This isn’t a full play test as I’ve not had a bunch of kids play through The Heroes of Hesiod for me. I can’t think of much worse than mixing the escapism of my roleplaying with the real world horrors of kids.
Of course, loads of gamers have happy and busy families. It makes sense to convert the kids to gamers.
It’s long been said that RPGs are educational. As Wizards of the Coast point out in their The Heroes of Hesiod announcement the are a range of life skills that this baby adventure will help you with.
- Math skills
- Reading skills
- Writing skills
- Cooperation and leadership
- Problem-solving
- Creative thinking
So what’s this “disappointing reach” that I mention in the title. To understand let’s quickly check out the basic “plot” of the game.
To finish their training a bunch of kids are brought to the semi-mysterious training hut the village uses. Inside they’re given weapons and are set on a small arena. In this cave-arena are there are monsters in cages which they’ve got to kill.
It’s a dungeon crawl. It’s a very basic dungeon crawl; with out even a left or right decision to make.
It’s a wise start in that the adventure also clearly the start of the kid’s adventuring career – an adventuring career which could be based around keeping their loved ones safe.
What’s missing from the game is choice. Sure there’s tactical choice but that’s it. Surely one of the great things – perhaps greatest – that a roleplaying game can help kids discover is making ethical choices – learning right from the wrong.
The only “right versus wrong” choice in The Heroes of Hesiod are whether the kids are going to slay “monsters” currently safely held in cages and not terrorising anyone.
I think parents running The Heroes of Hesiod might be able to carefully inject an element of choice – and the consciences of a choice – but it’s a shame the game designers didn’t offer up a carefully constructed, safe and well balanced choice?
Anyway; this childless blogger is probably out of his depths which such suggestions. So, in the meantime, here’s the free to download Dungeons and Dragons for children. You’ll be able to check out the cute monsters.
[gview file=”https://images-geeknative-com.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/02100022/MS_HeroesHesiod.pdf”]
I whole heartedly agree with your sentiments and overall viewpoint of the game. The “disappointing reach” you mention, to me, is summed up on the bottom of page 3: How to Win: “Defeat all the Monsters.” I showed the game pix to my kids and they went: “Awwwww <3" and wanted to play Monster Adopters with it. Then I read the adventure synopsis to my daughter. She freaked. She said that it was cruel to cage these monsters against their wills, just to slaughter them. Here's a very brief write-up of how it went: http://www.torontoareagamers.com/messages/boards/thread/9162051/10#36765755 I guess the element of… Read more »
Ha! Enjoyed your write up. Sounded like fun! Smart kids.