Smoldering Wizard's Old-School Gaming Forums

The GF decided to home-educate her two youngest recently and, since I'm a little better with numbers, I'm the nominated teacher. Today, Miss Postie delivered the required text book and I have to say we're all very excited!

Awesome! S&W WB was what I played with my kids when they were younger... really works great for that.

I'm gutted to say they didn't enjoy it. The older one managed to get through character creation. The younger one got bored halfway through and said she'd rather work from a maths book (the horror!).

I kit-bashed a simple modular (for when their number skills improve) wargame for them a while ago and they're happy to play that. The older one also enjoys Tunnels & Trolls, but White Box will have to go on the shelf for a while.

Doesn't mean I'm giving up. I'll get them hooked on funny shaped dice one day!

My kids were 7 and 10 when I started them on WB, but I think at those ages and younger the specific game system doesn't matter much. Neither one of them has stayed with TTRPGs btw, my oldest later played 5e for a year or so, but now prefers MtG. Still I am hopeful they will come back to it when they are older, much as I did. Keep trying!

It's a tough one. I know RPGs aren't for everyone and they're more attracted to the sparkly colours and plinky sounds of a video game console or TV screen, but I'd like to get them to a point where they can look at a group of numbers and not run screaming to the hills

They still enjoy the war game, and haven't really noticed it's (slowly) growing in complexity. Maybe using miniatures & terrain is key to getting them into Whitebox?

Thanks for being a sounding board, Merias!

JimboJimbo wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 10, 2022 7:26 am

Maybe using miniatures & terrain is key to getting them into Whitebox?

That is a great idea! I never used miniatures myself, but in my case I introduced the kids to the game while we were on vacation in Vermont with really crappy internet and no phones (I just realized it was 12 years ago now!). So they had very few distractions. I sympathize with parents nowadays as this is unlikely to be the case any more, unless you can arrange it somehow.

I can just picture the scene now; bored kids complaining that there's nothing to do and Merias practically chewing back his excitement at getting to share something he loves with the little people that fill his heart. Glorious!

I think minis help the girls visualise what's going on ... that and the youngest loves to smash them together to indicate a victory. I have a lot of headless zombies theses days, but luckily their mum is an artist and probably wouldn't mind sculpting a few new figurines for us.

Incidentally, I went to Vermont about 20 years ago. I can't remember exactly where as the ex and I took a driving tour through Vermont, New York and (I think) New Hampshire (I'm originallly from 'Old' Hampshire). It's a beautiful place.

My oldest (at 12) started sporadically playing 5E, and she kind of liked it, and I came home one day and she was reading a copy of FMAG and asked if we could try it. She was hooked after one time, said she loved the simplicity of it compared to 5E, the only complaint she had was that there were more race options for 5E, but she liked the simple nature and gritty easy of the game.

badams30 wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 11, 2022 7:57 pm

My oldest (at 12) started sporadically playing 5E, and she kind of liked it, and I came home one day and she was reading a copy of FMAG and asked if we could try it. She was hooked after one time, said she loved the simplicity of it compared to 5E, the only complaint she had was that there were more race options for 5E, but she liked the simple nature and gritty easy of the game.

That's really great!

I see a lot of posts about 5e being super easy to learn compared to old systems. I don't see it myself, but figured it was just down to rule familiarity. It's nice to see someone without grey in their beard (figuratively, I'm guessing your girl's not of Durin's line) making the same point.

Simplicity & grit aside, another bonus of FMAG is that you'll only have to spend a couple of bucks picking up a race option supplement, rather than selling the house and living in a box to afford a 5e rulle book.