On Sat, Mar 12, 2016 at 4:43 PM, Michael McKinney <archangel620@gmail.com> wrote:From when I was about 8 years old, my father made sure that I played in almost every game he ran at our house. They had games I didn't play in, but they let me first come to all the games as I was growing up (I was a quiet child, sincerely). And when I got curious, the group didn't mind letting a small child join them to play. Dad would answer any question I had, and research those he couldn't immediately answer. This held true in all forms of life. And as I got older and Dad got more involved in Traveller, Dad had me throw ideas to get Traveller to younger people and review products. He had me Beta-testing with my college friends.As a small child, I grew up in a house filled with books and my parents always made time to make sure I knew their hobby and satisfied my curiosity about it. I think it's easy to put kids in the den, and until I was about 6 that happened. But since my parents hosted gaming sessions, they made sure I never felt unwelcomed or hostile to the gamers and their friends in the home. They invited the gaming group to be another community to influence me. It helps that Winter War, a gaming convention my parents ran, featured a lot of different games to see.Obviously until my Age of Reason (which was about 8 or 9), I didn't do much with gaming, but watch and get walked/carried around gaming tables and talk to GMs and players, but once I was that age, my parents encouraged me to play games I wanted to, and made sure the GMs of those games, miniatures or role-playing, were okay with children playing.The large investment was satisfying my curiosity and letting me see their adult games of D&D and miniatures, and telling me constantly that this is fantasy, not reality, and it is a game, not life. It's okay to make mistakes, to lose, and it can be fun to just play. My parents also played board games with me personally at home, and honestly, I think time with kids is the single greatest thing you can do as a gaming family, to further the craft, so to speak. ;) Good luck with the small kids, and make sure that they know that gaming isn't a "quit and leave" kind of experience. It's one thing to not enjoy it, but if they try to quit and come back, it's a great time to teach humility of not always getting your way.It probably helped that my household was very disciplinarian, compared to many homes in society. Gaming requires discipline.Thank you for that detailed answer!--Douglas E Knapp, MSAOM, LAc.----- The Traveller Mailing List Archives at http://archives.simplelists.com/tml Report problems to xxxxxx@simplelists.com To unsubscribe from this list please goto http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=ChhrKYzrISfRC6uq8SknMIAqPIH6doDe