Scaling Down Board Game Rules by Child Age in 4 Easy Examples

​How often have you read or searched for game recommendations by age? Board game rules in particular may be less important for younger children in some instances - at least, that has been my experience.

It’s easy to sit on the fence about whether to buy a particular game based on your child’s age, likes and dislikes, and other factors such as the phase of the moon and whether there are enough purple crayons in the box.

​I’ve experienced something quite different though, and would like to make this easier for you with one key observation that I don’t expect everyone to agree with. 

Kids issue ultimatums whether they make sense or not.

A game is more than just the rules

​The rules of a game are not the game itself. Rules are a form of the game that best represents the designer’s intentions, but what if someone else’s intentions overrule them? ​​If you aren’t a parent this will probably sound crazy. I’m ok with that, fun matters more than the designer’s intentions, and I say this as a designer myself!

Children love to play games and are excited to play what their parents like. I’ll grant that not all games can or should be scaled for children, but I’ll advocate for at least some consideration as long as you’re there to supervise (and of course keep the really tiny bits and playing cards separate until they’re old enough in your judgement).

​Really, as a dad who loves games and my kids, I’m just happy they’re excited to play games with me, and want to play the games I already have!

Here are a few stories of games I’ve played with my twin boys at various ages where I have scaled the rules to their age or played by rules that they insisted were the actual rules. In all instances I had to improvise – you don’t get much time between hearing “Daddy let’s play that game” and when it comes down from the shelf. ​

They played Catan like it was Monopoly

You probably knew this one was coming, and dread yet another comparison of Settlers of Catan to Monopoly.

​You know what my kids did after they built the board though? Rolled the dice and moved the robber from space to space, and shared number circles like currency. They’ve never heard of, played, or seen Monopoly, so it was fascinating for me to see them play this way!

​In this instance it wasn’t me who scaled the rules – my boys changed them altogether by making up their own. I’ll grant that in this case all I did was guide them in assembling the map. 

My twin boys playing Settlers of Catan like Monopoly.

They really insisted on matching all the like-terrain tiles, making what is probably the absolute worst possible map for the standard rules (which I’d love to try now that I think about it, as a sort of challenge)! Still, on our next playthough I fully expect to team them to gather resources based on the die roles and am sure they’ll get it. 

The trading aspect will probably have to wait, as 4-year-olds now they are pretty good at sharing most of the time – but the rest of the time, well, let’s just say that kids this young are prone to table flipping. Still – I know every situation is unique, so I’d love to hear whether you’ve attempted a limited version of Catan with your kids and at what age. What worked for you and what didn’t?

A dexterity- and strength- based combat system for Magic: Arena of the Planeswalkers

I bought this one as an oldschool player of Magic: the Gathering, intrigued at what Wizards of the Coast was up to with a board game version of their flagship card game.

Twin boys playing Magic: Arena of the Planeswalkers. So excited!

I have played this with my kids as young as 3 with only the miniatures. They get to sort them into colours, count them, and have little adventures with the hero characters leading the way, telling stories about the “Fire Guy” and “Ice Guy” as they say.

​As they’ve gotten older I introduced dice, which they mainly roll for fun. Combat is resolved by crashing the plastic minis into each other – probably not a method I would recommend for adults! 

While it would likely cause injury among us, it comes natural to toddlers and pre-schooolers and the miniature figures are durable enough for it!

As an aside they also love to spell out the characters’ names – and as you can see in the picture, they were definitely excited to play Arena of the Planeswalkers (which they call “the superhero game”).

Trading monster body parts in Chaos of Cthulhu

​In this game that was previously on Kickstarter by fellow independent designer Travis Watkins, the dice are used to assemble monsters on a 3x3 grid. I’ve played this with my sons since they were 2 thanks to the sturdy dice and cardboard components.

​Early on they just wanted to make monster trains out of the dice, but soon enough they figured out that you’re supposed to build monsters that have matching body parts. They’ll argue and trade the different coloured dice back and forth, introducing a bit of a Catanish aspect here. 

​Even just past 3 though, they understood rolling a number on the rolling dice and choosing the side of a monster die with the same number on it. Sometimes, board game rules just come naturally!

Building monsters in Chaos of Cthulhu by Imphouse Games.

Turn-taking was random and haphazard instead of alternating, perhaps enough to drive me crazy until I realized that insanity was thematically appropriate and just let it be, especially given the name of the game is Chaos of Cthulhu!

A Pretty roll-and move: Goodnight Construction Site

I can’t remember where we found this one but it’s brilliant – although here my kids fight against the rules since they don’t want to go to bed!

A relaxing game of Goodnight Construction Site: the board game.

​These boys love heavy machinery. Their grandpa on their mother’s side is a heavy machinery mechanic, and they knew the difference between a dump truck and a skid steer before they knew their ABCs. I’m not even kidding.

​Goodnight Construction Site had them rolling dice, counting spaces, and moving standees of their favourite construction vehicles along paths to difference work areas, stopping at key spaces to dig, dump, and haul. At the end of the game, the machines need to go to sleep and so do they. 

This game even has a cardboard dice tower, although it got ripped pretty easily and needed repair. Still, as a wind-down activity with a great theme for young kids, I’m really happy we have this one. If there’s something to choose and actually teach the rules to toddlers or preschoolers, this one is as simple as it gets but with a very pretty style of art that makes it a pleasure to take out.

Hunting for treasured resources in Stratos

When my kids found out I had made a game, they were especially excited. They literally danced around the room, making it very difficult to say no. 

​This is where I first got started at scaling game rules because I had to – they were first aware of Stratos at around a year old and were just elated to throw dice and laugh at the “silly cubes”. And they still refer to dice as cubes. 

​From about age 3 they loved to build maps for me out of the land and water tiles, make up stories about different parts of the map, and choose their own character standee based on colour and character art. We didn’t play with character classes, and just let all of them be explorers.

Zechariah loves to throw the dice way up high in the air!

They would take turns, sort of, traveling to different lands and flipping the tiles to find out how many treasures they’d find (although in this case, the treasures were the coloured resource tokens). Every time they got more treasures they would re-count them and get more excited the more they had, and also by having the different colours of treasures. 

​I always knew that exploration and discovery were some of the most exciting parts of a game, and in this case, exploration and discovery was the game!

How else will the game rules change?

​As my boys grow and learn, I expect to teach more of the rules in each game according to their ability, and really intend this article as a guide and encouragement to get started. If you keep safety in mind, I believe kids can start playing board games as young as 3, and will be excited to share in the dad’s and mom’s hobby.

Me and my little guys. They love to do what I do. :)

Kids are naturally passionate gamers, and will learn a lot in the process. While you may want to keep extra-small bits and cards separate based on age and other factors, I’m glad I took the plunge and let me kids play games in my collection from a young age. There is such variety in this hobby - not just in theme, but among games for families, couples, and solo play too. 

Have you ever tried this with your games? ​

I’ve love to hear from you about your experiences adjusting rules. Please do leave a comment or even write to me about your experiences playing games with your kids, adjusting the rules as needed or even adjusting yourself to their rules, if that also happened to you!

​Thanks for reading. :)

​Sincerely,
Jacob
Lead Designer, Stratos

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