what a good idea, rule 17b

I was reading Wil Wheaton's blog this evening, and he was writing about gaming with his son, and how horrible die rolls can ruin the fun of a game, and how - when one is interested in how a child might feel about playing games - a parent might deal with that. He wrote eloquently about teachable moments, and if you are more interested in all that you should check out his blog. I find it quite entertaining, myself.

Anyway, he has a couple of house rules that apply to children in particular. Rule 17a has to do with do-overs, and that is cool.

Rule 17b deals with roll overs. The child can have a limited number of roll over markers... poker chips, beads, something like that. When they get into a string of bad rolls, then they get to spend one to reroll. They must choose their chance wisely, for when the markers are gone, so are the rerolls. His opinion was that this would be better used for strategy games instead of games like Monopoly, but that it should depend on the child, and the age of the child.

I thought that these were two nice house rules. I would like Raine to enjoy playing games, and I don't want her to cheat, but I WOULD like her to feel empowered and able to compete in the games. I also thing gamesmanship is important, winning AND losing gracefully. I think these two rules can help with both. Happy gaming!