Conan and Kids
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Strom said:
Are you referring to the Ralf Möller series or the animated series? I'm referring to the latter, as my daughter is just 2!
In either case, sorry, I don't have any advice. So just this morning, by request, I'm telling her Conan tales the whole time I'm getting her ready for school, up to the minute she's going out the door with her mother, which happened to be in mid-tale. "No, no, I don't want to leave. I want to hear the rest of the story!" Her mother replied "We have to go. Your father can tell you more stories when you get home."
Ten hours later, I'm upstairs when I hear my wife and daughter arrive downstairs. A few minutes later I come down, and my daughter is absorbed in a Dora show on TV. I walk up behind her and kiss her on the top of the head. She looks up at me, gives me a smile, and I'm not kidding you, the first words out of her mouth were "I want the rest of the story."
I kinda envy Style as my 7 years old kid isn't that much into Conan and REH stuff. As most kids of his age, he's greatly influenced by big licences like Star Wars or Marvel (and he has become quite knowledgeable with these universes, knowing every obscure Jedi or Hero by name...). He knows about Conan but doesn't care that much about him. Maybe I should get the Animated Series as Style suggested and try to convert him. Or maybe the animated Red Nails movie will finally see the day...
Ian S Sturrock
Mongoose
I'm quite lucky, in that my 8-year-old son, though a big Star Wars, Indiana Jones, LotR (etc.) fan, also loves the Conan stories, and REH in general. I read him all the Solomon Kane material when he was 7, and am currently working through the complete REH Conan canon. We plan to read through my Clark Ashton Smith collection next. I think after that I may try him on Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser.
Reading the Conan stories aloud to him has given me more respect for Howard's writing ability than ever before. They're very much superior to any of the Star Wars novels (even the good ones!) that I've read him before. They're a real joy to read aloud, and I'd definitely recommend this route to anyone looking to introduce Conan to a child.
I don't worry too much about the supposedly adult content in them. The lad was practically brought up on Slaine, thanks to the number of Slaine comics in the house when I was working on that game (he was 2 or so at the time). The first full sentence he ever spoke was "He laid them out stark dead", from one of the Slaine comics. He's been learning sword-fighting since he was able to walk (first with me, using foam swords, these days at the local fencing club), and judo since he was 5 or 6, yet realises that though pretend violence (in sport or comics or books or games or films) is loads of fun, real-life violence is best avoided (he has no trouble at school).
Like Old Bear said, though -- I don't want to tell anyone else how to bring up their kids. If other parents don't want their kids exposed to violent or sexual content in the media, that's up to them.
Reading the Conan stories aloud to him has given me more respect for Howard's writing ability than ever before. They're very much superior to any of the Star Wars novels (even the good ones!) that I've read him before. They're a real joy to read aloud, and I'd definitely recommend this route to anyone looking to introduce Conan to a child.
I don't worry too much about the supposedly adult content in them. The lad was practically brought up on Slaine, thanks to the number of Slaine comics in the house when I was working on that game (he was 2 or so at the time). The first full sentence he ever spoke was "He laid them out stark dead", from one of the Slaine comics. He's been learning sword-fighting since he was able to walk (first with me, using foam swords, these days at the local fencing club), and judo since he was 5 or 6, yet realises that though pretend violence (in sport or comics or books or games or films) is loads of fun, real-life violence is best avoided (he has no trouble at school).
Like Old Bear said, though -- I don't want to tell anyone else how to bring up their kids. If other parents don't want their kids exposed to violent or sexual content in the media, that's up to them.
Clovenhoof
Mongoose
Ian S Sturrock said:
No way!
Now that's really cool.I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that I hear "Daddy, tell me another Conan." at least 10 times a day. That's how she says it too, "Tell me another Conan." She doesn't say "Tell me another Conan tale." Very cute.
The other day she said "Daddy, you're good at Conan-ing." My wife and I had a good laugh at that.
We went to a festival this weekend. My daughter won her choice of a prize playing a game. She picked out a toy sword.
"Can I use this to fight monsters?"
I told her yes.
"OK, well you need one too, Daddy. I'll be Yasmina. You be Conan. I guess you'll just have to pretend you have a sword."
She's also been pretending that I'm a monster and attacking me with her sword. Very fun!
She doesn't say "Tell me another Conan tale." Very cute.The other day she said "Daddy, you're good at Conan-ing." My wife and I had a good laugh at that.
We went to a festival this weekend. My daughter won her choice of a prize playing a game. She picked out a toy sword.
"Can I use this to fight monsters?"
I told her yes.
"OK, well you need one too, Daddy. I'll be Yasmina. You be Conan. I guess you'll just have to pretend you have a sword."
She's also been pretending that I'm a monster and attacking me with her sword. Very fun!
Clovenhoof
Mongoose
You'll have to get a Boffer to play with your kid. ^^
I role played with my daughter for the first time on Tuesday. I used very light rules, loosely based on Savage Worlds. I used the tiles from Temple of the Spider Queen (which I'm also using to run Thulsa's HD3), and ran an adventure where Thundarr, Arial, and Ookla had to save Tia (a girl who appears in a couple of the episodes) from the Priests of Zath, who are to sacrifice her to Zath, a giant spider. She loved it, and wanted to play it again afterward, but it was time to get her ready for bed. Wednesday night she asked for it again, so we ran through the same adventure. She didn't want to stop playing it then either.
Three years old and I've already got her hooked!
Three years old and I've already got her hooked!
So the in-laws were in town for the holidays. My daughter said "I'll be Ariel. Daddy, you're Thundarr. And Grandma, you're the Spider God." I found this assignment of roles extremely amusing.
My daughter has recently discovered My Little Pony, and has starting asking for "Pony games", i.e. role playing adventures with the My Little Pony figures she received for Christmas. Now, My Little Pony is exceedingly girlish, but at least it is fantasy rpg. So I have goblin armies invade pony land, demons steal their magic wands which they have to quest to the underworld to retrieve, and so on.
I try to introduce some grit to counteract the girlishness:
Me: "The battle with the demon has left rainbow pony with a broken leg."
Her: "Oh, well that really hurts. Rainbow pony will have to lay down till she feels better."
Me: "Cloud pony tells her 'Toughen up, Rainbow! We've got to chase after the demon right now and get those wands back. You'll have to find a way to fight through the pain!'"
My daughter has recently discovered My Little Pony, and has starting asking for "Pony games", i.e. role playing adventures with the My Little Pony figures she received for Christmas. Now, My Little Pony is exceedingly girlish, but at least it is fantasy rpg. So I have goblin armies invade pony land, demons steal their magic wands which they have to quest to the underworld to retrieve, and so on.
I try to introduce some grit to counteract the girlishness:
Me: "The battle with the demon has left rainbow pony with a broken leg."
Her: "Oh, well that really hurts. Rainbow pony will have to lay down till she feels better."
Me: "Cloud pony tells her 'Toughen up, Rainbow! We've got to chase after the demon right now and get those wands back. You'll have to find a way to fight through the pain!'"
I'm finding it much easier to insert riddles, puzzles, and games into my daughter's rpg than it is to insert them into the games I run for adults, where some semblance of realism is required. For example, in most adventures I require the heroes to find their way through a maze. When they come upon this challenge, I pull out a print out of a maze, hand my daughter a pencil, and have her navigate the way through for the heroes. Another example from this morning, the ponies came to a gate guarded by a troll. He required one of them to beat him in tic-tac-toe before he would allow them through, so me and my daughter played tic-tac-toe against each other, with the fate of Ponydom hanging in the balance!
So last night I'm putting my daughter to bed.
Me: "OK, you get just two songs, and then you have to go to sleep."
Her: "Sing the Conan song."
So I sang the following in my best baritone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emy4p2iW7b8
I even included the spoken word piece in the middle of the song, you know "Conan, the mightiest warrior ever...", doing it as over the top as possible for maximum effect.
Afterward:
Me: "Ok, you get just one more song, and then you have to go to sleep."
Her: "Sing Conan again."
True story! 8)
Me: "OK, you get just two songs, and then you have to go to sleep."
Her: "Sing the Conan song."
So I sang the following in my best baritone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emy4p2iW7b8
I even included the spoken word piece in the middle of the song, you know "Conan, the mightiest warrior ever...", doing it as over the top as possible for maximum effect.
Afterward:
Me: "Ok, you get just one more song, and then you have to go to sleep."
Her: "Sing Conan again."
True story! 8)
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