Only Slightly, Slightly Scary Monsters Allowed
arun on Mar 14 2008 at 8:08 am | Filed under: 4 to 8 year old | Click here to go HOME | or find out about SUBSCRIBING TO THE PIT |
Some of my fondest memories of my youth was time spent with my family, our next door neighbours and a couple of my brother’s friends as we trawled through swamps, fought a huge array of monsters, raised armies, trapped dragons, fled from trolls and plundered treasure… oh… and we died on numerous occasions.
Of course we did this from the comfort of our families dining room table with lots of chips, juice and toilet breaks to keep us going.
For those unitiated into the way of the nerd – I am talking about my mispent youth of playing the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, or D&D as its known to its friends. Actually it has more friends than you might think, with over 20 million people having played it!
I wanted to write this post now in part as a tribute to the creator of D&D, Gary Gygax who died earlier this month. His creative legacy continues and has made a big impact on many.
Actually it in part led me to have children, after all now I have the opportunity to literally grow my own nerds so in a few years I will have in-house D&D partners… I know what you are thinking, ‘it would have been easier to place a classified’ right? wrong! Have you tried to find a nerd that you could cope living with!?!! No, much better to grow them, it takes longer but is definately worth it in the long run.
It’s a slow process and I have been laying the foundations for sometime. M is 6yrs old now but for the last 2 years I have been telling stories about “Annabel’s World”. M & I worked out this world together which includes Annabel the rainbow fairy and her friends such as GoGo the Giant; Ruby the rainbow dragon (what can i say? the girl loves rainbows!); the Grumpy Witch and Fadoogle her pet dog to name but a few.
I tell these stories as interactive “choose your own adventure” sort of things. We recorded a number of these a and even added some music & the odd sound effect.
A favourite of mine is Annabel & the Hungry Monster which was one of several stories recorded when M was 4 years old, it goes for seven minutes and you can listen to it online here. Listenting to it will also explain the title of this post.
Annabel stories were loads of fun, however after several Annabel stories a day over a couple of years… they have started to get harder and harder to tell (M is not usually as forthcoming with the plot as she was in the Hungry Monster example above).
I thought about introducing D&D now, but M is quite a sensitive soul who does not like scary monsters or the like. So after days of web searching I managed to find Faery Tales, which is a younger, toned down role-playing game that can start kids (and adults) along the role playing path.
I’ve already ordered it, yet to read it, let alone play it with a bunch of kids so Im not sure about it yet… but it was encouraging to see that there is a market out there for introducing nerdy games early.
Would love to hear from you other rpg nerds out there. Anyone tried this game or know of other similar ones?
that audio story is loads of fun! Looking forward to seeing Annabel on dvd.
I am also a rpg fan but we did go straight into D&D. This worked great for us.
As my sister the gamer always said I may be a straight but I am freak friendly. I spent many a Friday night sitting on the floor reading a book while my sister and her friends gamed. If I missed a game she would tell me the story every week. As an adult I have played D&D with my sister and some friends and it was really fun. My daughter has played with my niece and some friends and loved it. This Christmas I got my daughter the card game Munchkin and it is super fun. The cards really funny. I have definitely encouraged the geeky tendencies in my daughter.
Kelly
I hadn’t heard that Gary Gygax died. That’s sad news. Our girls were very interested in D&D and after years of chatting about it, I set up a game with them when they were about 8 and 9. During the game, a secondary character died, and my younger daughter was distraught. We stopped playing and haven’t played again since.
Now that she’s 14, she’s about to go to a sleepover birthday (this weekend) where they plan to play marathon D&D. I’m hoping for a less stressful result. (VBG)
Here’s another tribute to Gary:
http://www.xkcd.com/393/
that is brilliant Aran, thanks for sharing.
cheers
Kelli
Well, I was a nerd… but not of the D&D kind LOL Going to listen to the link now
We’re pretty avid gamers here, Hubby used to play D&D and later went on to co-run a text based on-line rpg…as well as getting involved in the SCA.
We now as a family (our kids are 19 and12) play games like Everquest and World of Warcraft.
But before daughter was old enough for those, she and I often played our very own make-believe (really, isn’t that what an rpg is anyway?) versions with costumes and treasure (anything can be treasure when you’re playing with a 5 year old). Sometimes Hubby would tear himself away from his computer and play Riddle Troll blocking our entrance to the Cave of Wonders and making us answer his silly riddles.
We’d make up skills and powers and our four cats served very nicely as dragons that needed slaying (or chased into the basement).
And though I agree the “Faery Tales” game does sound interesting, I’m sure it’s not nearly as much fun as making your own adventures up together.
That Annabel story was so darn cute! I had a smile on my face listening to it.
Well, actually, I laughed at first because I managed to forget where you come from, and after the music and the first sounds of the voice, I IM’d Arp with an, “Oh my gosh! I think he’s a Wiggle!” But then I quickly adjusted and loved loved loved it!!
Trish
I got told this and hail the guy for being a cool roleplaying making type, though I always hated DnD
I haven’t heard of Faery’s Tale but it sounds like fun. If she’s into fae and the like I highly recommend White Wolf’s Changeling, it can be as happy lala or as gothic as you want to make it, and if she finds the character sheet too heavy you could probably water it down a bit (it’s about four A4 pages long from memory).
That and I have very fond memories of my slightly psychopathic kleptomanic dragon pooka
Hm and thank you for reminding me, might be time to introduce my toddlers to the dark side…
great to read of so many fantasy nerds out there… keep them coming!
thanks for sharing your daughters negative experiences with D&D Frank, it made me more cautious in my approach since my daughter is quite sensitive to any form of violence or even “bad guys”. Im hoping the Faery Tales thing will accomodate that.
Rue – thanks for that v funny tribute link. It does however add to my theory that your real reason for unschooling is to trawl the net with your kids looking for obscure but hilarious youtube videos & cartoons.. i notice that you didnt put that in your book though
Zanya – i agree re the best games are the ones you diy… but i am really grateful for some help after much annabel story fatigue over the last couple of years
Trish – thanks for that reminder re the accent. I forget that most people who read this site are from the US. Hoping your accent goes down ok in Costa Rica! Oh and by the way, if i could tap into the wiggle empire id wear a skivvy and jump shake my fingers around any day!
Bek – thanks for the tip re White Wolf’s Changeling, im going to track that down now… good luck with your toddlers initiation btw.
Love it!
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I am so not a RPGer but when my son was younger we found a Pokemon RPG and the kids loved it! It was fairly simple for younger kids. It isn’t out any longer but if anyone is interested you can check e-bay, they have had some in the past.