Hi all,
New to the game. What do you think the minimum age for kids is? I see some things that say 8+ and some say 13+? I have a 7 year old who is a pretty good reader and she plays other advanced games. I guess my only concern is the artwork. Is it more PG or PG13 or R? Is Rook City darker then the base set? Or is it all about the same?
Thanks!
There is zero inappropriate art in the game. Rook City is only darker in the way that Batman is darker than Superman. Nothing particularly bloody or sexy in the game.
There is some blood here and there on a few cards, but nothing horrible. Spite's cards have terrifying implications of him murdering children, so that may be something to keep in mind (but he's only in Rook City). If your kid is familiar with advanced games and is good at reading I think she would like it. The cards have no swearing, as far as I can remember, and the artwork is colorful and heroic and a lot of fun! If you get it for her now, I would definitely play it with her rather than leave it to her and her friends. But I don't think there is anything in there that will scar her for life, Rook City being a bit of an exception.
I would say the game has themes of death and violenece... but no graphic violence. Maybe a few bloody noses and black eyes.
My main concern on Rook City would be Spite, he is literally a serial killer and will murder some innocents if you are not cautious. Other than that the game is pretty tame.
Thanks to all! That sounds good.
I might also avoid using Captain S&#$@, americas first superhero with tourettes.
In the core set I can only think of one thing that might possibly bother somebody, but you have to dig pretty deep into lore outside of the printed game materials to find it and if it bothers you you're a jerk anyway.
There's some very oblique drug stuff in Rook City, but it's done with after-cartoon PSA levels of abstraction (Plague Rat was a drug dealer who got infected... WITH EVIL). If you're super religious and can't abide any sort of magic or demonic stuff you might have a problem with Nightmight, Apostate, or Gloomweaver from Infernal Relics. But overall it's a very PG Silver Age type of setting. You have to squint pretty hard to find anything offensive, but I dunno there are lots of people who seem to really enjoy getting offended so I'm covering my bases here. There's nothing in here I'd be the least bit weird about showing to my niece and nephew.
Also one really great thing about the game is that there's a ton of female heroes and they're super strong and their outfits are both cool-looking and reasonable. A far cry from the way mainstream comics can't avoid oversexualizing every single female character. It's a breath of fresh air to somebody like me who likes super heroes but can't stand the way that most Marvel and DC books feels like they're targeted at pubescent boys with way too many hormones and a fixation on female anatomy.
The waffle between 8+ and 13+ would seem to me to be primarily a develepment sort of thing. A group of 8-year-olds might not be able to handle the mechanics of running the game on their own, but a group of 13-year-old would be a-ok. Also if you play with them it's a moot point.
I would totally love to play as Captain S&#$@! His real name would be Lionel Essrog, of course. At the start of each turn you roll a d6. On a roll of (H) or higher you play the top card of his deck. Every time you fail the roll you add a Tension token to his character card, which gives +1 to these rolls and can be spent by other cards in his deck. Sometimes this is bad, sometimes it's good. Sometimes it would be good but instead it's wasted because it was played at the wrong time. There'd be cards that can increase or decrease this roll, and his innate power lets him pick a card from hand instead of top of deck the next time the roll comes goes off.
<end tangent>
AHEM Sorry. I'm done now. On a completely unrelated note, does somebody have 41 cards worth of card stock and a half-decent printer I can "borrow?"
Didn't the age range change once Rook City came out? I assume it's due to the gritty nature of Rook City. The base game is completely fine in my eyes, for any age. Rook City, though, does bring in blood (mostly small amounts, though The Operative does kneel in her own pool while impaled by numerous sharp instruments on her incapacitated side), and drugs (Spite, as many have brought up) though not anything other than zany.
So, yeah. With reading comprehension, any age can play and enjoy themselves with some good caregiving.
I think there is technically one swear word, in the flavor text on Twist the Ether, but it's just "Hell," not anything really serious.
I think probably the most disturbing image is Spite's flipside. It's not exactly graphic... just really gross.
No one has said, but if you want to say "kid friendly" in your game you must go through an expensive test (no swallable parts, etc..). I guess >G cannot afford it so they cover their backs by saying 13 or more
I think just playing with your kid is the easiest way to determine what's appropriate and what isn't. All kids are different, and we don't know yours nearly as well as you do. If the game is a shared experience than you can answer uncomfortable questions and put them into appropriate contexts. Just remember that this game is a shared experience and through the shared experience you can maybe get to know your child a little better, and expand their viewpoints while making sure they don't get in over their head.
The only, rather odd, exception, outfit-wise, is Visionary. I never really understood why she wore something like that? It's still not all that bad, but it just feels out of place.
But anyway, as long as your kid doesn't put tokens in her nose, and has good reading comprehension, the base game and infernal relics are completely fine. Rook City is indeed a bit darker and graphic, and I can see why you'd want to wait a bit with that one.
Thanks all. I think I will probably start with the base game and see how it goes. Thanks for all of the responses.
Happy to help. Welcome to the Multiverse!
I always just figured it was becuase she's from the future. Also, despite her outfit she doesn't come off as a sex object becuase of her attitude and also she's bald. Might have been a thing where they didn't want to make her too unappealing because of the baldness, and just went overboard the other direction? In either case I don't feel like she's designed to play on the hormones of a person over a decade younger than me, so that helps.
I dunno, the kids these days love older women with big brains. It's downright pornography seeing so much of the entrancing, shiny orb that is The Visionary's well-endowed cranium.
Seriously, though. I think she's pretty fly. But that's just me!
You're going to be hopeless with Dark Visionary, Reckless, what with that bad girl attitude.