Café de Nuit

The question says mostly everything.

Note that by start playing I don't necessarily mean with the full rules etc. Simplified rules could be used for ease with younger kids.
Ashamed as I am to admit it, I would believe 18+ after the player has some experience with other (more traditional) kinds of game. Orc bashing/dragon slaying/princess saving is fundamental before you get in the mists in my opinion.
And I don't think many youngsters would appreciate gothic/fantasy horror.

I agree with Alhoon- I was able to appreciate the setting at 15 but well, none of my friends could. Now that we're a bit older they've almost caught up. But I think the key is to love Gothicism first and foremost. If you can get a teen to like real gothic stories- they WILL be able to enjoy RL. So it is sorta dependant on that.

20-25 in my opinion. People by that age have started to reach a level of maturity that lets them understand more in life and have more of a direct view on things in the world around them. I do understand that some people mature faster than others, but over all, this is the best age. Also, a true appreciation for Gothicism (the classic movies and books) has begun to emerge, and you start to want to learn more about your heroes and villains... what truly motivates them, and what actually drives you to be your best?

At least, that's my take on things...

My kids had played HeroQuest with me in their pre-teen years, and asked me if they couldn't also play with all of my D&D miniatures. I did a mini-adventure for them with all the props, a low level "protect the shepherd & sheep from wolf attacks that ended up being led by a werewolf". I put a lot of emphasis on role-playing & character development, actually caring who they were playing & who they were saving, also adding a lot of stereotypic atmosphere for a lycanthropic encounter. They liked it well enough, but were really more into the visuals I presented than the story. At that age, I felt they were more into videogame-like action, and not into the backstory.

This poll is likely to trigger plenty of responses akin to "well, I started playing at age X so that can't be far off".

In any case I bought Van Richten's Guide to the Lich at age 13, and went from there to the Ravenloft campaign setting at age 14. My first adventure was From the Shadows, also at age 14.

I believe 18-20 too, having some experience in RPG is better if you want to appreciate the gothic atmosphere.

15ish. Get them while they're young and innocent expand that mind.

Hi all,
Get them while they are young and tender. I intend to expose my newborn to the horros of ravenloft as soon as I can. He will really fear the monsters under his bed!

Muhahaha!

Erm no.
Roleplaying probably from the age of 7ish, reading, concentrating, problemsolving and working together are necessary skills I think.
The scaries stuff shuld be saved until they are no longer frightened by the monster under the bed, so early teens I think.

Still eleven more years to go before my bundle of joy will understand Ravenloft.

Jennifer

i would say fairly young. Introduce it with gothic horror classics(poe, byron, lovecraft, shelly, radcliff) around 10-12. Then play it a few years later after they have messed around with other rgps or other games.

I'd say...it varies. I got the original I6 when it first came out; I think I was...twelve?...by which time I was already a fan of the basics of Gothic horror--the original Dracula, Poe--to say nothing of the Victorian era, which I'd originally been introduced to via Sherlock Holmes.

I would agree with everyone who says that a Ravenloft player should have a good grounding in Gothic horror before playing. What's important is an appreciation of the milieu, not the game system. Essentially, Ravenloft is what you do when you say, "I don't want to just read about Gothic horror; I want to play it." Ironically, the classics of Gothic horror are more suitable to younger viewers than modern horror, without the explicit levels of gore and shock-violence, plus the images have penetrated the culture to the extent that they're iconic (every preschooler in America with a TV, after all, is familiar with a guy with fangs and a bad Bela Lugosi accent).

I would not say that previous D&D experience is necessary for Ravenloft play. The complexity or lack thereof of any given rules system is irrelevant; rules can be adjusted. And just think about the idea of a player who has several years of Ravenloft experience as their first introduction to D&D; best way to avoid Monty Haul games would be to play in a setting where the concept is completely alien.

I started playing when i was 15, which was a year and a half ago..
Prior Roleplaying experience of 6 years, so methinks that's about right.. Though my Pc's ages are 15, 19, and 26.
But in all honesty i don't feel the group plays to Ravenlofts full potential of Gothic Horror, with too much table talk and such.. anyways...

I got into Ravenloft when the blackbox came out. I think I was about 13-14 (long time ago!). I was into Gothic horror stuff so this seemed a dream come true. Unfortunatley my game group werent as into the idea,
being about 14 the emphasis was on who could kill the most stuff and get the coolest magical weapons to kill more stuff with.

I got bored with the endless dungeon crawls they loved after a while and planned to try Ravenloft on them. I designed an adventure based loosely on Ship of horror that involved bring them to RL on a ship conducting an illegal trade in corpses for necromancers. I threw everything I had into the descriptions and played up the atmosphere, and had combat play only a minor part. At the end of the first session one of them turned to me and said "that was awesome, really gave me the creeps lets do it again".

Suffice to say we played only RL for quite a few years after that.

So in a long winded answer to this post, I think RL can be relevant to anyone if they are given the chance, although I think you need to have an appreciation for the atmosphere of gothic horror (but then I was lucky Bram Stokers Dracula came out about this time and it generated a lot of interets in the whole vampire thing).

I started reading Carnival to my first child within an hour of her birth.

My second it was longer, but still within the crucial 24 hours.

Sweet!

I would say that around 15 years old seems to be a very good age in which to introduce Raveloft to young players. By this age, most players would have a good grounding in Gothic horror and would understand the more delicate intricacies involved (beyond basic adventuring).

However, I agree with Sylaire, in that it can varies quite a bit depending upon the particular child/person in question. Some people mature earlier and some people are more interested in a Gothic atmosphere. Heck, even among adults, not everyone wants to play in a Gothic horror environment (which is part of the reason why not every roleplayer is interested in Ravenloft).

By the way, thanks for option #1, alhoon. We're already working on that one...