granddad's old swords and shield. Also there are strange scrolls that only the Wizard can understand (spells).

So the quest was on for the treasure and they had to hide from Pirates of Umbar and other badguys.



* Premade maps and visual aids helped them a lot.
* Premade CD with variious types of music
* The first time, I let them play children i roughly their own age. (The following times we have played Ithey have played other games and older characters)
* Give them time to think and talk what to do.
* Keep the plot simple, yet exciting. They do ot need to save the world. maybe in Rifts, a simple plot such as "the village bull has run away, we need to get it back, else we cant breed more cows this year" or "Run with a message to the next village that there are bandits around"
* Always ask their parents first!
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Hendrik »

Hi there, Greyaxe,

that is great advice by Dunia!

I have written an article about this in Rifter 60. I gave quite a bit of thought to this topic after my daughers had gotten interested in what their dad does with all those strange dice and miniatures and asked to play. The article summarizes my thoughts on the subject as focused and amended by gaming with my kids.

In partial summary:
    - play to their interests. If they like SF play SF.
    - don't fight uphill. If they like Harry Potter, you can assume they know something about "how magic works" and that's great, but do not play in the Harry Potter setting [insert whatever they know more about than you]
    - don't be a rules lawyer. It is about gaming and learning the ropes. They don't start out as gaming geeks. Give them time. They will ask for the rules and learn them on the fly.
    - keep it simple. Don't "bore" them with character creation or dice rolling fests and simulationism.
    - Special character creation: I chose and advocate a Q&A character creation process. "What is your character's favourite music (genre)?" She said country. I put that on. "What is your character's favourite sport?" She said fencing, the character had the fencing skill and a sound sporty strike value. "How often does your character go to the library?" She said, she works there as she needs money, but also because she loves to read. Bam. She had some academic skills and suddenly the background formed up. etc. etc. The only thing I let the roll were the stats. Just to get them used to some rolls.
    - let them play a character of an age they like. I bet they will choose someone who is about 1D6 years above their own. It is part of the enticing fantasy.
    - make it age appropriate ;-) I chose the after the bomb setting but played it as a cross between Narnia, Wind in the Willows and Animal Farm. Hence, one of my questions in character creation was, "what's your character's favourite animal?", which is what they turned into when they crossed to the "magic land" via their father's steampunky rifts machine. I got a book-loving wolf scholar, a fencing squirrel teenager, and a very creative shovel and bucket wielding 3 year old squirrel out of that.
    - let them shape some of the reality. They will make assumptions like "this is a farm, the kids here must have bicycles, right" and so, yes, I put them there.
    - don't make the sessions too long. Rather, let them ask for more or jump the boat if they want to.

Just some ideas. Have fun!!!!

Kindest regards
Hendrik
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Jerell »

Alas my 3 year old is a little too young. She does however have her own set of large purple dice and enjoys rolling them as we do when the game is on.

She does however listen when we play and now is fully aware of what a Medusa (Gorgon) is, and the next day went around staring at her brother pretending to 'turn him to stone,' in her own way. Cute but made me realize to keep the games clean of daemon madness until she goes to bed. I look forward to getting her into games 4 or so years down the road, probably PFRPG. But I could see setting up a special HU 'little league' campaign too.

I intend to bring my kids up on RIFTs later.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Alpha 11 »

Hendrik wrote:Hi there, Greyaxe,

that is great advice by Dunia!

I have written an article about this in Rifter 60. I gave quite a bit of thought to this topic after my daughers had gotten interested in what their dad does with all those strange dice and miniatures and asked to play. The article summarizes my thoughts on the subject as focused and amended by gaming with my kids.

In partial summary:
    - play to their interests. If they like SF play SF.
    - don't fight uphill. If they like Harry Potter, you can assume they know something about "how magic works" and that's great, but do not play in the Harry Potter setting [insert whatever they know more about than you]
    - don't be a rules lawyer. It is about gaming and learning the ropes. They don't start out as gaming geeks. Give them time. They will ask for the rules and learn them on the fly.
    - keep it simple. Don't "bore" them with character creation or dice rolling fests and simulationism.
    - Special character creation: I chose and advocate a Q&A character creation process. "What is your character's favourite music (genre)?" She said country. I put that on. "What is your character's favourite sport?" She said fencing, the character had the fencing skill and a sound sporty strike value. "How often does your character go to the library?" She said, she works there as she needs money, but also because she loves to read. Bam. She had some academic skills and suddenly the background formed up. etc. etc. The only thing I let the roll were the stats. Just to get them used to some rolls.
    - let them play a character of an age they like. I bet they will choose someone who is about 1D6 years above their own. It is part of the enticing fantasy.
    - make it age appropriate ;-) I chose the after the bomb setting but played it as a cross between Narnia, Wind in the Willows and Animal Farm. Hence, one of my questions in character creation was, "what's your character's favourite animal?", which is what they turned into when they crossed to the "magic land" via their father's steampunky rifts machine. I got a book-loving wolf scholar, a fencing squirrel teenager, and a very creative shovel and bucket wielding 3 year old squirrel out of that.
    - let them shape some of the reality. They will make assumptions like "this is a farm, the kids here must have bicycles, right" and so, yes, I put them there.
    - don't make the sessions too long. Rather, let them ask for more or jump the boat if they want to.

Just some ideas. Have fun!!!!

Kindest regards
Hendrik


Wow, great advice!
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Jerell »

That was a great Rifter Article.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by The Oh So Amazing Nate »

All these comments are amazing. Kind of makes me wish for a cross generational gaming group. One thing I've never understood (probably due to not ever experiencing it) is the music/sound track during game play. What's it for? Can't you set mood and theme with descriptive words and tone of voice? I mean Lovecraft and Poe are creepy no matter what voice you use to read it. No sound track needed. It also seems like something that you'd have to talk over and could serve as a distraction to the players. But like I said, it's not something I understand (that doesn't make it wrong).
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Hendrik »

Alpha 11 wrote:Wow, great advice!

Jerell wrote:That was a great Rifter Article.

Thank you, gentlemen.

The Oh So Amazing Nate wrote:All these comments are amazing. Kind of makes me wish for a cross generational gaming group. One thing I've never understood (probably due to not ever experiencing it) is the music/sound track during game play. What's it for? Can't you set mood and theme with descriptive words and tone of voice? I mean Lovecraft and Poe are creepy no matter what voice you use to read it. No sound track needed. It also seems like something that you'd have to talk over and could serve as a distraction to the players. But like I said, it's not something I understand (that doesn't make it wrong).


Well, intonation is very important I think, and ambient music can help set the mood. When I play my 1930s BtS games I like to e.g. have 1930s "hits" or movie soundtracks fitting (Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and such) as a very low volume background music when the scene warrants it (e.g. while in a city, a nightclub, a dance hall, and such). I definitely listen to era-music and soundtracks when I plan my campaign. I definitely like to play era music during character creation, and I like to send youtube link for music and newsreels between sessions. I found this is extremely helpful to get into the setting when you hear/see the news, see old pictures, and hear the music of the time. My group has rewatched the Indy movies, and loads of film noir stuff as well because of my game (even if watching these is awesome in any case). Newsreels are a great "handout" because you learn fast what your character would definitely know, like the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, or re "sound effects" simply how "transatlantic English sounds" or how radio broadcasts cracked. On youtube you can find things like "1932 in the news" and such or just listen to "happy days are here again" and it is easier to get into the time of FDR's first presidential campaign ;-)

That said, I normally do not use soundtracks while I game. Way back when I played while a teenager I had to have music on at anytime for anything so I also played music during the game, including lots of hardrock. It did not distract me then, it would now. When I use music today I use only instrumental stuff. "The Fog" or sometimes the first "Conan" movie soundtracks when I play horror games or have a fantasy combat scene, respectively. It is a heritage of the 80s, I guess, but the first two tracks of the Conan soundtrack are just perfect to herald an epic fight in a fantasy game (even if the movie and Arnie as Conan out of today's perspective were pretty mediocre). ;-)

I do not have the nerve (time) when GM'ing to use FX or - like a real soundtrack is or should be used - to play soundbits and themes when the scene could use it and only as shortly as necessary. The main reason why I do not do that is because pen & paper scenes tend to be much longer than movie scenes, e.g. combat is 1-3 min. in a movie, it will be 20-120 min. in my games. I do not want to have to listen to a combat scene ambient music for that long. In movies the soundbits are used to heighten the mood, to e.g. bring viewer emotion to a pitch. This is helpful because movies have only little time for each segment, so the audience needs help to get to the pitch as fast as the movies does. Now, when you have a roleplaying combat, do we really want the 60 second climatic music roll on for 2 hours? Would it be useful? I do not think so.

The country music my daughter wanted was played only during her character's creation, and later much quieter. Actually, when the game started and her character left her room, I faded the music out. She was going away from her room and cd player after all ;-)
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by ffranceschi »

Greyaxe wrote:
Braden Campbell wrote:Keep the plot line simple, and the non-action scenes short. Also, plan on this NOT being a typical 10-hour marathon. ;)

Good advice. Thank you.
We settled on Heroes/TMNT for a starter game.


I was going to recommend Heroes Unlimited because RIFTS is too "heavy" for a 7 years old...My son is 8 and I am going to try HU first. Actually I began by showing him the pictures of Heroes and Villains, telling him about the powers and waiting for him to choose one (I don't want to bother him with character creation at this point).

P.S.: By the way, another piece of advice, just show him/her the Heroes only...my son chose one character from the Slaughterhouse Seven!!! Now I am in trouble because I definitely don't want him to play his first character and begin to commit atrocities!!! As you can see in Gramercy Island these guys are not "bank robbers"...

Oh, and by all means, read Hendrik's Rifter article about the topic!
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Greyaxe »

ffranceschi wrote:
Greyaxe wrote:
Braden Campbell wrote:Keep the plot line simple, and the non-action scenes short. Also, plan on this NOT being a typical 10-hour marathon. ;)

Good advice. Thank you.
We settled on Heroes/TMNT for a starter game.


I was going to recommend Heroes Unlimited because RIFTS is too "heavy" for a 7 years old...My son is 8 and I am going to try HU first. Actually I began by showing him the pictures of Heroes and Villains, telling him about the powers and waiting for him to choose one (I don't want to bother him with character creation at this point).

P.S.: By the way, another piece of advice, just show him/her the Heroes only...my son chose one character from the Slaughterhouse Seven!!! Now I am in trouble because I definitely don't want him to play his first character and begin to commit atrocities!!! As you can see in Gramercy Island these guys are not "bank robbers"...

Oh, and by all means, read Hendrik's Rifter article about the topic!

The kids I play with are big into the Heroes Movies. DC, Marvel and Hasbro movies that have come out recently so they have some ideas as to what to anticipate.
Sureshot wrote:Listen you young whippersnappers in my day we had to walk for 15 no 30 miles to the nearest game barefoot both ways. We had real books not PDFS and we carried them on carts we pulled ourselves that we built by hand. We had Thaco and we were happy. If we needed dice we carved ours out of wood. Petrified wood just because we could.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Greyaxe »

We have some familiar names for our characters. I have done some conversions (which wont mention here) to accommodate the kids wishes and their familiarity with those characters.

My daughter, is 9, and has played several times before. She has identified her self as a caster, or psychic. (good on her for recognizing her interests early) and has a yet unnamed gold skinned Psychic hero.
My Son, who is 7, is playing "Spiderman" Palladium style. His buddy is playing "Captian America" Palladium style. We have yet to have a game but they are really excited. maybe we will play this Saturday. Thanks to all for the advice. I will post again when we play.
Sureshot wrote:Listen you young whippersnappers in my day we had to walk for 15 no 30 miles to the nearest game barefoot both ways. We had real books not PDFS and we carried them on carts we pulled ourselves that we built by hand. We had Thaco and we were happy. If we needed dice we carved ours out of wood. Petrified wood just because we could.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Greyaxe »

Hendrik wrote:Hi there, Greyaxe,

that is great advice by Dunia!

I have written an article about this in Rifter 60. I gave quite a bit of thought to this topic after my daughers had gotten interested in what their dad does with all those strange dice and miniatures and asked to play. The article summarizes my thoughts on the subject as focused and amended by gaming with my kids.

In partial summary:
    - play to their interests. If they like SF play SF.
    - don't fight uphill. If they like Harry Potter, you can assume they know something about "how magic works" and that's great, but do not play in the Harry Potter setting [insert whatever they know more about than you]
    - don't be a rules lawyer. It is about gaming and learning the ropes. They don't start out as gaming geeks. Give them time. They will ask for the rules and learn them on the fly.
    - keep it simple. Don't "bore" them with character creation or dice rolling fests and simulationism.
    - Special character creation: I chose and advocate a Q&A character creation process. "What is your character's favourite music (genre)?" She said country. I put that on. "What is your character's favourite sport?" She said fencing, the character had the fencing skill and a sound sporty strike value. "How often does your character go to the library?" She said, she works there as she needs money, but also because she loves to read. Bam. She had some academic skills and suddenly the background formed up. etc. etc. The only thing I let the roll were the stats. Just to get them used to some rolls.
    - let them play a character of an age they like. I bet they will choose someone who is about 1D6 years above their own. It is part of the enticing fantasy.
    - make it age appropriate ;-) I chose the after the bomb setting but played it as a cross between Narnia, Wind in the Willows and Animal Farm. Hence, one of my questions in character creation was, "what's your character's favourite animal?", which is what they turned into when they crossed to the "magic land" via their father's steampunky rifts machine. I got a book-loving wolf scholar, a fencing squirrel teenager, and a very creative shovel and bucket wielding 3 year old squirrel out of that.
    - let them shape some of the reality. They will make assumptions like "this is a farm, the kids here must have bicycles, right" and so, yes, I put them there.
    - don't make the sessions too long. Rather, let them ask for more or jump the boat if they want to.

Just some ideas. Have fun!!!!

Kindest regards
Hendrik

I have Rifter number 60. I will review your article and learn from your experience. Thanks for the kind advice.
Regards.
Sureshot wrote:Listen you young whippersnappers in my day we had to walk for 15 no 30 miles to the nearest game barefoot both ways. We had real books not PDFS and we carried them on carts we pulled ourselves that we built by hand. We had Thaco and we were happy. If we needed dice we carved ours out of wood. Petrified wood just because we could.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Hendrik »

The Galactus Kid wrote:Hendrik here on the forums has a TON of good advice for running with kids.

Thank you, Brandon!

The Galactus Kid wrote:Hendrik here on the forums has a TON of good advice for running with kids. This is something that I'm eagerly anticipating when my kids get older.

Nothing sweeter than to share gaming with your kids. Giving them each their own set of dice was like, I guess, giving your child your old mitt. It has been great to share, pass on if you will.

Greyaxe wrote:I have Rifter number 60. I will review your article and learn from your experience. Thanks for the kind advice.
Regards.

Pleasure, Greyaxe. If it pleases you, kindly tell me if you like it, and, what is more, where you differ etc.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Greyaxe »

Hendrik wrote:
The Galactus Kid wrote:Hendrik here on the forums has a TON of good advice for running with kids.

Thank you, Brandon!

The Galactus Kid wrote:Hendrik here on the forums has a TON of good advice for running with kids. This is something that I'm eagerly anticipating when my kids get older.

Nothing sweeter than to share gaming with your kids. Giving them each their own set of dice was like, I guess, giving your child your old mitt. It has been great to share, pass on if you will.

Greyaxe wrote:I have Rifter number 60. I will review your article and learn from your experience. Thanks for the kind advice.
Regards.

Pleasure, Greyaxe. If it pleases you, kindly tell me if you like it, and, what is more, where you differ etc.

I certainly Will. thanks again.
Sureshot wrote:Listen you young whippersnappers in my day we had to walk for 15 no 30 miles to the nearest game barefoot both ways. We had real books not PDFS and we carried them on carts we pulled ourselves that we built by hand. We had Thaco and we were happy. If we needed dice we carved ours out of wood. Petrified wood just because we could.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Greyaxe »

Hello. Hendrick et all.

Well we had a couple hours to make characters. As I noted earlier I decided to go with HU/TMNT after a short questionnaire about what they were interested in. I made mental notes of their reactions when I described game settings and they ultimately found a common ground, mostly. They want to play superheroes. I asked if they wanted to play in Bowmanville, our small town, or in a larger city like Toronto. My daughter said New York. The boys piped up and said yea that is where the Avengers/Spiderman are from. SO I am on the hunt for maps of New York.

We will be watching movies to refresh the scene. I am also taking some advice regarding a familiar family background. I will develop her parents and a younger sibling, which she has in real life to help her get into character. I am also relying on the somewhat familiar the setting will be New Your 2050. Which can explain away the super powers and high tech.

My Daughter is using a unique Psionic Character, no conversion. She has played enough to know she likes casters. Psionic or spell casters. She is playing an 18 year old Psychic Journalist who works as an intern for a certain newspaper company….. Who also employs a young college student who is a freelance photographer…. I will be introducing Captain America as a military man, duh, who is recruiting for S.E.C.R.E.T. They will all meet on the first adventure, responding to a bank robbery. Just like in the movies. Will they work together, will they catch the bad guys. More to follow.

Hendrick
I differed in your approach regarding the character sheets. I use a custom Excel spreadsheet which I printed and gave to each kid. I said this section is for numbers you roll, this one is for the things you can do this is for your powers, which got an immediate what powers do I have! SO We begin with powers and looking at books. (good advice) We determined what they have for powers (conversion will not be mentioned) and wrote them down, lots of spelling errors and such. We moved onto Dice rolls and attribute scores. I asked them what they wanted to do for jobs. They said save the world so I developed the skill selections myself, they were getting ancy after the two hour dice rolling spelling marathon. (Great call on the time limits Braden Campbell) We have yet to play, however my wife was ambushed on the street today by several possible new players as well as the boys who created characters already. I had to tell a couple of disappointed kids, our group is full but if someone doesn’t like playing and decide to leave the group I will let them know. Hopefully no feelings are hurt. (Currently we sit at 5 players 7-9 years of age.) Maybe too many, maybe just right time will tell.
Sureshot wrote:Listen you young whippersnappers in my day we had to walk for 15 no 30 miles to the nearest game barefoot both ways. We had real books not PDFS and we carried them on carts we pulled ourselves that we built by hand. We had Thaco and we were happy. If we needed dice we carved ours out of wood. Petrified wood just because we could.
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Hendrik
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Hendrik »

Awesome! Keep us posted & good gaming, Sir!

The main reason I developed the Q&A idea was to avoid not boring new (young) players. Captivate interest, not stress short attention spans, so to speak ;-) It depends on the kids :-)

I think the superhero background is great as the kids know and feel the mythos. It is so widely known.

By the way, do you know the Astro City books? Fantastic superhero stories.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Greyaxe »

Hendrik wrote:Awesome! Keep us posted & good gaming, Sir!

The main reason I developed the Q&A idea was to avoid not boring new (young) players. Captivate interest, not stress short attention spans, so to speak ;-) It depends on the kids :-)

I think the superhero background is great as the kids know and feel the mythos. It is so widely known.

By the way, do you know the Astro City books? Fantastic superhero stories.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_City

Sounds Intriguing.
Sureshot wrote:Listen you young whippersnappers in my day we had to walk for 15 no 30 miles to the nearest game barefoot both ways. We had real books not PDFS and we carried them on carts we pulled ourselves that we built by hand. We had Thaco and we were happy. If we needed dice we carved ours out of wood. Petrified wood just because we could.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Hendrik »

Greyaxe wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_City

Sounds Intriguing.

It is :-) Check out especially the 1970s story arc and, if you have to choose one, the story about "The Confessor", a very cool alternative "Batman".
Handouts for Operation Minotaur (BtS Adventure published in RIFTER #83) Get them at the fabulous "House of BtS"![/quote]

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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Greyaxe »

Had our first Game Saturday. Went very well. Played a simple robbery at the museum. One super powered villain and 3 henchmen, one got away the Sniper. He will make a return to the players in time. The kids did very well. I used hand written maps to detail the scene and that really brought them into the game. Captain America played by sons buddy punched a dude in half, almost. He learned very quickly a typical robber does need to be power punched. We played for 3 hrs then the kids decided to call it there. My son however is already a gaming junkie, i am so proud, he was like. No No we have to keep playing..... just one more thing.. LOL
Thanks to all for the great advice.
Sureshot wrote:Listen you young whippersnappers in my day we had to walk for 15 no 30 miles to the nearest game barefoot both ways. We had real books not PDFS and we carried them on carts we pulled ourselves that we built by hand. We had Thaco and we were happy. If we needed dice we carved ours out of wood. Petrified wood just because we could.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Jerell »

I always did like the Cap'n. I hope my kids take well to the game in 5 or so years down the road.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Hendrik »

Greyaxe wrote:Had our first Game Saturday. Went very well. Played a simple robbery at the museum. One super powered villain and 3 henchmen, one got away the Sniper. He will make a return to the players in time. The kids did very well. I used hand written maps to detail the scene and that really brought them into the game. Captain America played by sons buddy punched a dude in half, almost. He learned very quickly a typical robber does need to be power punched. We played for 3 hrs then the kids decided to call it there. My son however is already a gaming junkie, i am so proud, he was like. No No we have to keep playing..... just one more thing.. LOL
Thanks to all for the great advice.

:ok: :ok: :ok:

Very welcome, and I am very happy for y'all! One of the greatest things to do in gaming.
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Re: My 7 year old and Palladium books.

Unread post by Razzinold »

I game with my wife and 11 year old daughter (soon to be 12) and I have a 6 year old that wants to join the game but I've told her she has to wait a few more years.

I chose Rifts as my setting but I've toned down the violence and added more story. I read over the advice that Hendrik gave, and it is good advice. My daughter was assuming things were available, and they were little things, so I've let it go for now.

When she tried to take a little too much control of certain points my wife gently explained to her that it doesn't quite work like that so she amended a few points.

As for length of game time, I find that I am the one having to stop for the night while she begs for just "one more hour" :mrgreen:. We are so proud of our little gamer girl.

One thing I find with her is she does like the more technical aspect of the game and when I try and gloss over things she calls me on it and asks for more in depth details. I know other people mentioned things like keep non combat short, character creation, etc., but that doesn't work for her lol

She has a vivid imagination likes reading, creative writing, playing guitar and painting but also loves puzzles, sudoku, and is a member of the chess, math and science club. She doesn't seem to favour the creative side of the brain over the more technical side or vice versa.

It might not be that way for everyone but she loved creating her character, she asked me hundreds of questions about it (she picked a Rogue Scientist by the way) and wants to know every detail surrounding her. She hasn't even experienced combat yet, I'm running more of an Indiana Jones type scenario where I have them searching for a relic (ancient book of magic) for Plato, but there has been some tense situations when she was approached by some low level street thugs near a body chop-shop who immediately turned tail and fled when they saw she was accompanied by a pair of Grackle Tooth (Teeth ? lol) who were quite heavily armed.

So far things have been going great and she had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for a mutant cat that she designed in her lab (all her idea).
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