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After lurking in another thread about tasteless models, a thought occurred to me: is 40k really a kids game? The models and lore, while occasionally silly, read more like a version of Heavy Metal or Akira. There are kids who come to play at my LGS, but most of them are fourteen or older. What do you guys think? Should there be an age limit on games like this, or do you think everyone should be welcome?

With most of 40k, there's enough vagueness t background and setting that you can make of it what you will. You can look at or as utterly grim dark, emotionally futile and rather horrific, or you can take it as written which is no more unpleasant than most kids/teen fiction these days.

I think the game itself and the basic lore is harmless enough.

Once you go deeper, probably not.

Depends on the age and relative maturity of the child in question. Personally, I think they've "kiddified" things too much, and need to take a couple steps back, aesthetically.

 jreilly89 wrote:
After lurking in another thread about tasteless models, a thought occurred to me: is 40k really a kids game? The models and lore, while occasionally silly, read more like a version of Heavy Metal or Akira. There are kids who come to play at my LGS, but most of them are fourteen or older. What do you guys think? Should there be an age limit on games like this, or do you think everyone should be welcome?

Kids are different but mine is 9 and playing albeit he has never read a word of the rules or the fluff really so i dont think he fully comprehends what his Chaos Marines are all about. I'm in no hurry to explain it to him besides telling him they are "bad guys"

When I started in the hobby, the GW box had a 12+ warning on it.

These days, not so much.

It wasn't when it was good. I suspect one could draw a direct correlation with the increased dissatisfaction in the player base and the ever higher levels of sanitation in the fluff and models.

Well, first of all, I think it's a non-issue because there are very few young kids who can afford to play 40k, or have the patience to paint up an army.

In terms of the lore, it's a fraction of the violence level of a video game, or the graphic content of a comic book. I think that parents would just have to decide at what age 40k, X-men or Halo is appropriate.

Plus, I've never seen a local FLGS game where there are very young kids playing anything, not even age-appropriate TCGs.

I'm tempted to say it's not for kids, but then I remember that I had Warhammer 40,000 stuff when I was 8 years old (and yes, I read the fluff too) with no harmful effects so I suppose if the kid is well brought up it does no harm. There definitely shouldn't be an age limit.

If it involves exact o knives probably not good for children under the age of 10.

Yeah, three's not much in this game that isn't readily available anywhere else, either in video games, movies, comics, anything. So, I reckon it's up the parents of the kid, because it would most likely be their money paying for the models. But sure, let kids play it.

My 7 year old plays (admittedly brief) games and has a full grasp of the concepts. I started last year by explaining 'wounds' as 'damage' and deaths as just 'having to remove the model due to too much damage' and she has had no negative effects.

Now when we play she gets super excited when her Battle Sisters/Wolf Guard kill team 'kills' my Tyranid monsters. A well balanced kid can differentiate between real and imaginary, and she knows that even though her Marines might 'die' and that she's gunning down dozens of clawed terrors, it's just a game. And she gets to paint minis as well!

The only real issue is, now she wants 40k at Christmas too. And that gets expensive. :/

 jreilly89 wrote:
After lurking in another thread about tasteless models, a thought occurred to me: is 40k really a kids game? The models and lore, while occasionally silly, read more like a version of Heavy Metal or Akira. There are kids who come to play at my LGS, but most of them are fourteen or older. What do you guys think? Should there be an age limit on games like this, or do you think everyone should be welcome?

It's not a kids game. It's an early adult+ game.

A universe where the good guys are xenocidal, genetically engineered, psycho-indoctrinated super soldiers who openly wear skulls on their armor and serve a brutal theocratic feudal military police state is not really something aimed at small children.

Exceptions, as always, apply, but in general, no, the 40k universe is not a kids universe.

I'd argue its on par with a PG-13 movie or a mildly violent video game. Its not Mario Brothers, nor is it Grand Theft Auto; and the concepts of genocide, mass murder, and torture are common themes in in a fair amount of movies and video games. So is it targeted to kids, no I think Vaktathi pointed that out quite well; but is it appropriate for children? Perhaps not young kids, but certainly 10-12 and up at the least. When do most kids see their first violent movie or play "Call of Duty" ?

You read the HH books!! "Fear to Tread" has some dark parts where it talks about mutilated corpses of children....

But the table top isnt bad at all some blood and violence and some scary monsters but that's all normal for kids.

I grew up watching R rated movies and playing the most violent video games in existence from a very young age. I didn't turn into a sociopath. I think kids today are far too sheltered and 40k is fine along with lots of other things parents freak out about like they're the end of the world.

 Jancoran wrote:

Kids are different but mine is 9 and playing albeit he has never read a word of the rules or the fluff really so i dont think he fully comprehends what his Chaos Marines are all about. I'm in no hurry to explain it to him besides telling him they are "bad guys"

My son is 10 and occasionally gets the itch to play. I've explained some of the background to him to give him a sense of why things are the way they are in the 40k universe. His only concern is making sure he blows up as many models of mine as we can. He's mature and responsible enough to hit the range, so I think playing plastic army men with his dad is easy enough.

Psienesis wrote:Personally, I think they've "kiddified" things too much, and need to take a couple steps back, aesthetically.

Furyou Miko wrote:When I started in the hobby, the GW box had a 12+ warning on it.
These days, not so much.

Taking the words right out of my ... uh, fingers.

It may have been "adult-themed" a decade or two ago, but ever since they've dialled down on the creepy details in the codices and de-sexed the Daemonettes etc, the game is about as horrible as the Power Rangers show.
Since the old stuff has already been written and is essentially "still there" (if you know where to look for it), I shouldn't really care - though I am a bit sad about how nothing new on that level will see the light of day, and how silly some of the newer minis have become. Alas, that's the path they wanted to take, for whatever reason.

I started playing at around 6 years old, and I seem fine, but some of you who are familiar with my posts in OT may disagree.

To be honest, I don't remember learning very much violence from 40k. The creepier aspects of 40k were pretty much over my head at that age, and if you want to see good guys blasting bad guys you can see it anywhere - Star Wars, which is pretty much marketed toward children, has sword fights and gun fights just the same as 40k, but there's really no blood involved.


There's a way to sell the game to kids that won't put them in therapy - sometimes good people need to do bad things to bad people to keep other good people safe. The whole thing about the Imperium basically a synergism of the worst parts of human history is probably lost on most children.

I started the hobby when I was 8/9, though I didn't fully understand the grimdark nature of it till I immersed myself in the fluff fully. My brother is 12, and has just started to read BL. Re-reading some of my novels before I let him try, there are a fair few I've ruled out for now. Mainly the GK omnibus (/any books that feature inquisitors, as they like to flay innocents) as well as Pandorax (sewing prisoner's eyes and mouths shut, anyone?). Lots are very fun/not grimdark, though I almost regret letting him read Storm of Iron - great book, but a bit mature.

To cut my rambling answer to a head: there are certainly aspects that are not kid friendly.

There are no good guys in 40K. None. Everyone is a donkey cave to everyone else, and where concepts that we, as citizens of liberal democracies of the Western World in M3, find deplorable (racism, genocide, religious intolerance, totalitarianism, ignorance, fanaticism) are vaunted as the highest of virtues.

 Psienesis wrote:
There are no good guys in 40K. None. Everyone is a donkey cave to everyone else, and where concepts that we, as citizens of liberal democracies of the Western World in M3, find deplorable (racism, genocide, religious intolerance, totalitarianism, ignorance, fanaticism) are vaunted as the highest of virtues.

In the deep structure of the fluff, this is absolutely true. But if you just read the surface fluff, you've got Space Marines and humans fighting against an onslaught of certifiable baddies.

As a child, I pretty much just read the surface fluff. Then again, this was back in RT and 2nd edition, before the fluff got completely bonkers Grimdark (tm).

Ahh, 2nd Edition, where you had a codex talk about sexual abuse at the Schola Progenium. One of the topics I expect will never be touched upon again in the franchise.

The models and background isn't that horrific, the price on the other hand...£300 to start an army is not pocket money.

 Desubot wrote:
If it involves exact o knives probably not good for children under the age of 10.

Heh, there are 30 year olds I wouldn't trust with "safety scissors" (those rounded point ones given to children as their "first" scissors.) or if I wanted to push it, a blunt spoon.

The perceived violence level? No.
Small parts? Definitely no.
The costs? If they can afford to have an iphone and an xboxeleventyONE!!! they can afford to get into it. Otherwise, play with discarded knucklebones and matchbox cars. Like I did as a kid (I couldn't start 40k as a kid - it didn't exist until I was 19).

I think it's something that you grow into, honestly. 40k has some parts that are not suitable for very young children, like x-acto knife blades, being around other people's minis, and several parts in the fluff. Other parts, though, are just fine.

Really, 40k isn't any different than any mixed-age content. Young people will likely be exposed to the "good" stuff and like it, and the "bad" stuff will likely go over their head. Also, as a parent you do have SOME control over what they're exposed to. Just don't shove the "bad" stuff in their face, and they'll probably only dig it up once they're old enough for it to have meaning for them.

Just use the coping strategies you use for everything else.

I mean, look at the bible. If you're a devout christian, of course you're going to want your kid to read the bible. But have you actually read some of the stuff they have in that book?

Same thing, really. You point them towards the "I am the way and the truth and the light" and the "love one another as I have loved you", and studiously neglect to bring to their attention the "she lusted after dudes with giant dicks" and the "women shall have no authority over man, she must be silent" parts.

Just don't shove the fethed up parts in their face, and 40k is plenty appropriate.

Well, topics of genocide, torture, murder, war, and so on are also topics that kids will see on Star Trek, Thor and the Avengers in the movies; half of primetime television; and about 3/4 of comic books past the Archie age. Virtually every video game young boys will play once they get past the Mario/Nintendo age will be far, far more graphic. We, as humans, just have a fascination towards such topics, and though must of us don't personally want to be IN a war or battle, many people find the fiction of it exciting.

That being said, the point someone made about xacto knives is a good one. There are many tools not appropriate for children under 10-12, like hobby knives, toxic solvents, superglue, pin vices, saws, resin dust, and so on. Modelling is at least half the fun of 40k, and I don't see allowing a young child access to the tools... not even the paint (especially the washes), for fear they'd spill it all over the carpeting.

Talys wrote:
Well, topics of genocide, torture, murder, war, and so on are also topics that kids will see on Star Trek, Thor and the Avengers in the movies; half of primetime television; and about 3/4 of comic books past the Archie age. Virtually every video game young boys will play once they get past the Mario/Nintendo age will be far, far more graphic. We, as humans, just have a fascination towards such topics, and though must of us don't personally want to be IN a war or battle, many people find the fiction of it exciting.

That being said, the point someone made about xacto knives is a good one. There are many tools not appropriate for children under 10-12, like hobby knives, toxic solvents, superglue, pin vices, saws, resin dust, and so on. Modelling is at least half the fun of 40k, and I don't see allowing a young child access to the tools... not even the paint (especially the washes), for fear they'd spill it all over the carpeting.

I'm pretty sure that the topic of Slaanesh hasn't really been brought up on Star Trek.

SBG wrote:
My 7 year old plays (admittedly brief) games and has a full grasp of the concepts. I started last year by explaining 'wounds' as 'damage' and deaths as just 'having to remove the model due to too much damage' and she has had no negative effects.

Now when we play she gets super excited when her Battle Sisters/Wolf Guard kill team 'kills' my Tyranid monsters. A well balanced kid can differentiate between real and imaginary, and she knows that even though her Marines might 'die' and that she's gunning down dozens of clawed terrors, it's just a game. And she gets to paint minis as well!

The only real issue is, now she wants 40k at Christmas too. And that gets expensive. :/

I'm in the same boat. My daughter asks to play and we do little games, like 300-500 points. Its almost as fun for her figuring out the wounds and to hits.

My latest opponent has been an 11 yr old Space Wolves player and he's good at it. Lots of long distance moving stuff.