Current Events > What games a group of 10-16 year old kids liked most

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Hi, your friendly neighborhood kerred here!

This week I was running a youth group camp for cooperative board gaming. We had 12 kids sign up. Each day involving learning how to a play a new game and some little tidbits with various aspects of game design, interaction, meta, and etiquette.

Day 1: Background: Out of the 12 kids, their favorite video games mostly included Minecraft and mainstream Nintendo titles. Oddly no Fortnite players. One kid said he didn't like video games (probably only had exposure to Mobile gaming, so I don't blame him). Board game wise, most either didn't play board games, were into the mainstream like Monopoly, with two kids liking Ticket to Ride and Mysterium.

The first day was Pandemic, where they didn't go to the instructions once: i just taught the rules. They all made the usual mistakes

Different between kids and adults: Most kids will tend to make up rules in their head to solve problems. I don't know if this is just they haven't accepted the harsh reality of life yet, or used to video games that can make you do things that were not intended, or experiment through trial and error. But I don't find many adults doing this. When I give rules to adults, they only tend to work with the restrictions they are given.

Kerred posted...

Hi, your friendly neighborhood kerred here!

This week I was running a youth group camp for cooperative board gaming. We had 12 kids sign up. Each day involving learning how to a play a new game and some little tidbits with various aspects of game design, interaction, meta, and etiquette.

Day 1: Background: Out of the 12 kids, their favorite video games mostly included Minecraft and mainstream Nintendo titles. Oddly no Fortnite players. One kid said he didn't like video games (probably only had exposure to Mobile gaming, so I don't blame him). Board game wise, most either didn't play board games, were into the mainstream like Monopoly, with two kids liking Ticket to Ride and Mysterium.

The first day was Pandemic, where they didn't go to the instructions once: i just taught the rules. They all made the usual mistakes

Different between kids and adults: Most kids will tend to make up rules in their head to solve problems. I don't know if this is just they haven't accepted the harsh reality of life yet, or used to video games that can make you do things that were not intended, or experiment through trial and error. But I don't find many adults doing this. When I give rules to adults, they only tend to work with the restrictions they are given.

Do a dnd one shot with them.
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The first day was learning about good game design and bad game design.

Pandemic doesn't follow the sins of a board game:

1) It doesn't have player elimination

2) It gives you control, or the illusion of control, that you feel like your decisions matter and you aren't playing on auto-pilot.

3) Directly screwing over players for no reason

Kids are always testing boundaries. That's just what they do.
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I did a board game club with kids last year. Though we just had really random shit for the most part. Kids to like the game Blokus a lot.
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Ranting Nord posted...

Do a dnd one shot with them.

Oddly enough, I have only done D&D groups with kids, no adults yet.

Most kids are great as (mentioned above) they like to find ways to break or circumvent rules, and many try to follow the story. However every kid I taught D&D to never played and RPG, so I only had one kid who only wanted to play for stats and numbers and would ignore everyone else in their party.

One interested encounter was when they visited the town of Phandalan, where they were supposed to find a missing Dwarf they had a deal with. Long story short, they fought a giant potato monster to get potatoes back to a potato farmer instead.

billcom6 posted...

I did a board game club with kids last year. Though we just had really random stuff for the most part. Kids to like the game Blokus a lot.

Good ol' Blokus! Shame Mattel owns them now :(

At this camp they played Pandemic, Castle Panic, Magic Maze, an Escape room with lateral thinking puzzles called Exit, Mysterium, Codenames, and Spyfall.

Most preferred Pandemic oddly enough, as you would think your average kid would prefer a Plants Vs Zombies kind of game or a wacky D&D speed game. Exit was the least favorite, kids prefer their parents to help with escape rooms :)

Day 2 was mostly gaming ettiquette. Not touching other people's pieces, letting the current player have the final say and getting their turn in the spot light. Keeping people engaged and getting good storytelling and inside jokes going in the game.

Castle Panic I felt is the best way to practice being a good host or entertainer :)