I derive such pleasure from playing games and have found in games so fulfilling a hobby, that I want to pass some of that on to my kids as well. That being said, I realize that games are not for everyone. Some people just don't enjoy it as a passtime, and that's perfectly fine. I'm certainly not going to force anything on my kids, but I do think it's part of my role as their parent to expose them to a variety of experiences.
And so I do all sorts of things with them. We play games, we learn, we talk, we work, we spend time together. Apparently some of the gaming stuck, because a few days ago I found them playing a pretty neat little game on their own.
For Christmas, I received an Amazon Echo Dot. It's not something I asked for, but was grateful to receive it. We plugged it in and did all the normal exploratory things one does with new technology. We asked it odd questions to see how it would respond, played music through it, and played some basic trivia games.
I largely forgot about Alexa until a few weeks later, when I found both children huddled around her. They seemed transfixed as they sat listening to her describe the contents of a room. There was a mirror on one wall, a desk containing a candelabra, and a door on the far wall. Then she asked the question: " What would you like to do?".
Suddenly my mind was transported back in time. Into the dungeons of Zork, throwing commands at the screen in hopes of hitting the right turn of phrase that would save me from the Grue. My kids had found a text-based adventure on the Echo Dot, and Alexa was running the game.
It turns out this adventure is called The Magic Door. Its really just a digital Choose-Your-Own-Adventure type book, but since it's being read to you aloud, it plays like an RPG-lite. Now let me qualify that a bit. There aren't any character back stories, skill checks, or special abilities; you just play yourself. It's also not open ended. There are by necessity a finite number of options to be explored.
However, I still maintain that this is a great introduction to RPGs. Having played a session with my kids now, it felt very much like my old D&D adventures as a kid. There was a benevolent wizard, fairies, a castle, a sleigh ride through a forest; loads of standard fantasy adventure elements.
My kids were very much captivated by the whole experience. They really enjoyed being in control of where the story went, or at least the appearance of such control. It makes me think that actual RPGs may not be too far in the future for them. At any rate I'll give it a shot and see if they're interested.
If you have an Amazon Echo device, I'd recommend giving The Magic Door a shot with your kids (and maybe even if you don't have kids). Just say "Alexa, open the magic door", and she should take it from there.