Two of my players had a baby over the summer. (Well, one of them had the baby; the other participated in the creation and now in the parenting. You all know where babies come from—I don’t need to explain it.) Recently, they’ve expressed interest in returning to the table, baby in tow. Having played a few board games with them with the baby on board, I think it might actually work.
Inspired by my recent run of What Child is This, I’m working on some baby-at-the-table mechanics tied between the physical child and a magical baby in the game itself that the party would have to care for.
Right now I’m thinking:
- If the real baby cries, the game baby does too, generating some in-game event.
- If the real baby needs to be fed, so too does the game baby, generating another in-game event.
- If whatever is going on with the actual baby necessitates a player stepping away from the table, the in-game event occupies their character in such a way that they are unable to interact with anything or fully know what is going on for the duration, but it also potentially grants the rest of the party some kind of bonus—it’s a magical baby, after all.
- Each event could have an associated random table of… things—Wandering encounters, miraculous events, etc.
Anyone have any experience with babies? At the game table?!