My Twitter account has been blowing up this week with announcements about “Teach you kids to game week”. Well, if you’ve followed my recent blog posts, then you’ll know that that is something that I’m passionate about. Fantasy games have a lot to offer, from lifelong friendships, to super-charged social, math and vocabulary skills. I’m pretty sure I learned most of my mythology from the  TSR “Deities and Demi-Gods” book, and a lot of my elementary math skills from calculating “to hit vs AC” rolls playing Dungeons and Dragons. I know my 5th grade English teacher was impressed (well, maybe a few raised eyebrows) when I included words in my essays like:  wyvern, theocracy, alchemist and cockatrice!

I’m a fourtysomething old school gamer and I have three elementary and middle school boys that are at the age when I started gaming back in the gloriuos 80’s. I started with D&D in the 5th grade and had a blast. It was definitely a positive, life changing experience. My middle school weekends typically consisted of playing D&D, painting miniatures, playing whiffle ball,  Atari, and reading Tolkien. I also played fantasy board games like “Dark Tower” (remember that?). I remember sneaking into the R rated “Conan the Barbarian” and “Excalibur” with my D&D buddies….life was grand! It was a geek out!

Me, circa 1980, showing off a miniature

I think all parents want to expose their kids to the things that they enjoy in life. We want them to enjoy the things that we enjoy. It’s one of  the way we pass on our legacy.  However, there’s a right way to do this, and a wrong way. The wrong way is what you often see watching little league games, where the kids are forced into something and then the parental pressure cooker is turned on.  Don’t do that! The right way to engage your kids in something that you enjoy is to role-model it yourself and then see if it catches their interest. Let your kids see you playing boardgames and RPG’s with your friends, or let them see you painting miniatures, or reading “The Hobbit”. I did all the above, not with any intent, it’s just what I do. Well, as my kids got a little older they asked me to play…..and so we did!

I started them with what I started with – the first edition AD&D books by Gary Gygax. Well, I lie, we actually also  included “Unearthed Arcana” because my oldest son looked through it and wanted to create a barbarian, Viking like character! I started with these books in the 5th grade, so I figured they could do the same. If you are thinking about starting a RPG with your kids, I suggest just starting out with whatever you started out with, whether it was D&D,  Runequest, Traveller, or Tunnels and Trolls.  Makes sense, right? Depending on the age of your kids, you might have to diffuse some of the complexity. I did that by having the kids create a barbarian, thief and fighter, which are mostly simple, straight forward classes. I handle most of the magic with NPC’s ( a cleric and magic-user) and we keep the rules to about the complexity of Basic D&D. I tend to run the game like a dungeon crawl where they move their miniatures through the dungeon hacking, slashing, looting and lurking in shadows.  So far we have been venturing into the classic module B-2 “Keep on the Borderlands” and they have journeyed to the Keep, fought some wandering monsters, cleaned out the kobolds and chased down the mad hermit. We are playing most Wednesday nights and my kids love it! They ask to play just about everyday.

Some of our D&D action!

If you didn’t start with a RPG system, but want to try RPG’s for yourself and introduce your kids to role-playing games, I would suggest heading down to your friendly local gaming store and buying a complete “game in a box” system like the Pathfinder RPG Beginner box, the Dragon Age RPG Set 1, or the Dungeons and Dragons basic boxed game from Wizards of the Coast. There are also some nice hybrid RPG/board games like “Legend of Drizzt: A Dungeons and Dragons Board Game” from Wizards. Read the rules, sharpen your pencils,  roll up some characters and have some fun!  Just jump right in!

Kids gravitate to the visual eye-candy, so If you are looking for something more miniatures oriented I would suggest one of the hybrid RPG/Boardgames like the “Legend of Drizzt” game I mentioned above, or the “Wrath of Asardalon D&D boardgame.  “Descent” from Fantasy Flight Games also works well, but is recommended for ages 13+. I’ve found that you can run the game with younger children as long as the parent plays the “overlord” , runs the rules and takes it a little easy on the kids. My friend Chris has been playing Descent with his kids and they love it! These kind of games are fun because you can just open the box, set up and get playing. They typically come with a bunch of plastic miniatures that you and the kids can also sit down and paint. Painting miniatures has always been one of my favorite parts of the hobby.

Some miniature monsters painted by me in the 80’s

I also play a lot of board games with my kids. It’s fun to gather around the table, roll dice and have some snacks.  I’m not going to get another “Dark Tower” anytime soon, so I’ve had to settle with games like: Settlers of Catan (a classic resource trading game that’s fun and easy to play), Castle Panic (a simple  cooperative game where the good guys have to protect a castle from the goblin and orc army. It’s also a cooperative game so everyone wins or loses together), or Talisman (the classic Games Workshop fantasy quest adventure game. We shorten the game by declaring the winner the first player to the Crown of Command and no PVP combat).

The bottom line – it’s a blast to sit around the table with your kids and laugh, roll dice and snack while on an epic quest for treasure, fame and glory! Again, head down to your local gaming store and pick up some of these games!

A picture of another great family / kid game – the Settlers of Catan. This is the travel version for those family vacations in the station wagon!

Take care – and good gaming with the kiddos!

Cory Ring – father of three boys, Lord of the Rings fan, blogger, gamer and miniature painter, lives outside Nashville, TN. Here’s a link to an old Dark Tower commercial! – https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_3HVCwPp7j0