Recently, I introduced my 12-year-old niece to Dungeons and Dragons and I helped her create a character, taught her how to play, and ran her through her very first adventure. With a young, new player I wanted to simplify the game enough for her to enjoy and really get into the roleplay. So, I fudged dice rolls, ignored spell materials, and homebrewed a few items to help her start out. Luckily she loved it. She was laughing and excited, she was even scared to delve into the imaginary sewer and fight giant rats. But, she enjoyed every minute of it and now she asks me every week if we can play.
To help her get into the gameplay even more I introduced her to an online Twitch DnD game, “Critical Role”, that she now watches every day. Tonight, luckily, I have a night off, so I’m going to run her through another one-shot and hopefully get her to focus a bit more on the roleplay rather than just wanting to get right into the action. Through all of this, I’ve seen her grow into a much more adventurous young lady. She wants to see more and do more. She isn’t afraid to try new foods or new things. It’s been amazing to see her express herself little by little if only in an imaginary world first.
Slowly over time, I want to start challenging her in the game with heavier subjects. I think that having an imaginary world to deal with harder situations can help her deal with similar things in the real world. I know that it has for me. It’s been a long while since I last picked up the dice, but thankfully I found an amazing DnD community to be a part of, “Critters of Critical Role”, and my niece is now also a part of it all. DnD has brought me, my niece, and my brother much closer together as we game together. We talk more and spend a lot more time together as well which has really just made me so happy.
If you’ve ever wanted something that you and your friends or family could gather around, spend countless hours on, and really get to know each other than I would suggest picking up one of the Starter Kits for DnD and running a game together. It’s an eye-opening experience to see people grow through gameplay and to see positive growth in everyone’s everyday lives.
