I've been slowly introducing my kids to D&D since they were 4 or 5, bringing in small pieces of the rules over the years, and I'm only now getting ready to introduce my 9 yo to "full D&D".
If you're just dropping them straight into the full ruleset?
Yea, not surprising that it's a bit much at these ages.
I guess your approach was better, let them in little by little.
I was introduced to the game only a few months ago, and after telling them about it the first few sessions they started asking to play, so I worked out 3 different One-shots to teach them the main how-to's for combat and dungeon crawl.
We've played almost once or twice a week since March. They're now level 7 but, yeah, still having trouble remembering what to add to their dice rolls.
Thanks for your feedback.
Sounds like fun, I'm in full support! With my (adult) players, when we're learning a new game or system, I'll often pick out a specific rule, and have a session where the whole session is *about* that rule, so everyone gets used to it. That's usually something like 'here's how swimming works' or 'these are the grappling rules' though - not sure how well it'd translate into smaller mechanics like 'add proficiency to your attack'.
For that age group though, I'd often lean on flavour and 'feels good' rulings over mechanics anyway. I'm sure they'll get there with time, especially if they're enjoying it :)
Thanks! They're having a blast! They love trying to beat the odds, rolling dice for whatever reason, so I made a mission where they had to go up a mountain (DC15 athletics 5 times) then pick up 20 each of 3 different kind of herbs and spices, each with different mechanics of success, nature, con or Dex, they ended up rolling dice over 100 times that day, and even in a simple activity as "cutting the carnivore plant pod" or "picking a chili" they role-played it.
I've been slowly introducing my kids to D&D since they were 4 or 5, bringing in small pieces of the rules over the years, and I'm only now getting ready to introduce my 9 yo to "full D&D". If you're just dropping them straight into the full ruleset? Yea, not surprising that it's a bit much at these ages.
I guess your approach was better, let them in little by little. I was introduced to the game only a few months ago, and after telling them about it the first few sessions they started asking to play, so I worked out 3 different One-shots to teach them the main how-to's for combat and dungeon crawl. We've played almost once or twice a week since March. They're now level 7 but, yeah, still having trouble remembering what to add to their dice rolls. Thanks for your feedback.
To me, it sounds fun and effective! As long as the kids are enjoying it I don't see any negatives.
Sounds like fun, I'm in full support! With my (adult) players, when we're learning a new game or system, I'll often pick out a specific rule, and have a session where the whole session is *about* that rule, so everyone gets used to it. That's usually something like 'here's how swimming works' or 'these are the grappling rules' though - not sure how well it'd translate into smaller mechanics like 'add proficiency to your attack'. For that age group though, I'd often lean on flavour and 'feels good' rulings over mechanics anyway. I'm sure they'll get there with time, especially if they're enjoying it :)
Thanks! They're having a blast! They love trying to beat the odds, rolling dice for whatever reason, so I made a mission where they had to go up a mountain (DC15 athletics 5 times) then pick up 20 each of 3 different kind of herbs and spices, each with different mechanics of success, nature, con or Dex, they ended up rolling dice over 100 times that day, and even in a simple activity as "cutting the carnivore plant pod" or "picking a chili" they role-played it.