[Dalin]

I have been avidly reading replies to this thread, but it was trimester-report-writing week at school so I had no time for posting. I appreciate all of the comments and have plenty to think about. A few responses, at semi-random:

Originally Posted by tbone

For the young'uns, though . . . I don't know, I think there's a bit of a mismatch between "let's play a game of hacking at enemies with swords" and "let's not have too much gore".

But without called shots, it's possible to keep a game at PG-level violence (or G, even) by just taking down hit points. I may not agree with the distinctions, but they seem culturally relevant at the moment. Many parents don't mind their kids playing an imaginary game where their alter egos duke it out with the forces of evil, but they might be very uncomfortable if they thought that the social studies teacher was explaining why a cutting attack to the neck is an especially effective attack.

Originally Posted by Kromm

That's the best advice yet: Don't talk gory. . . .
Whether that's a good idea is off-topic for this forum and perhaps on-topic for a forum about child psychology. It suffices to say that there are those who feel that hiding the consequences of violent actions by, for example, taking the blood and gore away tends to desensitize kids.

We have debates about this all the time in both my parenting and education circles. Many schools are hyper-sensitive these days to any depictions of weapons or violence. Tabletop RPGs are cut plenty of slack, but I do want to pay attention to the appearance of things.

Yeah, "And Stay Down!" (Exploits, p. 86) doesn't get a lot of love. I think it's a good, simple, and even realistic rule.

It gets lots of love from me! I apply it in all of my games unless I'm playing with people who explicitly want to focus on the combat mini-game.

That, too, is sage advice. Just limiting encounters to monsters in the Construct, Demon, Divine Servitor, Elder Thing, Elemental, Plant, Slime, Spirit, and Undead classes will solve the problem nicely . . . and if the kids come from homes where demons and such aren't a comfortable subject, leave out Demon and Divine Servitor (or rebrand monsters in those classes as belonging to one of the others, probably Elder Thing, Elemental, Spirit, or Undead) . Doing this won't really limit the game that much.

Yes, this is good. Sometimes it's nice to play without any of the moral ambiguity that sentient humanoids bring to the table (whether with kids or adults). Interestingly, I haven't caught any whiffs of concern about demons and whatnot, though I'll avoid the default DFRPG references to "The Devil."

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

If you're going to be running a game for kids the level of violence is something you'll be accountable for. But when I was in middle school there weren't a lot of movies I watched that didn't feature heads exploding or body parts being lopped off, usually with geysers of gore and chunks of person. I started gaming when I was 10, and while the games weren't detailed in that violence my GM's didn't hesitate to describe the gruesome critical hits. I'd talk to your kid players and find out if they're uncomfortable with the violence before you start dumbing down what they may find the most enjoyable part of the game.

I should have split my question into two sections. I was partly asking in relation to younger kids (elementary-age) who may not be playing violent video games or watching PG-13 movies yet. For them, I think it makes sense to remove hit locations, or at least change it up a bit.

With the older kids, I'm not worried about what they play when I'm not involved. (My own middle-school games were hyper-gory too.) But as an employee, I do need to honor the norms of the school and parent community. Probably for the middle school set I won't change anything, but I wanted to explore the options.

I think, too, that it will be a good time to talk about table-agreements in terms of the types of stories we are telling and whatnot. I'd hope that the gamers I'm bringing into the community won't create scandals at Gen Con down the road!