Adapt/ simplify MTG rules for Kids
Hi! I wrote an article on my blog about adapting MTG rules for kids and I thought it would be interesting for some parents with small kids who have yet to learn how to read.
To get in context, I have a 6-years-old daughter who wanted to play with me. I tried to teach her some rules but, given that she can’t read yet, was a little hard to explain everything. Then I also realized that she didn’t like some concepts (like graveyard), so I adapted the rules in a way that, I hope, will be easier for her to understand the real rules when she grows up (and that it will be easier for me to explain).
The result is that we have played many times since and we have had fun :)
If you have improvements to the article, such as other rules, I would be happy to read them.
Cheers, and happy game :)
FYI: I also posted this on Reddit
Thanks for sharing this! My daughter is 3 and she likes to look through my cards with me and comes up with her own rules how to play (with some less-optimal ideas sometimes, such as playing Memory with commander decks)
Btw I had success when playing with her a pen&paper-like adventure and using cards drawn randomly from draft chaff as inspiration and for illustrations. It helps us craft some nice little stories!
Hi. Thank you for your feedback!
In the case of 3-years-old I would also recommend removing the creatures with strong graphics. In my case, with my 6-years-old, I remove all the black cards, as they mostly have graphics with death, corruption and destruction.
I didn’t thought of playing memory with MTG. It’s actually interesting 🤔
Yeah, I realized that quickly as well. No more black cards, hard to explain some of those scenes to small children. 😅
Just use creatures and lands while ignoring any special abilities and such.
Then start to introduce the abilities on just those cards and then add some simpler sorcery cards.
Repeat with other card types until the kids have a full grasp.
Then they beat you every time.A while ago there was a post on reddit by someone who adapted the game to play with their kid too. Iirc they made their own simplified cards too. Maybe thats worth investigating for you :)
Hi! I’m aware of Magic Jr. https://magic-jr.com
I checked that but I had the feeling it was to different from the normal game.
In the reddit post someone posted a link to this video,https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/s/ZSzT7xjIWi and its some tu Ing similar or the same (it is also called Magic Junior).
I wanted to keep using the cards I already have instead of creating new one (or printing them from the Magic Jr. website), as I think it will be easier to transition to the full game. Instead of learning new card my daughter will just have to read and understand new parts of the same cards.
I think they are two different approaches with the same goal. I will update the article as soon as I have time to mention this alternative. That way the reader can choose between both alternatives.
Thanks for your feedback! Best,
Diego
I really like the idea of calling it the Sleep Zone. I might use that for myself. 😊 I am curious to know how she will rename exile though in the future.
I was telling my husband about the sleep zone and he said exile should be called “Go to your room.”
Wow. That’s a great idea! Death is Sleep and Exile is You are grounded!
I will elaborate on this when I get to this situations and update the article accordingly.
As a kid who grew up watching my brothers play mtg back in the 90’s ( circa 95 when i was 6 ), i can tell you thats a great idea!
Hi! Thank you for your feedback! 😋
Sounds pretty fun! Maybe you’ve already thought about this, but as she begins to learn to read, maybe y’all could have fun learning the Pokemon card game together? It already is designed as a sort of simplified version of Magic, where you only have one creature out at a time, there’s no interacting on an opponent’s turn, you can take all the game actions you want during your turn until you attack, and defeated Pokemon are “knocked out” rather than killed. Also from what I can tell, events at many local game stores are family-friendly and well-attended.
