Rolling the Dice

So, as mentioned in the last blog, as kids hit middle school and those (sometimes dreaded) hormones start kicking in, social games become much more interesting.

When I was about 12 or 13, my uncle gave me one of the best games for a kid this age. It was called “Dweebs, Geeks and Weirdos”, which, as far as I can tell, is no longer produced. (check out http://www.amazon.com/Dweebs-Geeks-Weirdos-Totally-Awesome/dp/B000YPRY0K for used versions)

The gist of the game, is that you do a bunch of silly stunts to collect points and win the game. There are plenty of others in this vein - Truth or Dare is the one everyone knows - and they all go over big with 10-14 year olds, generally.

But the tendancy to favour social games isn’t just limited to doing silly things in a big group. It also lends itself to games like Pictionary, Cranium, and a Canadian TV classic - TalkAbout.

Use this trend to your advantage when trying to keep (or create) games night with your teens or pre-teens. Get them to invite their best friends over and challenge kids vs. adults (recruit a friend or two of your own, too).

This is also the age in which strategy games are most successful, since the ability to use logic is even stronger as kids enter junior high and high school.

You can start with Checkers and Chess, but if your kid is the kind to shrink from something so stodgy sounding, try Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan or Risk.

The beauty of those last three is that it adds a bit of character to the strategy. They all strengthen mapping and geography skills, too, but you don’t have to tell your kids that!

And for the kids who want a little of both, you can turn to games like the Munchkin series (by Steve Jackson) or Zombies.

From here, it’s not far to reach the world of role playing games. While I don’t play them myself, I don’t have a lot of problems with them either.

Dungeons & Dragons got a lot of bad press when I was a teen, but as long as you don’t find your kid playing nothing but, there shouldn’t be any cause to worry.

As always, the best way to make sure gaming is safe and fun at this age is to make sure you’re involved with your kids. If they’re interested in role playing games, get them to teach you how to play it, too.

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