Happy Atheist Forum

When my kids were around 10 and 12 I started playing Dungeons and Dragons with them. It is a fantastic game to let kids learn and experiment with morality in the safety of a family environment and where I could guide the kids into and out of difficult moral dilemmas. If your not familiar with the game one particular aspect is brilliant. You have to play an 'alignment' from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil. Now you can't just choose an alignment and then behave in another way, if you do the Dungeon Master (me) can manipulate the story line to show the player the effect of their 'out of character, behaviour. We played some campaigns for days. They loved it, I loved it and they had no idea I was shaping their morality and world view  

I love D&D too!  My son has already shown interest in playing, I'm just waiting for his attention span to develop a bit more before playing with him.  

I played D&D for nearly 20 years...1st all the way up through 3.5 edition...haven't played in a long while though.

D&D was banned in the schools and public places where I grew up, and since I was never allowed to visit anyone.... I've never played it  

I thought it looked interesting but the boys who played didn't want to let any girls play so I never tried it.

Quote from: "Whitney"I thought it looked interesting but the boys who played didn't want to let any girls play so I never tried it.

I ran into some of that too, and boy did that ever piss me off as a kid.

I played for about 5 years until I left Ohio... (AD&D, Hero, etc) almost every weekend.

Actually got to play with Gary Gygax once at a convention (he was the DM, natch)

Quote from: "Whitney"I thought it looked interesting but the boys who played didn't want to let any girls play so I never tried it.

Well that's a shame. We used to play with 4 or 5 people. My two daughters and son and 1 or two of his mates. I built in all kinds of scenarios, as well as a lot of monster killing. It's a brilliant teaching aid.

Quote from: "joeactor"I played for about 5 years until I left Ohio... (AD&D, Hero, etc) almost every weekend.

Actually got to play with Gary Gygax once at a convention (he was the DM, natch)

We never got too far into advancement as the stories I built were much more about problem solving and building relationships with strangers than killing monsters and if they fought a sentient enemy without good reason where negotiation was an option then they always took a lot of damage.

Quote from: "joeactor"Actually got to play with Gary Gygax once at a convention (he was the DM, natch)

That's pretty sweet, dude.  I would have loved to meet him, I always heard he was super cool.

Quote from: "pinkocommie"

Quote from: "joeactor"Actually got to play with Gary Gygax once at a convention (he was the DM, natch)

That's pretty sweet, dude.  I would have loved to meet him, I always heard he was super cool.

Indeed he was.  Very fast thinker.  Came up with scenarios and responses on the fly.

Our regular games got pretty involved.  Multi-year ventures with sociopolitical systems, multiple plot lines - detailed stuff.
I've played everything from a lawful good Paladin of Odin, to a chaotic evil High Elf Mu/Fighter/Thief with half a hand.  (for some reason the party didn't like him...)

Quote from: "Squid"I played D&D for nearly 20 years...1st all the way up through 3.5 edition...haven't played in a long while though.

Ditto.  After a couple years of 3.5 edition, my group broke up.  People's work schedules were just too crazy and we never matched up anymore.  In my youth, I tended to play chaotic evil characters - now, I'm all over the board.  My use name and major pen name is taken from one I created as the name of a chaotic evil, half-elf magic user in the early eighties.

Quote from: "Tank"When my kids were around 10 and 12 I started playing Dungeons and Dragons with them. It is a fantastic game to let kids learn and experiment with morality in the safety of a family environment and where I could guide the kids into and out of difficult moral dilemmas. If your not familiar with the game one particular aspect is brilliant. You have to play an 'alignment' from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil. Now you can't just choose an alignment and then behave in another way, if you do the Dungeon Master (me) can manipulate the story line to show the player the effect of their 'out of character, behaviour. We played some campaigns for days. They loved it, I loved it and they had no idea I was shaping their morality and world view  :D

Quote from: "Whitney"I thought it looked interesting but the boys who played didn't want to let any girls play so I never tried it.

Don't sweat it...now they've grown up and those same boys are still playing D&D because girls won't "play" with them  

But seriously, I think the OP makes a good point, and I could see a game like D&D having some greater benefits on a child's mind than a typical board game becasue of its open endedness and complexity.

Speaking of complexity, that's the reason I could never get into it. It's a shame becasue part of me has always wanted to get absorbed in those types of games, but my gaming tastes run more toward the visceral and simplistic. Give me a digital gun and some aliens to shoot.

I'd be ecstatic if my daughter got into D&D since it was something I did a lot of when I was younger, I was even the president of the strategic games club at my high school where we played RPGs as well as games like Magic:the Gathering.

The way I see it RPGs are a great workout for the imagination and a good tool for teaching basic math and tons of other skills.

If ever I have kids, I doubt it would be a particularly good idea for me to play D&D with them... The results might be... Well, names like Hitler, Stalin amd Napoleón come to mind...  

Quote from: "Miss Anthrope"

Quote from: "Whitney"I thought it looked interesting but the boys who played didn't want to let any girls play so I never tried it.

Don't sweat it...now they've grown up and those same boys are still playing D&D because girls won't "play" with them  :rant: So then I started setting up dilemmas between the characters and seeing how they reacted to them. One kid played a nominal 'good guy' but continually behaved unethically so he regularly found his character penniless and walking around in his underwear and relying on the others for protection    He learned that his 'two faced' behaviour was just not acceptable. It was also a great way of levelling the boys and girls because there was no actual strength involved. The kids created their own characters and they played in their own gender and stereotypically some of the time but when it came to problem solving everybody had their say and it was very democratic because if one kid started to shout down the others they stopped joining in and the 'loud mouth' got isolated and you can't play D&D if your trying to tell the other players how to behave. The knack was to build scenarios that played to the strengths of the various characters.

We are gradually working in this direction.  A agree that it is a brilliant educational tool, as are many games, and it fits will with unschooling.