What an interesting Sunday.
I had the occasion – nay, honor, of introducing 4 people to dungeon crawling last week. The best part was that two of the people were kids under the age of eight, and one was a mom (dad was along too – but he doesn’t count as he has experience!)
Decidedly NOT your typical D&D crowd.
Granted, the dad/husband was the impetus for this adventure – as he had D&D experience from a long time ago and liked the idea of introducing his kids and wife to the concept. Which, of course, I support wholeheartedly. I’m a strong believer that kids should be exposed to role-playing type games as early as possible to develop and foster imagination and the free-flowing part of their minds. Many games don’t necessarily do that – as they emphasize strategy and deep thinking. RPGs (role playing games) do that as well (albeit to a lesser extent), but really can expand creative thinking by allowing the players a degree of intellectual freedom not necessarily constrained by rigid rules.
In other words – if you want to try feigning death in front of that dragon instead on confronting it head-on, go right ahead!
After some discussion, we settled on the game Castle Ravenloft - which is a cooperative “dungeon crawl” board game based on the Dungeons and Dragons rule set (4th edition). It is a boxed game with really nice components including a plethora of plastic miniatures, dungeon tiles and a host of cards. Kind of a board-game/RPG combination.
This seemed a great fit for this family as it has the RPG basis, it is cooperative (meaning you are working as a team to beat the game) and the components of the game are fun – especially the monster miniatures.
The five of us played the first group scenario – and we managed to get through 90% of it before it was decided to call it a day due to some attention span issues (I’m looking at you there Mom!).
We played for 90+ minutes.
Two kids – ages 7 and 5. Brother and Sister. Their Mom and Dad, and me. Ninety minutes, focused on ranged attacks, disarming traps, felling giant spiders, and looting treasure. Fantastic!
I challenge you to find another cerebral activity that can maintain that duration of interest with such a diverse crowd.
That reminds me of blog post I read many years ago titled 5 Reasons Your Kids Should Play Dungeons and Dragons.
The page no longer exists, but there is a reference to it here. http://rpgworld.ath.cx/article155.html
My kids have grown up playing Role-playing and Board games with me and I agree with all 5 points.
That game is great. It is easy to learn without needing to know Dungeons and Dragons rules. The second D&D board game is set to release next week, Wrath of Ashardalon. It is the same rules and premise, dungeon crawl but this time you are seeking the dragons treasure.
You can combine the game elements and swap or add the characters into both games. I am looking forward to it.
I’ve not played the new RAVENLOFT board game, but I’ll say that some of my best family-gaming stories center around the old MB HeroQuest board game. Got the wife and kids together many times to battle through cheezy dungeons and fighting against goblins and skeletons and so forth. The game is very visual and helps a newbie see what’s happening during the action. It also teaches newbies how to take turns and share in the victory. (We used to say that as long as at least one character survived and accomplished the goal, that the entire team won!)
The RAVENLOFT board game looks a lot like that, and it’s on my “must buy” list.
This is really interesting too – a dad who ran a birthday party D&D game for seven boys, ages 8 and 9. We need to try this at the store. http://muleabides.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/what-made-for-a-successful-dd-birthday-party/