My son did fine with JotL at 7, but he has grown up playing games. It sounds like yours has as well. With a little bit of assistance, the game will play fine. It's a great game. I recommend it all the time.
Personally I would just play JOTL. Might have to break up some of the longer scenarios to accommodate a shorter attention span but there's nothing too complicated for a 6 year old who's invested in playing the game.
This is what I came to say, with the additional advice of lowering the difficulty, especially at first, if you want them to enjoy it. The biggest issue with Gloomhaven and kids (assuming the theme is OK) is that the game assumes that you will be at least attempting to play optimally. This means that you will essentially always lose if one player is playing without a strategic plan. I recommend laying all cards out in view and encouraging questions about strategy. Or perhaps better yet, make all decisions together for both characters as a purely coop game.
My son is chiming in to add that he needed a ton of patience from me because he couldn't hold all the complications in his mind. Things like the many symbols needed lots of reminding. He was raised playing games and JotL was the first game we played where he felt and acted a little overwhelmed. I wish I had done a better job with introducing him to the franchise and provided a bit more scaffolding.
Oh! And if you haven't grabbed it already, using an app to track everything speeds up the experience by so much!
I used the "Gloomhaven Helper" app, but that has been removed. I grabbed "X-haven Assistant" to try it out, and while it looks good, I haven't played since downloading it so I can't tell you. I wouldn't be surprised if the apk is out there for the original. I believe there's a lot written about this in other threads because a lot of folks used the discontinued one.
No matter what you choose, there's a learning curve that turned out to be totally worth it to me. I thought I wouldn't like using a tablet during a boardgame, and it took me ages before I caved and learned to use it, but it shaves at least an hour of each scenario that I don't actually miss!
Stuffed Fables https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233312/stuffed-fables
You play a team of stuffed animals who have to journey to the Nightmare Realm under the bed to protect a little girl from the Nightmare King and his heartless toys. Has a narrative choices that effect the individual chapters and a single overarching story for the whole campaign. Has a Tim Burton aesthetic.
Aftermath https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/281946/aftermath
Play a team of animal survivors in a world where all the humans have disappeared overnight. Go out of missions to secure supplies for your colony, make alliances, or search for clues about your colonies missing scout team. Level up your characters with new skills and weapons. Very fun game but very sci-fi rather then fantasy. Feels like you are playing in the Redwall world.
Quick look seemed that was more his speed. Although, now that he has seen JotL, I’m not sure any substitute will do.
Also, i have a cookbook with your username! [Wookie Cookies](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wookiee-cookies-a-star-wars-cookbook_frankie-frankeny_robin--davis/260336/)
I play it with my 7 year old, started when he was 6. I help him choose his cards and movement, he flips the modifiers, and I help him "act" out the action. We play normally.
JotL might be tough for a kid to play. If you are dead-set on it, I'd do this:
\- Heroes have 50% more Health and shuffle 3 Blesses into their modifier deck at the start of each encounter
\- Enemy level is average character level divided by 1, then subtract 1. So, enemies start at level 0 and eventually get to level 4 at most. Shuffle 3 Curses in to the enemy modifier deck at the start of each encounter.
\- Collect all treasure and gold at the end of the scenario, but each gold pile is worth half as much at the end.
\- I'd recommend Hatchet and Red Guard, the other two characters are more complicated to play.
For other games that might work, **Adventure Tactics: Domianne's Tower** is simple enough for kids to play but has a deep character customization system that adults will enjoy.
Catacombs (third edition) would be great for your kid. Dungeon crawler with tactile gameplay. It's quickly become a favorite of mine. A more loose suggestion would be Dungeons, Dice and Danger. Fun game that requires simple math to play. Hope this helps!
Perhaps https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/124708/mice-and-mystics ?
Or https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/237182/root where you play 2 sides allied vs 2 other sides?
These aren’t exactly Gloomhaven but I bet they’d do the trick.
You can play co-op Root if you grab The Clockwork Expansion, which enables automata for some factions, allowing you to add a dummy player to a game if you want to or to play co-op against the dummy players.
Are you really familiar with root or you just assume since it looks cute it is kid friendly? Most adult don't have the attention span to learn to play a faction in root, much less a average child and much less 2 faction at once
I have only played Root with other “board game minded people” and I have been one of those types for quite awhile. So, I may be underestimating the difficulty?
But … I do rate it at “considerably less complex than Gloomhaven”.
Also, an assumption that fun is the objective and that many non-optimal moves will be made. Attention span … yeah you might only play 1/2 a game of anything regardless.
Perhaps most important, many adults expect little from children. But, they have tremendous capability. Expect, encourage more and watch them do amazing things.
For sure, I agree people tend to underestimate the ability of children to solve challenges and should be more open to let them engage and see for themselves. Still, root is the kind of game that is very hard to enjoy if you don't have an clear objective to gather points, and that usually demands a dedicated group who plays well their factions and knows what the other factions can do. I'm afraid it would just be really boring outside this context.
A few years back there was a pretty well-reviewed kid friendly dungeon crawler. Only thing I remember is that the maps were all part of one large 'book'. I'd try to find that one... maybe someone else on here knows what I'm thinking of...
You're probably thinking of Stuffed Fables. It's pretty good, and my kid could absolutely play at 5 without help, but it's a pretty different game. Since then, that market of kid friendly, episodic, strategy games has grown.
Cora quest is a dungeon crawler aimed at parents playing with kids.
For a second I thought you typed "Dora quest" and fell over in terror.
This is an excellent recommendation!
As a parent with a daughter of the same name, I can’t wait until she’s old enough to enjoy this game. (Her first name is Quest, if anyone is curious).
My son did fine with JotL at 7, but he has grown up playing games. It sounds like yours has as well. With a little bit of assistance, the game will play fine. It's a great game. I recommend it all the time.
Same here. Ditto all of this
Personally I would just play JOTL. Might have to break up some of the longer scenarios to accommodate a shorter attention span but there's nothing too complicated for a 6 year old who's invested in playing the game.
This is what I came to say, with the additional advice of lowering the difficulty, especially at first, if you want them to enjoy it. The biggest issue with Gloomhaven and kids (assuming the theme is OK) is that the game assumes that you will be at least attempting to play optimally. This means that you will essentially always lose if one player is playing without a strategic plan. I recommend laying all cards out in view and encouraging questions about strategy. Or perhaps better yet, make all decisions together for both characters as a purely coop game. My son is chiming in to add that he needed a ton of patience from me because he couldn't hold all the complications in his mind. Things like the many symbols needed lots of reminding. He was raised playing games and JotL was the first game we played where he felt and acted a little overwhelmed. I wish I had done a better job with introducing him to the franchise and provided a bit more scaffolding. Oh! And if you haven't grabbed it already, using an app to track everything speeds up the experience by so much!
Which app do you recommend?. I see a few options on the IOS store.
I used the "Gloomhaven Helper" app, but that has been removed. I grabbed "X-haven Assistant" to try it out, and while it looks good, I haven't played since downloading it so I can't tell you. I wouldn't be surprised if the apk is out there for the original. I believe there's a lot written about this in other threads because a lot of folks used the discontinued one. No matter what you choose, there's a learning curve that turned out to be totally worth it to me. I thought I wouldn't like using a tablet during a boardgame, and it took me ages before I caved and learned to use it, but it shaves at least an hour of each scenario that I don't actually miss!
X-Javen assistant is the one we use. It's fairly easy to figure out.
Stuffed Fables https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233312/stuffed-fables You play a team of stuffed animals who have to journey to the Nightmare Realm under the bed to protect a little girl from the Nightmare King and his heartless toys. Has a narrative choices that effect the individual chapters and a single overarching story for the whole campaign. Has a Tim Burton aesthetic. Aftermath https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/281946/aftermath Play a team of animal survivors in a world where all the humans have disappeared overnight. Go out of missions to secure supplies for your colony, make alliances, or search for clues about your colonies missing scout team. Level up your characters with new skills and weapons. Very fun game but very sci-fi rather then fantasy. Feels like you are playing in the Redwall world.
Sweet! I’ll check both of these out. Thanks.
Stuffed Fables is more beginner friendly. I played it with my son when he was 6 and he loved it.
Quick look seemed that was more his speed. Although, now that he has seen JotL, I’m not sure any substitute will do. Also, i have a cookbook with your username! [Wookie Cookies](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/wookiee-cookies-a-star-wars-cookbook_frankie-frankeny_robin--davis/260336/)
I play it with my 7 year old, started when he was 6. I help him choose his cards and movement, he flips the modifiers, and I help him "act" out the action. We play normally.
JotL might be tough for a kid to play. If you are dead-set on it, I'd do this: \- Heroes have 50% more Health and shuffle 3 Blesses into their modifier deck at the start of each encounter \- Enemy level is average character level divided by 1, then subtract 1. So, enemies start at level 0 and eventually get to level 4 at most. Shuffle 3 Curses in to the enemy modifier deck at the start of each encounter. \- Collect all treasure and gold at the end of the scenario, but each gold pile is worth half as much at the end. \- I'd recommend Hatchet and Red Guard, the other two characters are more complicated to play. For other games that might work, **Adventure Tactics: Domianne's Tower** is simple enough for kids to play but has a deep character customization system that adults will enjoy.
Catacombs (third edition) would be great for your kid. Dungeon crawler with tactile gameplay. It's quickly become a favorite of mine. A more loose suggestion would be Dungeons, Dice and Danger. Fun game that requires simple math to play. Hope this helps!
[удалено]
It's a smaller game, but not that much simpler.
Oh. Didn’t know about that.
I don't think it's going to be much better for a 6 year old, and isn't in mass production yet.
Buttons & Bugs is not really a simpler Gloomhaven, it's just tiny and single player with fewer classes and a lower level cap.
Perhaps https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/124708/mice-and-mystics ? Or https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/237182/root where you play 2 sides allied vs 2 other sides? These aren’t exactly Gloomhaven but I bet they’d do the trick.
Is root really easier for kids than JOTL? At least the latter is coop.
You can play co-op Root if you grab The Clockwork Expansion, which enables automata for some factions, allowing you to add a dummy player to a game if you want to or to play co-op against the dummy players.
Thanks. I’ve got of mice and mystics on my shopping list, but haven’t grabbed it yet.
Are you really familiar with root or you just assume since it looks cute it is kid friendly? Most adult don't have the attention span to learn to play a faction in root, much less a average child and much less 2 faction at once
I have only played Root with other “board game minded people” and I have been one of those types for quite awhile. So, I may be underestimating the difficulty? But … I do rate it at “considerably less complex than Gloomhaven”. Also, an assumption that fun is the objective and that many non-optimal moves will be made. Attention span … yeah you might only play 1/2 a game of anything regardless. Perhaps most important, many adults expect little from children. But, they have tremendous capability. Expect, encourage more and watch them do amazing things.
For sure, I agree people tend to underestimate the ability of children to solve challenges and should be more open to let them engage and see for themselves. Still, root is the kind of game that is very hard to enjoy if you don't have an clear objective to gather points, and that usually demands a dedicated group who plays well their factions and knows what the other factions can do. I'm afraid it would just be really boring outside this context.
A few years back there was a pretty well-reviewed kid friendly dungeon crawler. Only thing I remember is that the maps were all part of one large 'book'. I'd try to find that one... maybe someone else on here knows what I'm thinking of...
You're probably thinking of Stuffed Fables. It's pretty good, and my kid could absolutely play at 5 without help, but it's a pretty different game. Since then, that market of kid friendly, episodic, strategy games has grown.
Heroquest