Board games that I play with my kids that don't require heavy drinking to get through.

Kill me now.

Although I have managed to get in one RPG session with my girls, by and large, we mainly play board games.  If you're like me and have had enough of Candyland and Monopoly Jr., give these a try.  These games are simple enough for younger players, but enjoyable for adults as well. In other words, I can play these with my kids without falling asleep.  At the time of this posting, my oldest daughter (Chaos) is 8 and my youngest daughter (Mayhem) is 4.





Seven Dragons: A domino-like, color matching card game with Larry Elmore art. Link seven dragons of your color and you win. The instructions include several variations of play, including a pre-school rule set (although, after a few games of that, your kids will likely be ready for the full rule set). The advanced game includes use of cards for messing with other players.

Labyrinth: Players shift the tiles of the maze on their turn, trying to create paths to treasure designated by a deck of cards.  Simple to understand, lots of fun to play.

Castle Keep: Each player tries to construct his own keep with tiles that connect based on color or shape. Instead of building your own keep, you can also destroy part of an opponent's keep by playing a corresponding tile on it.

Forbidden Island: A bit trickier than the others, but it is a cooperative game so it is easy to help the kids. After a game or two, they'll have it down.  Players work together to swipe artifacts from the island before it sinks.  You can also scale the difficulty if it gets too easy.

Cave Troll: Each player commands a small band of adventurers trying to gain control of a dungeon. The mechanic is very simple: each room is worth a particular gold value and the person with the most pieces in the room owns the room when it is counted. (Note: I actually own the 2nd Edition which, apparently is hard to find going by the price.  Funny enough, I got it on the cheap during a Fantasy Flight holiday sale).

Tsuro: Each player plays tiles trying to keep their token on a path that keeps it on the board, while trying to steer others off.  Teaches ruthlessness. You got to love it.

Oshi: A chess/checkers kind of game in which you must push all your opponents pieces off the board.  The more tiers a piece has, the more spaces it came move and the more pieces if can push. E.g., a 3 tier piece can move 3 spaces and push up to 3 pieces. Really fun game.

 

Fireball Island: You must grab the gem and get off the island first!  Use of cards to screw over the other players and boost your own play keeps this from being a simple "roll and move" game. I've had this since I was a kid.  A bit pricey nowadays.

Heroica: Probably the best way to relate the whole dungeon-exploration concept to kids.  Lots of fun little parts and sort of includes campaign play.  I have to admit, though, the bloom is coming off the rose on this one for me because it is more or less a roll and move game. However, there is a rule that allows a player to control the monsters... that might kick it up a notch.

The Classic Dungeon: Actually, although I used to love this game as a kid, I no longer care for it much. "I move 5 spaces.  I attack the monster. Rinse. Repeat." Still, nostalgia gets this one some points and if you are going to play a roll and move game, might as well play one with purple worms, liches, and ghouls. It will be interesting to see if Wizards of the Coast improves it all when they re-release it.

Battleground: Crossbows and Catapults: Toys R Us sold these sets dirt cheap a few Christmases back. Now they cost a fortune on eBay, etc.  This version is a revamped take on the classic, with Orcs and Knights instead of Barbarians and Vikings. I haven't tried to use the actual Battleground rules for it yet which are suppose to be pretty decent and more like a war game.  Right now, we just set 'em up and see who can knock down the most figures.

... now with Dungeoneering Kids.

I finally played an RPG with my girls! Since both of them (particularly, the oldest) are fans of Mouseguard, Redwall, etc., we played Harvesters.  Harvesters is Castles & Crusades re-skinned with an anthropomorphic take.

Here are some highlights:

• We used 3d6 in order for ability generation. I did this mainly to keep it simple and fast, more so than any need to be hardcore or old school.
• Chaos (my 8-year-old) rolled a 3 for dexterity. That' right; three 1s. Ouch. I was tempted to let her re-roll, but didn't. Tough love or being an ass? I haven't decided yet. My concern was that if I let her re-roll that, how would I explain that she couldn't re-roll, say, a to hit roll?
• Mayhem (my 4-year-old) was on fire with 16s, 15s, etc.  I was worried how this would play out with her PC being statistically better, but it actually wasn't a problem overall. There initially was some unspoken jealousy from Chaos, but she took solace in Mayhem's low Charisma score, ha.
• Even the highly abbreviated character creation I used wasn't all that fun for girls, who found it too long. I tried to keep it moving just giving them a quick run down of what the races, classes, etc. were like and simply let them decide what equipment they wanted.  "What kind of weapon do you want?"  "Do you want a backpack?"
• Mayhem had a rather burly badger rogue named Stripe and Chaos had a rather clumsy, but wise, otter druid named Splash.
• To keep things moving, I just gave Chaos an overview of the spells her druid had. 

Splash the River Otter Druid and Strip the Badger Rogue

• Since I didn't have many animal miniatures, Chaos had the great idea to use Little Pet Shop toys. Mayhem opted for the dire badger mini, though.
• I used the default Wheat Hollow setting and just pulled an adventure out of my arse:  rat pirates were stealing fishermen's fish and boats!
• The duo encountered some wolf spiders on their trip south to investigate the piracy. They rolled well and didn't take a hit. Some random treasure scored them some rather juicy loot (ha, valuable  tapestries and books, which they found in the spider lair. "The spiders must have gotten them from merchants they had attacked!").
• After a stop in the White Caps Inn for honey and hot cocoa, they tracked the three pirates to their cliff-face lair and took care of them.
• Chaos's otter went to -2 HP in the combat, but she actually laughed when her PC dropped. Perhaps this is because I had emphasized that their characters may die and they could simply make new ones. Anyhow, -2 isn't a kill in C&C, so Splash survived. 
• Soon into the game, I took down my GM screens because Mayhem was too curious about what I was doing and kept peaking. Ha, and as she pointed out, she can't read yet anyhow. 
• I decided it was best to roll all the dice out in the open anyhow.  Kids are sharper than adults often realize and I didn't want any concerns of favoritism.
• Chaos once said "Are you just making this up?" (meaning the adventure) and I tired to explain that that sort of was my job in the game.

I have 23 arrows left!

• Chaos decided to draw a map and the events of the session on the white board table as the game went on. I hadn't thought of that and it was really cool.  It also was the only way that minis were used in anyway (i.e., I didn't use them for combat at all).
• Getting involved in the story, Chaos started to explain what was happening around them. She decided that it must have been raining on their way to the inn, and that is why she wanted hot cocoa. That was great, so I certainly went with it. But then she decided that there were giants outside the inn.  I gently reigned that in and explained that I controlled the monsters, etc. That was kind of an odd feeling for me, because I certainly wanted the girls invested in the game.  On the other hand, I think it would have resulted in a complete lack of structure if I didn't establish that the GM/DM/CK explains the setting and they control what their characters do in it.
• All in all, it was a blast.  Definitely will be better next time since they have PCs ready to go.  I also think short and sweet adventures are the way to go.

How my girls roll...

This about sums it up:

Anthropomorphic Action at Half Price: Harvesters

I held off getting Harvesters by Troll Lord Games when it came out last spring, but just ordered it since it’s on sale for half price ($9.00 instead of $18.00: link).  The reviews on DriveThruRPG are very positive (check ‘em out) and it sounds like a great game to run with kids.  Judging from what I’ve read, it’s basically Castles & Crusades with animals, which is a-okay in my book.  No need to reinvent the wheel.

I’m still not sure if my six-year-old is ready for RPGs, but we’ll see.  She absolutely loves animals, so this is right up her alley.  When asked to bring in her favorite book to school, she took in Mouse Guard and she already wrote her own Cat Guard version. I think we might have a winner here.

Chaos on Halloween

My oldest daughter, Chaos, is going as Astrid from "How to Train Your Dragon" for Halloween.  The best part?  Her favorite part of her costume is the battle axe. Suffice it to say, I am one very proud Dungeoneering Dad.

A Day Trip to Origins 2010: Part 6 – Miscellaneous and Final Comments

• Origins offers free child care (with purchase of at least a full day ticket).  They had a whole room full of board games, a cardboard castle, and piles of LEGOS for the kiddos.  They also had volunteers that would teach and play any of the games with the kids while their parents were out and about.  I forget the age requirements, but I think Mayhem (nearly 3 years old) might be a bit young for it yet.  Chaos (a sagacious 6 years old) would be fine.  Expecting them to stay there the whole day would be a bit much, but I certainly could see them logging enough time me to get in a gaming event or two. 
• I saw the famous Lou Zocchi school some smart ass kids on dice.  Three young boys (early teens) were at his booth and picked up a d100 and were quite impressed until they saw that it cost $10.  In that oh-so-annoying-know-it-all-teenage-tone, one boy said to his friends, “I know a cheaper version. It’s called percentile dice.”  They all snickered.  The boys hadn’t even seemed to notice Lou sitting there.  They soon took notice as he went onto provide a lengthy reason for the cost, describing how the d100 was made, etc. (it sounded something akin to this: link).  He actually was friendly, but it was funny to see those boys' reactions.  They said nothing, but their faces said “Oh shit, we’ve  riled a beast.”  (On a side note, I found it odd that Game Science Dice had its own booth separate from this guy.)
• If I ever go to a large convention again, such as Origins or GenCon, I think I will reserve a whole day for the Exhibit Hall.  I had a great time and was able to really enjoy the hall without worrying about missing an event.  If you only have time for one day at a con, you might consider getting a cheap “entry only” day pass and just camping out in the Exhibit Hall.  It sort of felt like spending the day at a shopping mall, except it was awesome.
• Origins is too damn close for me to not be going to it each year.  I’m looking forward to next year.

The Care Bear Slaughter

I am having way too much fun with my wife's Flip Camera (which I just happened to get her for her last birthday). The thing is just so damn easy to use. Anyhow, here is another clip of Chaos and Mayhem putting their form swords to good use.

This started off as a duel between the two, but the girls soon turned their collective wrath upon an innocent Care Bear bystander.

StruebCon IV

In mid-May, I attended StruebCon IV, a gaming convention hosted by Polymythic Steve. By "gaming convention," I mean a bunch of dudes taking over his house, playing games non-stop, and drinking his beer (also non-stop). The attendees are members of the StruebSquad, most of which are DC area gamers that Steve has assembled over the years. Others, such as myself, are from PA.

So what is with the “Strueb” stuff? It’s derived from Steve’s name. I should point out that Steve himself named neither the event nor the squad, but rather the group named both after him because he brought both the ‘con and the group together.

The guys do a great job with this. Hans worked up convention badges and DohJoe (of LaserPup fame) had commemorative dice made.

It was a lot of fun, although Chaos learned to ride her bike without training wheels while I was gone. It's not easy knowing I missed that. It wasn't intentional (Mrs. Frost didn't make the attempt without me), but was simply a matter of Chaos trying out a neighbor kid's old, smaller bike and taking off on it.

Anyhow, StruebCon is mainly a board game event, with a smattering of miniature gaming and one RPG event (mine). The board game library amassed by the Squad is damn impressive, so it's a nice chance for a RPG guy like myself to play games I've never heard of before.

The big hits of the convention were:

• Dominion – This is non-collectable card game that is a deck-building game. You have to balance amassing action cards with point cards in order to win in the end. I get the sense it’s the Settlers of Catan of the moment (i.e., it’s the hot game going around).
• Ricochet Robots – A real brain tester of a game. You can play with as many people as you want, as long as they can see the board. Players must mentally find the shortest way to move a pawn to a randomized board location. The concept is amazingly simple. Finding the short path (or any path at all) is amazingly tough.
  
  
• Werewolf – This is a blast of a party game. Players sit around accusing one another of who are the werewolves while the wolves silently execute the others. It’s funny, I completely forgot I had played this before as Mafia until Hans mentioned this alternate name on the way home.
• Battlestar Galactica - I didn’t play this myself (I opted for a game of Puerto Rico and Ambush Alley instead). I don’t know much about other than it’s a cooperative game based on the popular TV show remake and involves one or two Cylon (i.e., traitor) players. From the shouts and rants I heard, it looked like a great game. DohJoe played a Cylon and from all reports played it like a damn master. He used the fact that it was everyone’s first time playing (himself included) to his advantage, using his seeming naivety to throw off suspicion.
• Ambush Alley – I’d been looking forward to playing this game and was happy to finally
  
  
  get a chance to do so. As advertised, it was a down-and-dirty miniatures, modern warfare skirmish with a high body count. I played once as the insurgents and once as the US forces. I lost both times, but enjoyed the hell out it. The rules are a bit sketchy at times, but I’ve grown to see that as a plus. We just settled ambiguity with a die roll and move on (e.g., “I’m not sure that is enough cover or not. Hell, evens it is, odds it is not.”)

I myself ran a Castles & Crusades event and I officially became a C & C Ambassador for the event (well, for this and for GASPCon coming up in the fall). I’ll write more about that particular event in a separate post, but in short, it was some good late night fun and God bless the guys for staying up to play.

StruebCon IV was another rousing success. Many thanks to the Polymythic Steve and Mrs. Polymythic Steve for the beer, the brats, the omelets, and the kick-arse gaming.

Chaos Turns 6

May has been a very busy month and I have tons to post about.  Unfortunately, I haven’t had much time to do so.

My eldest daughter, Chaos, turning 6 was the biggest event.  Six is the big leagues.  Six means she is knee-deep in kid-dom. 

She received tons of loot, but here are the gifts ol’ Dad added to the present pile:

- Black Knight Foam Sword and Shield kit.  I couldn’t pass this up when I saw it at Toys R Us.  It came with two swords and two shields.  Chaos wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, but by the end of cake time, she was slaying balloon “dragons.”  I knew I had done well when a few days later she and Mayhem were playing with the swords and Chaos turned to me and said, “You know, I really like this, Daddy.”  It was funny. It was almost as if she was surprised she was admitting it.  Mayhem likes her weaponry as well and the two spend more time slaying imaginary creatures than bashing each other.  I think I’ll pick up one or two of those bopper punching bags for them to slay when I get a chance. 

Also, I think I will get this axe so I can walk around the house saying, "By This Axe I Rule!"

- Mouse Guard Volume 1.  A friend of mine recommended this.  We’ve read a few chapters at bed time and she seems to like it, but has more trouble following the plot than I thought. The lack of words hinders her understanding at points, but she seems interested in it and I think she’ll grow into it a bit more in the upcoming year.



-  The A-Maze-ing Labyrinth board game.  I saw this board game at Toys R Us and picked it up even though I hadn’t heard of it.  I’m always on the lookout for games that are different from the various Candyland-clones out there (i.e., the mindless games).  We’ve played once and Chaos seems to like it.  Players shift the maze layout on their turns in order to move their pawn to specific treasures.  Despite the cartoony look, it isn’t just a kids’ game.  I could easily see playing it with adults.



- Pokemon booster packs.  I’m not a big Pokemon fan but Chaos and the boy down the street are.  She loves animals, so a game with cute little critters is right up her alley.  She and the boy have their own house rules, which seem like some sort of version of War.  The gamer in me has the urge to teach her the “right way” to play, but that same gamer is rather proud she has her own rules and is completely happy playing that way.

Fantasy Forest Books – Welcoming Kids to the Dungeon One Choice at a Time

In my box of adventure, I found four Fantasy Forest books:

#1 The Ring, the Sword, and the Unicorn by Jim “Gamma World” Ward

#2 Ruins of Rangar by Michael Carr

#5 Dungeon of Darkness by John Kendall

#6 Star Rangers and the Spy and the Spy by Jean Blashfield and Beverly Charette

So far, my wife and I have read #1 and #2 to Chaos, with #1 being her clear favorite. It’s pretty hard to beat a unicorn for little girl appeal. Although Ruins of Rangar has a pegasus on the cover, it more or less has a cameo appearance and Chaos wasn't too impressed.  I’m guessing the cover of Dungeons of Darkness is a bit too creepy for her and Star Rangers might be too sci-fi (she has never shown much interest in spaceships and such).


There has been much hullabaloo about WotC's new D&D for kids venture, Monster Slayers.  They have a free adventure, Heroes of Hesoid,  here: link and a Monster Slayers story book here: link.   Troll Lord Games is onto this as well with their Harvesters RPG (as well as the eternally delayed Castles & Crusades Basic).

I think this is great. Like the cigarette industry, we need to hook 'em while they're young!  Seriously, though, it is great to see people realizing there is a market for kid-friendly RPGs.  When I started this blog, I thought I was in a minority, but I've realized there are tons of gaming parents out there.  A lot of them, myself included, want a way to share our hobby with our kids.

I think WotC, and any other gaming company, would do well to revisit Choose Your Own Adventure-style books.  They really are a great gateway to the fun of role playing.  My daughter can't get enough of them.  What is really cool is that these books use the monsters and the artistic styles from the game.  The dragon art in The Ring, the Sword... is done in the same style as the 1st edition Monster Manual and stirges attack the the heroes in the Ruins of Rangar.  (I'll put up some pictures of the art in a bit.)

I keep thinking of this quote:
Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed. - G. K. Chesterton

My daughter is kind of a scaredy cat, much like I was at that age (hell, I would literally run out of the room when David Banner hulked out on the old "Incredible Hulk" TV show).  But these books have the kid as the hero (or at least as a brave side-kick).  In The Ring..., the kid is riding a unicorn and battling orcs and dragons.  In Ruins..., the kid is wielding a dagger and kicking skeletons to bits (notice how the hero is smart enough to not even attempt a piercing weapon. ha!).  This sort of crystallizes an un-hearlded benefit of gaming for kids.  Sure, there are monsters in it.  But the players' goal is to slay those monsters, overcome traps, and save the day.  More importantly, they have the means and powers to do so.

To this day, my wife is amazed that I, as a kid, didn't have nightmares about all those pictures in the Monster Manual.  Like I said, I was a chicken-shit.  So why didn't I?  Because the monsters were there to be slain.  That goblin only had 1 hit die and I knew my 3rd level fighter could bash its brains in with his morningstar.

These Fantasy Forest books are great way to show kids the fun of gaming.  The kid gets to be the hero and, really, who doesn't want that?

A Box Full of Adventure

I stopped by my parents’ house last Saturday to say hi and borrow a power-washer.  My dad put me to work and had me climb up into the garage attic to bring down a bike carrier.  While I was up there I found a box full of my old Choose Your Own Adventure books, both official ones, as well as a bunch of clones, including a goodly amount of TSR’s Endless Quest books.  The fact that this box survived my father’s great purging of “junk” a few years back is a miracle (I had to dig my Battle Masters game out of the trash during said purge).  I can only guess that he didn’t make it up into the attic, so this box were spared.

These books brought back a ton of memories.  I knew I had been a huge fan of these books, but I didn’t realize to what I extent. I think Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) books are still being published, but are they popular?  Anyone with kids know? I seem to recall them being very big when I was a kid.

The box had a total of 22 books. Here is the break down:

- 6 Choose Your Own Adventure books
- 5 Endless Quest books
- 1 Heartquest book (a version of the Endless Quest books, but for girls: “In a HEARTQUEST book, you, the reader, are challenged to PICK A PATH TO ROMANCE AND ADVENTURE.”  What can I say? If it had a D&D-like cover, I would buy it and read it).
- 4 Fantasy Forest books (more on these below)
- 2 Explorer books
- 1 Zork book
- 1 The Choice is Yours book
- 1 The Secret Files of Dakota King book
- 1 Dragontales book (this, not the kiddie cartoon).

I knew I read a lot of these growing up, but I thought I had checked most out from the school library.  Speaking of that, I remember having some sort of library project in 6th grade and having to use certain books from a librarian-provided list.  A CYOA book was on that list (I think it was this one: link), so naturally I choose it.  Oh no, the librarian made it clear that book wasn’t appropriate and shouldn’t have been on the list because it wasn’t a proper book.  She actually had a derogatory term for it, but damned if I can remember it.  Yeah, gasp, heaven forbid someone produce books that encourage kids to read.

Sort of ironically, it was through the Endless Quest books, not D&D manuals, that I first learned of the Satanic criticism of D&D.  I showed Dragon of Doom to one of my neighbors, a young boy from the South (I was living in Wisconsin at the time) and he said, “Oooh… that is a devil book.”  I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.  Clearly, that was a black dragon on the cover, not a devil. 

On a side note, that kid had quite a handle.  His first name was “Ikey” and his last name, which I won’t post to protect is anonymity, was the most Greek last name I have ever heard.  I also recall telling him we would have flying cars in the future and his response, was no, Jesus is coming back in the future.  I have nothing against that belief (heck, I’m Catholic), but that just struck me as, well, a rather heavy thing to come out of a 6-year-old’s mouth (I was 8).

Anyhow, more than any of the other books, I’m thrilled to have found the Fantasy Forest books, which are Endless Quest books for younger readers.  My wife and I have read two to Chaos so far and she loves them.  I’ll detail them more later this week, but for now I'll just say I think Wizards of the Coast would do well to revisit this style of books.