Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Dominion General Discussion => Topic started by: ackmondual on October 23, 2017, 01:25:18 am

Title: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: ackmondual on October 23, 2017, 01:25:18 am
Wondering what others' experiences are with this.  We're talking 4yo to 10yo.

I'm guessing with 4yo to 7yo range, may want to do a "First Journey" type deal where you remove Provinces and Gold, and only use 4 to 6 Kingdom cards.  Even then, that should be curated for cards that would be too complex.  Duchies being gone ends the game.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Awaclus on October 23, 2017, 06:55:01 am
I successfully taught Dominion to a 7-year-old using a randomly generated base set kingdom.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: delirimouse42 on November 05, 2017, 02:27:04 pm
In my experience the main barrier is reading. If they can't read, or are frustrated by reading, it's hard to get a game going. But the general concept is easy to understand, and I've played with many kids who love the game! (Context: I run an after school & camp program.)
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Kirian on November 05, 2017, 02:51:55 pm
I think I started at 7 (?).  Basically, so long as they can read, they can play.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: LastFootnote on November 05, 2017, 03:02:22 pm
I think I started at 7 (?).  Basically, so long as they can read, they can play.

My son is 4 and could easily read the cards. I’m still not going to try to teach him Dominion. There’s no way it would hold his interest for a full game.

Honestly I’d expect math to be a bigger barrier than reading.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: sudgy on November 05, 2017, 03:08:26 pm
I think I started at 7 (?).  Basically, so long as they can read, they can play.

I thought you were one of the older ones here?  You've been playing Dominion for decades?
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: markusin on November 05, 2017, 04:19:22 pm
In my experience the main barrier is reading. If they can't read, or are frustrated by reading, it's hard to get a game going. But the general concept is easy to understand, and I've played with many kids who love the game! (Context: I run an after school & camp program.)

Yeah, this explains why my Dad disliked the game when he tried it the first time. Didn't like having to whip out his reading glasses to play the game.

Funny thing, he became willing to try the game again after telling him about my escapades on Dominion Online. We played two games today with 2nd edition base game. The second game, he saw Throne Room and was like "Wow!", then opened Throne Room / Moat.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Triumph44 on November 05, 2017, 06:21:52 pm
We curated a kingdom for my friend's child who was nearly 8 at the time - he had watched Dominion over his dad's shoulder as he played on the laptop but had never played himself.   The game didn't quite go as planned - as someone pointed out in the thread, the trouble was not reading (though we did use the simplest cards) but math.  He grasped the game and how to play it and even the strategy, but he had to count his money individually each time, plus we had stuff like Market and Woodcutter in the Supply which added to the complication.  So yeah, don't discount math as a limiting factor.

I like the idea of the simple game and had I read this before that experience I would've suggested it, I think.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Violet CLM on November 06, 2017, 11:18:32 am
I've played with a few kids. The hardest part (besides reading) for them was, as it seems to be for many adults, the details of the cleanup phase and the idea of not putting played cards immediately into the discard pile.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Witherweaver on November 06, 2017, 11:21:23 am
I think I started at 7 (?).  Basically, so long as they can read, they can play.

I didn't realize you were so young!
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: sudgy on November 06, 2017, 12:19:37 pm
I think I started at 7 (?).  Basically, so long as they can read, they can play.

I didn't realize you were so young!

I think I started at 7 (?).  Basically, so long as they can read, they can play.

I thought you were one of the older ones here?  You've been playing Dominion for decades?
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Witherweaver on November 06, 2017, 12:20:06 pm
Ain't nobody got time to read the entire thread!
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: sudgy on November 06, 2017, 12:29:50 pm
Ain't nobody got time to read the entire thread!

...it's not even an entire page?
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Awaclus on November 06, 2017, 12:44:04 pm
Yeah, it's like a quarter of a page.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Cave-o-sapien on November 06, 2017, 12:44:18 pm
Kids are so different! It's really hard to generalize without knowing what their strengths and weaknesses are.

If attention is a problem, maybe let them read through the card names or look at the art to see what cards interest them thematically, and play with those cards.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: mameluke on November 06, 2017, 01:31:33 pm
Ain't nobody got time to read the entire thread!

...it's not even an entire page?

Better read it before it's exchanged for a Treasure Hunter
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Chappy7 on November 06, 2017, 04:44:40 pm
I play with my 10 year old brother pretty often.  He understands and loves the game.  I've taught him the rules, and he even goes through all of the cards we own and memorizes them.  The problem is that he has a very hard time grasping more than basic strategy.  I still coach him through lots of his buy phases, trying to convince him that he actually doesn't want to buy the most expensive thing possible every time.

I'm sure there are lots of kids that are really smart and can get the hang of the game easily, but I imagine it will be hard for most kids 10 and younger to be good at the game.  But hey, that's okay. They have to start somewhere!
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: 2.71828..... on November 06, 2017, 11:36:00 pm
Kirian was referring to his kids. Reference the post your picture thread
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Witherweaver on November 06, 2017, 11:47:34 pm
Kirian was referring to his kids. Reference the post your picture thread

He's far too young to have kids....
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Kirian on November 07, 2017, 01:31:54 am
Kirian was referring to his kids. Reference the post your picture thread

Meh, I assume that was obvious, and people are being intentionally and obnoxiously obtuse.  Which I do enough that I can't really complain about too much.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Mac-S on November 07, 2017, 03:52:47 am
The age recommendation on the box is 8+ and even that seems low to me. While the basic concepts aren't that difficult, the strategy is deeper than in most of the games that are listed 10+.

I taught my oldest son Dominion when he was 9 (on a foreign language version, but at that age they can remember 10 different actions based on pictures) and he played a decent Big Money strategy at the time, but when he tried anything else it was way too inefficient. So either I would have to play suboptimally to make the game close, or I would win easily most of the time and he would get frustrated. Either way, one of us was not going to enjoy it. We just play different boardgames instead.

Teaching it to younger children... I don't know, it seems to be too much to ask for most children. There are other boardgames where they can be genuinely competitive and I think that would be way more fun for both parent and child.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Kirian on November 07, 2017, 04:38:18 am
The age recommendation on the box is 8+ and even that seems low to me. While the basic concepts aren't that difficult, the strategy is deeper than in most of the games that are listed 10+.

I taught my oldest son Dominion when he was 9 (on a foreign language version, but at that age they can remember 10 different actions based on pictures) and he played a decent Big Money strategy at the time, but when he tried anything else it was way too inefficient. So either I would have to play suboptimally to make the game close, or I would win easily most of the time and he would get frustrated. Either way, one of us was not going to enjoy it. We just play different boardgames instead.

Teaching it to younger children... I don't know, it seems to be too much to ask for most children. There are other boardgames where they can be genuinely competitive and I think that would be way more fun for both parent and child.

Remember that quite a few games (in the US at least) are labeled 13+ so they don't have to go through product testing required for younger children's toys.  One might think "that's ridiculous, it's just cards" but alas, that's where we are.

Now obviously an 8-year-old won't have the same handle on strategy as an adult, but in many cases it's not about the strategy, it's about the game play.

And of course every kid is different.  Splendor was fine for our younger one at 4, but I wouldn't have introduced it to my niece (they're six months apart) until she was at least 6.  Attention span, interest, and actual mental ability obviously differ child to child.  So when I talk about my 8-year-old, it might not apply to your 8-year-old.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: allanfieldhouse on November 07, 2017, 10:50:04 am
Kirian was referring to his kids. Reference the post your picture thread

Meh, I assume that was obvious, and people are being intentionally and obnoxiously obtuse.  Which I do enough that I can't really complain about too much.

Just from that initial post, I thought you were talking about yourself. Makes more sense as your kids though. New thread: was Kirian's wording ambiguous? ;)
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: Kirian on November 08, 2017, 02:10:44 am
Kirian was referring to his kids. Reference the post your picture thread

Meh, I assume that was obvious, and people are being intentionally and obnoxiously obtuse.  Which I do enough that I can't really complain about too much.

Just from that initial post, I thought you were talking about yourself. Makes more sense as your kids though. New thread: was Kirian's wording ambiguous? ;)

Yes, but not intentionally so. "I started" without a further verb obviously refers to the thread title.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: chipperMDW on November 08, 2017, 07:08:37 am
Kirian was referring to his kids. Reference the post your picture thread

Meh, I assume that was obvious, and people are being intentionally and obnoxiously obtuse.  Which I do enough that I can't really complain about too much.

Just from that initial post, I thought you were talking about yourself. Makes more sense as your kids though. New thread: was Kirian's wording ambiguous? ;)

Yes, but not intentionally so. "I started" without a further verb obviously refers to the thread title.

I read it as "I think I started reading at 7" since reading was being talked about as a prerequisite both in the preceding post and in your next sentence.

I mean, at first, I read it as "I think I started playing Dominion at 7," but I figured that couldn't be right (i.e. it didn't seem to be a joke) and looked for another interpretation. I briefly considered that you might have been talking about the age of kids you started teaching, but rejected that idea because that made "at 7" a dangling modifier; it needed to be something you were doing when you were 7. "Teaching" didn't make any more sense than "playing," so "reading" was the only thing that worked.

I didn't understand that you really were referring to your kids' ages until e pointed that out. Even now, knowing what you meant, I still can't squint enough to make the original look right to me; I can't mentally detach "at 7" from you and attach it to something not even mentioned in the sentence.

Probably, if "reading" hadn't worked as well as it did in context, I would have given up on my need for the modifier to not dangle and eventually accepted the intended meaning. It might also have helped if I'd known (remembered?) that you actually have kids and therefore would definitely have been in a position to teach some.

Not criticizing; just explaining the thought process of one person who legitimately misunderstood.
Title: Re: Teaching Dominion to young children?
Post by: crj on November 08, 2017, 11:17:22 am
The age recommendation on the box is 8+ and even that seems low to me. While the basic concepts aren't that difficult, the strategy is deeper than in most of the games that are listed 10+.
You don't have to play deep strategy to have fun, though. And you can have fun with what strategy you can muster.

What should the minimum age for Chess be? 50?