​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.

​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. ​

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

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.

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”).

​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.

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!

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!

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.

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. 

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!

​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.

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. 

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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​Having twins is wonderful – but it is sometimes like a Die Hard movie. They run over smaller toys with ride-on dump trucks, know professional wrestling moves innately, and love to crash cars into airplanes.

​Yet I could not resist their ever-so-nice and cute smiles asking to play board games on the shelf. And when Zechariah was jumping up-and-down in excitement for “Daddy’s game” (Stratos), with Elijah ready to climb the bookshelf for it, well, I gave in.

Fortunately, they love to help and to build things for people. Both have such generous spirits, and it melts my heart every time I see them sharing and helping each other when they might otherwise be painting the walls with spaghetti sauce. Or fighting/arguing over who is, in fact, Batman (conclusion: they are both Batman). 

You thought this was going to be about more crashes and explosions, didn’t you? Me too. 

I am continually fascinated by how much board games can have a calming effect on my twin tornadoes. Here it gets Zechariah counting the pieces and telling me about them, and Elijah telling me stories about the dragon and the owls in the spooky forest, echoing some of his favourite bedtime stories. 

​For reference, one of their other favourite activities is running around naked wearing buckets on their heads. Those pictures may be saved for future wedding days. We’ll see. 

​So try introducing board games with your kids. Watch as they fall into a new world and observe theirs expand. It may result in random nakedness, yelling fits, and lots of Lego pieces underfoot, but I would not trade any of this for anything in the world. 

Thanks for reading, 
Jacob Chodoriwsky | Lead Designer, Stratos