Wil Wheaton Invokes Rule 17b

Honorary GeekDad and podcast guest Wil Wheaton has a great post up over at his website about gaming with kids:

My friends Ed and Mel gave me The Last Night on Earth when I was at PAX. I had to ship home everything I got there (only two boxes, because I was restrained this year) and it arrived yesterday.

Nolan and I played it after dinner last night, and we both enjoyed it a lot. I think he’d have had more fun if he hadn’t been plagued by disastrous rolls (a statistically improbable run of 1s and 2s) but we both liked it enough to play it again tonight.

However, there were several times during the game that I could feel his frustration so much, it threatened to make the game not fun for both of us. I helped him get through it with an appropriate balance of humor and empathy, but if he’d been just a few years younger, it would have been a disaster for us both and he’d never want to play it again.

So this morning, I thought of a way to help GeekDads and GeekMoms who encounter this with their own kids. It’s a variation on something my friends and I call Rule 17a.

The post is filled with good ideas for creating a positive gaming experience with kids and new players, and I heartily encourage you to go read the whole thing over at Wil’s blog.