The trick, of course, is getting them to properly embrace the gaming parts of their heritage - and then to rope in their friends. In my case my 6 year old daughter is very interested in the concept, even if she's a little put off by the content of the games (she doesn't like anything scary and is very susceptible to emotional downbeats) but I plan to lure her into gaming after her 8th birthday with an Uncle Scrooge game.
The three kid players in my Parent/Kid gaming group are all very interested in gaming - for two of them their dad has been running some games for them for a couple of years, while the other has seen mom go off and game monthly for the entire time he's been alive - so getting them in to play hasn't been a hard sell, but I worry about luring my children's friends into the hobby.
How have any/all of you done on getting your kids to play, and then getting their friends to play, so that we might produce a solid base to pass along this great hobby to the next generation?
Both my kids enjoy RPGs, but I have to say I never really took active measures to recruit them. I think they just observed the grownups having fun at the weekly game sessions and so asked if they could play.
ReplyDeleteI think that dynamic is actually important. You aren't _asking_ your children to play, you're _allowing_ them to do so.
Don't forget, one aspect of being allowed to play at our house was "being old enough." So you also made playing RPGs a privilege of being a "big kid," pushing the dynamic even further toward the desirable.
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