Minimum age for beginners?

[cornixt]

My son was five when I introduced the game to him. He didn't make the wisest of decisions, and I had to help him fill in his character sheet, but he was fine with moving around and choosing which weapon to fight with. I do have to contend with the thousands of dungeons that he writes himself, which are usually horrifically unbalanced but have a ton of imaginative features.

We killed the monsters, and it didn't seem to encourage him to kill anything outside of the game.

[The Road Warrior]

I have 2 sons aged 1 and 2. My question is what age can i realisicly expect to introduce them to Heroquest?

It really depends on your children and you will know when they are ready.

My eldest 2 boys started playing at 5 (Austin) and 4 (Fraser). I randomly picked the game up from my parents house a couple of years ago thinking that I would store it at my house until they were old enough to play but from the minute they saw the box when I got home they couldn't wait to open it. Austin was definitely ready to play games like this but even now Fraser sometimes struggles with not having the attention span to sit through a full game.

On the other hand my youngest is now 4 and he is nowhere near ready to play a game like this. He is fascinated when we play and will come and sit with us, throw my dice for me and count up movement on the red dice. But I know there is no way he could join in properly, and suspect it may still be a few years before he is ready.

On the box it says 10+.?

Never pay any attention to what it says on the box. You know far better what your children are capable of than any games designer.

[Rook]

I teach children to play games as part of my career, and as part of the usual spiel I'm supposed to say "It's for ages 12 and up", however as soon as I'm done I always add "However, parents know their children far better than anyone else. It is entirely up to you."

However, I was thinking about 7ish for Heroquest... but seeing as so many are saying 5, I may try it at 5

[sajungzak]

Killing MONSTERS, is a good thing to learn at any age! Lol!!! The powers of Chaos must be destroyed.

Verily

[sajungzak]

The trick, it seems, is keeping their attention long enough. It depends on the kid. Really, to play a game, all players should be able to read, write, and perform basic arithmetic. A firm grasp on the concept of logic is a plus. But even then, it depends how you play. You could create a game for four-year-olds, if you wanted to.

Check out this podcast.

https://rpggamerdad.wordpress.com/2014/10/25/episode-3-the-nights-are-drawing-in/

Rpggamerdad plays a round with rpggamerboy.

[torilen]

My son is 5-1/2. We just started playing a month or two ago. He loves it.
I've had to water the rules down a bit, and print special spell cards with
wording he can understand (and almost read himself).

As for monsters and death - yes, we play that the monsters die. He knows
it is a game and they're just figurines...we make it funny. The goblins and
orcs gurgle when they die (kind of a burping-vomit sort of noise), and
skeletons rattle as they crumble.

You will certainly have to egg him on...remind him if he wants to attack,
defend, cast a spell, search...but let him make mistakes too. I let my son's
heroes kick a door open, only to find the monsters inside ready for him at
that point - he learned to open it softly later and was able to surprise them.
I let him split the heroes up and all three almost died. Now he remembers to
keep them together a bit, to watch each other.

[Sotiris]

If the age of the player is higher than the hero's Mind Points then the player is capable to play.
This is a rule i just thought!

[knightkrawler]

"So, Barbarian, what are you gonna do?"
"POOP ina gawblen face!"

-

Sounds about naturalistic.

[RpgGamerDad]

Thanks for the plug sajungzak!

Started RpgGamerBoy at 4 and he was fine. And he loved playing with the minis/furniture/doors way before that.

We currently have 4 episodes with HeroQuest in and more to come (plus videos).

To listen, check out episodes 3, 5, 19 and 21 all available here:

http://rpggamerdad.wordpress.com/podcast-episodes/

[whitebeard]

As I have stated in several other threads. My son started at age 5. He had no trouble with "The Trial".

He played 2 or 3 of the characters. And I controlled the others as NPCs.

I did not use the term "kill" or "slay", but would make a little noise and knock the figure over before removing it from the board.

He made it to quest 10 before he lost interest. He still loved the game but lost interest in Dad running the canned adventures. At age 7 he starting having a friend and his dad come over, and we kill the monsters. He's 8 now and we added another child to the game. They just finished quest 11.