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My husband and I are roleplayers. Avid roleplayers. We have a house game with a group of our personal friends that we run every weekend; a Pathfinder Society organized play game that we play every other weekend at the local gaming store; and a Pathfinder Society home game that we run during the week with another couple when they're available. On a good week, we roleplay three different days.
Recently, one of my husband's co-workers asked us if her son, C, could join our personal RPG group. C is 16 and comes from a very religious family. His mother wanted him to play with us because she knows my husband and has met most of the rest of the group (some of them also work with my husband) and felt she could trust us to not get C into trouble with drugs, alcohol, etc. We don't drink or do drugs, in or out of the game, so that's not an issue, but most of our group also wasn't thrilled with the idea of having someone so young hanging around with us (I'm the next youngest, at 12 years older than C.)
C joined us for a couple of sessions. He was okay, but pretty annoying. He would go off on tangents in the middle of the game about some random book or movie he saw; he would eat ALL of the food I put out (I usually make or put out snacks of some kind; he would take the plate/bowl/bag of whatever I had out and set it next to him and hog everything. I actually had to take stuff away from him a couple of times so he wouldn't eat the entire bowl of strawberries or bag of chips, and pass it around to the rest of the group); and possibly most annoying, he just wouldn't learn how to play the game. He played with us maybe 3-4 times, each time several hours long. We'd have to remind him, 5 or 6 times EACH SESSION how simple rules would work. On his turn, he'd try to take a 5ft step and then charge. We'd remind him that if you take a 5ft step, it has to be your ONLY movement during that turn; you couldn't move again, or charge, or take any other form of movement. On his next turn, he'd try to do the exact same thing. We'd have to tell him again that he couldn't do that and why. He'd also make really poor decisions. I know he was inexperienced, but when the rest of the party is getting the shit kicked out of them by a giant golem, the smart thing to do is NOT say "Hey guys, I'm gonna go check down this hallway while you keep this guy busy!" and then wander away from the party. He never bought the core rulebook, or downloaded the PDF (which is only about $10 on the official website) or even looked up the system resource document (which has all the base rules available online, for free.) Every time he tried to do something like attack, he'd look at me and ask me what to do. He never attempted to learn anything.
Anyway, he randomly stopped showing up, which was fine with us. We still had him on our email list and he just stopped responding to our emails and stopped showing up. So we took him off our list. None of us miss him. If he (or more likely, his mother, who would always speak for him when we emailed them, since she was on the email list too) asks, we'll direct him to the organized play group that meets at the game store. There are a couple of other teenagers in that group and at least he wouldn't annoy the rest of the members in our home game.
Now, someone in the organized play group that meets at the gaming store wants to bring their little (12-year-old) brother with him to play. Argh. It's bad enough if we end up with C in that group, and the couple of kids who are already there are annoying enough as it is, but a 12 year old?
Honestly, I don't know how to feel about kids roleplaying with adults. I reminded the older brother that many of us (myself included) don't watch our language when we play, nor do we want to. We swear, sometimes adult situations come up. I mean, we don't talk like porn stars, but we're not saints by any means. The brother says the kid will be fine and can handle it.
I don't have kids for a reason: I don't like them. I find them very annoying. In small doses they're fine, especially if they're well behaved. Hopefully the kid brother will be. But one reason I like going to the organized play group is to hang out with and meet other adults with similar interests as ours. I guess we'll see how things turn out after the kid starts playing with us.
Recently, one of my husband's co-workers asked us if her son, C, could join our personal RPG group. C is 16 and comes from a very religious family. His mother wanted him to play with us because she knows my husband and has met most of the rest of the group (some of them also work with my husband) and felt she could trust us to not get C into trouble with drugs, alcohol, etc. We don't drink or do drugs, in or out of the game, so that's not an issue, but most of our group also wasn't thrilled with the idea of having someone so young hanging around with us (I'm the next youngest, at 12 years older than C.)
C joined us for a couple of sessions. He was okay, but pretty annoying. He would go off on tangents in the middle of the game about some random book or movie he saw; he would eat ALL of the food I put out (I usually make or put out snacks of some kind; he would take the plate/bowl/bag of whatever I had out and set it next to him and hog everything. I actually had to take stuff away from him a couple of times so he wouldn't eat the entire bowl of strawberries or bag of chips, and pass it around to the rest of the group); and possibly most annoying, he just wouldn't learn how to play the game. He played with us maybe 3-4 times, each time several hours long. We'd have to remind him, 5 or 6 times EACH SESSION how simple rules would work. On his turn, he'd try to take a 5ft step and then charge. We'd remind him that if you take a 5ft step, it has to be your ONLY movement during that turn; you couldn't move again, or charge, or take any other form of movement. On his next turn, he'd try to do the exact same thing. We'd have to tell him again that he couldn't do that and why. He'd also make really poor decisions. I know he was inexperienced, but when the rest of the party is getting the shit kicked out of them by a giant golem, the smart thing to do is NOT say "Hey guys, I'm gonna go check down this hallway while you keep this guy busy!" and then wander away from the party. He never bought the core rulebook, or downloaded the PDF (which is only about $10 on the official website) or even looked up the system resource document (which has all the base rules available online, for free.) Every time he tried to do something like attack, he'd look at me and ask me what to do. He never attempted to learn anything.
Anyway, he randomly stopped showing up, which was fine with us. We still had him on our email list and he just stopped responding to our emails and stopped showing up. So we took him off our list. None of us miss him. If he (or more likely, his mother, who would always speak for him when we emailed them, since she was on the email list too) asks, we'll direct him to the organized play group that meets at the game store. There are a couple of other teenagers in that group and at least he wouldn't annoy the rest of the members in our home game.
Now, someone in the organized play group that meets at the gaming store wants to bring their little (12-year-old) brother with him to play. Argh. It's bad enough if we end up with C in that group, and the couple of kids who are already there are annoying enough as it is, but a 12 year old?
Honestly, I don't know how to feel about kids roleplaying with adults. I reminded the older brother that many of us (myself included) don't watch our language when we play, nor do we want to. We swear, sometimes adult situations come up. I mean, we don't talk like porn stars, but we're not saints by any means. The brother says the kid will be fine and can handle it.
I don't have kids for a reason: I don't like them. I find them very annoying. In small doses they're fine, especially if they're well behaved. Hopefully the kid brother will be. But one reason I like going to the organized play group is to hang out with and meet other adults with similar interests as ours. I guess we'll see how things turn out after the kid starts playing with us.
) and have many adult situations crop up, give it a go as it's a public type group, but heel to the no in a private group.
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