The Crusade Continues

Piperdog · Post by **Piperdog** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 1:59 pm

My teen son had four buddies over to spend the night last night for a pizza party, and as part of the festivities, begged me to run a C&C game for everyone. Only one of the kids had played rpgs before, and so the other three were completely new to it. I tried to convince my son to run the game himself, but he really wanted me to do it (which feels good...not a lot of teen sons want dad to hang out with the guys) so I put my best game face on and threw down a great session for them.

At 14, they roleplayed their characters surprisingly well, and thought things through. I cracked up at the heated arguments over who should be in charge and the ever helpful "shut up, you're such an idiot" banter as the game progressed. Aside from that, they really did play their characters.

The new guys jumped in and became insanely immersed right away (I lay a pretty good narrative, so I am told) and grasped the CnC rules right away. It's kind of crazy, because at the beginning of the night, they were constantly asking which dice to roll to hit, to the end of the night when they understood Seige checks, saving throws, and class skills.

At 1:00am this old guy had to stop the game at a cliffhanger, and the boys were beside themselves to continue.

Needless to say, they were laughing and rehashing the adventure when I went up to bed, so we just may have some new converts to the Crusade for the long haul.
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Go0gleplex · Post by **Go0gleplex** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 4:09 pm

Good on ya mate! Sounds like a cracking time had by all.
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CKDad · Post by **CKDad** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 7:32 pm

For all the talk about how kids today can't be pried away from the computer/Xbox/iPod, I've found the same thing you have - start them off with a good story, through challenges at them and they'll step up. Glad you got to experience this!
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Rigon · Post by **Rigon** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 7:58 pm

Sounds like a great experience, Piper.

R-
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Omote · Post by **Omote** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:33 pm

Great story an great circumstances. Keep that fire goin' PDog!

~O
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Orpheus · Post by **Orpheus** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 9:31 pm

Great story!

I had my brand-new 4e group over last night and they managed to show up right before I put my 2-year-old son to bed. He knew something was up and immediately started saying "Dunyuns n' Dwaguns" when he caught a glimpse of the PHB; he has a general idea of what the game is and knows the theme when he sees the appropriate artwork.

I have him all to myself for most of the day on Saturdays and Sundays since my wife works on the weekends a lot. One day, I figured that I would show him what "Dunyuns n' Dwaguns" is since he started looking at my 2nd Edition books and going, "Hmmm. Wat dis?"

No shit, I did the whole "You walk into a room..." bit and he just lit up. I cannot wait to get a very basic session going with him when he's old enough. He walks up to me all the time now and just starts waving his hand in a descriptive manner and saying, "You walk...woom." He then proceeds to describe the inhabitants of the room in his broken, 2-year-old speech.

Kids, once they get into the discovery phase, are awesome!!!

AGNKim · Post by **AGNKim** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:21 am

That kind of stuff is so cool. Great story.
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Hrolfgar · Post by **Hrolfgar** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 1:39 am

Good stuff, Piperdog, especially cool that your son wanted his old man to run the game.

Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:21 am

Nice story, hoss! I like to keep believing a good tabletop rpg can still pull the youngins' out from in front of the TV (or PC). I hope my boys will be ready to pick up the dice some day soon.
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Aladar · Post by **Aladar** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 10:06 pm

I can relate. My thirteen year old and his friends love to play C&C when every they are over at our house. I have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of running them through Castle Zagyg/Castle of the Mad Archmage. They have seemed to enjoy the experience as well.
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angelius · Post by **angelius** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:54 am

Hmm another reason why I need to have kids soon!
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Piperdog · Post by **Piperdog** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 3:36 am

What have I started? lol. My son told me his buddies are talking non stop about what a great time they had. He said they had heard of table top rpgs but "didnt get it", but now that they have played they can't wait to come over and continue the campaign. They're talking about buying the books, dice, and the whole nine yards. My twelve year old feels left out, and he wants to have his buddies over for dad to CK for them too, so it looks like I may be starting another game for him. I want them to learn enough to run a game themselves, but in the meantime, it is cool that they want this old guy to hang out with them. Gaming used to be something that just me and my buddies did together, but now its transitioned to a family time thing....really, really cool.
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Secret Skeleton · Post by **Secret Skeleton** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 3:54 am

This topic led me to go back and re-read some of the articles on Dungeons & Dragons leading to everything from Satanism, to Witchcraft, to murder and suicide on the Chick Publications website. Man, where I grew up DnD was the worst thing you could ever do.

I think I just sort of had an epiphany as to how far I have come from that dismal little town. Though this be an online community, it is still far more homey a place than where I pulled up my roots from.

Rigon · Post by **Rigon** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 4:15 am

Piperdog wrote:
What have I started? lol. My son told me his buddies are talking non stop about what a great time they had. He said they had heard of table top rpgs but "didnt get it", but now that they have played they can't wait to come over and continue the campaign. They're talking about buying the books, dice, and the whole nine yards. My twelve year old feels left out, and he wants to have his buddies over for dad to CK for them too, so it looks like I may be starting another game for him. I want them to learn enough to run a game themselves, but in the meantime, it is cool that they want this old guy to hang out with them. Gaming used to be something that just me and my buddies did together, but now its transitioned to a family time thing....really, really cool.

Way cool, homey. Way cool.

R-
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anglefish · Post by **anglefish** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 5:40 am

My son is math inclined, so we started with Tunnels and Trolls instead. It was just me as player with an NPC.

We crossed the Bridge of Insanity and entered the Tower of Chaos to tackle the Mad Wizard's traps. Lots of random chart rolling was done, evidently.

We had fun, though.

Troll Lord · Post by **Troll Lord** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:50 pm

That is cool piper! Reminds me of the 2 teens I ran in a C&C game in the neighborhood here. They were amazed they could have simulated combat game at the dinner table. It was quite an eye opener for me as it never occurred to me that they have no reference point for this type of thing. Sam keeps asking me to run some more, I need to get off my duff and do it!

But that you running these games with your sons is just bad ass!

Steve
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