hmmm, let us know how it goes! Looks interesting.

I just showed my kids how to play Magic.

I summoned a Demon of Death's Gate... 9\9, Trample, Flying



And my 10 year old son said, "FUCK!"

"What did you say young man?"

"Ummm... nothing."

I think I'll try my son with Magic: The Gathering. I have the 8th core set I think. Looking to buy the 2011 Fat Pack later though.

Well, here's a turn up for the books! My two youngest; 6 & 7 wanted to play "that game with the dragon" that I was trying to get my eldest to play and now they can't get enough!

We played the first scenario from "Dungeons & Dragons: The Basic Set" which involved killing two goblins (one warrior and one archer) and opening a treasure chest. I had to prompt them a bit and they didn't really used their char sheets in the beginning but they got used to moving and attacking.

They enjoyed it so much they wanted to play it again, straight afterwards... then again... then again... The more they played the more they got used to dice rolling which is great.

I then told them about their "special skill" that each character has, the rouge; searching for traps, and the fighter; listening at doors. If fact my youngest, who was playing the rouge was so excited about his search skill that he searched the same door 4 times even after he rolled a high score and I told him that there was absolutely no traps whatsoever!

They want to play it again next weekend and I'll start introducing more stuff bit by bit, hopefully the more times we play the same scenario, the more stuff I can introduce and the best part? If anytime play stops because I have to look something up... they just watch telly until I'm ready and they get straight back into it!

Happy Days!

The D&D game with the kids is going well... a little too well... they want to play it from the moment they get up to the moment they go to bed! They even wanted to skip going to the park when it was a lovely day until I made them go

It's all well and good but even DM's need a rest! Playing though has definitely help me get back into the swing of things but there are a couple of things I need expert opinions on. I realise these will mostly be "use your own judgement" but I would still like to hear how you guys would handle these:

I'm using the ""

1/. Flanking - In the rules it says that if two adventures get either side of a monster they gain +2 on their throws (same with two monsters...) but do the characters have to be next to the monster? What about if one is carrying a sword, the other a ranged weapon? If the adventurer with the sword is right next to the monster but the ranged char is x number of squares away but they are still either side what would the rule be?

2/. Searching - The rules say an adventurer must get 15 or higher to find treasure in a treasure chest but how would you get around the fact that one adventurer might search and find nothing but the next adventurer searching 'miraculously' finds treasure?

Also if all adventurers search and find nothing are they allowed to search again? or keep searching until they find something?

I'll probably have lots more questions as the game goes on and any help would be appreciated.

Sorry for the long post (get yourself tea and biscuits...) but I though I'd give you an update.

After many tries at D&D they find it all a bit complicated and forget about their various abilities and things slow down as I try to explain stuff, due to this they sort of lost interest, so I went back to the drawing board to see what I could find that was easier. We tried but it wasn't 'exciting' enough for them and they got board (kids nowadays eh?) so I started creating my own board game but found that I was making things too complicated.

I then dug out my old copy of as I though it might be easier but found several bits missing ( ) so, being up for a challenge I decided to create my own version, called .

I got quite far with DragonQuest but found it took too much effort to create everything by hand so production was stopped and D&D for the kids was put on the back burner.

Then, while scouring Amazon, I came across an interactive Dungeons & Dragons DVD called , it's all 3d rendered and it's a bit like a Choose Your own Adventure book with the DVD pausing giving you a couple of options to follow. Not only did I read favourable reviews but at a price of £2.75 including p&p I thought it was worth giving a shot, I could then play it to the kids and they could then actually see what D&D was all about.

They loved it, and it showed a few monsters; a Displacer Beast and a Beholder, it also shows Magic Missile being used as well as a few other magic spells. So with renewed vigor I went back to the drawing board and decided to create an adventure for them from scratch, and here it is:



()

The gameplay is simple, they start on tile [01] at the bottom and have to reach the Treasure Chamber at tile [26] (top left) and harks back to the good old days when rooms where placed with no rhyme or reason except to give the player something to do (hence the 'Blacksmith / Armoury' room [08] next to the 'Flaming Trap' room [04]).

The gameplay follows the Fighting Fantasy style (Skill, Stamina, Luck...) as I just want them to get used to wandering around, searching, fighting monsters and solving puzzles before bombarding them with the rigors of 'The Character Sheet'!.

Here is a pdf of the adventure so far: . I've deliberately kept it simple without any fancy explanations and tried to keep the puzzles simple. Here is what they have to do:

- Start outside a dungeon on tile [01], kill some wolves to get in.
- They need to get to room [18] in order to be told there's a secret compartment in the altar in room 3 which houses a key.
- The key will open the door to room [25] but they must have a password to open the door to room [26].
- The password can be got from room [15] (lair).
- But in order to get to room [15] they must pass through room [04] which has fire coming out of each flagstone as they step on it but there is a pathway without setting off any traps.
- The correct path is marked on a map which is in the Library (room [13])
- Once they have the map they can make it safely through room [04] to get the password which will open room [26]...
- ... where there is a dragon waiting for them.

Well, there you have it, my latest attempts to get the kids playing D&D, they are definitely a bit more enthusiastic and running a simple adventure designed by me should keep the game flowing (plenty of monsters and an NPC prisoner tide to a pole in room [05], let's see what they do with that!)

Any criticism is of course welcome and encouraged.

Oh, I almost forgot, it will be a complete auditory game as well, a forum member mentioned a program they use called SceneSound with which you can create all the sounds you need for each 'scene / room'. It's exactly what I've been looking for and can now create everything from howling, ice winds to swords clashing to Trolls eating to Battle music! (I have over 1gb of 'D&D' sounds).

I'll be using my laptop and portable speakers and hopefully this should immerse them even more as they hear the dull clank of the Blacksmith's hammer and the rattle of the bones as the skeleton approaches.

FINALLY got the kids to sit and have a game of HeroQuest and they enjoyed it although sitting 2 hours cross legged on the floor is not my idea of fun! My 7yr old boy was the Barbarian and my 9yr old girl was the wizard and they finally got to grips with helping each other through the game (although the Barbarian did die ).

This weekend we'll be moving onto the second campaign and they get to choose another character each so all 4 characters will continue, let's see if the kids can handle 2 characters each!

It is difficult teaching kids not to run around opening every single door on the board - and working together.

Did they fight over who got to search for treasure? That's a big one (taking turns searching rooms).