Was suggested I crosspost this here. 'sup other Dads?
I have a couple of sons. 10 & 14. Got to say I'm more than a little proud of how I've shamelessly manipulated their interests over the past decade. The books I've read to and with them, the movies we've watched together, the games we've played all carefully cultivated in them an interest for epic stories and deep imagination. I've sowed a schema that has made them ripe for role-playing games.
And, man, from when I was their age until my mid twenties I was a heavy gamer. I created whole worlds painted with a palette drawn from the very books, movies, stories, and songs that I so intentionally introduced to my sons.
But life happens, right? Parenting is hard and exhausting. Work, bills, picking up the dog doo (hoping that it's hard), playing kid-taxi to band and soccer and martial arts. Oh, the woes of middle suburbia. I'm still pretty close to the guys in my gaming group from college and we tried a few times to rekindle a Skype session. Seemed for a bit like I just couldn't go home again. Wasn't the same. As fun as it was to have the gang together, it was as if the grey in our beards matched the haze over our immersion.
Bored one night. Tired, but I like reading rule books. Have been curious about 5e for a while (3.5 baby, all the way) so I bought a few books. For giggles, asked my youngest if he wanted to make a character. He's down for just about anything.
He chose bard. Which, of course. You'd have to know the kid, but if he was a class . . . that'd be the one. Wanted banjo, tuba, and panpipes as his three known instruments. I eased him over to a war horn instead of a tuba (but don't think I have completely given up on the idea of him whomp whomping into battle with a banjo on his back and some kind of high fantasy sousaphone +1 on his shoulders). My oldest wanted in and wanted to play a kind of water-bender ala Last Airbender. Sure thing. He's a much more serious, contemplative player. Very different personalities. Almost guaranteed player conflict.
I blew the dust off of my dice bag and half-assed a three-act adventure for them. Ran it on a Saturday. My bard turned Chaotic Stupid Murder Hobo almost immediately (10 yr-olds, amirite?) so I turned the meat-shield filler NPC in the squad into a stupid-suppressor. Each time he'd try to do something that was just off-the-rails TPK "but it'd be funny!", she would hold his face and express her love for him and her desire that he not get himself killed. When he smooshed his own face to start talking back to her in character, I knew it was taking hold. By act three, he was fully in character and in game. My 14 yr-old was (unknown to him) testing out a concept of narrative spellcasting based on slots and effect limits that has been part of bs-session world building in my old band of adventurers for almost 20 years now. And he was killing it.
Four hours.
Not a single one of them looked at their phone or tablet not once. We ordered pizza. Took a break for snacks. There was fear, anger, anticipation, sadness. There was a tense brother fight when they had radically different ideas on how to proceed into the denouement. (The bard won initiative and went full Leroy Jenkins.)
They had no idea what a crappy DM I was. Way, way off from what I used to be (or what I thought I used to be). They didn't know I was still learning the 5e rules or that I was pulling some things completely out of my ass. They didn't know that by Act 3, I had abandoned completely the hastily sketched out conclusion for a Deus Ex because I made the encounters way too hard and needed to set up a second session. They believe that I have all of this just floating around in my head ready to grab the dice bag and go at a moment's notice.
Four days later, they're still talking about it. They've both decided that Saturdays are now game days. The younger one has been drawing his character trying to get it just right for his character sheet. The older one has already started getting a group together for school. (And, you late-80s gamers will understand the old man initial shock of 'oh crap, what did I do to my son's social life' that I felt.)
So I found it. You know, that feeling of new and wide-eyed holy-shit-this-is-amazing that you felt in your first adventure? It was right there across the table. Watching it unfold in them was even better than going back in time. I had to tell someone and I figured you would understand.
Their new, very own dice sets came in the mail yesterday.
[edit] Well now, hello Reddit. Couple of things I'll post and link tonight after work:
I have a couple of sons. 10 & 14. Got to say I'm more than a little proud of how I've shamelessly manipulated their interests over the past decade. The books I've read to and with them, the movies we've watched together, the games we've played all carefully cultivated in them an interest for epic stories and deep imagination. I've sowed a schema that has made them ripe for role-playing games.
And, man, from when I was their age until my mid twenties I was a heavy gamer. I created whole worlds painted with a palette drawn from the very books, movies, stories, and songs that I so intentionally introduced to my sons.
But life happens, right? Parenting is hard and exhausting. Work, bills, picking up the dog doo (hoping that it's hard), playing kid-taxi to band and soccer and martial arts. Oh, the woes of middle suburbia. I'm still pretty close to the guys in my gaming group from college and we tried a few times to rekindle a Skype session. Seemed for a bit like I just couldn't go home again. Wasn't the same. As fun as it was to have the gang together, it was as if the grey in our beards matched the haze over our immersion.
Bored one night. Tired, but I like reading rule books. Have been curious about 5e for a while (3.5 baby, all the way) so I bought a few books. For giggles, asked my youngest if he wanted to make a character. He's down for just about anything.
He chose bard. Which, of course. You'd have to know the kid, but if he was a class . . . that'd be the one. Wanted banjo, tuba, and panpipes as his three known instruments. I eased him over to a war horn instead of a tuba (but don't think I have completely given up on the idea of him whomp whomping into battle with a banjo on his back and some kind of high fantasy sousaphone +1 on his shoulders). My oldest wanted in and wanted to play a kind of water-bender ala Last Airbender. Sure thing. He's a much more serious, contemplative player. Very different personalities. Almost guaranteed player conflict.
I blew the dust off of my dice bag and half-assed a three-act adventure for them. Ran it on a Saturday. My bard turned Chaotic Stupid Murder Hobo almost immediately (10 yr-olds, amirite?) so I turned the meat-shield filler NPC in the squad into a stupid-suppressor. Each time he'd try to do something that was just off-the-rails TPK "but it'd be funny!", she would hold his face and express her love for him and her desire that he not get himself killed. When he smooshed his own face to start talking back to her in character, I knew it was taking hold. By act three, he was fully in character and in game. My 14 yr-old was (unknown to him) testing out a concept of narrative spellcasting based on slots and effect limits that has been part of bs-session world building in my old band of adventurers for almost 20 years now. And he was killing it.
Four hours.
Not a single one of them looked at their phone or tablet not once. We ordered pizza. Took a break for snacks. There was fear, anger, anticipation, sadness. There was a tense brother fight when they had radically different ideas on how to proceed into the denouement. (The bard won initiative and went full Leroy Jenkins.)
They had no idea what a crappy DM I was. Way, way off from what I used to be (or what I thought I used to be). They didn't know I was still learning the 5e rules or that I was pulling some things completely out of my ass. They didn't know that by Act 3, I had abandoned completely the hastily sketched out conclusion for a Deus Ex because I made the encounters way too hard and needed to set up a second session. They believe that I have all of this just floating around in my head ready to grab the dice bag and go at a moment's notice.
Four days later, they're still talking about it. They've both decided that Saturdays are now game days. The younger one has been drawing his character trying to get it just right for his character sheet. The older one has already started getting a group together for school. (And, you late-80s gamers will understand the old man initial shock of 'oh crap, what did I do to my son's social life' that I felt.)
So I found it. You know, that feeling of new and wide-eyed holy-shit-this-is-amazing that you felt in your first adventure? It was right there across the table. Watching it unfold in them was even better than going back in time. I had to tell someone and I figured you would understand.
Their new, very own dice sets came in the mail yesterday.
[edit] Well now, hello Reddit. Couple of things I'll post and link tonight after work:
- Several have asked about the narrative spellcasting mechanic. You're gonna ask a middle-aged DM to wax expository on a homebrew mechanic he's been nurturing for half his life? Hell yes, you just hide and watch. Here you go.
- Didn't anticipate the interest. Love the response. You done done it now. You'll get the whole adventure soon as I write it up.
- Game plan for shamelessly manipulating the schema of your children through careful curation and gradual exposure to a variety of media over the course of their lives so that they will have a higher probability of turning into a human adult you can completely geek out with? Glad to.
