Rob wrote:
> Two questions:
>
> 1. Any suggestions for what to say and/or provide for followup?
Not knowing what your daughter presented at school, I'd emphasise the chart-your-own-adventure nature of roleplaying games. The fact that RPGs are an interactive fantasy that draws a small group of people together, where they engage in a cooperative world creation is one of the great draws of these games.
Emphasise the need to create game situations that everyone at the table is going to enjoy, that everyone is going to be comfortable with. In spite of the reputations of RPGs and first appearances of book covers, violence isn't the sole feature of the games, and every participant should help set the tone for the game before it even starts.
Don't liken roleplaying to amateur acting. If anything, I'd liken it amateur writing, or more like to beat or slam poetry readings -- throwing out ideas and playing off the audience. Er...not that this sort of thing is going to resonate with 10-year-olds.
Also, advise kids to let their parents know the games they're playing and what they're doing in the games. RPGs have an unfortunate rep and suffer from nagging misconceptions that the kids could help alleviate. Also, it helps defuse potentially irate parents for them to know that you've encouraged seeking their consideration and approval first.
> 2. Is there anything in the core HeroQuest books that would merit a
> PG-13 or R-rating if it appeared in the movie theater? I don't want
> to suggest that kids buy a book and then have their enraged parents
> come after me with pitchforks.
Well, there's the cover. It's garish and violent and might be a bit off-putting to many parents at first sight. Sort of sets the "PG-13" tone right away. Then -- and I hate to even mention this -- there's the treatment of religion. HeroQuest doesn't feature generic, fluff pseudo-religions, but has some very detailed, ethnologically correct religions, which might challenge many parents' assumptions about what's appropriate for a "game". Other than those two things, any roleplaying game is what you make of it, what you choose to include, and how you choose to portray it. That gets back to my answer to Question 1, and this may be part of what you should relate to the students.
All in all, I have to say that HeroQuest is not the book that I'd be selling to 10-year-olds. This may sound odd coming from a fellow who's introducing his 5- and 3-year-old to gaming through it, but I'm not having them pore over the pages of the book. To be honest, I don't really think there is a RPG out there that I'd really push to the pre-teen crowd, mostly because I think most games are clearly written to an older set. Oh, but I do think the HeroQuest/QuestWorld engine is a fine entry point for young roleplayers though (obviously!).
If I had my druthers, here's what I'd do. I'd license the HeroQuest mechanics, streamline them in a few key ways, I'd create a loosely-mapped "fairytale" kind of setting that retained the wonder of Glorantha but diminished the lethality and adult seriousness, have it illustrated by Michael Foreman (the fellow who illustrated a number of Terry Jones' wonderful children's historical novels), and I'd package it under the title "Ever After". I'd write it so that parents could run it with their children, but also so older children could run it themselves, and pack it full of dubious parenting advice masquerading as advice on running the game. Basically, I'd make a stand-alone game of the campaign I'm running for my children -- I think HeroQuest is that good and that appropriate.
!i!
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