Fuzzies/Sphinxian Treecats - Suitable for introducing children to RP?

[jzeitlin]

A while back, in a semi-abortive attempt to drive some traffic to the Undernet IRC Traveller channel (#traveller on any undernet.org server), I ran a topical chat that attempted to define what a good Traveller alien was.

The Sphinxian treecats, from the Honor Harrington series, by David Weber (excellent read in their own right, by the way - and if you get the hardbound War of Honor, you'll get the entire series in several ebook formats on the included CD-ROM) were proposed as an alien that could be used as a player-character, and might be suitable for young players - about 12 years old or so. Later material showed them to be just as rich as any other race, and thus suitable for adults to play as well, but the idea got me thinking about whether there were other races that could be used to introduce young people to RP in general and Traveller in particular. I came up with a very short list:

</font>

• Treecats (from the Honorverse)</font>
• Fuzzies (from H.Beam Piper's Terrohuman Future History)</font>

Anyone have any comments on the viability of either of these races, or other races that could be used? And how would you go about introducing a young person to Traveller and RP?

 

[Whipsnade]

"Anyone have any comments on the viability of either of these races, or other races that could be used? And how would you go about introducing a young person to Traveller and RP?"


Mr. Zeitlin,

Both good suggestions, although treecats inability to speak may prove to be a bit of a hurdle.

As for introducing younger folks to RPGs, I'm simply puttering along with my three nephews; ages 8, 6, and 4. While they all play board and card games to varying degrees, I've introduced the two oldest to a few wargames, in particular 'Ogre'. They love playing the killer-super-duper-cyber tank smashing all my puny conventional troops. Having only one peice doesn't overload them too much. We play on both maps and minis, using Legos to make the minis is quite a bit of fun.

I've also pulled out an ancient copy of Metagaming's 'Melee' and helped them both create the simple charecters used in that game. They get to assign ST - DX points and choose their weapons and armor. I play a series of monsters they then hack and slash through. (Getting a copy of "The Fantasy Trip" for our next visit would be ideal!)

While I make allowances for their ages; like allowing so many re-rolls per game or by not playing as 'tough' as I would against an older opponent, I don't coddle them either. In our games, they 'lose' just as often as they 'win'. Losing isn't a problem for them (unlike most of the kids today - scoreless Little League SHEESH!) and they can't wait to play again.

I suspect as we play more and more wargames they'll get the hang of RPGs, 'Melee' is a good start in that direction. Whether they become role-players is up to them though. I'll be happy with a set of grognards to push minis around with!


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[clementk]

The good aliens in Star Frontiers (well not the insect one) worked well for me when I was a kid. I think someone's done a conversion to t20 for them here and on enworld.org's forums.

The Darrians should make good pseudo-elves for the kids who like the LotR books/movies. Or a minor human race from a high-G world for Dwarf analogs.

You can always have the treecats/fuzzies talk or have some sort of telepathic type link with the another character.

Casey

 

[LcKedovan]

Originally posted by Casey:
The good aliens in Star Frontiers (well not the insect one) worked well for me when I was a kid. I think someone's done a conversion to t20 for them here and on enworld.org's forums.

I agree with Casey... I always found the dralasites to be my favourite when younger... though my brother preferred Yazirians.....

as for the conversions, that was me so if you can't track them down and you have an interest just get a hold of me and I can send them to you.

-Will

 

[jzeitlin]

Originally posted by LcKedovan:
as for the conversions, that was me so if you can't track them down and you have an interest just get a hold of me and I can send them to you.

If you can add a paragraph or three - about like the Contact! articles in the original print JTAS - and send them on to Freelance Traveller, I'll be more than happy to post them. An added bonus from my point of view would be an article discussing how you did the conversion and how you arrived at the decisions you did for the conversion.

 

[jappel]

Somewhat off-topic, but I strongly endorse SJGames' "Dino Hunt" for the younger set. I play with my daughter (10) and son (6) and have given the game as a present twice now. It's only RP in the sense that "you are the Dinosaur hunter", but it's a great introduction to gaming and you can pitch it as "educational" to otherwise skeptical parents.

Plus, it's great fun to be able to shout "PUNY HUMANS!" when playing that card...

John