"Older Gamers & Their Preferences" Topic

Drew Jarman on the 6mm Minis forum writes: "For some reason the older some gamers get the more they seem to regress back to their teenage years when they now seem more than happy to use rules with reams of tables and buckets of dice."

Do you agree?

Not one whit. My deepest desire is to actually get a group of gamers to play one game system enough where everyone actually learns the rules.

No.

Sorry I could hear you over the rattle of all those dice.

Not at all.

I am on the wrong side of 65 and I play games where one or perhaps two dice are rolled at any one time.

I also play games where a handful of dice are thrown regularly.

It all depends on the style of the game concerned.

Somewhat agree.

Now, you kids get off my lawn!

I'm 65 and like the way things are now. ( and get off my lawn also.)

All generalities are wrong.

No.

No. I play simple games. Sometimes multiple dice. Sometimes saving throws. Usually with a couple of charts that fit on 1 sheet of paper.

No, simpler rules (so my older brain can follow them) and not a whole lot of dice.

Jim

Nope. Just about to 64 and I'm quite the fan of simpler equals better and cannot think of any loads tables/charts game that remains in my wheelhouse.

Don't trust anyone under 55. Those kids are just useless with their interwebs and the tweezer posts and face thinging. Damn kids.

I am almost 57 and currently my favorite games are Lion Rampant, The Lion Eats Tonight, and Bolt Action. All three have easy to learn rules and easy to teach, and yes use a fair amount of dice if you think tossing more than two dice is too many. I find I am more draw to game rules that follow the principles of the games above. First the emphasis is on fun, second they have just enough chrome to capture the spirit of the era they portray without getting bogged down in reams of charts.

At 63 I view the '70s style rules nostalgically, but like to play simple, more elegant rules. But Johnny Reb III remains my all time favorite.

Not from where I sit! I'm 67 and I play simple games with simple rules and theyre getting simpler, and by the way you can't get more simple than a bucketful of dice and less tables.

My modern games, "The Shattered Century", My Renaissance to 18th Century and Nappy rules are 12 pages single spaced with all artwork, charts, tables, and illustrations in that, my ancient rules are three pages, my Cvil War rules are one page both sides. My Sailing ship game rules are eight pages.

I wasted too much time and effort on complex rules which got nowhere.

You kids can play on my lawn anytime you want so long as you bring your girlfriends in their "itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny-yellow polka-dot bikinis.."

Mr. Jarman needs to be more tolerant of gaming styles outside his own preferences. His prejudice that "buckets of dice" is juvenile is rather snobbish.

For the record, I am 68, and I play rules where one die (though perhaps multiple rolls), decides things and others (e.g., The Sword and the Flame) which use quite a few dice. Both are enjoyable.

Nope. Sorry, in my day is was reams of tables….buckets of dice game much later. And I still prefer today's gaming styles.

I'm 54 and I don't agree. I'm at a point where if the rules have more than one double-sided QRS, I keep looking. A few years back I realized the limits of my mortality and decided my hobby must not take up anymore than a secondary part of my life and my family life is all the more richer for it.

I'm 64 and am not sure what this dice thingy you speak of is….my games require flicking a spinner with my forefinger.

I look at my collection of SPI and AH games from the 60's thru 80's and wonder if I'll ever find time let alone an opponent that knows the rules to play them again. Then I look at those I bought in the last 10 yrs and wonder yet the same thing.
So I just trudge back to the basement and set up the miniatures for another battle using AoF or Panzer Grenedier or GQ3.

Hey you kids…..just cause mjkerner and ironicon kicked you off their lawns doesnt mean you can come over here and play on mine!!!!!

I completely agree with the quoted statement. Some gamers will change as described with age, and most won't.

No. I have always and still do play both types of game.

No

No.

As my Dad classicly said one day when I was young, "If you're gonna do that here, go somewhere else!"

As with every other pronouncement I have seen from any of these magazine dudes I disagree completely. The older I get the more I play what I want to play, whether that resembles my interests from younger years or not. And yes, all generalities are indeed stupid. 8)=

No.

In my experience, the gaming is getting replaced with liquor and BS. I used to gripe that I couldn't run a game past turn 6, but now I'm lucky to get through turn 3. <sigh>

On the bright side, the liquor keeps getting better.

- Ix

Don't know about buckets of dice but I do prefer a simple game. I spent enough time when younger playing complex games that never really got resolved.

"Another few turns (at 60 minutes each) and I'd have captured that chicken coop."

Reams of rules..no way. Buckets of dice…on the other hand..
Simplicity is the key. Remembering the old Tractics rules from the 70s, no way even back then did I care for dozens of charts or detail down to whether the tank commander had a nosebleed.

so to succinctly answer his question..No..not at all.

I'm 57, we at play Shako 2, Armati 2, Rapid Fire, and Longstreet.
No 70's vintage games there.

Not yet 60 (but soon). Prefer simple rules but rules that are clever. Tired of looking things up so I want a set of rules I know, is enjoyable and finnished in a reasonable time. Fior my Crimean war its "Charge of the Light Brigade" while for American Rev War it's "Loose Files and American Scramble. " I have been playing both for a long time and enjoy them greatly.

For miniatures games, no. I loathed the chart-heavy design of minis games in the 70's and still do now!

There are a few 70's boardgames however that I have always enjoyed. Not going back to them out of nostalgia, they've always been good.
Escape From Colditz
Rivets
Battle For Germany
PRESTAGS

At 64 I still prefer Larry Brom's simple rule systems-especially TSATF. We were struggling with a complex variant of CL&S back in the 70s when we met Larry with his simple rules that could be learned in a couple of turns. I have tried Black Powder which seems simple enough when you read it but I bogged down trying to play it. Maybe some really good playsheets will help. I still game with friends from our original college war game group and they dabble with various new rule systems but they seem heretical for the most part.

Don't want reams of rules but lots of dice are ok.

[Jeff Foxworthy voice] "If you're using 3 inch dice because it's the only way you can see the dots, then you're probably an Older Gamer!"

;-)

I'm back to ASL so yes, but I also like games with a smaller footprint with a couple pages of charts and a handful of unit cards per game.

No, simpler rules (so my older brain can follow them)

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Group of players here tends to play different games all the time. Has to be simple. Number of dice depends on rules. Adding more dice to the bucket can be a way to simplify rules

I am only older than a few people and cannot tell units apart without glasses. Does that me eligible to comment ?

John

i like simple rules now. easier to digest.

Passed 58 like it was standing still, accelerating towards 59. Simple is good. As others say, the charts and heavy dice mods from the 70's are so… 1970's.

I do have a lawn but the kids don't play on it because of the cobra that come in from the surrounding rice paddy during harvest season.

I have this urge to do a Tractics variant with initiative cards and tack on some role playing rules. Yeah, I'm old.

The older we get the simpler the rules we want.Less tables, less dice rolling, rules on 2 sides of A4 sheet.

No.
Reams of tables are bad.
Rules should be elegant rather than simple. If there's a bucket of dice then that's unlikely to be particularly elegant.

Not me either, I am 53 (and with a bit of luck 54 next month), and I want rules that don´t get bogged down in charts but rather let me enjoy the ebb and flow of the game.

Simply put, "No!"

No! It's just the opposite.

Nope. I don't believe there is a reason at all.

Define older gamer. I'm 60 and my main issue is getting opponents to read the rules. Number of dice isn't the problem. As for preferences buckets of dice isn't my thing but that's because I see it as an inelegant solution to probability curve design.

Not me! The simpler the better

What's wrong with tables and dice? :)

I am 68 in May and my current gamimg interests are SAGA, Blucher, and Black Powder and these are all recent games with not that many dice

I wish people would stop generalizing about topics they know little about