Quote from: RPGPundit;447284Who said it was?! [ considered inherently or morally wrong to play children ].

Koltar certainly, danbuter maybe, J Arcane said he never allows it, you seem to be skirting close to the idea that because it cannot be done, it should not be allowed.

Quote from: RPGPundit;447284Who said it was?!

RPGPundit

Ed did.

Quote from: two_fishes;447285Koltar certainly, danbuter maybe, J Arcane said he never allows it, you seem to be skirting close to the idea that because it cannot be done, it should not be allowed.

Not allowing something at your table is not the same thing as declaring it "morally wrong".

That's such an obvious false equivalence on it's face I'm surprised even you attempted it.

Quote from: J Arcane;447302Not allowing something at your table is not the same thing as declaring it "morally wrong".

That's such an obvious false equivalence on it's face I'm surprised even you attempted it.

I said morally or inherently wrong. That is, if not morally then in some other way inherently wrong. You don't allow it, you said, and (I presume) you must have a reason. I don't think it's a big leap to imagine that since you don't allow it, you must think there is something wrong with doing it. You're free to clarify your reasons for not allowing it. Same goes for danbuter. He said he doesn't allow it without giving any reason. I presume that's because he thinks there is something wrong with adults role-playing children that it should never be done.

Quote from: J Arcane;447302Not allowing something at your table is not the same thing as declaring it "morally wrong".

That's such an obvious false equivalence on it's face I'm surprised even you attempted it.

Actual quote: "Its only 'creepy' and wrong because adults shouldn't be playing children characters in an RPG."

That's what Ed actually said (link to the actual post is in my previous one). He did spell out that to him, adults should not play children characters in an RPG because it is creepy and (morally) wrong.

Quote from: Benoist;447307Actual quote: "Its only 'creepy' and wrong because adults shouldn't be playing children characters in an RPG."

That's what Ed actually said (link to the actual post is in my previous one). He did spell out that to him, adults should not play children characters in an RPG because it is creepy and (morally) wrong.

And that would be a fair defense if he hadn't dragged me into it.

As I said in my very post, I don't reject outright that it can be done, I just don't allow it, because experience has shown it unlikely, and so I'd rather avoid the trouble all together.

It's the same reason I don't allow chewing gum. There's nothing "inherently or morally wrong" about chewing gum, it's just thar experience has shown that it tends to wind up stuck to the underside of my tables, and that "gum mouth" is not conducive to clear communication.

Quote from: J Arcane;447308And that would be a fair defense if he hadn't dragged me into it.

Ah okay. You're objecting to Ed, you and danbuter being lumped together, while you actually don't allow children PCs for reasons that have nothing to do with whatever is morally right or wrong, but what actually works and doesn't work from your POV.

I see it now.

Okay, you don't see anything inherently wrong with it. Neverthless, there is at least one person in the thread who for certain sees playing children as inherently wrong, and perhaps a couple more. I still wonder why they think that.

Quote from: two_fishes;447311Okay, you don't see anything inherently wrong with it. Neverthless, there is at least one person in the thread who for certain sees playing children as inherently wrong, and perhaps a couple more. I still wonder why they think that.

Fair enough.

I can sort of see how it could be creepy if it's a regular pattern of behavior.  I had a group of Changeling players in a LARP group once who persistently played horrible little kid characters and it struck me as an innate refusal to act like a grown human being.  The fact that these were the same sort of grown women who still wore Pooh T-Shirts and collected Disney Princesses memorabilia rather reinforced that conclusion.

The 4channer in me also knows there's some /tg/ folk, particularly Maid players, who tend to take it in a creepy pedo direction.

I don't think I could see such faults as inherent to the concept though, more something I'd be concerned about if it was a regular pattern with a particular player.  IOW, it's a player problem, not a problem with playing kids per se.

Quote from: RPGPundit;446679Leaving aside for the moment those particular games like little fears where the PCs all supposedly play children, what do people feel about having some player wanting to play a child PC? For child, read, "under 14".  Have you ever actually seen this work out well?

The primary experience I had with it involved a player playing a child in a superhero game where the other PCs were adults and it was a problem because it made no sense to me that the adults would hang out with the child without their parents knowing, expose the child to all sorts of nasty criminal stuff, or continuously allow the child to put themselves in mortal danger.  So before I'd consider playing in a game with another player playing a child PC, it would have to be a setting where putting or leaving children in danger (as opposed from trying to remove them from the action for their own safety) would make some sort of sense.  Perhaps something like a post-holocaust setting with only a handful of survivors.  But as a general rule, I'd prefer to not go there again.

Quote from: John Morrow;447333The primary experience I had with it involved a player playing a child in a superhero game where the other PCs were adults and it was a problem because it made no sense to me that the adults would hang out with the child without their parents knowing, expose the child to all sorts of nasty criminal stuff, or continuously allow the child to put themselves in mortal danger.  So before I'd consider playing in a game with another player playing a child PC, it would have to be a setting where putting or leaving children in danger (as opposed from trying to remove them from the action for their own safety) would make some sort of sense.  Perhaps something like a post-holocaust setting with only a handful of survivors.  But as a general rule, I'd prefer to not go there again.

Or the super-hero genre, where putting children in danger is routine, in the form of side-kicks.

I take the bland and unhelpful position that there is no inherent problem in roleplaying a preteen character, but I do not recall having seen it done well.

Why am I remembering a 'boy mage' pregenerated character in the original B1 module?

Quote from: J Arcane;447302Not allowing something at your table is not the same thing as declaring it "morally wrong".

That's such an obvious false equivalence on it's face I'm surprised even you attempted it.

Quite, I wouldn't let someone play a gully dwarf either (to bring up a topic from another recent thread), but that wouldn't make it morally wrong, its just significantly disruptive.

Now a Gnome, on the other hand, THAT is morally wrong.

RPGPundit

An interesting factor in modern theatre production is that it is often far more cost effective to have adults playing children. Equity and it's equivelents across the civilised world have placed such rigid restrictions on child actors that for all but the biggest of stage musicals it isn't financially viable to have anyone under 16 on your stage.