Last year, a few months before Jack was born, I wrote a piece for the geek website Forces of Geek about gaming for kids: RPG Gaming With Kids: A Preview for Me and a Report for You. It was a fun piece to research with a bunch of great ideas for introducing the boy to role-playing games–a past-time I greatly enjoy.
Little known fact – Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was the original setting for the Keep On the Borderlands adventure model. So, so, so many goblins.
Tonight, we’re having friends over to enjoy a bit of role-playing, dice-slinging fun. I won’t give away any details of tonight’s fun on the off chance the wrong person will read this, but last time our intrepid adventurers saved an innocent caravan from a bunch of bird-headed bandits in the middle of the woods. That was just a taste of things to come.
Why bring it up? Well, it’s a hobby I enjoy greatly. One that I first got into back in 1979 or so thanks to an ill-conceived Christmas present my parents thought might be a lark… a passing fancy. How were they to know?
So as much as I’ve lately been reveling in watching Jack develop in this first year, I also await with great anticipation his ability to form words and to develop a bit more reason so that I can, soon, hear him utter the immortal line, “Roll for initiative.”
But I suspect it will still be awhile. Right now I don’t even dare put the dice within his reach as they will go straight into his mouth and they’re the perfect size to get stuck there. I guess I’m also glad they don’t make miniatures out of lead anymore. (Personally, I’m not a fan of the light plastic ones either–probably why I don’t go out of my way to use miniatures much.)
In any case… if you’re a fan of role-playing games, know people who are, or are interesting in learning about them in order to play with children and introduce them to this particular world of imagination, check out the article.
In the meantime, I have an adventure to run.
Cheers!
–John
